Led vegging I bought an LED board

[Pot Belly]

I will set up two veg boxes 1 led box and one box with equilent cfls.

How is "equivelant" determined with led's and cfl's? Watts, lumens, lux?

 

[monkerz]

I also ordered some RED/BLUE LED grow light a week ago. Once I get them I will grow a clone from it with no other lights and see what happens.

 

[thc is good for me]

How is "equivelant" determined with led's and cfl's? Watts, lumens, lux?

Not sure about that if anyone has any good ideas what will be equivelent I would guess 3 23(100)watt cfls would be close o the same price IDK?

 

[nretsel]

the hi-brights are not a really serious solution, but if you have the budget the lamps using the CREE leds are the deal.

My contact tells me the SmartLamp is being picked-up by the commercial growers big time due to the electricity and especially heat savings. its the equivalent to a 600 watt HPS. NOt cheap at $1400 suggested price, but i saw it on ebay so it may come cheaper than that. All the leds have a long lifespan of something like 10 to 15 years so between the electricity bill and the long life, i hear they are now really worth it.

 

[Hick]

the hi-brights are not a really serious solution, but if you have the budget the lamps using the CREE leds are the deal.

My contact tells me the SmartLamp is being picked-up by the commercial growers big time due to the electricity and especially heat savings. its the equivalent to a 600 watt HPS. NOt cheap at $1400 suggested price, but i saw it on ebay so it may come cheaper than that. All the leds have a long lifespan of something like 10 to 15 years so between the electricity bill and the long life, i hear they are now really worth it.

WoW!! "$1400" .
I would definately want to see some documented proof/grows, from an independant source, before dumping that kind of cash into a "my contact tells me".. and "I hear they are now really worth it" .
I think I heard those same claims several months ago.
I'm not knocking the LED's, I believe that they are improving in quality pretty rapidly. I just question if they are 'ready' for the mj cultivars market.

 

[liermam]

WoW!! "$1400" .
I would definately want to see some documented proof/grows, from an independant source, before dumping that kind of cash into a "my contact tells me".. and "I hear they are now really worth it" .
I think I heard those same claims several months ago.
I'm not knocking the LED's, I believe that they are improving in quality pretty rapidly. I just question if they are 'ready' for the mj cultivars market.

I think they're also being misused by many growers, which is what causes the misconceptions of how bad they are. LED's are extremely personal. Each plant should have a few boards to itself, positioned close around the plant. You can't really have a sea of green with LED's unless you are willing to pay for way more light than your plants can use.

LED growing is just entirely different than any other form of growing. They can't be compared side-by-side with anything else.

 

[gogogadget]

kinda playing off the last post... methods need to be catered to the type of light, if penetration is the question with LED's then something like a SCROG setup would seem ideal for LED's... without adapting your methods to maximize yield for the limits LED's have, it handicaps the technology... the same was done for HID's by implementing current indoor techniques, this LED technology is just another evolution, IMO... is it the best currently available, that's the question at hand.

this is the demo that specifically drew my attention to growing a plant in the same straight forward(no training) method one is accustomed to indoors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtROw3uiVg
(you can find other related LED vs. HPS flowering comparisons)

now there's no debating the stretching and lower yield on the LED side, however, factoring in the operating costs LED's are actually the winner. Now as growers and consumers, we generally want the most bang for the buck which is only natural. Its just my opinion, but I think if this same side by side demo had been done using SCROG on both sides, that the HID would still out produce the LED in terms of total yield, but we would see quite an increase on the LED side in terms of power cost/yield ratio. A couple other bonuses I see for LED's in this, especially if multiple panels are used, no serious heat signature, possibly avoiding IR detection and lower utility bills, that might draw suspicion(depending on your total use) I know years ago these were both serious concerns for myself indoors.

Finding the right balance of red/blue, I would think each strain would have an ideal balance, so a panel with the ability to shift(add/subtract) rows/rings of red or blue would be more of a multi-purpose light... so this is still something that I consider "in progress" research left up to the grower.

The few demos I've seen make me believe LED's are more than ready for cuttings, veg and mothers. Already mentioned, negatives for LED's the initial cost, yields seem lower; positives, overhead of power consumption, extra cooling equipment unnecessary, minimal light intensity fade(vs. HID bulb replacement after 6-9 months). I'm sure someone could do a real thorough cost analysis and find a definite case for LED's, like most "energy efficient" alternatives there is long game on the savings and return... one would think this would cater to the marijuana grower mindset, patience.

Addressing the initial cost for LED's, you could fabricate a similar model using the high quality CREE LED's for much less than a commercial model... with a forum like this, buying hardware in bulk, sharing the cost and kicking around homemade schematics seem like the perfect marriage for a solution.

but I agree with Hick, more unbiased, tangible comparisons need to be offered, especially if they expect people to pony up $1400.

 

[thc is good for me]

Hey guys so i had to stop my other grows. I decided to veg a plant untilll i have another growroom I will be using my LED board to veg one of my plants

I will document it week by week with pics

 

[liermam]

kinda playing off the last post... methods need to be catered to the type of light, if penetration is the question with LED's then something like a SCROG setup would seem ideal for LED's... without adapting your methods to maximize yield for the limits LED's have, it handicaps the technology... the same was done for HID's by implementing current indoor techniques, this LED technology is just another evolution, IMO... is it the best currently available, that's the question at hand.

this is the demo that specifically drew my attention to growing a plant in the same straight forward(no training) method one is accustomed to indoors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CtROw3uiVg
(you can find other related LED vs. HPS flowering comparisons)

now there's no debating the stretching and lower yield on the LED side, however, factoring in the operating costs LED's are actually the winner. Now as growers and consumers, we generally want the most bang for the buck which is only natural. Its just my opinion, but I think if this same side by side demo had been done using SCROG on both sides, that the HID would still out produce the LED in terms of total yield, but we would see quite an increase on the LED side in terms of power cost/yield ratio. A couple other bonuses I see for LED's in this, especially if multiple panels are used, no serious heat signature, possibly avoiding IR detection and lower utility bills, that might draw suspicion(depending on your total use) I know years ago these were both serious concerns for myself indoors.

Finding the right balance of red/blue, I would think each strain would have an ideal balance, so a panel with the ability to shift(add/subtract) rows/rings of red or blue would be more of a multi-purpose light... so this is still something that I consider "in progress" research left up to the grower.

The few demos I've seen make me believe LED's are more than ready for cuttings, veg and mothers. Already mentioned, negatives for LED's the initial cost, yields seem lower; positives, overhead of power consumption, extra cooling equipment unnecessary, minimal light intensity fade(vs. HID bulb replacement after 6-9 months). I'm sure someone could do a real thorough cost analysis and find a definite case for LED's, like most "energy efficient" alternatives there is long game on the savings and return... one would think this would cater to the marijuana grower mindset, patience.

Addressing the initial cost for LED's, you could fabricate a similar model using the high quality CREE LED's for much less than a commercial model... with a forum like this, buying hardware in bulk, sharing the cost and kicking around homemade schematics seem like the perfect marriage for a solution.

but I agree with Hick, more unbiased, tangible comparisons need to be offered, especially if they expect people to pony up $1400.

And here lies yet another problem. What about the other colors of the spectrum? Plants do not like just red and blue! Hell, they even have 2-3 different high points of production in the red spectrum alone! I think this might all be easily solved by having a full-spectrum LED board at the top of a room, and red/blue boards everywhere else. But then again, if the costs of the LED's we see today come down, and i'm sure they will, it would be so easy to over-illuminate any grow room and still maintain temperatures. You could build your actual grow box out of the LED boards themselves, haha.

 

[goat_man]

I've been doing an experiment with 8 of those panels that you guys are talking about from LEDwholesalers. I have them centered around one T5 and have been using this set up for two and a half months in vegging and my four mazar females I started from seed are barely 14 inches. I also decided to by a much more powerful LED constructed by an individual on ebay using, I believe, some model of Cree LED lights. Long story short, I don't think those panels are strong enough to even keep a mother vegging 'cause they don't have the penetration. Growth started to slow shortly after they showed pre-flowers (about 10 inches) and normally would have taken off. I have two females under the more powerful LED i described and they are bushing out and looking much better. This LED may be able to keep two small, bushy mothers. I have to agree with everyone so far however, and say that these panels especially are not powerful enough to flower with. They will probably work as good supplement lights for shady parts of a garden, but i'm afraid that if i flower with them alone the buds are just going to be really sparse. There are other panels constructed by a company called Procyon that look more promising, but very expensive. When I get a camera I'll provide pictures. Save your money, do the research, and either build or buy high quality LEDs.

 

[thc is good for me]

Hey guys. I havnt posted any new pics since i had to but my grow on hold. I did havest 5 plants and learned alot i hope to start growing agian in the next few monthes thats why i am keeping this clone. Lol so here's the story i moved one of my last plants outside but it grew too big to not be noticable and it got cut down i took 5 cuttings off the already cut down plant and 1 of them survived i have had her under a LED board for the last 2 weeks.

I will post updates about my clone with pics every week or so.

Dang i forgot about my cereal when was typing the now its all mushy......

 

[Tater]

Can't wait I'll be watching. Sucks about your cereal bro, I hate soggy cereal that goes down the toilet.

 

[Smeden]

Hello all

I have been doing a test grow with some grow leds. The grow leds I got is the 168 mixed blue/reds bulbs. They were said to run 13 watts each so my test was not fair - but here my comments on the case.

I thought the leds worked for vegging so set up a fluos vs led test vegging grow.
Team 1 was 4 plants - chosen to match team 2 from 136 plants total - so they were almost idential from start.

Team 1 got 4x18watt coldwhite fluos
Team 2 got 4x6,5 watt led + 1x18watt coldwhite fluo (read somewhere that plants will lack of something if run on leds only)

I thought the bulbs was 13 watts each = 72 watt fluo vs 70 watt fluo/led. But actually was 72 watt vs 44 watt

The 4 plantes under the 4 fluos grew faster than the ones under the led.

But many factors I must change if I decide to try again.
1. need to set all of my 8 led bulbs to team 2 = 70 watt total
2. need to put the leds as close as possible - this test was set up with 50 cm distance. This cause the leds makes almost none spread, so they were set so all 4 ledbulb just hit all 4 plants. (my thought about that was the best)

When these factors are changed I would like to see the result again, cause im pretty sure the leds will be winning.

All 8 plants grew about 4-6 cm in 7 days, and most of the leds plants was the 4 cm "increasers"

Well just my 50

But would be happy too see another compare grow

Cheers