What light is recommended for flowering in my small grow box?

stoned chess: how do you beat this?

stoned_chess said:

So they ARE LEDs, just a more efficient

Lol, for real though xD

Ok, so COB is just a chip-on-board type LED which provides higher thermal resistance as well as more power efficiency. Gotta love the information age My question is- what is the cost of such a setup, how many watts do I need? Are they hard to build? Maybe I could use something like that as an augmentory flowering light to my HYG05 mini?

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it just became a whole new world for you,, and your on the right Web site,, the LED section here in indoor growing has the GURU's of cob light building, I have learned everything from them,,

hey tim, what did that diy cob cost to build total?

Mr.Hush said:

Im assuming the LED i have will be sufficient for veg, or do you guys think cfls are needed? I am also a little unsure about the distance to keep the LED away at this stage... it seems like there are alot of different answers depending on where you look.

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On your old thread, you were asking why the plant grew taller under the led's vs 6500k cfls yeah? That led light is underpowered, not to say it wont veg and flower a small plant BUT because its underpowered it has a bit more red vs blue to make up for yield using such a small light. Not worthless. But if i had to grow with only one weak light, id also prefere more red over blue. Its actually more worthless for veg if you ask me but it will work.

rkymtnman said:

hey tim, what did that diy cob cost to build total?

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cob light buidling is not cheap, but it is the best money I have spent on any part of my grow box, not having to replace bulbs year after year, that panel i just showed only pulls 208 watts, but has the ability to really pack it ,
the cxa3070's are as cheap as 21 bucks on kingbright, mouser has them for 34 dollars each,, making them the cheapest of the big cobs, the elite are going with the cxb3590's now, they do cost more, depending on which driver you pic, the single drivers are 16 bucks, but a driver that can power 4 cobs are around 58 dollars, then it depends on which heat sink you chose, ,, a 4 light cxa panel will run you about 300 bucks before your done,, including aluminum channel and pc heat sinks,, you can go passive and get heat sinks from heatsink usa

SPLFreak808 said:

On your old thread, you were asking why the plant grew taller under the led's vs 6500k cfls yeah? That led light is underpowered, not to say it wont veg and flower a small plant BUT because its underpowered it has a bit more red vs blue to make up for yield using such a small light. Not worthless. But if i had to grow with only one weak light, id also prefere more red over blue. Its actually more worthless for veg if you ask me but it will work.

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No, i was asking why the plant had stretched so far to the side...i anticipated the vertical stretch...I did away with those plants though, as they were bagseed and i was using them to see how i could do before I start ones i purchased...I started with 3 regular blueberry and one female white widow 2 days ago..

Sadly, this thread has left me with more questions than answers...and more to consider than i imagined. . .Its frustrating enough just trying to grow in a 420 unfriendly state...now i have put a decent amount of cash out for seeds,soil, pots, nutes,ph stuff ,lights ect.... only to find out that the LED i have is sub-par, and that I would be better off with just CFLs...

atm im just going to have to go with what I have until i can upgrade... I guess if it wasn't a challenge, I wouldn't appreciate the end result. I WILL get this figured out...I should have checked in here before i started i guess...

rkymtnman said:

stoned chess: how do you beat this?

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I suppose I don't, until they find an even more efficient grow light technology than COB xD Yeah I've never been a big fan of high heat production lights for growing. I don't want to bake that weed til it's in my pipe

And Tim Fox, thank you for all the great advice. Now it's time to look into building my first COB panel! Hopefully I can have it finished by the time I plan to flower.

SPLFreak808- I agree wholeheartedly about your speculation on the Galaxy hydro LED panels- adequate for flower if you have enough watts, not as good for veg since they dialed back on the blues and up on the reds. In my Galaxyhydro 100x3w, I counted only 14 LEDs that were blue, green, IR or UV. The other 86 LEDs are red or orange(probably most of which with IR qualities), making a fuscha/pink color overall. With these types of LED panels that don't come equipped with a veg/flower switch, I would say if anything a cool spectrum augmentory light may be in order.

stoned_chess said:

I suppose I don't, until they find an even more efficient grow light technology than COB xD Yeah I've never been a big fan of high heat production lights for growing. I don't want to bake that weed til it's in my pipe

And Tim Fox, thank you for all the great advice. Now it's time to look into building my first COB panel! Hopefully I can have it finished by the time I plan to flower.

SPLFreak808- I agree wholeheartedly about your speculation on the Galaxy hydro LED panels- adequate for flower if you have enough watts, not as good for veg since they dialed back on the blues and up on the reds. In my Galaxyhydro 100x3w, I counted only 14 LEDs that were blue, green, IR or UV. The other 86 LEDs are red or orange(probably most of which with IR qualities), making a fuscha/pink color overall. With these types of LED panels that don't come equipped with a veg/flower switch, I would say if anything a cool spectrum augmentory light may be in order.

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well then, you need to check out plasma. it's gonna be the next big thing. too pricey for me at the moment

Mr.Hush said:

No, i was asking why the plant had stretched so far to the side...i anticipated the vertical stretch...I did away with those plants though, as they were bagseed and i was using them to see how i could do before I start ones i purchased...I started with 3 regular blueberry and one female white widow 2 days ago..

Sadly, this thread has left me with more questions than answers...and more to consider than i imagined. . .Its frustrating enough just trying to grow in a 420 unfriendly state...now i have put a decent amount of cash out for seeds,soil, pots, nutes,ph stuff ,lights ect.... only to find out that the LED i have is sub-par, and that I would be better off with just CFLs...

atm im just going to have to go with what I have until i can upgrade... I guess if it wasn't a challenge, I wouldn't appreciate the end result. I WILL get this figured out...I should have checked in here before i started i guess...

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I started off this veg under a 22w soft white t5 replacement CFL and a 15w cool white t8 with even lower wattage single color (yellow-white) LED lamps as augmentory. It was all I could find on short notice and with no immediate budget. Started with 19 plants (mostly reggs, gave most of them away) and I've whittled it down to 2 chronic plants, 3 reggie plants, and 6 reggie seedlings. They grew under the CFLs, but I had to keep them within several inches of the tops of my plants and even then most of my plants grew at a snail's pace. My plants have nearly doubled in height in the last week I've had this Galaxy hydro from the 2 months growing with CFLs. Personally, I think CFL is a way of the past and HID will soon be labeled a barbaric ritual among those in the growing community. COB and LEC is looking like the way to go for now.

My advice? Work with what you've got, like I am, but always keep an eye out for good augmentory lights that are a type/frequency that is suitable for your application. And it's always a good plan to run any ideas you have by the good people of this website... It's good to learn from your mistakes, but better yet to learn from the mistakes of others so you don't have to make them at all

Mr.Hush said:

No, i was asking why the plant had stretched so far to the side...i anticipated the vertical stretch...I did away with those plants though, as they were bagseed and i was using them to see how i could do before I start ones i purchased...I started with 3 regular blueberry and one female white widow 2 days ago..

Sadly, this thread has left me with more questions than answers...and more to consider than i imagined. . .Its frustrating enough just trying to grow in a 420 unfriendly state...now i have put a decent amount of cash out for seeds,soil, pots, nutes,ph stuff ,lights ect.... only to find out that the LED i have is sub-par, and that I would be better off with just CFLs...

atm im just going to have to go with what I have until i can upgrade... I guess if it wasn't a challenge, I wouldn't appreciate the end result. I WILL get this figured out...I should have checked in here before i started i guess...

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I should have said node stretch. The same thing will happen with 2700k cfl's. Probably even more so. While led's are better than cfl's, the ratio of spectrum also PLAYS A BIG PART in how she grows. Your led light is red heavy because its underpowered, thus stretched nodes. Everything you have will work fine for a couple of first grows.

Mr.Hush said:

No, i was asking why the plant had stretched so far to the side...i anticipated the vertical stretch...I did away with those plants though, as they were bagseed and i was using them to see how i could do before I start ones i purchased...I started with 3 regular blueberry and one female white widow 2 days ago..

Sadly, this thread has left me with more questions than answers...and more to consider than i imagined. . .Its frustrating enough just trying to grow in a 420 unfriendly state...now i have put a decent amount of cash out for seeds,soil, pots, nutes,ph stuff ,lights ect.... only to find out that the LED i have is sub-par, and that I would be better off with just CFLs...

atm im just going to have to go with what I have until i can upgrade... I guess if it wasn't a challenge, I wouldn't appreciate the end result. I WILL get this figured out...I should have checked in here before i started i guess...

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Your LED is better than CFLs. CFLs are the worst choice of all accepted grow lamps. CFLs have the worst efficiency, only the worst of the worst LEDs should be compared with CFL. The LED bulbs are among the worst of the worst LEDs, at only slightly better efficiency than CFL and worse efficiency than any other decent option. It drives me nuts how many newbs end up using CFL and LED bulbs from Walmart.

Well...I guess ill use the LED I have for now...compliment with a few 5000k CFL's for the blue spectrum... when i get to flower I will probably do the same, just augment with 2700k then.

After that I will need to upgrade ...thanks to all of you for the advice and time spent in here... Will def. check around in the forum before i grow my next ones so i learn from the mistakes of others...
and bets as to my yield on this run? an ounce if im lucky?? lol

wish me luck...and now that my head is thoroughly pounding - - its time for a bowl...

Mr.Hush said:

Well...I guess ill use the LED I have for now...compliment with a few 5000k CFL's for the blue spectrum... when i get to flower I will probably do the same, just augment with 2700k then.

After that I will need to upgrade ...thanks to all of you for the advice and time spent in here... Will def. check around in the forum before i grow my next ones so i learn from the mistakes of others...
and bets as to my yield on this run? an ounce if im lucky?? lol

wish me luck...and now that my head is thoroughly pounding - - its time for a bowl...

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depends on how many cfl's you can put in there and your final container size after you sex the non fem seeds, Ill stick with my 60 gram est,,
your going to do fine, use what you have, get a grow in, get some of your own weed to smoke, it changes everything when you have some bud in the jars, then fire that grow box up again, after each run you will find things YOU want to change, post your grow here, let everyone follow along, great advice does come out of threads, fish thru them and use what sounds good to you, I am a big fan of "seeing is believing" and great pics to back things up really helps around here, and most of all
HAVE FUN!!!! I remind myself of that often,, while I was back there changin out the nutes,, grrrrr

Well guys...Turns out I had to learn another lesson... First time using FFOF soil...really dense amazing stuff...didn't mix enough perlite, and buried them too deep - double death sentence. Turns out this medium really holds water compared to what I used while practicing on bagseed. All my seedlings suffocate. sad day.

So...that being said - I am not giving up. I have 2 White Widow fems germinating right now. will start a new thread in the grow journal forum. You are all invited, and encouraged to comment and help. Thanks again for the perspective and advice, guys!

bummer man, my soil friends are mixing FFOF with happy frog, perlite and even sometimes coco,, the stuff really compacts later,
I bought and used one of these http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Soil-Pl...975753?hash=item43e244e909:g:kzYAAOSwiLdV7l8N
took all the guess work out of watering,
looking forward to seeing your new grow

Hey there, I've been following your posts regarding planning for your grow and I think you're definitely off to a good start man. Your UFO should do awesome in a small insulated box like that, and between it's internal fan and your diy ventilation, I don't see LED heat being a problem. But watch the temp/distance of the CFLs so you don't end up scorching a couple of leaves like I did. Also, did you know that cannabis plants prefer a PH level of 6.0-6.5? It's good that you're PH balancing your water, but tap water, even at the correct PH, often contains impurities which may impede growth and give the plant some difficulty gleaning out the nutrients from the soil. I personally don't give my plants anything but purified water, and would recommend the same to anyone serious about growing. The best of luck to you and your ladies, can't wait to see you succeed bro!