About waiting 5 or more years?!! Not true at all. Technology is increasing exponentially always. There could be something new released next month that revolutionizes growing altogether, there has already been new information and data from studies showing exciting findings about flowering plants.. Anyway, The technology is not new. It has been around for a very long time, but it is just now starting to become more heavily focused upon, as it is obviously a better and more efficient way to grow plants. Imagine if you could have the same intensity, or more than you do now, say using a HPS and a MH both together for vegging, with LED's and much less heat and electricity usage, well there are so many issues to be addressed as to the greatness of the new technology.
If you use LED's for vegetative, and have them set up properly, well at the moment they work great but do cost a lot. (My 12"x12" Blue 225 LED panel was $70 - good for one plant I'd say.) I can see them working really good for SCROG keeping a perfectly level canopy and adjusting it however you wish to instigate upward or outward growth.. If you keep the lights directly on the leaves, as in touching the canopy, they will just get bushier and remain happy, and lower growth will continue. If you raise the lights about an inch to 3 inches above tops, they will reach upward in a day or 2 and take over that space, making the plant taller. New growth is always extremely perfect looking, uniform, symmetrical, and lush. This is my first time using an LED panel and I decided to use it on one plant to dedicate the intensity to 1 square foot, for one plant in a 5 gallon pot.
I have LST trained the plant so far and it is at day 63 Veg now. The main top has come around the entire inside of the pot and I have run out of room. Next I'll raise the LED panel up an inch at a time until the bushy canopy reaches the lights again. When Im satisfied with the height Ill start flowering. I can easily keep it bushing out farther and farther and continue to tie down branches, but I have already gone well over my 1 square foot space.
I am also using a High Output Fluorescent with red/blue spectrum. The LED's are supposedly at this point in the technology, meant to be supplemental.. This is true if you want to greatly increase your yield. You can absoultely grow cannabis and other plants solely using LED's.
The LED panel does give the absolute most correct, pure spectrum of blue light best for vegetative growth. Using a HPS solely for vegging is wasting a lot of light, energy, money, time.. You are really heavy in the red spectrum with a HPS and deficient in blue spectrum. Sure HPS will work great and you can get awesome results using all the way through, but the fact of the matter is, you can take away about 70 percent of that light (most of the red spectrum) and then you would be using less energy, and have less heat, but still have the same amount of light output in the blue spectrum.
Nasa has been developing and contributing to the ongoing innovations in LED growing technology for growing plants in outer space. LED's also have an extremely long life so it would be an obvious choice for long space missions. Astronauts say the thing they miss most while in space is fresh salads and veggies. I bet they miss fresh GANJA TOO lol.
This is my first post here..
These are just some random thoughts from reading your posts guys and girls so let me know what you think; I would love to talk about this more!
