# Anyone successful with LED?



## newbie (Feb 7, 2008)

I bought 100 red & 100 blue LEDs on ebay and want to use them to grow a couple plants.  I searched google for awhile and found this http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6441

I also noticed the thread a few down about LEDs.  How many of you have tried with LED light and does anyone know what colors I need?


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## trillions of atoms (Feb 7, 2008)

red for flower blue for veg, keep as close to plant too as possible. alienbait has fooled with leds althought hi blew up midway so his results were inconclusive. might be a good idea to have an extra array.


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## newbie (Feb 7, 2008)

Good stuff.  So should I have seperate blue and red arrays?  The ones I've seen before online are mostly red with some blue one scattered around.  It would be a lot easier to build seperate ones, though.


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## sammons (Feb 7, 2008)

For starters, led's from ebay probably won't cut it.

its not just red and blue, its specifically 660nm (deep red), 645nm (red) , 450nm (blue), 430nm (blue)

most normal red led's are 625nm missing the peak wavelength of chloraphyll
most normal blue led's are 465nm, missing the blue end as well.

Royal blue LUMILEDS K2 or Rebels preferably are at 450nm,  but nothing covering 430nm

Red Lumileds if binned LED's chosen can be 635ishnm, pretty close but not 100% efficient. and totally missing the 660nm.   660 is important and can only be filled by special deep red 5mm LED's.

I am growing a single small plant under 9 RED 1 BLUE 1w Luxeons.  Plant is flowering and looking ok.  considering i'm quite a bit off with the most effecient wavelenths, I'm doing pretty good.

) Phil


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## newbie (Feb 7, 2008)

Well hell...I'll have to get some deep red ones then.  What wavelength blue do I need?  I wish you had posted that earlier, I just got done with 50 reds...


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## md.apothecary (Feb 9, 2008)

Much research has been put forth by alienbait, myself, and others I forget to mention here.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19952&highlight=LEDs

This is my particular experiment... :hairpull:

You will need lots of supplimental lighting. You will need under canopy lights as well to fully illuminate the plants. See the pictures in my link above.


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## dankbud420 (Feb 10, 2008)

get the new hightimes mag for march very detailed artticle


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## newbie (Feb 10, 2008)

Awesome, I'll check it out.


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## newbie (Feb 12, 2008)

Well, according to the article in high times, 627nm red _WILL _work, just not as well as the 660s.  They focused the article on the LED UFO, a $600 lamp that uses 627s and some blues, not sure what wavelength.  The owner of the company that makes the UFO said that he would have preferred to use 660s, but it just wasn't cost efficient and the 627s still work well enough.  That's good news for me, all I need to do is hook up the blues and I'm off and running.


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## md.apothecary (Feb 12, 2008)

good luck... :fid:


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## newbie (Feb 12, 2008)

We'll see.  I only have ~$45 invested right now, so if it doesn't work it's not a big loss.


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## md.apothecary (Feb 13, 2008)

It will work, but I strongly believe you'll be rather disappointed in the results as I was and as many others were also. I had over 120w of LEDs in ALL spectrums and saw very long stretchy VEG growth. It's really great for seedlings and small plants, but above 10" or so, the plant really starts to stretch for light.

Flowering - plants were way to weak to put into flowering after vegging with LEDs.

I wonder if you thought about adding a reflector to these lights you're making. I noticed that with the LED there was still a high potential for the light emitted from the bulb to escape from the sides.


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## akirahz (Feb 13, 2008)

LED's just arent intense enough i guess, no good penetration it sounds like


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## newbie (Feb 14, 2008)

md.apothecary said:
			
		

> It will work, but I strongly believe you'll be rather disappointed in the results as I was and as many others were also. I had over 120w of LEDs in ALL spectrums and saw very long stretchy VEG growth. It's really great for seedlings and small plants, but above 10" or so, the plant really starts to stretch for light.
> 
> Flowering - plants were way to weak to put into flowering after vegging with LEDs.
> 
> I wonder if you thought about adding a reflector to these lights you're making. I noticed that with the LED there was still a high potential for the light emitted from the bulb to escape from the sides.



I did add a reflector.  I have the lights in a box with some tin foil on the bottom to help get some light under the canopy.  I might add more on the sides to get light going all around.


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## md.apothecary (Feb 15, 2008)

aluminum foil is a known light trap. It does NOT reflect properly. IF you use aluminum, USE the DULL side, NOT the shiney side!! Also, I would and do always recommend flat white paint. Mylar is way to flexible and delicate in my opinion to make anything worth while.

You will definitely see results with a flat white paint over A. Foil any day!


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## newbie (Feb 15, 2008)

wow, I didn't know that. Thanks


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## md.apothecary (Feb 17, 2008)

the dull side is best as the shiny side (as most people know foil creases really easily) creates hot spots ..where light gathers ....like sun though a magnifing glass ..will damage parts of your plant/plants.... 

Think of a mirror... the back side of the regular glass is simply painted with a reflective material. In essence the mirror REFRACTS light instead of reflects light. This is similar to using shiney side of A. Foil. 

People used to think shinier was better, so they used glossy paint, but this was very wrong. Shiney does NOT mean reflective!  

when light is REFRACTED, the light ray is changed in direction, sound, heat, or the like, in passing obliquely from one medium into another in which its wave velocity is different. Basically the light is scattered and not focused in super lamens terms. :hubba:

This is why the hammered reflectors have gained so much popularity lately because they do not create hotspots and they will reflect the beam without much wave distortion. You'll find only the cheap reflectors are made of standard aluminum mil material and are not truely the best, but they do work since it is directional (depending on style of reflector).


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## umbra (Feb 17, 2008)

I'm using LEDs now in my grow in conjunction with a 125w cfl. plants are taking off. my leds are more like spot lights, red and blue in the correct spectrum and the correct proportion. look up wonderberry grow journal. I have seen the ufo leds at my local hydro store. when i showed him my set up he was impressed.


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## Rogue (Feb 19, 2008)

A friend of mine is giving me 2 prototype LED bulbs to try. He is trying to develop some really good grow bulbs for sale. I don't have them yet but will soon. I have a question for the forum. To test them I was planning on setting up a 1 ft x 2 ft grow area. What do you think would be better, 2 plants one for each bulb and a square foot to spread for each or 8 in a SOG with a 6" x 6" area for each plant? I was thinking like 3 or 4 weeks in 20/4 and then switching to 12/12.

Any suggestions appreciated.


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## md.apothecary (Feb 19, 2008)

You simply won't have coverage for anything more than 2. Just not enough light to penetrate through the canopies when they start growing. LED technology is simply just not up to PAR (pun intended) on full grow capabilities yet.


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## lowrydergrower775 (Feb 20, 2008)

yea leds seem to leave alot left to be desired


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