Led Users Unite!

Kaptain Kron

Well-Known Member
also where i just quoted from also hudson is exactly right 240=400w approximately but you know what i would call it more like 500 from personal experience of using a 400w hps right before this light and it wasnt as strong as the led was.

"The majority of the LED's are 630nm and 660nm but this light also has 730nm infrared, 380 Ultraviolet, 425nm deep blue, 450nm blue and 12,000k Cree white chipsets."
From the BS site...
 

Kaptain Kron

Well-Known Member
thank you hudson for saying like i woulda said it had i not been all fuxed up right now lol. Completely agree with what you said about those other panels, that is the whole reason i went with blackstar. Now that being said if you have ALOT of veg to do yea a flowering blackstar wont really get you by too much red spectrum i completely agree with hudson on that one. Hence why i still run t5's for my mothers. I only veg for a week or two at most on my table so the veg spectrum blackstar would have been a waste as would have any panels that have knobs for changing spectrum. They do the same things as hudson said but blackstar does it for half the price. I would use a 357 if it was given to me i would use an isis if it was given to me and be ecstatic with the results. But it wasnt given to me it was bought and i wont spend 700 bucks for someting that only matches my led doesnt blow it away.

Well, thought that quote will probably have some baggage, I have to say that blackstar has been the victim of much criticism. I started an LED vs HID grow journal, mentioned that I had a blackstar, mentioned the word "cree" and holy shit, you would think that I threw a brick through peoples windows (actually dunit was one of the level headed ones in that fiasco). I wasn't trying to say mine was better than this that or the next thing, I just mentioned that the blackstar had some crees. Long story short, I found out that my grow area was too cool for growing on just LEDs, mixed LED and HID, and I ended that thread.

Call me cheap but I work in sales for my actual job. I have worked in sales and marketing for a long time. The best comparison I can make for LEDs is nutrients. Sure, advanced nutrients works well, it just costs several hundred bucks for the whole set up. Plenty of people swear by it as they have acceptable results from it. They feel that they are paying for "higher quality and engineering" and that is just fine. Its their money. I use jacks classic nutrients, which costs me 20 bucks for the whole set up. (plus 4 bucks for blackstrap). I know enough about chemistry to tell you that ionic compounds are ionic compounds. One nitrate is not different from another nitrate, especially if the cation is the same (which they are). The NPK rations vary slightly, thats the only real difference. Same thing is on display here.
LEDs produce photons that dwell within certain wavelengths. As long as a diode produces X amount of photons, at Y wavelengths, at Z angle, there is no difference. My belief is that LED panel differences matter more to humans than they do to plants. A plant can't tell you that you use crees, it can just tell you if it is getting enough light at whatever wavelength needed. If a particular LED light, or diode does that, then who cares? The cheaper the better.

To sum it up, I am positive that 357 magnums and ISIS lights, as well as most other LEDS on the market, work more than fine. But I see a lot of "marketing" strategies that are meant to keep prices up without introducing much new functionally. There are a lot of people that are "affiliates" with certain suppliers, who are ho hum and open minded when it comes to LEDS and then boom, they buy one, and are shoving it down peoples throats. I don't know if they get paid, or get a discount, but whatever. All of that bakes into a higher cost, the affiliate programs, the advertising, the over indulgent websites, the unnecessary heat sinks, the adjustable nonsense, all of that is superfluous and the plant can't see any benefit from it. So why pay for it? Exactly.

My problem with kessils is that I want them to be less them 190 bucks. Other than that they are awesome.
My problem with 357's is that they only come in one wattage. That is kind of a strange strategy. also that 700$ price tag.
My problem with ISIS is that that are a touch pricey. If it wasn't for that 379$ price tag for 170W then I would own them.
My problem with blackstar is that they have two spectrum ratios: 1 totally geared for veg, 1 totally geared for flower. It is hard to use the flower for veg and veg for flower.

However, that lets you have the best possible energy expenditure for each stage. In veg you are wasting a shit load of red, in flower, blue. But if you are serious about growing, you know that you NEED to have different spectra for the best results.

Lets also not forget that the grow depends a lot on the grower too.
 

Hudsonvalley82

Well-Known Member
Im one of those guys that finds veg time just as important, if not more important than flower time. Veg time is the foundation of bud. I don't use clones either. I have a steady supply of seeds available, so I veg like a religion. Toppings, LST, tie downs, all are great ways to increase your yield. Flowering time is just developing bud sites and hitting the shit out of them with UV.
 

Kaptain Kron

Well-Known Member
yeah i agree but with my space limits right now i dont have time for a lot of veg so its straight a week or two at the most if not straight away flowering out. Veg is a VERY important building block that i am very dissapointed that i have to leave out of my grow right now. That being said, your are most def right, i wish i had space for a good month veg and a scrog but i dont. Im workin on getting a steady supply of seeds now once i have a male flowering room ill begin breeding and crossing again but for the moment i find it quite annoying to have to sex my plants with the amount of space i have to work with so clones for me. Although i get all my clones from plants i have grown from seed myself. I have enough mothers now in theory to last me for a while til i can get the seperate room built and sealed off in case of accidental pollen release.

^^ completely agree with the above statement i used to veg for a minimum of 2 months 3-4 ft a plant INDOORS.... when i had my 400w hps going. But i've since moved back to cali and now have next to no space to grow in.

I would tend to agree that veg is WAAAAY more important than flowering. You fuck up your veg you've already fucked up your flowering before you even started.
 

kush groove

Active Member
thank you hudson for saying like i woulda said it had i not been all fuxed up right now lol. Completely agree with what you said about those other panels, that is the whole reason i went with blackstar. Now that being said if you have ALOT of veg to do yea a flowering blackstar wont really get you by too much red spectrum i completely agree with hudson on that one. Hence why i still run t5's for my mothers. I only veg for a week or two at most on my table so the veg spectrum blackstar would have been a waste as would have any panels that have knobs for changing spectrum. They do the same things as hudson said but blackstar does it for half the price. I would use a 357 if it was given to me i would use an isis if it was given to me and be ecstatic with the results. But it wasnt given to me it was bought and i wont spend 700 bucks for someting that only matches my led doesnt blow it away.
On my next grow Ill be vegging with the blackstar flowering model...Ill be sure to post the results....If it doesnt work out too well I can just add a few cfl's, they worked great for me last time.....ill probably veg for a three week to a month....im just waiting on a few more of my clones to root
 

Kaptain Kron

Well-Known Member
yep yep if you veg for a long time on it you may want to add some 6500k cfl's but that would be all you need just a few i would think to throw a bit more blue. I think you should be fine for a month i veg'ed for about 2.5 weeks and mine were really stacked still so, i think it becomes more of a problem after the first month of veg.

On my next grow Ill be vegging with the blackstar flowering model...Ill be sure to post the results....If it doesnt work out too well I can just add a few cfl's, they worked great for me last time.....ill probably veg for a three week to a month....im just waiting on a few more of my clones to root
no that is not two 240w panels it has the led's layed out in a different pattern on the 500w panels.
 

shaggy2dope

Active Member
Anyone that has a blackstar. How long have you had it and how long do you think it will last?? i want to get two of their 240w panels but if the leds start crappin out on me then i'm fucked. I just can't get over the price. Usually IMO cheap shit brakes. But my wallet only goes about $800 deep. And i have to rig up a DWC and get nutes and knickknacks. So fuck it. Guess I'll have to take the leap of faith. Thanx for all the info. Now i got to wait another two weeks to get my check and then I'll be able to start a journal to put down some more evidence that leds work. Sorry for having to put up with me. Now I'ma go get baked and see if i can hack this PS3.. MUCH LOVE!
 

surgedup

Active Member
Yeah I'm vegging with a 300w chinese panel right now ratio is 8:1 seems to be doing good also one daylight cfl in there to help. You guys think I should use both panels when my blackstar comes or veg with the blackstar and with a cfl. You think both panels would be overdoing it so far since the plants are still little..... let me know thanks guys...
 

purp602

Member
just bought it victor gave me a deal man free shipping and 5 bucks off not bad at all... so far a total of 540 watts in my 3x5 grow area hopefully i get some decent yields ....
did you call or email.. every time i call Gotham i talk to a sean, who is Victor??
 

TshirtNinja

Well-Known Member
You guys make me want to post on my ladies now.
Here they are at 35 days strong.
1-23_3.jpg1-23_2.jpg1-23_1.jpg1-23.jpg
Today is watering day so I will be hitting them with full strength nutes today. I trained them to soak up a half solution every feeding and worked them up to full strength along with black-strap molasses at every feeding now and they are FOREST GREEN. You can tell they are all ladies and I have yet to name them but that will be coming very soon. These are Nirvana's last available autoflowers since this is my first venture I figured take the light stress out of the equation while I learn the nutrition of my plants to see if I could train them with that nutrient trick i used to use in my own garden back home. I used to grow killer peppers and watermelons back home. These remind me of corn if anything. And I know how to make corn grow lol.
 

surgedup

Active Member
Victor I believe is the owner guys correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah he gave me a good deal free shipping and $5 off the unit and for two $10 bucks off and free shipping on both units. Right now I'm just gonna try out the flowering model see how it goes if it goes well I'm going to pick up another unit maybe the veg model depending on how good the flowering does in veg.... but ultimately a good veg is your base like these fellas have been saying so I might just by the veg model next harvest oh and yeah i called him to get the deal lol sorry for not stating that first....
 

jdizzle22

Well-Known Member
Anyone that has a blackstar. How long have you had it and how long do you think it will last?? i want to get two of their 240w panels but if the leds start crappin out on me then i'm fucked. I just can't get over the price. Usually IMO cheap shit brakes. But my wallet only goes about $800 deep. And i have to rig up a DWC and get nutes and knickknacks. So fuck it. Guess I'll have to take the leap of faith. Thanx for all the info. Now i got to wait another two weeks to get my check and then I'll be able to start a journal to put down some more evidence that leds work. Sorry for having to put up with me. Now I'ma go get baked and see if i can hack this PS3.. MUCH LOVE!
www.growledhydro.com Spectra LED lights are pretty high quality and come with a nice 5 year warranty. The new 2011 models (not depicted on the website which needs updating) come with fail safe tech so that even if an LED light goes out in under its 50,000 hour lifespan it won't take out the whole row/or column its in. Here is a link to pics and specs of the new 2011 models. You could get a great 240w panel for $600 http://www.420magazine.com/forums/journals-progress/132192-irish-boys-480w-720w-grow-led-hydro-land-clovers-49.html these things will veg and flower great, I'm going to be getting two of the 240s myself come the 4th of Feb.

Irishboy and others have grown some great stuff with their lights. Irishboy even got plant of the month last year with one of these LED lights, and I believe he is the first and only person over there to have won plant of the month with an LED panel! The only downside to ordering from Mike is that it will take up to 2 weeks for him to get it shipped because he is swamped with orders and getting them filled out.
 

surgedup

Active Member
That's amazing irishboy is the shit man doing some amazing work with LEDS hands down
www.growledhydro.com Spectra LED lights are pretty high quality and come with a nice 5 year warranty. The new 2011 models (not depicted on the website which needs updating) come with fail safe tech so that even if an LED light goes out in under its 50,000 hour lifespan it won't take out the whole row/or column its in. Here is a link to pics and specs of the new 2011 models. You could get a great 240w panel for $600 http://www.420magazine.com/forums/journals-progress/132192-irish-boys-480w-720w-grow-led-hydro-land-clovers-49.html these things will veg and flower great, I'm going to be getting two of the 240s myself come the 4th of Feb.

Irishboy and others have grown some great stuff with their lights. Irishboy even got plant of the month last year with one of these LED lights, and I believe he is the first and only person over there to have won plant of the month with an LED panel! The only downside to ordering from Mike is that it will take up to 2 weeks for him to get it shipped because he is swamped with orders and getting them filled out.
 

dunit

Active Member
I want to be an informed consumer and I think everyone does. If someone says their product is best I ask why, is that so unreasonable?

I never recommended the light I was running and I never said it was the best. I'm running a grow journal so people can make up their own mind. This thread asked to not post biased information without providing results.

As Hudson pointed out, when the first shit storm unleashed in his LED grow thread I was the level headed one when the Blackstar bashing started. I was trying to cut through the drama and just get some real answers. I still am.

I have asked five questions about Blackstar, Hudson answered about the heat sink (thanks for that amigo) and no one has ever actually answered the rest....I just get hate mail instead.

The point of this thread was not to blindly accept unsupported claims. When people started saying their lights were the best I asked why?

I am looking to get maximum yield. It's not for fun and it's not for profit. I am licensed to grow medical marijuana for my own consumption. Due to lung problems smoking is almost impossible and even vaping seems to cause issues. As a result I take my medicine in the form of tea and that uses a ton of product to get the desired effect (pain control). When I run out I'm back on Ocy or Vicoden and if you have any experience with those they are only fun if you don't need them.

I want lights that will maximize my yeild, that's why I ask the questions.

I'll just order a Blackstar and answer my own questions from here on in.

Happy growing! Peace!
 
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