KapScot
Just Say No... well ok then if I must
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URGENT question… 2 x Mars Hydro 300's - To buy or politely say not suitable for me?
Apologies if this is a bit long winded… hey it's late… I'm stoned (created an essay)
I'm usually an outdoor grower, but this year built a small growbox to give outdoor girls a 3-4 week starter in what is an otherwise short growing season. I also plan to use this cabinet for a small 2 plant LST/SCROG grow indoors (my first) – which is where the LEDs come in.
Initially, for my budget, I went down the CFL route, and that's my current set-up which you can see here : https://www.autoflower.org/threads/first-indoor-cfls-mephistos-scrog-lst.51824/
But a local grower I know has just offered me 2 Mars Hydro 300's – the white case ones - for what seems an unbelievably reasonable price. He's upgrading to a larger grow and doesn't plan to use them. One year old (so less than 7,000 hrs burn) and have no faulty LEDs (tho he does say the fan on one sometimes has a bit of a buzz << tbh I'm not surprised I would too cause he has a nice grow
No problems trusting this guy – he knows I'm pretty broke and I'm sure he could get a lot more for these online.
A great deal, but at the same time I don't want to irradiate my plants as if they are growing on the surface of Venus. His tent space is much larger so he's not sure about small spaces either apart from the recommendations supplied by Mars themselves.
So the question(s) would be :
Would this be total overkill in such a small space?
Cabinet dimensions are 55cm W x 100cm L x 110cm high?
The cabinet is alas long and thin and height constrained. It's gonna have to be either really small strains or strictly enforced LST/SCROG to keep the LED light clearances as recommended.
I was thinking I could just use one of the 300's and a few CFLs at the sides for the seed/veg stages This would place seedlings at about 26” inches clearance of the LEDs at the very top of my cabinet (factoring in pots/light fixtures etc). The plants would then grow into the SCROG screen taking care of any tall stems and stretch at 8-10 inches out of the pot and with 18 inches clearance of the lights.
Hopefully for Auto's (remember I've only grown outdoors in crap weather so my expectations are low) this should still be within a safe distance from bud to LEDs at the end of a grow…. When the plants first hit the screen I was thinking the CFLs could get ditched for the second 300 LED.
Is this a viable plan?
As I do my calculations this would equate to :
Mars Hydro 300. Seedlings to LEDs 26”
Cool CFLs as infill at sides if required using just one LED. These clearances include the 11L pots (2.9 Imperial/American Gallons) and light hanging – I need to find some pots that aren't so tall for their volume.
SCROG screen to LEDs 18” clearance
Anything that hits the screen gets tucked until they've finished stretching, as bud site formation progresses the second LED 300 goes on and any CFLs off. This only gives me only 6” growth space thru the screen before it would be hitting the LEDs recommended 12” clearance (I've heard some people say you can let plants get closer and some say they get sunburn).
Generalisations off the top of my head
That's 50W per square foot with one LED Unit and 100W with two. But due to the shape of my space I really need the two LEDs to cover the length.
Overkill?
Or do you think the 2 300's would be OK from the start to finish?
I don't want to be making Canna-Crisps, as tasty as they may be.
One thought given my heights would be mounting the units actually thru sealed cutout holes in the top of my cab - bit of a noise increase from the fans I guess but expelled heat from the drivers and fancool would be effectively outside the cabinet.
Or should I just say no thanks to this offer.
Any thoughts welcome.
----------------------------------------------
I'll tell you one thing… it's much easier being a gardener outdoors than having to juggle all these indoor grow factors – it's a long time since I've felt out-of-my-depth \o/.
In outdoor grows it gets light in the morning, then you look out the window and realise it's blowing a gale from the North and pissing down rain the last land it saw was somewhere over Greenland, you roll up, feed the cat, and go back to bed cause there's no gardening today
Apologies if this is a bit long winded… hey it's late… I'm stoned (created an essay)
I'm usually an outdoor grower, but this year built a small growbox to give outdoor girls a 3-4 week starter in what is an otherwise short growing season. I also plan to use this cabinet for a small 2 plant LST/SCROG grow indoors (my first) – which is where the LEDs come in.
Initially, for my budget, I went down the CFL route, and that's my current set-up which you can see here : https://www.autoflower.org/threads/first-indoor-cfls-mephistos-scrog-lst.51824/
But a local grower I know has just offered me 2 Mars Hydro 300's – the white case ones - for what seems an unbelievably reasonable price. He's upgrading to a larger grow and doesn't plan to use them. One year old (so less than 7,000 hrs burn) and have no faulty LEDs (tho he does say the fan on one sometimes has a bit of a buzz << tbh I'm not surprised I would too cause he has a nice grow
No problems trusting this guy – he knows I'm pretty broke and I'm sure he could get a lot more for these online.
A great deal, but at the same time I don't want to irradiate my plants as if they are growing on the surface of Venus. His tent space is much larger so he's not sure about small spaces either apart from the recommendations supplied by Mars themselves.
So the question(s) would be :
Would this be total overkill in such a small space?
Cabinet dimensions are 55cm W x 100cm L x 110cm high?
The cabinet is alas long and thin and height constrained. It's gonna have to be either really small strains or strictly enforced LST/SCROG to keep the LED light clearances as recommended.
I was thinking I could just use one of the 300's and a few CFLs at the sides for the seed/veg stages This would place seedlings at about 26” inches clearance of the LEDs at the very top of my cabinet (factoring in pots/light fixtures etc). The plants would then grow into the SCROG screen taking care of any tall stems and stretch at 8-10 inches out of the pot and with 18 inches clearance of the lights.
Hopefully for Auto's (remember I've only grown outdoors in crap weather so my expectations are low) this should still be within a safe distance from bud to LEDs at the end of a grow…. When the plants first hit the screen I was thinking the CFLs could get ditched for the second 300 LED.
Is this a viable plan?
As I do my calculations this would equate to :
Mars Hydro 300. Seedlings to LEDs 26”
Cool CFLs as infill at sides if required using just one LED. These clearances include the 11L pots (2.9 Imperial/American Gallons) and light hanging – I need to find some pots that aren't so tall for their volume.
SCROG screen to LEDs 18” clearance
Anything that hits the screen gets tucked until they've finished stretching, as bud site formation progresses the second LED 300 goes on and any CFLs off. This only gives me only 6” growth space thru the screen before it would be hitting the LEDs recommended 12” clearance (I've heard some people say you can let plants get closer and some say they get sunburn).
Generalisations off the top of my head
That's 50W per square foot with one LED Unit and 100W with two. But due to the shape of my space I really need the two LEDs to cover the length.
Overkill?
Or do you think the 2 300's would be OK from the start to finish?
I don't want to be making Canna-Crisps, as tasty as they may be.
One thought given my heights would be mounting the units actually thru sealed cutout holes in the top of my cab - bit of a noise increase from the fans I guess but expelled heat from the drivers and fancool would be effectively outside the cabinet.
Or should I just say no thanks to this offer.
Any thoughts welcome.
----------------------------------------------
I'll tell you one thing… it's much easier being a gardener outdoors than having to juggle all these indoor grow factors – it's a long time since I've felt out-of-my-depth \o/.
In outdoor grows it gets light in the morning, then you look out the window and realise it's blowing a gale from the North and pissing down rain the last land it saw was somewhere over Greenland, you roll up, feed the cat, and go back to bed cause there's no gardening today
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(still don't understand why after 25 years together she thinks it's a passing phase haha).
