So, I've been really thinking about this whole LED thing lately. Why are so many people having such different results? Why do the CFL + LED grows do better than the 100% LED grows?
My first thought was that the CFLs must be doing all the work, since I had seen so many bad grows that used only LED lights. But after comparing yield (grams per watt), I noticed that LED + CFL were also out performing CFLs by themselves, watt for watt.
So why are LEDs bad by themselves? Well, I got really high earlier and thought about it, and it actually started making sense.
Think about plants in terms of what plants are, a living organism pre-wired to survive and thrive given the conditions. Their DNA has given them traits to detect and grow towards lights. That's why plants will always lean towards the light, even after you bend/pull/train them.
So, we know plants can at least sense light... not only that, they can sense WHERE the light comes from!!! That's how they can lean towards light. One of LED lights' biggest problems is plants stretching straight to the LED lamp, rather than bushing out, thus hurting yield. But why?
To explain this, I made a couple pictures in MS Paint (still kinda high, but bare with me, this is good stuff!). Notice the first picture, it shows the light spread emitted by both LED and CFL lights. Now pretend you are a plant, you are completely blind BUT you can FEEL light. If you want to grow towards the light, where are you going to grow? This is displayed by picture 2. Notice the arrows actually do mimic the pattern of growth seen from both types of lights, PLANTS GROW TOWARDS LIGHT. White light from HPS and CFL is emitted in every direction and fans out rapidly. HPS is simply more intense than CFLs.
If a plant feels light from everywhere, it'll grow everywhere; but, if it feels very intense light from a single source, it's going to grow to that source. That is why LEDs can claim 400w/600w equivalence during VEGETATIVE growth, the plant is so small, it is only going up anyways.
(Continue on next post)
My first thought was that the CFLs must be doing all the work, since I had seen so many bad grows that used only LED lights. But after comparing yield (grams per watt), I noticed that LED + CFL were also out performing CFLs by themselves, watt for watt.
So why are LEDs bad by themselves? Well, I got really high earlier and thought about it, and it actually started making sense.
Think about plants in terms of what plants are, a living organism pre-wired to survive and thrive given the conditions. Their DNA has given them traits to detect and grow towards lights. That's why plants will always lean towards the light, even after you bend/pull/train them.
So, we know plants can at least sense light... not only that, they can sense WHERE the light comes from!!! That's how they can lean towards light. One of LED lights' biggest problems is plants stretching straight to the LED lamp, rather than bushing out, thus hurting yield. But why?
To explain this, I made a couple pictures in MS Paint (still kinda high, but bare with me, this is good stuff!). Notice the first picture, it shows the light spread emitted by both LED and CFL lights. Now pretend you are a plant, you are completely blind BUT you can FEEL light. If you want to grow towards the light, where are you going to grow? This is displayed by picture 2. Notice the arrows actually do mimic the pattern of growth seen from both types of lights, PLANTS GROW TOWARDS LIGHT. White light from HPS and CFL is emitted in every direction and fans out rapidly. HPS is simply more intense than CFLs.
If a plant feels light from everywhere, it'll grow everywhere; but, if it feels very intense light from a single source, it's going to grow to that source. That is why LEDs can claim 400w/600w equivalence during VEGETATIVE growth, the plant is so small, it is only going up anyways.
(Continue on next post)
