steer me in the right direction

puffenuff said:

Cool, thanks. that's all good information that I wasn't aware of and they don't say anything like that in the descriptions. so I was wondering why make two panels within 20w from each other.

Click to expand...

Again judging by the 2010 model 250 I have and using my eyeballs on the footprint I'm quite sure the 260s use a wider degree viewing angle on the diodes which gives you a better footprint, the 180s are more focused. I can actually keep my 250 a little closer to the canopy than the 180s, that and the old 250 uses a 1w veg set and a 3w flower set instead of full 3w sets like the newer spec models.

I use both veg and flower LED's for full cycle....

I do the first week on veg, then full, flower only the last one sometimes two weeks but I'm using a panel per plant. I think there is merit to using flower only in the end.

Also I sometimes have to travel and cannot attend the garden, if I'm out of town for a couple days and the mrs is on garden detail I'll just turn on the flower spectrum on all panels and while I'm gone the plants won't need to be watered every day (I use a really airy soil mix).

Edit - also all my grows are autos.