Confined Space 850W LED Master Kush Grow

ledbudguy said:
man that room smells just amazing, a real earthy / hashy smell in there :)
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Hey man these plants are looking so good that I decided to jump the gun and get a 500W LED from Lighthouse LED (Cree 3w). A lot of my decision was swayed by this thread. I only had money for one, however, when the spring rolls around and the crop ripens, I plan to expand to around 1200W of stand alone LED. I just want to say thank you for your thread and keep it up. Moreover, for those who are skeptical, I have a payload of freshly transplanted seedlings (jock horror and wonder woman), I have 2 of each under the LED, and 3 wonder woman w/ 2 jock horror under the 1000W MH. The seedlings under HID will remain under HID, as they will be transferred to a 1000W HPS for flower. The LED group will remain under LED's. We'll see what is on the other side in about 3 months. It's late now, but I just took 36 pictures and I am going to start a thread tomorrow morning with the race.
 
Hudsonvalley82 said:
Hey man these plants are looking so good that I decided to jump the gun and get a 500W LED from Lighthouse LED (Cree 3w). A lot of my decision was swayed by this thread. I only had money for one, however, when the spring rolls around and the crop ripens, I plan to expand to around 1200W of stand alone LED. I just want to say thank you for your thread and keep it up. Moreover, for those who are skeptical, I have a payload of freshly transplanted seedlings (jock horror and wonder woman), I have 2 of each under the LED, and 3 wonder woman w/ 2 jock horror under the 1000W MH. The seedlings under HID will remain under HID, as they will be transferred to a 1000W HPS for flower. The LED group will remain under LED's. We'll see what is on the other side in about 3 months. It's late now, but I just took 36 pictures and I am going to start a thread tomorrow morning with the race.
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I'll look for your thread..... I am also looking to get a new LED panel this spring so i am keeping my eye on all the led threads...
 
9 days of flower down, 40 days to go. Feeding day today, cleaned out some under brush. Changed over to 2nd co2 bottle. 5lbs co2 lasts 8 days and costs $10 or $1.25 a day. Well worth the investment if you ask me :)

The room smells amazing! Things are starting to get interesting now!

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Subscribed. I can't wait to see the end results.

Just for shits and giggles, you should try a 150hps over a couple of plants on the end of the row, and see which gets better buds. A 150 keeps pretty cool. I have a 150HPS and a 90W UFO side by side, and the tent keeps cooler now with the HPS/LED than it did when i had a LED/CFL combo.

Edit: It might be beneficial to add a flouro tube, like a T5, along the sides of the LEDs to supplement the spectrum.
 
I vegged under Procyons a few years ago and I'm inclined to agree with the statment about huge fan leaves and lush green with the LED's. I ran HID's for about 6 years and the plants just never looked as good and I don't think that was because I was screwing up :-) If you've ever spent any time in a serious jungle, like the Amazon, the top of the canopy is where the leaves look unhealthiest and below the canopy is where the plants are all lush and green. I think that's because the sun is very intense just like HID and there is a lot of spectrum that can't be used and it's hard on plants who are subject to the direct hit.

That being said there's no denying the numbers with HID. I used to consistently pull 7lb of 4X1000W HPS without co2 so I know that HID's perform and if you're a commercial grower that's all that matters along with low start up cost.

I also know that personally living on a HID grow was stressful. 240volts is lethal and you have to really know what you are doing with the wiring and it really doesn't mix well with water which is regularly present in any growing environment. The RF transmission from the ballasts can be picked up well off the property. The bulbs are so hot as to be a major fire hazzard and I don't know anyone who was a commercial grower who doesn't have a few scars from incidental bulb contact. 4x1000W HID lights need the equivalent cooling or venting to control the 14,000 BTU's of heat they are kicking off and that makes for a pretty impressive heat signature. You better learn to wake up when you hear the chopper :o

I'm glad those days are over and glad to be doing it for fun and with a license now.

Even if LED's don't perform watt for watt, they are close and I love em just for the safety and security of them and I really think that's one place where HID can't argue.......but someone's sure to try :-)

One last point, for every 1000W of HID you need 300W of A/C (never met a commercial show that didn't run A/C and co2 but thats Canada so might be different elsewhere) so while we're comparing apples to apples even if it takes 1W of LED to produce the same as 1W of HID there is power savings on the cooling alone....just thought I'd fan the flames :-)
 
ledbudguy said:
They are ISIS-1 170w hybrid panels, I paid $349 each for them at ledgrowlightsdirect.com
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Got my journal up and running and looks like we have the same taste in panels and I feel even better about my choice looking at how your plants are performing :-)

Check my sig and see what you think of my show and any feedback you can give me on how high those lights should be would be appreciated. Once I get the rest of my panels I can't wait to drop em down and kick up the intensity.
 
Looking good amigo! Was reading your post in another journal and saw you were talking about Digi-key. I used to be in commercial electronics and we used to order from them so just wondering if you have a background in commercial electronics too. Interesting if we both are from that industry and we both ended up ordering the same LED panels......almost makes me feel warm and fuzzy about my choice :-)

I'm looking for a high output panel for flowering (I don't have the space issue you do) so wouldn't mind comparing notes.

BTW for anyone else reading I'm not looking for a bunch of random suggestions. Based on my experience and background I've got a configuration I want to try and I'm trying to find someone who makes it or something very close and I've done a lot of research and gone through the usual suspects and haven't found it yet.
 
The only problem we ever had in a commercial grow with led's (admittedly 2nd gen) was just no density in the buds, even with CO2 and correct CO2 production temps.... buds just never "heavied up" at the end... I'd be very pleased to see that 3rd or 4th gen would change that.... fingers crossed!

J
 
John Mondello said:
The only problem we ever had in a commercial grow with led's (admittedly 2nd gen) was just no density in the buds, even with CO2 and correct CO2 production temps.... buds just never "heavied up" at the end... I'd be very pleased to see that 3rd or 4th gen would change that.... fingers crossed!

J
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Bang on the money John. I think a lot of that was the fault of the LED industry and unrealistic claims on performance and especially penetration. No matter how many hundreds of watts your LED panels are, if they are 1W LED's (especially your reds and blues) they aren't gonna do dick for penetration once you get over 12" from the panel. Lens angle is a critical factor too as narrower angle gets better penetration but reduces coverage area. Of course 1W LED's are so much cheaper than 3W and price point is a huge factor so there is a lot of motivation by vendors to use them.

Im jumping back in with LED's after doing a lot of research and after FIRST HAND experience helping a friend with an LED grow. He ran 3W LED's with 60 degree lens angle. Got great penetration right up to about 3 1/2' from the panel so when dialed in seemed to work best with 2-2 1/2' plants about 1' from the panel. He got similar yields running 80% of HID wattage. Once he factored in the additional wattage he saved on cooling (sealed room with AC and Co2) it worked out that the total wattage on his LED's show was just under 70% of the HID show for the same yeild.

I'm about to try to pull that off myself so we'll see how that goes :-)
 
Sub'd plants are looking good!
Definitely interested to see how this works out for you. I have been contemplating getting LED's since I decided to start growing again. I have been doing a lot fo research and still not totally convinced that LED's will work for my case.I'm really not super concerned with flowering because I will be starting a perpetual grow using HPS to flower with. Seems like the LED's do very well in veg but I have heard negative things such the lack a wavelength of light promotes side branching so you would need to suplement with a HID, CFL's or T5 so sorta of defeats the purpose to drop the heat, electricty bill, etc.
 
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