Lighting question: LED in a 32”x32” tent

ChefDGreen

ChefDGreen

Well-Known Member
Grow Journal of the Month
April 2020 Nug of the Month
May 2021
So I’ve got this 32”x32”x63” tent I’m setting up. I bought a 480w (203 actual) LED, I believe China-made (my budget is not a friendly one). I’m worried that 203 actual wattage won’t be enough for ~7.11 sqft of flowering area. I mean, I will obviously get flowers.. and with plant rotation I can optimize the best I can, but I do have a small 135w (90 actual) UFO LED. So here’s the question, how would I configure the UFO with the other panel for optimum lighting? The rectangle panel is something like 23”x7.5”x3” and the ufo is about a 12” diameter x 3” tall.

Any suggestions?
 
Those lights don't mix well together shape wise. Id just run one plant given the space and use the UFO for side lighting. Use the rectangle one up top. That's the best I got, but you probably thought of that. Good luck, Chef.
 
ChefDGreen said:
So I’ve got this 32”x32”x63” tent I’m setting up. I bought a 480w (203 actual) LED, I believe China-made (my budget is not a friendly one). I’m worried that 203 actual wattage won’t be enough for ~7.11 sqft of flowering area. I mean, I will obviously get flowers.. and with plant rotation I can optimize the best I can, but I do have a small 135w (90 actual) UFO LED. So here’s the question, how would I configure the UFO with the other panel for optimum lighting? The rectangle panel is something like 23”x7.5”x3” and the ufo is about a 12” diameter x 3” tall.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

First, I agree that more light would be better and, as you noted, you will get flowers. I'm assuming you're only doing one or two small plants in that tent and both LED's (especially the 90w!) would need to be close to the plant(s) to be effective, so...

I would hang the 200w dead center and I would either hang the 90w also centered BUT either shining light from the side OR even centered on the floor shining up through the canopy. Both of these options will help optimize the lower/side growth and not give an uneven light pattern to more than one plant.
 
Well, I was hoping to to get four plants in there in flower. The 203 panel is a maxsisun which has a lot of reviews saying the penetration is great, although it seems they’re not at all prevalent on 420mag. Perhaps I can convince my better half that we should get another lamp just the same by the time we flip to flower. Another 203 would put me at 67w/sqft; is that too much?
 
If I can share my "lighting" experience: This is only my 2nd grow, but what I learned is that the Chinese LED's are cheap, they will do fine for Vegging, but when the plant needs the extra boost for flowering, these lights just can't cut it. The LED light of choice around here seems to be from HLG products! (Horitcultural Lighting Group)! I have an HLG board coming hopefully tomorrow. I learned so many things in my first grow, but having decent lighting at flower time is essential. Should you go for the HLG lighting (mine goes for $149 U.S.) .. the first thing you will notice is the "quiet" ... no fans like my chinese 6x led .. which sounds like a jet taking off. Quality LED's don't have fans! The reviews on amazon don't tell anywhere near the whole story, when doing LED light research. That was another lesson I learned. Amazon's sole purpose is to sell crap, and they do a very good job of it, but they make Wallmart look like a concerned local store. At leas Wallmart employs local people. I'd much rather send my $$ to people like HLG, fascinating story of how they came into being. Chinese manufacturers play really loosely with the term: Cob Lights, or Cree Lights, "they" don't mean the same thing on Alibaba as they do here in N. America!
 
dakotamoon said:
If I can share my "lighting" experience: This is only my 2nd grow, but what I learned is that the Chinese LED's are cheap, they will do fine for Vegging, but when the plant needs the extra boost for flowering, these lights just can't cut it. The LED light of choice around here seems to be from HLG products! (Horitcultural Lighting Group)! I have an HLG board coming hopefully tomorrow. I learned so many things in my first grow, but having decent lighting at flower time is essential. Should you go for the HLG lighting (mine goes for $149 U.S.) .. the first thing you will notice is the "quiet" ... no fans like my chinese 6x led .. which sounds like a jet taking off. Quality LED's don't have fans! The reviews on amazon don't tell anywhere near the whole story, when doing LED light research. That was another lesson I learned. Amazon's sole purpose is to sell crap, and they do a very good job of it, but they make Wallmart look like a concerned local store. At leas Wallmart employs local people. I'd much rather send my $$ to people like HLG, fascinating story of how they came into being.
Click to expand...
I’m a solid believer in the cheap led theory I had 1 “1200w” led for one of mine and as soon as I flowered I had to add two more “1200w” leds to get her producing !
 
Sorry, this cracks me up. I went looking for my X6 cob light.. on Amazon to see if the company is still in business! (A lot of them aren't)! The same light I bought is on sale for $120, or the exact same light with the exact same literature is also on sale for $499.99 (CDN $)! I'm sure someone will come along and look up from their cellphone long enough - to think: Hey this light costs 4x as much as the other one, so it must be "amazing! Sorry - I have a dark sense of humor. ;)
 
The panel I have has endorsements outside of amazon, it has switches for blue and red spectrum and it provides UV and IR. The par output at 20” is right around 600, but that’s not issue here. I was looking for suggestions on how to configure the two panels I already have for better coverage for my grow area, not suggestions on what more I should buy.
 
We're just trying to help, Chef. As stated I struggled with lighting issues, and tried to share that. If you want to grow with those lights only, have at it. I was just trying to share what I learned during my first grow. No offense intended.
 
ChefDGreen said:
The panel I have has endorsements outside of amazon, it has switches for blue and red spectrum and it provides UV and IR. The par output at 20” is right around 600, but that’s not issue here. I was looking for suggestions on how to configure the two panels I already have for better coverage for my grow area, not suggestions on what more I should buy.
Click to expand...
I had two of mine running at 45 degree angles at the top of the plant kinda casting down it held up for a while then she wanted more
 
FYI, I've been using LED's, WITH fans, for almost 10 years and just harvested over a pounds of meds in a 4'x4' tent of high quality dense nugs using them.

The real issue with the "Chinese LED's" is that they over-state their power. They will put, for example, (100) 10w LED's on a board and advertise it as a 1000w LED that replaces a 1000w HPS. This is false/mis-leading advertising since, if you look closely at the spec's, you'll see that light will only pull about 300w from the wall. The LED manufacturers never drive their lights to full capacity because they want to reduce heat, which also reduces cooling requirements (number of fans) and extends the life of the components.

So, if you wanted a replacement for a 1000 HPS, you'd need at least THREE of those lights!

The new COBS & Quantum boards are nice and will perform better, but they are also expensive and, while you may get better higher yields with an HPS, you'll get better quality with the mixed spectrum of an LED.

I have no complaints with my LED's EXCEPT, I do run the tent in the bedroom, so the fans can get a little loud. :)

Here are some pics of the recent harvest:

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That right there, that’s what I’m talking about @Mr. Krip

That’s kind of what I figured. The panel I have doesn’t seem too loud. I just gotta make sure my wattage/sqft from the wall is on par for flowering and I’ll be sure to pull down some decent weight, no?
 
ChefDGreen said:
That right there, that’s what I’m talking about @Mr. Krip

That’s kind of what I figured. The panel I have doesn’t seem too loud. I just gotta make sure my wattage/sqft from the wall is on par for flowering and I’ll be sure to pull down some decent weight, no?
Click to expand...
.......assuming of course the rest of my variables are in place (nutes, environment, etc)
 
ChefDGreen said:
That right there, that’s what I’m talking about @Mr. Krip

That’s kind of what I figured. The panel I have doesn’t seem too loud. I just gotta make sure my wattage/sqft from the wall is on par for flowering and I’ll be sure to pull down some decent weight, no?
Click to expand...

Well, there are a lot of factors involved in producing both weight and quality. Lights are only one aspect and the wattage is only one aspect of the lights. Things like PAR values and PPFD, distance from the plants, etc. also play a factor in the lights.

My real point is, there is a lot of misinformation on LED's and, as a new grower, you're going to get a lot of people telling you that you need to upgrade everything.

There's always something bigger/better for you if you just spend a little more money, but is it really needed to produce good meds?

My recommendation is to get a grow or two under your belt and look at the results and analyze how to improve them. You're going to learn a LOT on your first grow. Focus on getting your environment "dialed in" and then see where you may want to adjust/improve.

More lights is always better when it comes to growing MMJ. I just wanted to clear up some of the mis-conceptions regarding LED's.
 
If your budget is tight you should probably just use what you already have and grow some weed with it for a while before upgrading.

I had about the same lighting in a 1m x 1m tent once, just panel and ufo plain top down set to cover as good as possible, worked all right, not great, but grew decent ganja, and your tent is smaller so the light saturation is better.
As you say, you can move the plants around once in a while so they all get a share of the best lit area in the tent, it helps.

If you can't afford enough high end LED to saturate your grow space with a lot of light, it's generally better to invest in HID - it's cheap and reliable.
If you can manage the heat, add a cheap 250w HPS to your LEDs and you're saturating that tent with a pretty good amount of light :)
 

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