HELP!!! I know I need an LED but which ONE????

Ok so the more I read the more I get confused.

I know I need to get an LED, I am a first time grower and have roughly 11 plants already a foot tall and no flowering light yet.

I plan to only flower maybe 6-8 at a time, and am trying to spend the least amount possible.

I see a lot of LED grow lights on ebay that are stupid cheap but only advertise like 14 watts but are the same size as the more expensive ones that advertise 90 watts. My guess is that the cheap ones are using 1 watt LED lights and the nicer ones are just a much brighter 3w LED. (If I am wrong please explain).

I am thinking of now purchasing two 90w UFO lights, instead of the original plan of a 240w blackstar.

Is that a bad idea or not enough light?

Stay away from the 14w panels as those do not even use 1w chips. Be sure you are looking at actual wattage instead of advertised. The bs240 is really ~140w give or take. Most 90w ufos will really pull anywhere from 45w-75w depending on the unit and where you bought it from. And whichever you decide to go with, I dont expect 2x90w ufo or 1xbs240 to adequately flower that many plants (maybe if doing small plants no veg time.

What puffenuff said, i use two blackstar240's for 1-2 plants and i wouldent even consider using a ufo or other cheap leds as they will have very poor results as far as yield is concerned, either grow less plants or get a better light is my advice

Stay away from cheap UFO's.... and 14W panels....

For 6-8 medium/med-large plants you're looking at 250-300W of LED as a good baseline.

Beefbisquit said:

Stay away from cheap UFO's.... and 14W panels....

For 6-8 medium/med-large plants you're looking at 250-300W of LED as a good baseline.

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Anyone know any way of achieving this for under $350

Blackstar 240 ($270) + 125w cfl ($80) might get you close? I've never used blackstars or cfls to grow but I think that would be your best bet for maximizing results out of $350 sans hid.

SaintsRow901 said:

Anyone know any way of achieving this for under $350

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Nope.... The cheapest light that would be recommended for that many plants would probably be the Blackstar 500... (303W actual draw)....

It's about $550 + shipping.... that's honestly the cheapest panel you're going to get that will flower 6 plants.

Realistically, for a higher quality product that will provide more yield and better quality you're looking at $600-$1000 for 6-8 plants.

Beefbisquit said:

Nope.... The cheapest light that would be recommended for that many plants would probably be the Blackstar 500... (303W actual draw)....

It's about $550 + shipping.... that's honestly the cheapest panel you're going to get that will flower 6 plants.

Realistically, for a higher quality product that will provide more yield and better quality you're looking at $600-$1000 for 6-8 plants.

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Ok thanks I think I'm just gonna go with an HPS and maybe use future fundage on a LED

what do you guys think of the e.shine systems led? They use bridgestar or epilux chips and seem to be of good quality, does anyone have any experience with them?

Blackstar will do you fine

neohippy said:

what do you guys think of the e.shine systems led? They use bridgestar or epilux chips and seem to be of good quality, does anyone have any experience with them?

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E.Shine SAYS they use bridgestar or epilux.... the prices they charge for their panels say otherwise.

I thought the price was a little off for what they advertise, but you never know, it is China. I was hoping I could find someone somewhere who bought one and either liked it or didnt.

Get lights from cidly.com if you want value. Blackstars are overpriced imo

Whatevs.... LED colas.... plain old blackstar 240s + supersoil + calmag. Can't speak for old blackstars but my 2012s are fairly quiet (not silent), appear well built (as far as anything from china....) and this is what they put out.

Too bad blackstar LEDs can't put out good dense bud or grow big healthy plants... these were grown under < $1000 of LEDs (per chamber anyway had about $1500 worth of blackstars divided between two chambers)

I'll remember blackstars are shit and LEDs can't grow great bud as I'm smoking through my two TRAYS of mason jars filled with bud. The first pictured plant had almost 25% more colas it lost a main branch a couple weeks before harvest.

This quest for the ultimately tweaked LED is great, and I totally know where it's coming from -- at some point I will most likely upgrade to fancier lights (probably when my blackstars go out) -- but I question how much extra you are getting out of the lights that cost 2-3x the same amount as a blackstar per watt. I wouldn't go with UFOs... but my plan of spreading out multiple lower strength LEDs instead of 1 or 2 higher intensity ones I think worked out for me (as someone who needs to produce a pretty good quantity per harvest for personal use). These definitely outproduced my old 600w HPS from a few years back - course I wasn't using supersoil then either so hard to say which is more responsible.

nice plants sense, what size container are you using? supersoil rocks!! is it your own recipe or you followed subcool?

I am looking into re-using my soil eventually, ( I got one garbage bin composting with old soil and bokashi right now, should be ready at the end of the fall I believe gotta read some more to make sure ) if you are interested to go this route, check out bokashi composting, someone on RIU made a thread a while back that explains how to do it, subcool said to be careful with this method but since I prefer to grow in big container, I go through so much soil that it makes a lot of sense. This one guy that says how to claims his soil gets better over time.

Have you ever bleached a plant yet with the blackstar? I have but I wonder if it had to do more with nute block or something...


again, nice plants

Yes I started moving my lights up 1.5-2' above the plants in flower. Definitely saw bleaching 2nd half of flower when the lights were at 6-12" -- this appears to be strain/plant dependent as I've had other plants <6" from lights with no bleaching or maybe it's depending on what the plant can pull from the soil for nutritional resources. My G13xHP had no problem being close to the lights all the way to the end. My medicine man had a shitload of bleaching. One of my apollos had none or almost none, the other did have some on a couple colas...

I suggest that blackstar is your best choice ,because many people have experiences with their lights .So if many people think they are fine , then there is no doubt .Eshine led ???? They are shit .When i saw their lights , beautiful ,and after i purchased four ,within 3 monthes , 3 units have quaility problem .This is one of the problem lights

Nothing wrong with blackstars for the price you pay, replaced 430 hps with 430watt of blackstars and the switch is well worth it, Electricity is reduced, I can turn down inline centrifugal inlet and outlet fans, and the smoke seems much more potent to the 430watt hps grown bud (might be a better grower over the past year or 1 year difference between clone age). Dont have to use a air con to cool the room down when running these units and i can run them in a 50cm x 90cm x 180cm grow tent with no problems, but there is alot of bleaching if lights are kept close which is strain dependant as sensi mentioned.

Sensi mentions multiple units over 1 single larger unit which is the right choice, you will get more efficient light distribution and your over all yield would be increased, go with 3x240watts or 2x240 or 240w with a 500w. If your purchasing the 900 watt unit, go 2x500watt units.

Its really not worth paying thousands of dollars for a LED lamp when you can get a chinese knock OFF like BS which will almost perform the same for 1/3 of the cost.

Here are some close ups of a bag seed clones that i've been growing out for about 2 years now, tent is located in a room with carpet so there might be some dust strands in the pic (i know, i hate carpet), taken at day 46 on a 55 - 60 day strain

Peace to all and happy growing.