Rocket Soul
Well-Known Member
Tweak your environment slightly and you should be seeing yield go up from hps, if its a 1 for 1 replacement in watts. We saw about 15% increase, on perfect growconditions, comparing 2x600w hps to 3x240w led fixtures over same area. But thats in weight, if you just eyeball it the led bud looks less as its more dense (as long as youve done it right, some leds do grow flimsy weak bud).In my personal experience yield does suffer with LED, but the loss doesn't make up for the excess strain on HVAC appliances & the plants themselves. I notice with LED you are going to have overall a more robust plant start to finish. HPS tend to have very little blue spectrum and it causes the plants to basically be "floppy". Lots of people will simply attiribute the "floppyness" to weight but in my experience, a few grams on a branch isn't going to make it flop over.
LED work for me mainly because in the long run I want to pay less electricity and deal with less HVAC issues and or problems during big heat waves like I had this year in Michigan even indoors underground..
If you want to grow long-term then LED usually are the best option for mostly less power, less heat, good end product..
I've noticed actually the LED cannabis tends to get higher reviews from patients opposed to HPS grown. I myself notice that HPS tends to make a more "greasy" bud almost whereas the LED makes very "crystally" buds.. Not sure if thats just me or what.
One thing I can say for sure is blooming using 720 watt Growers Choice I've seen way stronger plants throughout their life and less maintenance as far as staking, netting etc. The yield differences are at best 10% loss but I'm also spending several hundred less dollars on air conditioning.
Generally you just need more heat, +81F, and adapt the growstyle a bit (flower slightly larger plants as they stretch less, make sure your rootball is same size as your hps plants were).
The problem is to get your plants to drink as fast as hps plants, and allways have temps up, or the plants metabolism will not keep up with the light.