LED or HPS

SmokeyMcSmokester said:

you must have no idea what youre talking about..ive grown with these lights before, and sold to socal dispensaries with the final product, was compensated enough to fund 3 grows of the same style...you should really refrain from talking about things you obviously know nothing about. it makes you sound young and silly.

but go ahead and follow my thread..ive started one on this grow to shut all the haters up an make them believers...i was sick of hearing all the noobs on riu talk about LEDs, because they nothing about them.

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homebrewer said:

LEDs suck. You never see bumper crops from LEDs because they simply don't have the power to flower. They may be ok for veg, but even then, I'd go MH.

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Brick Top said:

LEDs do not suck and you can get harvests that would make any grower envious IF you purchase high quality LEDs and IF you purchase them in sufficient quantities and IF you know how to use them.

Some years back on growing site similar to this that is now defunct I followed an all LED grow thread from grow room construction to first toke of cured bud and I have never been more amazed or impressed by a grow thread.

The guy came into a rather large sum of money and scrapped his old HID lighting and went all LED. He researched the manufacturers for the LEDs that NASA and various research growing facilities use and he purchased the very best of the best.

He had two large panels hanging above, their sizes I am unable to remember. He had a number of LEDs that were like light bars or light strips. He built what I call portable posts, 4 X 4’s cut so they could be stacked/added to for height, with a square plywood bottom for support. He built a ring of the portable posts with LEDs on one side and placed them in a ring around his plants. He put four light bars/strips, one on each side, of other portable posts and placed them between his plants. (once the top lighting was raised high enough to add the portable posts underneath the top light panels.) When his top lighting was raised high enough he then added a second piece of 4 X 4 with LEDs on top of all the previously existing posts making them twice as tall and with twice the lighting.

The results were the thickest most lush plants I have ever seen in a grow thread. They were covered from top to bottom with big thick dense heavy ice covered buds. The colas were massive and the lowest very most bottom buds were as large or larger than I normally see on the upper quarter of plants that other people boast and brag about being whopper buds.

Most people who purchase LEDs cannot afford the best and they cannot afford enough of them and they do not know how to use them properly to get the most from them. Because of that most who try LEDs are let down and then they write messages saying LEDs stink and others who never tried LEDs read them and parrot that LEDs stink when there is NOTHING at all lacking in LEDs. What is lacking about LEDs is actually in most people’s budgets and knowledge.

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Brick Top said:

LEDs do not suck and you can get harvests that would make any grower envious IF you purchase high quality LEDs and IF you purchase them in sufficient quantities and IF you know how to use them.

Some years back on growing site similar to this that is now defunct I followed an all LED grow thread from grow room construction to first toke of cured bud and I have never been more amazed or impressed by a grow thread.

The guy came into a rather large sum of money and scrapped his old HID lighting and went all LED. He researched the manufacturers for the LEDs that NASA and various research growing facilities use and he purchased the very best of the best.

He had two large panels hanging above, their sizes I am unable to remember. He had a number of LEDs that were like light bars or light strips. He built what I call portable posts, 4 X 4’s cut so they could be stacked/added to for height, with a square plywood bottom for support. He built a ring of the portable posts with LEDs on one side and placed them in a ring around his plants. He put four light bars/strips, one on each side, of other portable posts and placed them between his plants. (once the top lighting was raised high enough to add the portable posts underneath the top light panels.) When his top lighting was raised high enough he then added a second piece of 4 X 4 with LEDs on top of all the previously existing posts making them twice as tall and with twice the lighting.

The results were the thickest most lush plants I have ever seen in a grow thread. They were covered from top to bottom with big thick dense heavy ice covered buds. The colas were massive and the lowest very most bottom buds were as large or larger than I normally see on the upper quarter of plants that other people boast and brag about being whopper buds.

Most people who purchase LEDs cannot afford the best and they cannot afford enough of them and they do not know how to use them properly to get the most from them. Because of that most who try LEDs are let down and then they write messages saying LEDs stink and others who never tried LEDs read them and parrot that LEDs stink when there is NOTHING at all lacking in LEDs. What is lacking about LEDs is actually in most people’s budgets and knowledge.

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homebrewer said:

While I'm not questioning your story, I'd want to see pictures and the numbers behind the grow. As you mentioned, those are both probably long gone so I'm subscribed to smokster's thread to see how he does. I have no doubts that LED at some point in the future will be a viable option, however, I have NEVER seen a bumper crop with LEDs. Even if I ever see a great crop, HIDs set the benchmark incredibly high given their price, yield potential, and final quality.

Another thing that begs the question is; if you claim they're sooo good, why don't any commercial operations use them? I have many high quality local hydro stores around me and they all carry or have carried these LED lights. These shops not only can't sell them but they don't use them either, nor do they suggest even buying them given the other options available.

I'm looking forward to eating my words, but until the day where I see an LED setup out perform a comparable HID system in both quantity and quality, I stick by the statement that LEDs suck.

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homebrewer said:

While I'm not questioning your story, I'd want to see pictures and the numbers behind the grow. As you mentioned, those are both probably long gone so I'm subscribed to smokster's thread to see how he does. I have no doubts that LED at some point in the future will be a viable option, however, I have NEVER seen a bumper crop with LEDs. Even if I ever see a great crop, HIDs set the benchmark incredibly high given their price, yield potential, and final quality.

Another thing that begs the question is; if you claim they're sooo good, why don't any commercial operations use them? I have many high quality local hydro stores around me and they all carry or have carried these LED lights. These shops not only can't sell them but they don't use them either, nor do they suggest even buying them given the other options available.

I'm looking forward to eating my words, but until the day where I see an LED setup out perform a comparable HID system in both quantity and quality, I stick by the statement that LEDs suck.

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nailz92002 said:

I have some insight into this whole HID vs LED lighting.

This is a direct quote from Jorge Cervantes book Marijuana Grow Basics. Mr. Cervantes is a life long Cannibus Aficionado. He is credited with starting the indoor growing phenomena with HID lighting back in the early 1980s. He did this to escape detection and control the growing environment.

" LED (Light-emitting diode) lamps could be the future of indoor plant lighting. These inherently efficient lamps use solid state lighting to illuminate, rather than filaments used by incandecscent and tungsten halogen bulbs, or gas which is used in HID, fluorescent, and compact fluorescent bulbs. LED lamps consume a fraction of the electricity of HID and fluorescent/CFL lamps and generate very little heat. LED light output continues to increase with improved materials and technnological advances while maintaining efficiency and reliability associated with solid state equipment. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY OLD LED LAMPS THAT ARE NOT AS BRIGHT AS NEW MODELS. Do not purchase LED lamps with a rating lower that 1(one) watt per bulb.
Growing clones, seedlings, and vegetative plants with LED lamps. FLOWERING plants develop smaller, less-dense buds under LEDs."

So with that being said, if money isn't an obstacle then by all means buy that 3000.00 LED Light panel. But if you are like the rest of us and strapped for cash....under 300 dollars can get you a 600watt HPS bulb , reflector, and digital ballast. Ya you might have to pay for higher electricity bills, and have to deal with a heat issue but you wont have to put down alot of money for a investment. If you have done your homework and decided to go with LEDS, congrats I hope your grows are awesome I really mean that. But dont expect amazing grows. The technology is there for LEDs to be amazing but the going price for these LED light panels are just out of my reach. I have a buddy that has these and he gets amazing results with LEDs but im not ready to put out that much cash just for a medical grow that supplies only myself. Just not an wise economical choice for me.

I hope this helped.

Peace and positive energy to you.

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Brick Top said:

There is even more LED technology out there that has not hit the marketplace because of cost. While following the all LED grow thread I mentioned above I researched LED lights, in general, not just grow lighting. A scientist that was either at Los Alamos or Lawrence Livermore had created an LED light that was roughly the same size as a standard handheld mirror like women will stare into for hours looking at the backs of their heads and it put out more like than a VERY large spotlight. I do not recall the statistics on it but it was absolutely amazing. It also cost about as much as the yearly budget of a half-vibrant third world nation to invent and make so unless something happens that greatly reduces costs or some new cheaper but equal to the task technology is found it will either be a long time before we see LEDs with that much power or we may never see them, at least not in uses for the public.

The point is the best LEDs are way more than just up to the job. The best LEDs, if used in adequate numbers and used correctly, will shame any other type of grow lighting. If one day the LED technology that has not yet been used by anyone due to cost drops in price every HID lighting manufacturer will either have to switch to making similar LEDs or make something totally different or close down because if the price would be right no one would ever again purchase HID lighting … and CFLs would only be sold to those who like now cannot afford any type of quality lighting.

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moosehorse said:

ok lets make sence this time, lol.

im using 3 x 600 watt triband leds. Thats 1800 led. its atleast 3600 ~ to HPS.

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homebrewer said:

May I ask what you harvest (dry weight) given that setup?

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