+1 on Mephisto seeds, and on autopots. Have a look at the autopot review in my sig before you decide.
As to lights, I suggest not getting your shorts in too much of a knot over the specs of led lights. Just get yourself another panel like you have if you like it, and you should be fine. 270 watts of LED's will do very nicely in a 2x4 at >33 watts/ sq ft., and having two separate panels will allow adjustment for two different plants if that turns out to be helpful. Ideally, being dimmable can prove handy, so if that is an option, go for it.
It is true, I think, that the highest end LED's will get you more weed per watt hour, but the question is how much more, and at what cost?
Here is a quote from my review of results of my screw in light option:
I have a further perspective re. the yield I managed. I got just over 300 grams of dried bud and assumed an average of ~300 watts during the grow, for 1g/watt total. The 300 watt assumption if anything may be a bit high, so 1g/watt is likely a tad conservative for my grow. In any case, as I mentioned, I was fighting light and nute problems for a lot of the grow, and believe that I would have had higher yield had I lowered light intensity throughout and got the nutes sorted right from the start. If I assume that yield could go up by 20% or so, and that 250 watts would be good, the yield would be 360 grams/250 watts, or a bit more than 1.4g/watt, which is getting pretty close to the ~1.5 g/watt listed for the Mars Hydro TS series.
So, I think potential yield seems similar to other more expensive LED alternatives, and easy local availability of components can be advantageous. No doubt differences are there, but the question is how important they are to a small scale personal grower. I figure my power costs for lighting at 250 watts would be less than ~$30Cdn, so an increase in yield efficiency of 30% would save me something like $9 per grow, or less than 3 cents/gram. At that rate, it would take a fair number of grows to make up for higher cost alternatives even with a 30% improvement in yield efficiency, which I suspect is unlikely.
I include the quote not to convince you about screwins, but to illustrate the actual cost comparisons involved in deciding on lights. Bottom line is that, for us home growers, efficiency of LEDs is not that big a deal. Even significant increases in LED efficiency mean trivial savings in the power consumption for a small home grow. Who cares if a grow costs the price of a pint more than it would with better lights?
If you have need to invest more bucks, get a good ph meter, preferably one that will measure pH in soil. And get or make a tent/growdrobe with all the height you can manage, especially if your lights are not dimmable.
Just my 2 cents worth of course.
Happy growing, whatever setup you settle with.
What is your favorite Mephisto strain and why?
