New grow setup

[whitexcloud]

Hey everyone. I've been looking around lately for a new setup.

Heres a bit of background:
I have grown before, used 1x 600w MH/HPS and then 2x 600w MH/HPS. I wasnt impressed with the results of this. The heat got out of control at times and it required alot of environmental control. I have grown Emdog, Incredible Bulk, White Rhino, Tutankahmon as well as some green crack too. In my experience I only had success with the first two.

Here is what I WILL be using.

4x4 (1.2x1.2) White Tent
2x 198m3 inline fans (not centrafugal) with a bug net on the intake. (temperature controlled powerpoints for on/off)
1x Autopot kit, 47l tank, 4x 25 Litre pots with Airstones and Socks
1x 800litre 4 way air pump

I intend to use 70/30 canna professional soil/perlite. water only in tank and top feed nutes. I used coco in previous grows but I'm just not experienced enough to get it down and the constant need for nutrients is very expensive.

What i need help with is the following:

Lighting
I am looking at the following lights: CMH, LED, HPS. specifically these options. 2x 315w CMH or 2x MarsHydro SP250 or 1x 1000w MH/HPS
I would prefer not to have to deal with the heat of the HPS system but I can use the money saved to buy another fan and a air cooled hood if needed but ultimately it will end up chewing through more and more power. I like the idea of 2x CMH or SP250 but what I'm really after is Yeilds and ease of crop maintenance.

Each of these setups is going to cost me approximately $1000 to setup. I can only get the SP250 online whereas I can buy all the other solutions locally. the SP250 costs $100 just for shipping. (I'm not in America, Live in Oceania)

To be specific. CMH = $960, SP250 = $980, 1000w = $500-900 plus MH bulb and fan

Strain
I will be using high yield, high THC strains only. I would prefer shorter overall seed to harvest times if possible though. As I said before I have experience with Incredible Bulk and I loved it. Emdog was also a good strain but unfortunately it takes a little bit too long to flower and I'm trying to expand my horizons.

I intend to do 1 run @ 4 plants and then clone/seed/veg some small plants at switch time for the next run (will probably purchase another tent specifically for veg/mothering at this point.

the strains I have identified as good for my purposes are the following and I would like to hear your experience with them and/or recommendations:
Sensei Seeds Big Bud
Dr. Kripplings The Incredible Bulk
Royal Seeds Royal AK
Female Seeds White Widow x Big Bud.
Barneys Farms Dos Si Dos #33

Other strains of interest were also
Pyramid Seeds Olympia(King Tut x LA confidential)
Advanced Seeds Critical Mass

I am open to other strains as well but ultimately my criteria are: Big yields, Potent THC (20%+) and quick turn around times.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[whitexcloud]

Well. I've jumped on this one.

New Off Digital Dimmer Waterproof Kingbrite 600w Lm301h With Xp-e2 660nm 730nm Lg Uv Switch King Brite Led Board - Buy Kingbrite 600w,Lm301h,Kingbrite Product on Alibaba.com

New Off Digital Dimmer Waterproof Kingbrite 600w Lm301h With Xp-e2 660nm 730nm Lg Uv Switch King Brite Led Board - Buy Kingbrite 600w,Lm301h,Kingbrite Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

Brought this light today and shelled out for

Dr. Kripplings The Incredible Bulk and Royal Seeds Critical Kush

got a bunch of UFO's
1 MegaBuds Seeds Giant Skittlez 1 Dinafem Seeds Blue Widow 1 G13 Labs Seeds White Strawberries 2 Royal Queen Seeds Critical

Plan on shelving everything and just running a 5 pack of incredible bulks. although I may use one or two of the UFO's (not Critical) and see what I can make Happen.

5/5 is probably optimistic.

Will keep the Critical Kush / Criticals for when I can expand my setup. Trying to figure out how I'm going to keep the Clones alive and not out of Control for 8-10 weeks....

That is thankfully a few months away so I can penny pinch until then and perhaps organise another tent and a small LED light for then.

 

[jaguarlax]

Well. I've jumped on this one.

New Off Digital Dimmer Waterproof Kingbrite 600w Lm301h With Xp-e2 660nm 730nm Lg Uv Switch King Brite Led Board - Buy Kingbrite 600w,Lm301h,Kingbrite Product on Alibaba.com

New Off Digital Dimmer Waterproof Kingbrite 600w Lm301h With Xp-e2 660nm 730nm Lg Uv Switch King Brite Led Board - Buy Kingbrite 600w,Lm301h,Kingbrite Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

Brought this light today and shelled out for

Dr. Kripplings The Incredible Bulk and Royal Seeds Critical Kush

got a bunch of UFO's
1 MegaBuds Seeds Giant Skittlez 1 Dinafem Seeds Blue Widow 1 G13 Labs Seeds White Strawberries 2 Royal Queen Seeds Critical

Plan on shelving everything and just running a 5 pack of incredible bulks. although I may use one or two of the UFO's (not Critical) and see what I can make Happen.

5/5 is probably optimistic.

Will keep the Critical Kush / Criticals for when I can expand my setup. Trying to figure out how I'm going to keep the Clones alive and not out of Control for 8-10 weeks....

That is thankfully a few months away so I can penny pinch until then and perhaps organise another tent and a small LED light for then.

Edit: I didnt see you already got one LOL..


I did this not too long ago. This is all so confusing. I have grown saltwater corals that use almost the same style lights and I still had trouble getting good information because everyone is biased to what they feel is right. So imo Quantum Boards with Reds added are your best bet. You can usually get a kit (240w driver and 2 boards) for about 200 bucks. I think its misleading to compare it to another style of light. These offer the best range of features for home grow imo.

Alibaba is the best place to get them because you can get the cree chips instead of epistars but here is the very first one I bought from Amazon to test it out...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N45BM25/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[whitexcloud]

Edit: I didnt see you already got one LOL..


I did this not too long ago. This is all so confusing. I have grown saltwater corals that use almost the same style lights and I still had trouble getting good information because everyone is biased to what they feel is right. So imo Quantum Boards with Reds added are your best bet. You can usually get a kit (240w driver and 2 boards) for about 200 bucks. I think its misleading to compare it to another style of light. These offer the best range of features for home grow imo.

Alibaba is the best place to get them because you can get the cree chips instead of epistars but here is the very first one I bought from Amazon to test it out...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N45BM25/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Yeah, Information wasn't coming as quick as the need to scratch that Itch and get things rolling.

Seedbanks/Alibaba have a 2-3 week lead time I assume. plus my Country is dealing with flu which is making things quite difficult to roll immediately. Will start as soon as reasonably possible though.

I originally looked at 2x 315 LEC's... but in my 3 days of almost constant research I came across the new SP250 but the prices were too high and support wasnt too great. I had the money and was ready to buy but it was just too much at the end of the day. Then I came across the QB's which all got excellent reviews.
Found these kingbrite knockoffs. I realize they may not be 100% as good as the HLG's but im not paying 100% either. If they last 1-2 years they will have paid themselves off and then some.

I would really like to get 1gpw for this next grow I do. I'm looking at DWC and gonna take my time, approx 6 weeks seed - veg, perhaps 7 if needed. then 8-10 weeks of flower. Will LST and use netting and see where that gets me. Incredible bulk is a pretty forgiving strain in my experience and also not too bad when it comes to flowering so I'll give it a go and perhaps germ a UFO or two just incase one of the seedlings fails. if they go fine then I guess ill just mother them but there kind of becomes a point where you have too many plants to know what to do with them and I won't be able to scale up for 4-8 months approximately.

Will reserve the Critical Kush and Critical for when I have 2 tents in operation and a bit more know how. (2 indoor and 1 outdoor grow later and i still feel like I know nothing)

I've seen that the HLG 550 is around 2.0 ppfd, so I'm hoping to get close to that. If this run goes well and I meet my Target I will look at getting a 2nd set of lights, 4k this time for veg and run 2x 4x4 tents in perpetual.

 

[jaguarlax]

Found these kingbrite knockoffs. I realize they may not be 100% as good as the HLG's but im not paying 100% either. If they last 1-2 years they will have paid themselves off and then some

I would really like to get 1gpw for this next grow I do. I'm looking at DWC and gonna take my time, approx 6 weeks seed - veg, perhaps 7 if needed. then 8-10 weeks of flower. Will LST and use netting and see where that gets me. Incredible bulk is a pretty forgiving strain in my experience and also not too bad when it comes to flowering so I'll give it a go and perhaps germ a UFO or two just incase one of the seedlings fails. if they go fine then I guess ill just mother them but there kind of becomes a point where you have too many plants to know what to do with them and I won't be able to scale up for 4-8 months approximately..

Here is where I, and probably most got hung up at first. I have cultivated Salt Water Corals for yearssss. The lights are effectively the same, so I had a head start using MH,CFL, and LED same thing happens in that community too. I still struggled to get the right info. If it wasnt for a few guys here at the farm, I would be lost. Everyones lights are supposedly the best, and its difficult to get any reliable info anywhere. My first couple of weeks doing research I got caught up with all those numbers (ppfd, umols, par, etc) When in reality, no vendor can say you are going to get 2gpw for this or that. While I believe light is probably the single most important thing, so many other factors are going to influence that number. Not just light.

I cant say for certain but I would say that you do NOT have knockoffs, and HLG wasnt the first with quantum boards. The only thing thing that would make them knockoff is if the actual diodes themselves were fake. ALL of these vendors source samsung Leds, solder them to a board, add a meanwell driver, and bam they have the so and so 9000 LOL . This is one thing where your money wont automatically convert to quality IMO.

btw as far as the SP250 goes, I use two SP150s and they are GREAT in veg. Ive seen some good results with the 250 but there is most def a reason that many have recommended that I stay away from them. I was going to go the 250 route before I read up on quantum boards.

You can follow along here while you get setup.

 

[whitexcloud]

Here is where I, and probably most got hung up at first. I have cultivated Salt Water Corals for yearssss. The lights are effectively the same, so I had a head start using MH,CFL, and LED same thing happens in that community too. I still struggled to get the right info. If it wasnt for a few guys here at the farm, I would be lost. Everyones lights are supposedly the best, and its difficult to get any reliable info anywhere. My first couple of weeks doing research I got caught up with all those numbers (ppfd, umols, par, etc) When in reality, no vendor can say you are going to get 2gpw for this or that. While I believe light is probably the single most important thing, so many other factors are going to influence that number. Not just light.

I cant say for certain but I would say that you do NOT have knockoffs, and HLG wasnt the first with quantum boards. The only thing thing that would make them knockoff is if the actual diodes themselves were fake. ALL of these vendors source samsung Leds, solder them to a board, add a meanwell driver, and bam they have the so and so 9000 LOL . This is one thing where your money wont automatically convert to quality IMO. You can follow along here while you get setup.

Yeah I understand that lights are only part of the problem.

Strain is a big factor. (got big yielding thcs on purpose)

Environment. (pretty average)

Grower (I suck)

but im working on all of the above. lights and strains SHOULD be okay. just gotta work on my experience and the environment. Won't be running what I'd like for A/C unfortunately. not yet atleast.

What are your opinions on that new 2020 version board I got. havent seen anything on them yet. never worked with IR or UV lights before. Should I have gone non-UV ?

 

[whitexcloud]

So as you can see here I received my KingBriteLED's. I ordered them on approximately the 29th or 30th of March, They we're scheduled to be picked up on the 31st and they arrived on the 6th of April at 7am at my doorstep.

The pictures show the lights at low power and full power, with Reds/IR on and with it off.

Packaging was good.

It was very easy to connect the WAGO connectors according to their installation video and I'm really impressed with them. the build quality also seems good.

The biggest thing I must say though is that these things are BRIGHT. I feel like I'm getting ARC eye when I look at them on full power, or pretty much anything above 1% LOL.

Still waiting for stores to reopen locally so I can get my tent and other supplies as well as waiting for beans to ship from overseas.

This flu SUCKS.