LED household bulbs, distance from canopy and stunted growth

My question goes out mainly to those who have used household LED bulbs with soil. I'm using a quantity of 14 lamps, 8 of which are 2700oK, and 6 of them are 5000oK. I don't have a umol meter, so I'm working with lumens and making do. I crushed my first LED grow with too much light. I bleached several seedling to death. I have not done a scientific trial in which I grow several plants at varying heights. It's in the plans, but hasn't happened yet.

The big question re LEDs is How far away from the canopy to keep them? Of course there are 3 fundamental periods in the plants' lives; seedlings, vegging and flowering, and each has different light needs. I'm concentrating on the middle, vegging stage. I have these lights at 12" away. The plants look healthy, but they are very short and dense. The strain is Kaya Gold, a Sativa dom, and should grow to 'average' height per the seed bank. These plants do not look Sativa dom. The one on the left is 14" tall, but 26" in diameter. The little one is 11" tall and so dense you can't see through it. It's shaped like a mushroom, not a plant.

So, is 12" the correct distance? Are these plants genetically squat, or did the lights stunt them? Did the seed bank supply a strain other than the one described? It's hard to believe this is a Sativa dom, average height strain. These are both 9 weeks old from the day the seed was stuck in wet soil... that's how I germinate.


The reason they look different colors is only because the little girl has more warm light that Brun Hilda.

If you've grown with household LEDs, I want to hear about it. Thanks.

Hey Father R.....

1) Which household bulbs are you using? Can you post some photos of them

2) Do they have lenses?

3) Did you use 14 lamps from seed? Thats a lot of light for such a tender age..

4) These are 9 weeks from seed? What is your feeding regime?

Father Ramirez said:

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Ok....that LED mounted from the side is not going to cut it...basically it is made up of diodes with minimal power.....are you using these for the whole grow?

If you were to flower with them....they will be wispy, candyfloss buds....

Chronikool said:

Ok....that LED mounted from the side is not going to cut it...basically it is made up of diodes with minimal power.....are you using these for the whole grow?

If you were to flower with them....they will be wispy, candyfloss buds....

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Agreed, those are bullshit. That one bulb is going today. The other 14 are Kobi 1100 lumen, 15w bulbs. They come with a round cover which I remove and are F'ing bright. Last grow's buds were not wispy, but they weren't huge because I had nearly killed that grow with multiple stresses.

No, I did not over light the seedlings- they had a single light over all of them as they sprouted in solo cups. @ 2 weeks, I moved the best lookers to the big pots. My feeding regime is minimal because I start with 15 gals of the world's best soil. I only today began a 1/2 strength feeding using a 50/50 mix of Dyna-grow Foliage Pro and Bloom. I expect to flip to 12/12 in about a week or 2. Depends partly on how big they are, and partly on moon phase (I'm loosely bio-dynamic).

Here is a shot showing one bulb on and one off.

I think you have a bushy strain. They look happy to me. I can't answer on distance. I have some at 18" with my area 51 that look good. I have one (an extra) under a cheapo dual spectrum 50w at the same height and she has some bleaching. So I am thinking quality of the rays has an impact beyond "penetration".

Father Ramirez said:

Agreed, those are bullshit. That one bulb is going today. The other 14 are Kobi 1100 lumen, 15w bulbs. They come with a round cover which I remove and are F'ing bright. Last grow's buds were not wispy, but they weren't huge because I had nearly killed that grow with multiple stresses.

No, I did not over light the seedlings- they had a single light over all of them as they sprouted in solo cups. @ 2 weeks, I moved the best lookers to the big pots. My feeding regime is minimal because I start with 15 gals of the world's best soil. I only today began a 1/2 strength feeding using a 50/50 mix of Dyna-grow Foliage Pro and Bloom. I expect to flip to 12/12 in about a week or 2. Depends partly on how big they are, and partly on moon phase (I'm loosely bio-dynamic).

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In my experience these kobi bulbs produce good size dense buds. I have also killed my share of seedlings with them but once plants are in veg mode these lights cant get too close(except for heat). Its all about coverage in veg and flower.

massdestro said:

In my experience these kobi bulbs produce good size dense buds. I have also killed my share of seedlings with them but once plants are in veg mode these lights cant get too close(except for heat). Its all about coverage in veg and flower.

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That is excellent to hear, massdestro! Last grow I had them at 3" during flower, but this batch showed odd bleaching when they were 4-5" away for 2 days, so I went back to 12". Do you go close during veg with no stunting or bleaching?

How many bulbs you use in what size area?

Thanks a lot for chiming in!