Looking for recommendations on Lights. My current lights, ashamed to name, will produce decent buds but there light and not dense. What is the best light? There are soooo many out there I don’t no where to start. My plant are in dirt, indoor, well ventilated, lights just suck need help!
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What are you looking for? LED, MH, HPS, and how large is your grow area? For LED look for the light to use the Samsung LM301b chip set. Mars Spider farmer, HLG and several other well branded comapnys use it, it is the current top of the line chip.
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I just got a lefreshinsoft fs 1000w 110 actual watts. Veg. And bloom switches. It was on $60 on Amazon. Spider farmer is a great company but if you read up on the details there off brands that will work just the same. Plants react to light wave lengths. Blue light has short wavelengths that produce the caniboids. The flowers respond to long wavelengths which is the red spectrum. So a light that is high in both wavelengths is ideal. It also depends on how many plants you’re trying to grow under it. Mine is only good for up to 2 plants at a time for best results. Actual watts and and the spectrum are the important parts. Hope that helps 
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I’ve heard good things about the Mars Spider farmer. Rooms 10/10/7 thanks
When we build our environment, we plan it based on what we want to accomplish; dimensions, air circulation, plant environment, growth stages. When you seek recommendations on an item, describe what you want to accomplish. That helps determine what to use.
You can get by like the POOR MANS setup (check with @DollarBill) , all the way to the FANATIC top dollar
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If you gonna run the whole room on the same light cycle you’ll need multiple fixtures. You could equate that to 4 5×5 individual areas, and run a fixture for each area. All LED lights/brands are not equivalent at all. The off brands get a lower bin number led chip, this results is less efficiency, light output, and lower PAR levels.
If your handy and like to build stuff I would highly recommend DIY your lights to save money on that kind if scale.
I would seriously consider using lights that allow you to place the power supply OUTSIDE the tent/room. It lowers the heat produced in the grow by a LARGE percentage. Especially in a grow that size that will have multiple large lights.
As far as brands go. Timber, Chill, HLG, growers choice and a few others are top of the line. Always use the highest bin number chips, and a few have deals with Samsung directly, and get their lights manufactured by Samsung on site. Therefore having the best chipsets manufactured under the best conditions.
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Sf 4000 it pumps out 1000 watt equivalent and burns 450 power
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This is my 5×5 set up. 2 fixtures, 320w each. (The small one is a 65w, just used for my mother/clones and is usually in my other tent.)
They cost about 350$ each to build, or I could buy them for 480$. 3 HLG qb288 v2 rspec boards, and a meanwell 320h 1750ma driver. Each item cost 80$ individually. The drivers are outside the room.
At 24in it measures 35k lumens on a phone app. @MDBuds could do the math for ppfd, but I know it’s way high.
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Mike hit it on the head. With more information of your needs a much better recomendation can be made. Size of grow room? Price range? Available power (do you have 100 amps avalible or just 40 amps).
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@Shawnkirkland1974 I would personally suggest an LED or LED lights capable of 1000 ppfd or more and set it up so you have 200-400 ppfd at the canopy for seedlings, 400-700 for veg, and 700-1000 for flower.
Depending on the size of your grow space you can do this with one or two lights if you have the usual 4x4 or 5x5.
I personally prefer the quantum board or bar style led lights with passive cooling and Samsung LM301h diodes (the new diodes designed specifically for horticulture) or Samsung LM301b. The next best in my opinion are SMD leds. They put out more light and intensity than Samsung but they run hotter and use more power and don’t last as long so it increases costs with cooling and electricity but still better than HID in my opinion.
The best name brands that I have experience with personally are Mars Hydro, Spider Farmer, and King LED although I currently run a boutique light I found cheap that is speced just like the spider farmer SF-4000.
There are a few people here that run HLG as well as Viparspectra and they seem to be quality lights as well as far as what I have seen based on their reviews and grows.
There are some newer and less expensive brands popping up too that seem decent like Sunraise and Vivosun started making LED lights now too.
There are a lot of LED options so it might be hard to choose but if you get one that has any of the diodes I mentioned and is capable of the ppfd ranges I listed you will be just fine.
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He said it’s a 10×10 7high. Which is HUGE. And probably considered a green house at that point. Build a soil has a video series out about their grow in a tent that size. It includes vegetables as well as cannabis.
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@Rye I didn’t catch that.
@Shawnkirkland1974 4 spider farmer SF-4000 or the new SF-7000 would cover that or 4 Mars Hydro TS 3000. The new mars FC line is good too. 4 FC 6500 would cover it as well.
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@Rye yeah. I think I recall doing the math before and you were around 900 ppfd at 24 inches from the canopy if I recall correctly based on all the specs you gave me.
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Lighting has come so far so fast. It’s almost like computers. Bu the time you plug yours in it’s already outdated.
I’m thinking of building a shed the size of his tent for my grow space. Just dont know of I can financial justify it.
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@Rye I’m especially excited for the uvb diodes they’re coming out with. Some companies have managed to increase the efficiency and lower the cost so more manufacturers will be adding it on switchable circuits soon along with the violet 410-400 and the UVA 380-395 that’s already becoming common practice.
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There are 2 types of cheap lights that work well, viperspectra 600w 2 cycle reflector series i have 2 bc i grow autoclowers and if you run them under full spec they flower prematurely so i run them under blue light in there veg mode, when its time to flower u turn off the blue and turn on the red and ir, can be had for $150 delivered. If you are growing photoperid plants you will want to check out spider farmer it is ok to run photoperid plants under full spec bc they flower when you cut the light cycle not with time, they allso have good Samsung diods, yea i want a black dog but dont have $1.500 bucks, forget mars hydro there not good according to a friend, im posting my pics here now bc i have to go, pic 1 3 bears og at day 77 pic 2 ghost at day 49, allso if you turn on both the blue and red on the viperspectra your running full spec, i dont usaley run photoperid plants but when i do i start them under blue light when the gain size i turn on the red and ir together this is full spec and blows the plants up, when i decide to flower i turn off the blue cut the cycle to 12/12 and leave the red and ir on, i have one i was gonna hook to the other but both are 2 heavy for my tent but the one running now i have had for about 3 years with no trouble and if it dies i have a brand new one to take its place, a good cheap light that works well but is a bit heavy.
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You sure the problem is the lights? Bud density is the problem you’re asking about. If your lights were not good enough…I’d think you would see bad plant growth, not just larfy buds
Some strains just are more open bud structure because of genetics. They could end up “airy” no matter what light you use.
If you don’t defoliate at the right times or don’t defoliate enough, you’ll get too many satellite buds causing the plant to spread it’s energy too thin and get mostly larf. If the canopy is too dense, you’re gonna get larf.
If you don’t have good control of nutes, the buds won’t thick/dense up as much. Also temp and humidity.
Lights are certainly very important, but they are not the only thing. If your lights aren’t cutting it… I would expect you to see it in more than just the bud, and in the general growth of the plants.
A pic of the plants, in the room with the lights might get you better advice.
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Look in to the electric sky company phenomenal results 2 300 watt led full spectrum replaces a 1000watt hid
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Viperspectra 600w 2 cycle reflector series, can be had for $150 delivered, or if growing photoperid plants spider farmer bc it’s full spec and has samsung diods same price, you run autoflowers under blue light bc full spec has red and ir in the spec makes them flower early, this does not matter with photoperid plants bc you cut your cycle to induce flowering. Steer clear of Mars hydro junk, these 2 lights are the only Chinese lights that a really work. If you have cash California light works. Or black dog.