Check out the close intermodal growth under LEDs

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 have a quick question for ya......When you were checking the light intensity with the meter, approximately how far would you say the light would penetrate, effectively? Not through the foliage, just through the open air. What is the useable range? 10" or more? I'd like to try LEDs someday, after I'm convinced that they are capable of producing fully-developed buds. Also...you're the first person that i saw that used a light meter, rather than guessing, and that's appreciated. + Rep for that one.

They look good. Please PM me for a secret grow tip with your LED's

I'm curious about the light readings as well. About how far was the highest peak in light? And also how many lux or par was it? For the record, I have seen plants with wayy shorter internodes, but agreeing with you, that's a really nice short squat set of plants if they're all about that height. Remember that some phenotypes are shorter and some are longer, no matter what strain. Genetics plays a big part in the plants height.

Just curious, about how much did your light meter cost? I've been thinkin about getting one to test my grow out, but I'm not exactly sure which type to get.

8 weeks from seed they are tiny the leds are doing sweet FA get a 400w mh or hps will do a mucher better job

jawbrodt said:

I didn't notice that, when I read the OP the first time. Yeah, those are really small for 8 weeks old. I need plants that are at least 12" tall by the 4th week, of I really couldn't use those LEDs. I grow perpetual, and simply don't have the time to wait much longer than that. Hmm.....
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I failed to mention two very important considerations on the size of these plants. I ordered LEDs with assurance that I would get them in 2-5 days from time I ordered. Made order, planted seeds, and lights were a full month late coming. So I had to tide them over using a tiny full spectrum aquarium floro I had. When plants went under lights they were barely on third set of leaves and I had to bury about two inches of stem. Also these are Carmelicious plants and only grow about 2.5 feet total.

^Ahhh, okay, then there's still hope. Pheew.lol Do you plan on starting another generation, in the near future? I'd like to see the results of using LEDs exclusively. I'm in no rush, so I'll look into some other LED grows too, while I'm making a decision whether to switch someday.