New to autos

@Mañ'O'Green is on a hiatus at the moment but I remember seeing a post from him where he got more yeild from autos simply due to being able to flip crops more times per year. His grow method is so perfectly dialed in for him that he gets massive harvests and can run more per season.

So at least one other guy here has data to back up more yeild per grow / days spent.

In the end I guess it just matters what you like better but I would not hesitate on the concern of low harvest amounts. The stated yeild for those strains might be low but I am sure you will get more than 1-2oz per plant especially if you are a seasoned, skilled grower.

This was my first plant and I got 193g in 80 days, a hair into week 12, not really knowing what I was doing: ~1oz/10days, not bad

 
Thanks for all of this.
You're very welcome.

I have room for a 1m2 x 2m high tent. Budget isn't so much of issue, I'd rather get the right light to start with. The one issue is that I'm based in the UK so choice of smaller LED's are limited.
Got it. Having more € to work with is good but there's plenty of choices in the commodity manufacturers (Mars, Viper, Spider).


In the past I have read that co2 is of no benefit at temps under 30 dec C. Does that still stand with LED lighting?
That's incorrect. As CO2 increases, the stomata on plant leaves open more and all processes in the plant rev up. In the cannabis world, the number I've seen in a handful of sources for enhanced CO2 is 30% increase in yield. If you couple that with a temperature increase, you get even greater benefit.

As I mentioned, I currently use 2x 315w cmh bulbs for an area 6ft long by 28" wide and heat can be problematic in the summer. Another reason to go LED but for that size and shape of space it's not easy find an LED without going over or under the desired wattage, but that's another story for another day. I would like to concentrate on the tent, If I could fit a 4ft tent in I would as there seem to be a lot more options for LED's to cover that size. But 1m2 is what it has to be.
I hope this gives you enough info to recommend a light and any other additions I haven't covered.
Cheers.
"HID is hot, LED is not." That's the extent of my poetry career, promise.

The conventional wisdom for an LED is at least 30 watts per square foot but I think the only mainstream vendor who has lights at that power level is Migro. Across the commodity vendors (Mars, Vipar, Spider, etc.) their offerings are ~40 watts/square foot.

I grow from seeds in a 2' x 4' tent and have had "Twins" grows when I (foolishly) try to grow more than one plant.

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The work around is multiple lights, per below.
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If I were growing in a 4' x 4' and wanted very high light output from two lights, I'd go with the Spider SE/4500. In addition to having an excellent PPFD map, Spider seems to be doing a better job than the competitors in terms of digital integration. Manufacturers will fight to do one better than the competition but Spider gets the nod for the quality of the UI and the fact that they're integrating a variety of grow products into their digital hub.

(If you're using AC Infinity (which I highly recommend, BTW) this would be a moot point because their controllers will work well with most LED lights.)

As much as I like Spider for their 2' x 4', I'd go with Mars for a 4' tent. The PPFD map on their 6500 floored me (link here)

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compared to the Spider SE5000.

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These are "PPFD maps" which show the intensity of the light falling on the floor of a grow tent, at various hang heights. The light intensity values are measured in the center of each 6" square. Ideally (for me), a cannabis grow will have a perfectly flat canopy and the light will put 1100µmol (the actual measure is micro mol of light per swore meter per second) on every spot on that canopy.

None of that will ever happen but we should look for a light that will give high PPFD and have a "fairly even" PPFD map. What's "fairly even"? Hard to quantify but, to bastardize a US Supreme Court decision, "You'll know it when you see it."

The key point is that light levels in an LED grow light tend to fall off as you move off center. In the case of the SE5000, it's 1400µmol in the center 2' x 2' area, which drops to 1000± and then 600±. That's not very even and things get pretty nasty in real life because you can't run a grow (in ambient CO2) at 1400. The standard values for the maximum amount of light you can give cannabis in ambient CO2 is 800-1000.

If the grow is getting 1000µmol (most growers use lower light levels) the dimmer setting will be about 70% (1400*0.7=980). When you turn the dimmer to 70%, all light levels will drop by about 30% which means that all of those areas that are at 1000 now get 700µmol (OK but not great). The edges of the tent? Forget it. 600µmol at 100% becomes…420 (funny how that worked out) around the sides of the tent and that's well below where you want your light levels to be for 30/64th's of your grow (64 squares in the grid).

And those values re for 1k in the center. If you only run to 900, the 700 and 420 values drop even further. Ouch. That PPFD map isn't "it".

Scroll back to the 6500 and you get a completely different picture. You are now looking at "it". PPFD is 1270± in the center and it only drops to 1211 across the center 75% of the tent. The most straightforward way I can put it is that there's no additional value to making that PPFD any flatter.

The PPFD map on the 6500 is excellent but you can improve the output from an LED light by adding accessory lights. The Spider GlowR80's have worked well for me and they would definitely get the PPFD values along the side up to…par.
 
@Mañ'O'Green is on a hiatus at the moment but I remember seeing a post from him where he got more yeild from autos simply due to being able to flip crops more times per year. His grow method is so perfectly dialed in for him that he gets massive harvests and can run more per season.

So at least one other guy here has data to back up more yeild per grow / days spent.

In the end I guess it just matters what you like better but I would not hesitate on the concern of low harvest amounts. The stated yeild for those strains might be low but I am sure you will get more than 1-2oz per plant especially if you are a seasoned, skilled grower.

This was my first plant and I got 193g in 80 days, a hair into week 12, not really knowing what I was doing: ~1oz/10days, not bad

Mr Grow It did a video about small plants.

 
I've had plants go over 110 days, nearly 16 weeks. But this is not a concern to me as long as I get >1 gram of high grade bud per growing day. I essentially always get this, usually much higher such as ≥1.5 grams/day. And I am a lazy grower (in coco/perlite, similarly bottom feeding but with AC Infinity wicking bases and simply dunking AirPots).

I grew a Barney's Purple Punch Auto recently. I think it was a free seed. It turned out rather well - rather potent, fragrant, large buds, good yield; but it wasn't purple. I don't recall it taking longer than normal, not more than 90 days, and I probably got about 5 oz.

As an experienced photo grower, you should have no problem growing autos. I've never grown photos and don't think I'm missing anything.
 
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Again, I must thank everyone for their helpful replies and input. I Think this is looking the favourite option so far..

I'm not used to posting links or copy and pasting on this iMac so this may or may not come up as a link for you to just click on but hopefully you are familiar with it.
Hopefully this will take 3 photos or autos whichever I'm doing at the time. The other option was the 3'x3' but at only 180cm tall (god I hate metric) I felt it might be too restrictive going forward.
So, what's your thoughts?

Cheers.
 
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