Denofearth69
Active Member
For those considering LEDs I wanted to share my own experiences. First of all, what you may have heard regarding limited foot print of LEDs, I would like to point out that, as LEDs are positioned higher than traditional light sources, you will still get good coverage. I use 2-120W LED panels which measure about 18"X 8". To determine light placement I hung lights about 3 feet off floor, held a light meter at the floor level, and lifted towards the lights until meter measured highest light concentration. If you continue lifting towards the light, you will see that at a certain point, getting closer to the light actually registers less light. In this way you are able to determine how high above the plants your lights need to be placed to keep plants in maximum light area. As it turns out, I am able to easily fit six five gallon buckets within the foot print emitted by these two lights. Now here is the really cool part of LEDs. The intermodal growth ( space between new each set of leaves ) is extremely small, I'm talking less than half an inch! Also, my plants growth, though admittedly kind of slow to get going, have accelerated to the point that I see noticeable growth in as little as five hours, and am seeing growth of about two inches a day at this point. The minimal heat generated by these little lights is dealt with by six tiny fans incorporated into the panels themselves, and is so negligible that I had to put a space heater in grow room to reach proper temp. I have crappy walmart camera, so I apologize for the poor quality of my pics, but perhaps you can still see how bushy my girls are. I used a regular light to take pics as pics taken under LEDs turn out pink ( I have included some to show you what I mean. These plants are just shy of eight weeks old grown from seeds.
I also use a small floro to underlight my plants and a infrared heat bulb to add orange spectrum.
I also use a small floro to underlight my plants and a infrared heat bulb to add orange spectrum.
