New to growing

[daniff13]

I am new to this indoor growing hobby. I am setting up a room 12' x 15' x 9'high. I am going have 4-6 plants. I have been talking with someone about lights and he swears by 600w hid w/ ballasts. I am concerned about the monthly electric bill compared to setting up something with CFL, Fluorescent and LED. I'm on kind of a tight budget about $1000. Any suggestions? Thanks

[Blaze4daze]

Welcome! daniff13

Prepare to be hocked, right off the bat, with this hobby, I was. More like obsessed when you harvest your first plants. Having your own medicine, all the time and not having to depend on anyone is the best part. Watching your plants grow from sprouts to seedlings to full bloom is amazing.

Sounds like you'll have a nice area to grow in. One of the biggest obstacles new growers face is deciding which lights to purchase when they get started growing.

Sprouts and seedlings do need less intense lighting, but they grow quickly and need more light before you know it. CFL's work great for the first few weeks and will stretch if kept under low wattage lighting after that.

A 600wt HID is a good choice for first time growers, but will consume quite a bit of electric usage. If your budget can handle it supergrowled.com has a true 250wt LED, called the Spectrum King that can be purchased for way under $1000 and will give you great results. I am growing 4 plants under one this grow and am seeing outstanding resuts using it. My 2nd to last grow was under 1000wt HID's and cost me close to $80 a month just on garden electric usage alone. Lighting choices are the most important growing equipment decision you'll make for your garden. Good Luck and Happy growing.

http://www.supergrowled.com/

[slo-han]

What he said - I will add this - lots of us have "stuff" we bought in a hurry or without research. Take your time and read some diary grows and anything else you can get so you don't go spending on things that are hyped but don't produce. Lots of led grows going on in the forums - some good some bad. I would consider cfl @ 250W for a grow to get into the "grow mode". The cost of a cfl is way cheaper than a 1000k hid - your product will be less but if stealth is an issue I would go there for a start. I use 250's in winter and leds as well to start my outside grows. Have fun and be patient - slo-han

[samm]

hey guys I'm new to this first time growing but do have some gardening experience I have two plants at about 4" tall, I live in Vermont ,right now I have the plants outside but will have to bring in soon, I do not have a lot of cake to be throwing around on lights does anyone have any suggestions on cheap light that will actually work for me this winter

[slo-han]

cheap lights equals cheap harvest - I think it was posted above that your most important grow acquisition will be the lights. My opinion and mine alone is go leds - less electric cost/ less weight/better yield. Now that being said - I bought two cheap china leds and they worked as well as my 250 watt cfl but - you really have to watch the distance between plant and led. Your choice of dirt or water is yours. You can use either and get by cheap but the light, well, I'm hearing a lot of good stuff using the led advertised on this forum. These are from people who used HID and then switched. We all want the best but sometimes money is an issue and yet you state "you gots money". Get an led and enjoy a good crop which will happen with your room size. I would suggest you separate an area for cloning using a cfl. I use a desk lamp with two tubes for cloning(this is another interesting topic). Hope this has helped a bit and remember the HID users swear by their grows cause they work but the price of electricity will kill you. Go leds young man go leds because they work as well and electric is way small compared. Slo-han