Complete Review - Outstanding Grow Light
I. The Mars-Hydro TSW2000 arrived well-packaged absent any damage. I have heard growers report their lights arrived dented or bent, and I believe them. For this particular line of LED lights the manufacturers decided to use a thin metal for the reflector as I'm sure this allowed them to cut costs without sacrificing the light's efficacy. My light, however, arrived with its vulnerable edges protected by rigid Styrophoam. My light came with a timer, which would have been extremely welcome had I not already owned one from prior grows, as well as a pair of ratchet hangers. It's always nice to have a fresh pair of hangers since they seem to be universally made from crappy alloy, which rust after one or two grows. The assembly instructions were unclear. At first, I was a little dismayed to see the instructions did not have a step-by-step breakdown. It was basically three illustrated panels with almost no annotations. Fortunately, this is not rebuilding a jet engine. If you just sit back and study the parts for a few minutes you'll realize there aren't too many ways it can go together wrong, but you'll want to pay attention to how you orient the drivers for optimal cable management. Once the new light was installed and turned on to full power, it filled my 3x3 tent with a nearly blinding level of light. This is obviously a meaningless way to judge the efficacy of a light, but nonetheless I was glad it worked and wasn't DOA. My Equipment: 1. 3x3 grow tent 2. Mars Hydro TSW2000 3. 4" 190CFM Exhaust Fan w/ charcoal filter 3. 4L Humidifier 4. (2) 6" clip fans 5. Four 3-gallon nursery pots (sturdy pro-cal type, might even be pro-cal brand) I drill extra holes in the bottom FYI. 6. Digital light timer II. Some additional info for grow enthusiasts: 1. I direct sowed into 3-gallon pots* and used no seed starter or rooting solutions. 2. Seeds planted are a 3-pack of Blue Dream Autos and my last Gorilla Glue Auto seed. I only water the immediate area over and around the seed, wait for it to almost dry up, and then gently water again. All four girls popped by the end of the 4th day. I am 20/20 sprouting seeds in this fashion. Finally, and very importantly, during the seedling stage I set the light at 75% and kept the light 30" above the pots. Any lower or any stronger and they would have suffered heat stress. *Pro-Cal pots with four extra holes drilled through the bottoms for additional drainage. Soil Used: 75% Roots Organic Original, 25% Coco. I find that Roots Organic Original already has enough perlite. I'll add to this review once the plants are leafed out some. III. I am currently mid-way through veg and all four plants are doing very well. I can now confirm that this light is quite strong, and is more than what vegging plants need in a 3x3 tent. At 24" and 100% power the tent climbed into the mid-80's (it's very hot where I live right now, even in the basement, so my extraction fan was a little overwhelmed I think). To remedy this I lowered the power back to 75% and the plants seem to prefer it. I had edge curling on the leaves of one of my plants before backing off the brightness, but that has ceased. At this hanging distance and power level there is zero stretching and their growth has continued unabated. I'll update this review during flower, and again, one last time, to report yield. IV. Plants are now in mid flower and have stopped the pre-flower/early flower stretch. I still consider myself only a late-beginner/intermediate grower, having only grown 20 plants so far, including these, but so far these plants have the best internodal spacing of the plants I've grown. Up until now I've used only two different burple brands--and they've worked--but they tend to invite stretching because their wattage and spectrums were not ideal. If anything, these lights are inhibitory for stretching because they include plenty of blue light and at least in my case, for my current phenos, the light is strong enough so the plants don't want to get closer than they have to. This has made for some pretty compact budding sites. I'm excited to see what the colas will look like in another few weeks. The TSW2000 is obviously strong, and provides a nice, bright sun-like spectrum. I believe it will prove out to be an ideal 3x3 tent light, as it is clear now it would have completely flowered all 9 square feet of my tent if I had added a 5th 3-gallon pot, which I plan on doing next time for sure. How big will the buds be? How much will its dry weight end up being? Only time will tell! I'll add a final section to this review once it's all chopped, dried and weighed. V. My four plants have been chopped, dried and cured. The yield of each plant was fairly uniform around 2-2.5oz. Total yield was 9.6oz of buds. Popcorn buds would push it to 11 most likely. The Blue Dream'atic potency was subjectively believed, by two different heavy cannabis users, as slightly stronger than the Gorilla Glue Auto, but both were considered quite potent. I barely smoke so of course both were quite strong to me. I generally only do edibles. Conclusion: This light is more than adequate for the home cannabis grower, and an excellent upgrade for anyone currently using old-school burples or other lesser grow lights. Read more
