• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Grow tent setup for hot peppers

G

Garciaspeppers_87

Hi all I have a 48x24x60 grow tent with agrobrite FLT44 T5 light system it's working great. My question is I'm getting a second grow tent for seed starting it's going to be a 24x24x48 and I don't know what kind of light system should I go with led or t5s what would you all recommend for seed starting
 
So in metric that's 0.6m x 0.6m x 1.2m
 
I would go for LED just to save on electricity, but if you can pick up T5's real cheap then that's the way to go.
 
Mine is 1.2m x 1.2m x 2.0m and I have maxed out at 240W (real power) for my LED. You could scale that down to about 60W for your size.
 
I run a 300W LED setup in a tent roughly that size specifically for seedling + adolescent pepper plants and it works great.  You could certainly go with a lower power LED light if you are only germinating in that tent and then moving them out.  Depending on how hot T5's would get in that space, you might go LED not just for power consumption but also lower heat output.  A small space like that can get really hot with a powerful light fixture in it.
 
kK5wPda.jpg
 
Slug said:
I run a 300W LED setup in a tent roughly that size specifically for seedling + adolescent pepper plants and it works great.  You could certainly go with a lower power LED light if you are only germinating in that tent and then moving them out.  Depending on how hot T5's would get in that space, you might go LED not just for power consumption but also lower heat output.  A small space like that can get really hot with a powerful light fixture in it.
 
Click to expand...
 

Like Slug has pointed out it might be down to a heat thing so T5 might be a problem.
 
Slug - What is the actual power draw of your LED? Best I can find on the interwebs is 136W.
 
KAOS said:
 
Like Slug has pointed out it might be down to a heat thing so T5 might be a problem.
 
Slug - What is the actual power draw of your LED? Best I can find on the interwebs is 136W.
Click to expand...
 
Mine is a full spectrum running 5W chips that peaks at 280W but tends to average 130-140W draw, yeah.  That internet estimate seems dead on.
 
I would go with LEDs also. I have used t5 bulbs for started plants with great results but due to heat issues i wouldn't use them in a small grow tent.
 
Garciaspeppers_87 said:
Thanks guys I was thinking of getting a 300w led how do you post a picture on here I'm new at this
Click to expand...
 
Upload your picture to a free image hosting site like imgur.com and copy the link, then paste it here.  There's no need to click the "share your picture" option with a site like imgur, either.  You should be able to just create a login, upload your image, then click the image on your profile page and find the link to post in your thread.  If the pregenerated link doesn't contain image tags, you can add them as seen below to embed your picture in the post.


As to the 300W LED, remember it will put out much lower but still significant amounts of heat.  If you have a 300W full spectrum fixture with UV in a closed tent, I would bet on it heating that size tent up to 90F / 32C if you aren't running some sort of ventilation fan to push air in the bottom or suck air out the top.
 
We in winter now so I have to supplement heating, but things may change come summer time, but hopefully by then no need for the tent so a non issue.
 
For image hosting I've been enjoying this site - http://imagehosting.biz/ - pretty quick and has all you need
 
After you upload your photo select 'direct link' and then copy and paste the link after clicking this symbol in the forum
1234.jpg

 
Slug - just checking on wattage as I am trying to keep tabs on w/m² for LED's 
 
Garciaspeppers_87 said:
I'm going to get this one from Amazon MAXSISUN Dimmable 300W LED Grow Light 12-band Full Spectrum it has great ratings
Click to expand...
 
Looks good.  Yours is dimmable so you could probably hang it 12 inches from the tops of your plants and start it at half or 3/4 power.  I'd probably start it at least 18 inches from the plants on full power and move it closer or further depending on what they do.  As you can see in my picture, I just hung a chain from the center of my tent's crossbars and use a D-Ring to move the light up or down as needed.  Depending on how much time you spend under magenta LED lighting, you may want a pair of the green grow room glasses to ease stress on your eyes.
 
z7IOyJD.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top