Hi DGC,
I’m in the planning stage for a new grow, after the boys (and girls) in blue paid me a visit back at the beginning of 2020. They told me if I grew inside, they wouldn’t be back, as I was growing in a 100 sqft greenhouse at the time. A risky move in prohibition land (Australia), but at the time medical cannabis was $1400/oz, and I wanted medical strains rather than the lucky dip, low grade, buds off the street.
I got my hands on 2x 400w HPS lights (going to buy 2 new bulbs) a little while back, that worked a treat on a bunch of my vege seedlings/clones. I’m looking at getting two 3×3 tents to run these, or possibly a single 3×6 and hang both. My main question comes in the form of what to do for veg. Do I get a 3×3, and run a 315cmh/400wMH, or a 2×2 with a 250w? With legalization possibly looming around the corner, this would allow 12 plants to be grown (2 adults at 6 plants each), so want to be able to continue the same setup.
I was thinking of finding some 8-10 week strains, running 4 veg, 8 flower, in a somewhat perpetual grow (harvest/move up veg every 4-5 weeks). Starting with seeds, then moving to clones from the best phenotype of each strain. I intend on doing a soil grow, with organic liquid/dry amendments. My previous grows were done with the Seasol range (Aussie fertilizer), with added microbe/probiotic liquids, and it was the best bud I’ve ever had. Pop/clones in Solo Cups, Veg in 1 gal, Flower in 3-5 gal.
I’m open to suggestions on strains from the DGC, unfortunately when I try and load seedsherenow, it says it’s unavailable in my country. My last seeds were from seedsman.
Keep up the good work Scotty, Dude, Grambo, and all the brainstrust in the DGC.
How big of a space overall do you have? If it was me and I wanted to have 12 plants flowering I’d want. 1/3 of a garage . For the veg with all this research and development plans you go I would want 1/6 of a garage at least and I would put fluorescent t-5. Lights or comparable led. Save your big power and heat generating lights for flower. You’ll be working with heat issues over there so try to take advantage of some type a light that is cooler in veg. I wish you were not so far away….. you seem like the right guy to bequeath all my equipment to when I retire soon. You can get yourself a lb. For 1400 here…… I use 600 hps for flowering. I have lights and hoods out by the dumpster right now. Argggg Anyhow, you’re there and I’m here. Anyhow everything you said up there sounds too small for what you probably want to do. I have a feeling you’re gonna wanna party hard. My advice to you is to get your hands on LEDs if you’re gonna be messing around in a little tents. And fluorescence for vegetation at least. For that kind of money, can’t you give up a room? I just don’t see somebody growing in a greenhouse being very happy going to a tent.
Oh, I see your numbers. Steele, when you say four or eight I know that it’ll probably end up being 12 or 20. Sorry, I’m not much help for what you wanna do because I don’t think that’s what you wanna do lol. It’s kind of like tattoos. Once you get one…
What are you growing for is the question if it comes to strain Recommendations ? Are you growing for Yield, for bag appeal, for potency, for specific terps or maybe you want it all in one strain which I do 😁✌🏻💚💨 ! I am from Europe so we don’t have the best access to Strains from the Usa but I can recommend a few I have grown so far myself! I really had good experience with Barneys Farm so far currently I am growing the critical Kush (DjLickAvulva on Grow diaries if u want to see it) It has a good yield, great bag appeal, also high potency,55-60days but it could be more terpy it does smell really good but its nothing special which stands out in my opinion ! Runtz muffin and Gloockies was also very nice and terpy if you like the newer stuff! G13xHaze was also nice but a lot of different phenotypes some take for sure longer as 10 weeks ! I got some cuts from Holland for a while I think it was the Amnesia Haze core cut as they would say, I really like a got amnesia Haze, its one of the best Strains in my Opinion it smeels unique has great bag appeal and is very potent it gives you this psychedlic high and no matter how much I smoke it always gets me a bit higher! But I really dont know where to get those in seedform and even if I guess to get that amazing moneymaker pheno that checks all the boxes you gotta pop a few beans 😁✌🏻
The area I have is 7x14x6. I’d love to go led, but a hlg 300w (what I’d like to use) is ~$700 x2, for flower. Even if I went bigger, say a 5×5 flower tent, a hlg 1000w is nearly $2k. Thats not including a veg light (probably comparable cost) and still have tents, fans, pots, media, genetics, nutrients, etc etc on top of that. Id be in it for easily over $5k before a seed is put in soil. LED just simply isn’t in the budget.
1lb here is $4800-8000, depending on strain.
Under 2 400w hps, I’m not expecting much more than a pound, especially on a first grow.
I know the feeling of the once you have some, you want more. I did a 50 seed pheno hunt in 1 gal’s, culled to 6 plants.
600 W HPS is fantastic. Do you have ballasts that are adjustable? Can you go 600?
ILGM is from aussie land. Grab yourself a premium pack with goldleaf in it and you’re GOLDEN
but seriously goldleaf is a great hardy hybrid for distribution. Nice headband like high with spikes of creativity.
Who said you’d have to get HLGs?
I totally agree that you should do a run or two until you know that you’d like to invest more money, but the largest investment in equipment should be in lighting. Typically home growers use middle of the line Spider Farmer, Mars Hydro, or Viparspectra grow lights. If you don’t then you’re simply atypical. Many lights nowadays work very well and the likelihood of a board dying or driver failing after the first year or two is not worth the extra investment in a better build from the high-end brands. Many of these lights come with 3-5yr warranties, although the ease of using that warranty may differ from brand to brand. Many home growers won’t see enough of a difference in light output from an HLG to justify the the cost compared to these mid range options. Although the drastic difference in cost of having to use an AC with their HPS light can justify an LED quickly. LED diodes will degrade too, but they are usually good for around a 6yr lifespan. After this point the diode will begin to degrade faster, so they’re typically replaced at that point. By that time who knows how far LED lights will have come, so you’d probably want to upgrade by then anyways. Not to mention that in many instances you could buy two mid range LED lights for the price of one HLG.
Mars Hydro FC-E8000 for a 5×5 is $630 for 800W at ~2.3 PPFD/W with a 2231PPF that’s 105% the output of a HLG Diablo X. If you don’t believe their PPF rating you could say it’s 1840PPF by calculating Migro’s PPFD/W×Total Wattage and get a 87% output for 56% of the price
Spider Farmer G8600 for a 5×5 is $660 for 860W at ~2.4 PPFD/W with a 2391PPF that’s 113% the output a HLG Diablo X. If you don’t believe their PPF rating you could say it’s 2064PPF by calculating Migro’s PPFD/W×Total Wattage and get a 97% output for 52% of the price.
I got these PPFD/W results from similar light fixtures within the same brand lighting line from the Migro YouTube channel. The output of each LED is compared to the PPF output of an HLG Diablo X (2121 PPF), all specs are from each manufacturer’s website. The percentage of price is compared to the HLG ($1300) while at the same PPF output of the HLG. While this isn’t an exact one to one comparison it’s purpose is to give some comparisons between the LED fixtures.