LED Cob? new to indoor.

Hello everyone, My name is RED, This is my First post!

A little introduction, Im a long time connoisseur of the most wonderful plant on this green earth. I am from Canada, looking forward to full legalization up in the great white north. I have been a lurker here for about a month and finally made an account recently to get involved in the conversation.

I have been growing for 10 years completely outdoors. Mostly clones but also from seed. Have had success and failures as does everyone with every medium. I am also in the agriculture industry, involved in cash cropping. I grew up on a farm but have spend most of my life in the arts, mainly animation and design. Weird mix I know, A an artist and farmer.

Recently I have decided to take on the challenge of growing indoors, hence my lurking here for a month. I work 40 hours a week and have a family, my time is short for actual research, but I do enjoy the discovery process.



I am currently setting up a starter grow. Have not purchased anything but seeds. (started already as most are going outdoors) saving a few autos and a couple fem seeds for trying my hand indoors, figure I can appreciate my plants more and cultivate my enjoyment outside the barriers of the summer months into our long winters.

here is what I have pegged for purchase so far.
1. 3x3 grow tent (gorilla shorty or a secret jardin seem to be my choices so far)
2. 4" mountain air filter
3. 4" stealth fan and ducting.
4. supernatural terraponics saucer system with terrapots and nutrients provided in the kit for a years supply.
5. 1 auto
6. 2 fems
7. Currently looking into LED lighting for safety and cost saving on my electric bill.
8. looking for a light timer and a fan speed controller as well.
9. I have venting outdoors thru the chimney stack and plan to set up in my basement which is 6'3" ceiling height.


My biggest concern so far is my lighting, trying to sift thru the interweb and find good non bias information about what the best led light to buy for my purpose is a daunting task. Im used to the sun doing the job for me.

I have no idea if COB is the way to go, or something like the mars ii.
here is a link to some ive been looking at in my budget range.
http://www.cobgrowlights.com/products/spider-4x
https://www.mars-hydro.com/LED-Grow-Light-Hydroponics-Greenhouses.aspx
http://johnsongrowlights.com/index.php?id_product=11&controller=product
http://www.cobgrowlights.com/products/m-r5-mcob-led-grow-light

the johnson may be too expensive for me right now but not out of the question.
is the growthstar spider good?
is the scorpion the way to go?
is mars too cheap?

without a question i am looking for a good flowering light. Is it worth just building my own, i see a lot of tutorials on how this is able to be accomplished on these forums by some very capable and impressive members here.

Is it nessasary to have a gorilla, or would secret jardin be just fine, dont want any smell to keep things stealth, it may be legal here by next spring but I also need to respect my wifes wishes of scentless and safe.

Well Im sorry for making a novel of this post, but Its better to put it all on the table and hopefully get some help. I would appreciate any help I can get. I am green to these forums and may not have my acronyms up to par so go easy on me. I apologize if this post is to noob for everyone but you have to start somewhere.


Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. I hope to start a grow journal when i get my setup going.

Yours Truley
RED

Hey Red, welcome to RIU, fellow Canadian here from Ontario. You're on the right track for lighting. I'd recommend either COB-based LED's or since you have the perfect size tent (3x3') 315w CMH using the Philips Elite Agro bulbs (3100k for flowering and 4200k for vegging, or 4200k straight through) if you grab a tent that's at least 6ft., you may be tight in your space for this. Both are the most efficient lighting techs at the moment, I run both and still torn between the two as far as which one is better. Main difference between them is price, depends on your budget. The CMH will get you started for less and produce up to a lb. in that space (with the right genetics of course), so will 3590 COB lights, COBs may produce a little more if you go 300w.

I'm not a big proponent of any brand of tent but you can't go wrong with Gorilla or Secret Jardin. I don't flower in tents (built a custom flowering room) but have a couple of Quictent sizes for veg which work just fine. I'm sure others will chime in on the tent options for flowering.

There's a ton of grows and info on both going in the indoor and LED and Other Lighting sub-forum within the indoor forum. Below are some links to what I'd suggest for COB-based lights, all of these are owned or operated by members here and well supported. Pricing-wise I've found ordering from US-based suppliers is still cheaper than trying to source them in Canada, even with exchange/duties etc.

COB-based LED's:
http://www.tastyled.com/
http://www.pacificlightconcepts.com/
http://johnsongrowlights.com/
http://timbergrowlights.com/
http://www.gogreenleds.com/

315w CMH, Philips Elite Agro-based:
http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmmw.htm (bare-bulb 220/240v ballast, cheapest option)
http://www.bghydro.com/sun-system-lec315-120-volt-w-lamp.html (high-end reflector based)
http://www.bghydro.com/nanolux-cmh-lec-315-fixture-120-240v.html (cheaper version of reflector-based)

Good luck with your grow!

GroErr said:

Hey Red, welcome to RIU, fellow Canadian here from Ontario. You're on the right track for lighting. I'd recommend either COB-based LED's or since you have the perfect size tent (3x3') 315w CMH using the Philips Elite Agro bulbs (3100k for flowering and 4200k for vegging, or 4200k straight through) if you grab a tent that's at least 6ft., you may be tight in your space for this. Both are the most efficient lighting techs at the moment, I run both and still torn between the two as far as which one is better. Main difference between them is price, depends on your budget. The CMH will get you started for less and produce up to a lb. in that space (with the right genetics of course), so will 3590 COB lights, COBs may produce a little more if you go 300w.

I'm not a big proponent of any brand of tent but you can't go wrong with Gorilla or Secret Jardin. I don't flower in tents (built a custom flowering room) but have a couple of Quictent sizes for veg which work just fine. I'm sure others will chime in on the tent options for flowering.

There's a ton of grows and info on both going in the indoor and LED and Other Lighting sub-forum within the indoor forum. Below are some links to what I'd suggest for COB-based lights, all of these are owned or operated by members here and well supported. Pricing-wise I've found ordering from US-based suppliers is still cheaper than trying to source them in Canada, even with exchange/duties etc.

COB-based LED's:
http://www.tastyled.com/
http://www.pacificlightconcepts.com/
http://johnsongrowlights.com/
http://timbergrowlights.com/
http://www.gogreenleds.com/

315w CMH, Philips Elite Agro-based:
http://advancedtechlighting.com/cdmmw.htm (bare-bulb 220/240v ballast, cheapest option)
http://www.bghydro.com/sun-system-lec315-120-volt-w-lamp.html (high-end reflector based)
http://www.bghydro.com/nanolux-cmh-lec-315-fixture-120-240v.html (cheaper version of reflector-based)

Good luck with your grow!

Click to expand...

Hi GroErr, Thanks for the greeting, I am also from ontario. I appreciate the links and the recommendations. Looks like COB 3590s or cxa3070 are the direction. Interested in checking out more on the 315w CMH you recommended as well, new to the lighting so I had no idea about these.

Im hoping with the mountain air filter setup that the odar will be fine flowering in a tent. Figured as long as there is negative pressure with the airflow I should be fine. As much as i love the smell, I also love the smell of my wifes cooking! and will have to keep her happy to continue on this endeavor. Happy wife, Happy Grow.


I almost made a huge mistake and bought an $800 grow kit from growlights.ca with everything i need including a marsii light. then i did some research and discovered it would have been a huge mistake. Id rather spend a bit more instead of rebuying everything later

Appreciate the time giving me some links and advice. Finding options at a fair price with our exchange rate is not easy. CHEERS.

Hey no problem, hope it goes well. Good call on any of those kits, those blurple 3w diode LED's (Mars and the like) are not worth anything for flowering and kits are typically way over-priced for what you get in them. I used them (Mars) at first and once I switched to CMH and COBs I only use them for vegging. They are great for vegging, cheap to operate and veg well at anything 25w/sq. ft or more, they're also good for maintaining temps in check, but terrible yields for flowering in comparison to COBs or CMH. Yeah our dollar sucks, I bought a lot of my current equipment when we were close to par but recently paid heavy exchange on my COB lights, but still cheaper than trying to buy them here in Canada. Our supply for almost anything grow related sucks if you're trying to buy locally like in hydro stores. They either don't have it or the price is ridiculous. Hopefully that'll change once we go legal, we'll see...

Well I went with the GoGreenLED. Did enough research and decided this was the best option for my startup. I was super close to going with the 4 cob DIY from timber but decided i would wait until for my budget to increase to do it right. Go Green hit all the marks i was looking for with out me fuddling around with building my own setup. Timber has been very helpful in the process, was thinking of doing a 4 cob DIY and surround my GO green in the future. nothing wrong with more lights! Next step buy my tent and carbon filter setup today. Waiting on my supernatural setup to get delivered. Getting hyped up!

http://www.gogreenleds.com/

Also Go green is located just across the ontario border which made delivery simple.

Great news, you're off to a great start, you'll like flowering with COBs. Good luck!

A little late to the conversation just wanted to say thanks. Was looking everywhere for info on where a Canadian looking to start up with a cob should buy, perfect thread to stumble upon!