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Issue #344 - Sunday, November 18, 2018
Dear Fellow Grower,
In today's issue...
- This week we're going to cover Part 2 of our 10-Step Quick Start Grow Guide: how to pick out the best grow light for your grow space!
- We have a few seed breeders/vendors that we use religiously, but they're all in Europe or Canada. Today, we'll tell you the seed companies we like the most, and we'll also explain why none of the ones we recommend are in the USA...yet!
- While looking through the many pictures submitted for trophy pic of the week, I came across one so great I immediately stopped looking at other pics. Pack your bags and get ready to travel to trichome city!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com)
"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars."
~Og Mandino
Choose Your Grow Light!
(Quick-Start Guide Part 2)
by Nebula Haze
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Choose Your Grow Light – What kind of light do you need to grow cannabis successfully?
There are lots of different grow lights for cannabis, including:
The Sun
When you’re growing with the sun, you need to make sure that your plants are getting at least 8+ hours of direct sunlight each day for the best results.
It’s best that your plants get direct sunlight from at least 10am-4pm, and more light is better. Because of the high light needs of the cannabis plant (it needs more light than many other types of plants), it is not well suited to growing in a window (though I’ve seen plenty of growers start their seeds in sunny windows before moving their plants to a more suitable final location).
Household Lighting: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) & Household LEDs
Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) & household LEDs are what people commonly use to light up their homes. They aren’t really made for growing plants, but can be a good way to get your feet wet in the growing world without a significant
investment. They lack the power of dedicated grow lights, but can get the job done. CFLs and home LEDs like these are dirt cheap, and you can usually buy them from any big-box store without arousing suspicion. In fact, growing with CFLs is what I did for my first grow and I got them from a local Home Depot. I imagine that my first grow would’ve ended the same (or even better) had I used small household LEDs
instead of CFLs, though they weren't available back then. Learn more about growing with CFLs.
Other Fluorescent Lighting (T5/T8)
These lights are traditionally made for seedlings and plants that need lower light intensity than cannabis. If you do get other fluorescent lighting, I recommend sticking with a High-Output T5 light since they are the brightest option in this group. Even so, I generally recommend changing to stronger grow lights for the cannabis flowering stage unless you do major plant
training (to keep plants very short) since these lights have a short light brightness range and must be kept very close to the tops of your plants. Learn more about growing with fluorescent lighting.
LEC (CMH) grow lights
LEC (Light Emitting Ceramic) is a brand name for a type of light (CMH – Ceramic Metal Halide) that has existed for quite a while. This type of light has come back into vogue after some rebranding, partly because it has some very positive traits for growing cannabis compared to HPS lighting. For one, LECs have a more natural color that makes it easier to care for and diagnose plant problems. Plus, it’s a lot better for security to have a light that
doesn’t scream “WEED GROWING HERE!” like the unearthly yellow hue of an HPS. They produce significant levels of UV light, which can possibly increase trichome production. Additionally, they don’t seem to emit EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) as much as their noisy HPS cousins, which means you’re less likely to have a HAM radio enthusiast accidentally tracking down your grow. Our plants grew surprisingly fast under a 315 LEC and we were impressed by the yields we achieved on our
first grow.
LED grow lights
LEDs are much more powerful than CFLs or any other fluorescent lighting. They are top-tier grow lights on par with HID lighting (HPS, LEC) when it comes to how much bud they can produce. They’re visually attractive and tend to be more appealing to growers because they’re not as ‘old-fashioned’ (though they tend to cost more). In fact, LEDs are the only grow lights that have seen major technological research and development in the past 10
years.
LED grow lights work great for growing cannabis and some companies have been refining their models for years (the combination of parts is almost like a company’s recipe). Each LED model is different and needs to be kept a different distance away from your plants. It can sometimes be hard to find any “standard” advice about growing with LEDs, yet these days there are quite a few brands which are well-tested and trusted by cannabis growers and these brands tend
to have good support for questions. When in doubt, it’s always a good idea to just ask the manufacturer about how far away the lights should be kept, as that's where new growers are most likely to mess up.
Metal Halide (MH) & High-Pressure Sodium (HPS)
MH/HPS grow lights (like the light pictured here) are a type of "HID" light like LECs. A combination of MH/HPS is what most commercial growers use when growing cannabis indoors. They are surprisingly cheap to buy and set up, especially considering how incredibly powerful they are.
HID lights work very well for growing cannabis and produce consistently good results indoors. However, the higher wattage HID lights tend to run hot and can leave a big mark on your electricity bill. You definitely want to make sure you’re getting the exact right lights for your space so you don't pay for more light than you really need. HID lighting (HPS in particular) has another problem in that it’s been less popular over the last few years. This has made
it increasingly difficult to find quality models if you’re not looking for a huge 1000W.
That being said, the smaller MH/HPS grow lights are actually really well suited to a small grow and don’t produce nearly as much heat as their bigger cousins. Check out a grow under a 250W HPS in a 2’x4’x5′ tent. I didn’t even use an exhaust!
See another grow under the same 250W light (with autoflowers), and yet another grow we did with 2 plants under a 600W HID grow light a while back. Learn more about HID grow
lights.
Get a detailed breakdown of all the different types of cannabis grow lights
→Don’t know what type of lighting to pick?←
Choose your grow type based on your starting cost…
Get Premium Genetics In
the Most Safe and Trusted Way Available!
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Any grower who has been reading our site for a while knows that we tend to stick to only a few reliable seedbanks:
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But many growers wonder why all the companies we use located outside of the United States...
Answer: The fact is, there fewer legal ramifications for growers in the US who have a package containing seeds confiscated. In fact, in all the years we've been growing, we have yet to hear of a grower being jailed for receiving seeds from a foreign country. That's not true for seeds sent from one part of the US to another.
The other problem is that the actual senders of seeds are more likely to get busted by police or their banks if they're located in the US. If we publicly send people to a small US seed bank, we're pretty much guaranteeing it will get shut down.
Rest assured, when it becomes safer for companies in the US to distribute their genetics without fear, we'll be all over it!
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"This is a brilliant site. I have MS and have been down the CBD oil route. Decided to research strains, effects and how to grow etc. Found this site after buying a how to grow your own book! This site is on a higher planet! 5th grow and loving it. The UK MS community thanks you - the word is spreading :)"
~EDH
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Trophy Picture of the Week! |
"Electric Lemon G 🍋 by T.H. Seeds at 72 days and in the harvest window. Flushing is underway and I am excited! First grow, in hydro with a 3x3x6 tent and a couple of 300w LEDs."
~Friedumpling
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Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my
mission to make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
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Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
Get Your Seeds Delivered Safely! |
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GrowWeedEasy.com has put together a hand-picked list of all the available seed
banks including what type of payment they accept and where they ship in the world!
List of trusted seed sources:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds Get Seeds!
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2018 GrowWeedEasy.com NOTE: If links aren't working or if pictures are not showing up
properly, please view the full newsletter here: http://archive.aweber.com/gwe-updates Disclaimer: Grow Weed Easy only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we may receive a commission. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized Financial, Legal, or Medical Advice. The
contributors to this magazine grow legally under their local laws but are not lawyers or medical professionals. Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Any medical decisions should only be made after speaking with a doctor or other medical professional. Be safe! How Did I Sign Up For This Newsletter?
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