Grow Lights - Opinions

Ice theres an Edit button for you to fix your post if your not allready, also
there is a Preview button so you can make sure they all work.

ic3cold said:

IVE GOT PROF that you need a WHITE, blue and red leds to grow. if you look at the two charts below you can see what wavelength each colour of led will produce and the other shows what chemicals are produced at each wavelength. I ALSO BELIEVE THIS PROFS IT WORkS.

screaming_dream@hotmail.com

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Im not too sure how the hell to read this? It looks like you are losing horse power around 5500 rpms. O2's are all over the place. Knock counts everywhere. I dont know? Im not understanding the chemical part I guess.

PotRoast: You already got him on the age thing. Now your going to name drop too? hehehe.

This thread is getting good. +5

I know this is prolly not related but my friend flowers with a hps and an mh and he swears by it. He says they dont stretch like they do when he uses 2 hps light. He has them side by side on a mover. He is doing something right he is getting right under 3 lbs out of 9 plants of chronic. I wonder if uv has anything to do with it? I didnt realize it was that important. I have never really thought about it. I thought you could just buy a book, buy a light thats in the book and your good. lol.

As a defense against UV radiation, the body tans when exposed to moderate (depending on skin type) levels
of radiation by releasing the brown pigment melanin. This helps to block UV penetration and prevent damage
to the vulnerable skin tissues deeper down.

UV index - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sodium vapor lamp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fluorescent lamp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of light sources - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When I return I expect a full report from each of you on UV and the plants use of UV for resin production!

Ya see your body releses stuff when exposed to UV.
So maby I was right about marijuana plants releasing stuff too.

This thread needs to be renamed "Affects of UV Rays and Light Spectrums on Potancy" LOL

potroast said:

I asked Ed Rosenthal about UV recently. He gave me one of his typical concise answers, but it surprised me. I told him I thought HPS didn't have any UV, so I was running a UV reptile tube with them, and he said that was good, because it "would increase potency." ( _!!_)

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Well I have to say I find that rather curious as it's my understanding that plants do not use UV light. Now, Cannabis may well be different to normal plants in the sense that they do use UV light in someway for their resin production - that's not something I can confirm or deny - but I'd like to see some firm evidence that is the case before I'll alter my beliefs.

Here's a section on the UV parts of the light spectrum and their affects on plants -

200 - 280 nm UVC ultraviolet range which is extremely harmful to plants because it is highly toxic.
280 - 315 nm Includes harmful UVB ultraviolet light which causes plants colors to fade.
315 - 380 nm Range of UVA ultraviolet light which is neither harmful nor beneficial to plant growth.
380 - 400 nm Start of visible light spectrum. Process of chlorophyll absorption begins. UV protected plastics ideally block out any light below this range.
400 - 520 nm This range includes violet, blue, and green bands. Peak absorption by chlorophyll occurs, and a strong influence on photosynthesis. (promotes vegetative growth)
520 - 610 nm This range includes the green, yellow, and orange bands and has less absorption by pigments.
610 - 720 nm This is the red band. Large amount of absorption by chlorophyll occurs, and most significant influence on photosynthesis. (promotes flowering and budding)

a special type of LED was developed for growing plants on NASA's Space Shuttle and the Space Station as part of commercial experiments sponsored by industry. The effort is managed by NASA's Space Product Development Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Researchers discovered that the diodes also had many promising medical applications, prompting this research to be funded by a NASA Small Business Innovation Research contract.

Biologists have found that cells exposed to near-infrared light -- that is, energy just outside the visible range -- from LEDs grow 150 to 200 percent faster than those cells not stimulated by such light. This form of light increases energy inside cells which results in speeding up the healing process.

LED Grow Lights.com Home Page

-=4:20=-Guy said:

Ya see your body releses stuff when exposed to UV.
So maby I was right about marijuana plants releasing stuff too.

This thread needs to be renamed "Affects of UV Rays and Light Spectrums on Potancy" LOL

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This would be a good topic for all!

Splify said:

Does anyone here have any experience using LED grow lights? I have an Ebb & Flo 3x3 in a Hydro Hut, 400w HPS.... I was reading that the LED's are much better and are not nearly as easy for the feds to detect with Thermal Imaging and even teh cost of running it.

I emailed a person selling them on Ebay, and he told me that 2 RED and 1 BLUE is enought for a 4sqft setup, and produces the same effect as a 600w light.

I only do the 12/12 cycle, and friend does the clones and veg stage...

I am totally new to this, so any info would be great.

-Spliffy

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If your LEDs emit light that is close to the color frequencies 662NM and 430NM then you would need to use enough LEDs to generate at about 2000-2500 LUX everywhere in your grow area to equal the growth potential of 600 watts HID, depending on the red to blue ratio. 430NM and 662NM are the peak absorption rates of chlorophyll-a, although you would receive similar results from color frequencies ranging between 430NM-470NM and 630NM-670NM.

A typical 470NM blue LED grow bulb produces about 4000 LUX and a typical 630NM LED grow bulb produces about 2000 LUX. These are readings taken at the center of the bulb. The LUX drops dramatically if you move the sensor farther from the bulb or away from the center. Checkout the following URL for a comparison of some popular LED grow bulbs: Untitled Page

There are a lot of bulbs out there and they vary vastly in brightness. The list at greenpinelane is very small.

In a 2ft x 2ft box it would not be difficult to generate the needed light with 3-4 of the Groovy Grow, Blue Veg GB, Red Bloom GB or Gro-Tek type screw-in e27 standard socket grow bulbs. You would need to line the box with reflective material such as Mylar. No problem!

Now to cover the area of your Ebb & Flo 3x3 it would take many more LED grow bulbs. I'd suggest you create an array of 36 of the standard socket bulbs on a 4ft x 4ft piece of plywood or some other lightweight material. This would probably yield more growth potential than a 1000 watt HID system. It takes a bit more work but I'm sure it would be worth the effort.
The price has dropped for this type of bulb on eBay to about $25 per bulb. The sockets cost between $1-$3 each and the plywood can be bought for about $10. $900-$1000 is more than you would pay for a typical HID setup but you would recoup that in no time with the reduced electric bill. You would also save money on your water bill from the reduced temp in your grow area.

You should use a ratio of 4 red LEDs to one blue LED for blooming\budding and 2 red LEDs to 1 blue LED for the vegetative growth cycle.

if you have a 400 watt hps i wouldnt consider downgrading to leds unless you want to grow a few cones instead of a few 0zs

If you use enough of them, in any size grow room or chamber, you can create an environment that has a much higher growth rate and harvest than you can create with HPS or MH. It doesn't matter what you're growing.

The larger arrays like what Gro-Tek or Flowerforcer sales are probably better for large grow ops but the small e27 bulbs can be used also. Actually you can build a brighter array using the e27s and plywood. There is a bit of work to build enough arrays for large areas but compare it with the cost and work to install elaborate ventilation systems that can keep HID farms cool. It is much easier to use LEDs and the cost would be probably be close to the same to get started. In the long run regardless of initial cost LEDs will cost less and may give better growth.

I would be leary about taking the word of an Ebay seller on unproven speculation, if you are flush and wont miss the money go for it, I would trry lasers first.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/1985-grow-lights-opinions-4.html here's a thread pastafarian made dedicated to you knight lighting lol, i cant believe you would claim LEDs to be superior than anything else.. go spam somewhere else, noone wants your leds

There is an interesting piece on you tube: YouTube - LED Marijuana Grow
where someone shows MH vs. the new LED ufo.
The LED works well in veg stage, but flowering and yield do not do well.

I found bjgrower's thread very informative: he said:
>You should use a ratio of 4 red LEDs to one blue LED for blooming\budding and 2 red LEDs to 1 blue LED for the vegetative growth cycle.<

I have been doing some research on LED's b/c I'd like to set up a veg/mum room.
Many sellers claim blue led for veg; red for bloom; however, when you watch the youtube video, the plant does well in veg state with the mixed blue & red in the $500. ufo model, yet it blows in the flowering stage. If bjgrowers calculations are correct, the next generation of pricey dual spectrum (blue & red) LED models we will see will have 2 settings one for veg and the other for grow.

Since I grow corals with LED's, I am fairly confident that plants can be grown under them. The question is not can they, it is what LED's can produce and what falls short. First, if you are using LED's, these units they make are not close to what you can make yourself. Use 5W 40degree angle Phillips luxeon LED's. They pack much more punch than the 1W LED's or less that most lighting manufacturers use. Get them in the spectrum needed. The unit I use for corals is the Solaris from PFO. They are expensive, but the lighting setup is perfect. They have two unit spectrums, one adjustable from 5000K to 20000K(Higher K for colors emitted from the zooxanthellae, lower K for growth); the other unit would be much more suitable for plant life, which ranges from 5000K to 13000K. If you are so inclined, you can still add UV tube light if you believe this helps.

An old article on the lighting that I use:
Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Product Review: A New Horizon in Lighting: PFO's Solaris LED System

Great to understand the basic ideas behind PAR and PUR and the major differences between them. Of course, this again is for reef caretaking, so the spectral uses are in different ranges, but fairly similar, since the photosynthetic part is the zooxanthellae, which is a plant).

Here is the company site:
Solaris LED Hood PFO lighting Inc > Home ( DNN 4.0.3 )

"Use 5W 40degree angle Phillips luxeon LED's"

I used the led panels instead of the higher priced ufo model, I will research the articles you included.

What I noticed is that the clones under the led's with florescent did better, however, due to the lack of heat emitted from the led's I had to add heat, so I used a seed mat.

The growth rate of the clones was extremely slow. Since it was winter and the heat was an issue, the evaporation of the nutrients took longer, so, I'm sure that contributed.

Now that I have moved the clones into my main room with 1000 watt Halides the growth is much faster. About half of the clones are showing progress, the other half may be stunted or just goners -- it's only been a week.

I will be rethinking my veg room now.

Dont listen to these guys they all could'nt be more wrong. The led is perfect for a 3x3 hydroponic table!!!!!!!!! Everyones post has been wrong, and i dont even know where to start refuting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I have to say is show me the pics of your spectacular LED grow.

Why the led lights? If you're worried about money it doesn't cost that much to run a thousand watt light. If your kilowatt hours were 10 cents an hour it would cost you one dollar and twenty cents a day for flowering at 12/12 on/off. 1.20 a day would be only $36 dollars a month. Not too bad. Oh yeah and high times magazine tested the UFO lights and gave it a good review when they grew herb under it, but they also said the led lights can't produce as much yield as a standard H.P.S lights. I bought the Lumatek digital 600w and this thing puts out as much light as a 1000 watt lamp. plants grown under led lighting tend to be skinny and lanky with little wispy buds.

LED lights suck, and it's the same person using different names trying to say they don't !!!!!!!!!!

Like I've posted before, if you want to spend $600 on an LED grow light I will design you one that will beat the specs off a UFO anyday and I can still make a few hundred from it. You get a better light and I make a couple hundred so we all should be happy.

If I was a smartass I'd take your money and ship you an HPS light because that will give you the best results every time. You would be extremely happy with your grow and I could still make a couple hundred.

If you were close I'd even come and help you wire any light you bought up. Were else will you get service like that ?

this thread is from last year lol