S
steiger99
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- 3
hi all, noob here, at least for this site that is... I have a question for experienced growers only.
(Please do not comment your 'feelings' if you have zero actual experience or desire to be the absolute best grower humanly possible, I'm ONLY looking for experienced growers advice that have 'been there done that' and are trying to become the greatest grower alive :)!
My goal is to get opinions on the ABSOLUTELY optimal grow light setup with maximum quality buds (not necessarily maximum yield).
Background and my results first:
Currently I have tried a few different setups for a 5x5 'flowering' tent setup. I have ran a 1000-watt HPS with the best 1000 watt bulb on the planet and 4 fluorescent (curly cue) lights mounted in each corner as the supplemental lighting (7100 lumens per light at 2700k spectrum, I think 115 actual watts being pulled at the wall per light). Results were pretty good obviously but I don't think the HPS bulb produces the optimal spectrum when truly going after 'higher' quality buds with maximum possible potency based on the specific genetics of each strain. So I changed it up for the next grow...
2nd grow in my 5x5 flowering tent I went with a BloomBeast 1600 series LED light. (I must say this was a huge gamble on my part considering the company background, location and minimal references available). The light pulls about 880 true watts from the wall and compared to a 1000 watt HPS I would say the 1660 A-series isn't quite as noticeably bright at the HPS 1000 watt, but damn close and completely different color output. The bloom beast claim for the 1600 series is that it should be great for flowering a 5x5 area but the reality is that it simply isn't able to spread the 'PAR' needed to the corners/sides, exactly the same issue with a HPS 1000 watt setup. So I needed to supplement light in the corners again. I used the same (4) curly-cue, 7100 lumen bulbs to supplement the bloombeast. Final results were quite interesting. The bloom beast buds were approx 85% the size of the HPS buds, however, the bloombeast buds were more dense and were more 'frosted' upon final inspection when I compared the best to the best (same exact strain used in both tests). So now I am thinking of ideas for a 3rd test.
This is where I am looking for your input. My thought for my next bloom session was to run the bloombeast 1600 series as the quarterback in the middle of the area. Then putting (4) 150-watt HPS grow light systems on the 4 corners to supplement the light where the main LED light can't really reach and provide the PAR level I am looking for. Do you think the (4) HPS 150-watt grow lamps will be better than the (4) curly-cue 7100 lumen lamps I ran in test 1 and test 2? Do you think there is a better setup all together?
Basically what I am trying to ask is: am I on the right track to putting together an optimal, or THE optimal, grow light setup for a 5x5 tent hobbyist setup? If you were going to go head-to-head against me in a competition to create the highest THC quality to quantity buds possible running the exact same genetics/strains, what would your setup be? Rules are you are working with a 5x5 tent and $1 million dollars to come up with the absolute 'optimal' grow light setup (and assuming all other components (media, nutes, ventilation, etc..) are already optimized to the max.)
What light setup would you run to guarantee a victory, (in your opinion)? :)
(Thanks in advance for any wisdom and experiences you can share). Cheers!!
(Please do not comment your 'feelings' if you have zero actual experience or desire to be the absolute best grower humanly possible, I'm ONLY looking for experienced growers advice that have 'been there done that' and are trying to become the greatest grower alive :)!
My goal is to get opinions on the ABSOLUTELY optimal grow light setup with maximum quality buds (not necessarily maximum yield).
Background and my results first:
Currently I have tried a few different setups for a 5x5 'flowering' tent setup. I have ran a 1000-watt HPS with the best 1000 watt bulb on the planet and 4 fluorescent (curly cue) lights mounted in each corner as the supplemental lighting (7100 lumens per light at 2700k spectrum, I think 115 actual watts being pulled at the wall per light). Results were pretty good obviously but I don't think the HPS bulb produces the optimal spectrum when truly going after 'higher' quality buds with maximum possible potency based on the specific genetics of each strain. So I changed it up for the next grow...
2nd grow in my 5x5 flowering tent I went with a BloomBeast 1600 series LED light. (I must say this was a huge gamble on my part considering the company background, location and minimal references available). The light pulls about 880 true watts from the wall and compared to a 1000 watt HPS I would say the 1660 A-series isn't quite as noticeably bright at the HPS 1000 watt, but damn close and completely different color output. The bloom beast claim for the 1600 series is that it should be great for flowering a 5x5 area but the reality is that it simply isn't able to spread the 'PAR' needed to the corners/sides, exactly the same issue with a HPS 1000 watt setup. So I needed to supplement light in the corners again. I used the same (4) curly-cue, 7100 lumen bulbs to supplement the bloombeast. Final results were quite interesting. The bloom beast buds were approx 85% the size of the HPS buds, however, the bloombeast buds were more dense and were more 'frosted' upon final inspection when I compared the best to the best (same exact strain used in both tests). So now I am thinking of ideas for a 3rd test.
This is where I am looking for your input. My thought for my next bloom session was to run the bloombeast 1600 series as the quarterback in the middle of the area. Then putting (4) 150-watt HPS grow light systems on the 4 corners to supplement the light where the main LED light can't really reach and provide the PAR level I am looking for. Do you think the (4) HPS 150-watt grow lamps will be better than the (4) curly-cue 7100 lumen lamps I ran in test 1 and test 2? Do you think there is a better setup all together?
Basically what I am trying to ask is: am I on the right track to putting together an optimal, or THE optimal, grow light setup for a 5x5 tent hobbyist setup? If you were going to go head-to-head against me in a competition to create the highest THC quality to quantity buds possible running the exact same genetics/strains, what would your setup be? Rules are you are working with a 5x5 tent and $1 million dollars to come up with the absolute 'optimal' grow light setup (and assuming all other components (media, nutes, ventilation, etc..) are already optimized to the max.)
What light setup would you run to guarantee a victory, (in your opinion)? :)
(Thanks in advance for any wisdom and experiences you can share). Cheers!!
