what kind of grow light y’all use for veg stage ?
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I personally use a spider farmer SF-2000 LED board. It’s a small light that can light up a 4 by 4 space for veg. It’s not the strongest or biggest light but it’s great for a little corner of a room. I usually veg 8-10 plants under it and rotate the plants directly under it 2 times a week or so. I don’t turn it up past 50% either because I only veg for maybe a month and a half or so. I use to only use metal hailide bulbs for veg but these LEDs are really growing on me and I think I’m confident that I’ll never go back to growing under hoods and bulbs.
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I use a Sun Systems dual 400w MH or HPS in my bloom room. My veg is a Sun Systems 250w MH. I need the heat in the winter.
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Very happy with these full spectrum lights from HighGrove Lighting:
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I saw you say in another thread you are also in CO. I tried the LED’s last Winter and what a pain. Made me cringe to have to add in a heater. Didn’t like the pale plants either. I’m going back to HID.
@oakcliff_kush …there’s LED…HID…t-5…etc. It all depends on what your intent is/future vision is. Ya don’t need a 1000w HID or a 600w LED panel if yer just illuminating a small area. New lights are definitely an option…but depending where you are… Craigslist/FB Marketplace often have quite a few listings for used equipment in both LED/HID.
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My grow room is not heated, so old school lights work better for me. In the summer, all the heat is sent out the roof.
I live outside Golden.
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From least expensive to most.
Hlg quantum board 100 watt full spec
The lights that I started my grow journey with. They did great for veg and you can flower under them.
Mars Hydro sp3000’s.
Best bang for your buck in my opinion, excellent lights, very even par foot print in a 4x4. Spent a long time trying to find something better at the price point and was not able to, still to this day.
Have had mine for 4 years now and they still got it.
Check out cocoforcannabis.com he has several par tests on some more popular rigs the sp3000 tests he has done are impressive.
Scyence LEDs
Ridiculously expensive Imo, that said these lights penetrate deep into the canopy no need to pull dying shaded leaves from down low cause there are none.
Spectrum tuning is not only fun to nerd out on, you can see the difference in the way the plants grow
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Do not get one of these seen some horror stories about there customer service even know a company that used there lights in a operation here in az where there out of and saw so many of there lights burn out and fail they blasted them on a az grow group on fb I’m in and they wouldn’t replace them
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Pal had some they’re pretty nice long and skinny. 1 in a 2x4 and 2 in a 4x4.
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I mostly veg a 2x4 witha spider farmer sf 2000. My first led.
Its starting to shit the bed now after about 6 runs. Something wrong w/ the dimmer box. If i use the dimmer the wattage fluctuate all ovr the place. If i shut the dimmer and put at 100% seems to still stay at 207 watts steady. So thats how i did last run. Next time ill probably look at the viparspectra xs 1500 pros for veg. Never heard anyone have a complaint about them.
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I use my blurple LED plus white quantum board together bc provide nice level of heat and more blue spectrum which plants prefer during veg
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I see, well, I did hear some scuff about them years ago now, and I dont know when the situation you spoke of took place but they have been under new ownership for awhile.
I acquired mine 2nd hand and shortly after had some issues with one, of them. It had stopped responding to the scyence app, so I got in touch with customer service and they sent me a brand new one for the price of shipping which came out to like 60 bucks
.
Outside of them shipping me a new light even though I was out of warranty being a second hand owner I have zero complaints for the current scyence team or the quality of their lights.
I have family that runs their newer bar style lights and they would say the same.
I get how tempers could flair in situations where big money is at stake so i hope my nobody grower status can help keep things unbiased and informative for all parties.
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I run 2 spider farmer g4500, and they have treated me very well. IMO spider farmer lights are the best bang for your buck.
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This is my favorite LED veg light that I’ve tried so far.
I am not a very big fan of LED lights for veg. I still very much prefer my old T5 fluorescent lights or my old metal halide or ceramic metal halide lights for veg. (and it’s not really close) even t8 fluorescents were better for veg IMO.
But of all the LED lights I’ve tried for veg, the nextlight gives me the least issues with deficiencies and unhappy plants.
My next favorite veg light is the mars hydro ts600. It’s just a cheap-o 100w LED light but it works well for veg.
I also have an AC infinity evo 300w LED light I use for veg and I don’t like it. It was the most expensive and it’s my least favorite by a good margin. I’m always battling deficiencies. Same for the couple off brand 250-300w LED’s I have for veg.
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Now that thing is nice!!!
What deficiencies do you battle with the AC Infinity? I have the 500w AC Infinity light for my new 4x4 that I am setting up.
Mostly magnesium it seems. But the plants under that light just look generally more unhappy. They are fine in the beginning but the longer they are under the light the more issues I run into (so it’s mostly just my bonsai moms I run into issues with).
But it’s not because it’s a bad light. It’s my specific use and grow conditions I think.
It’s a great light and I’m sure I’d love it for flower. Seems very high quality. It has a nice built in controller. Very bright. My main issue is that it’s just too powerful for my space I think.
I keep a bunch of bonsai moms and a number of them are under the AC infinity. Once the moms start getting root bound, they start getting pretty unhappy under the Ac infinity. Where as with the less powerful nextlight they stay happy longer.
Under the old t5 and t8 fluorescents I used, the bonsai moms would stay pretty healthy for much longer periods of time without having to re-pot them vs any LED I’ve used.
I think LEDs just drive the plants harder, and maybe too hard for less than ideal grow room conditions or small rootbound bonsai moms.
And the temps in my veg room tend to fluctuate more than they should. In the summer it’s too warm, in the winter it’s too cold. I’ve found that plants under LED lights don’t like that. I used to use the heat from the HID and fluorescent lights to keep the room warm during the day. But LEDs don’t really heat the room in nearly the same way.
I’ve been planning to rebuild my entire grow space and get everything better dialed in (especially the environment) but for various reasons it hasn’t happened yet. I have new heaters and ventilation sitting in the boxes still… lol
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I use a Bloom Plus BP1000 in my 2x2. A 95watt fixture, decently low heat but it can really heat up the tent if I shut off the exhaust for a while. I feel like this light will decently veg a 2.5’x2.5’ footprint but will barely flower a 1.5’x1.5’ space. It crushes this 2x2 for my veg needs
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I built my ventilation system to pull air through both lights, then pump it to junctions with shutoff gates, so I can pump it outside in the summer, out to my garage in the winter, and/or recycle the heat back into my grow room,as needed. Lots of flexibility.
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That’s sounds like a nice setup. Do you have any pics? Did you buy those shutoff gates (dampers?) or make them?