Microgreens Grow Help

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Seriousbuds

Active Member
Hey guys, my plan is to build a 3 shelf NFT system comprised of 12 shelves and 48 channels total. Each channel is 4ft long, and 4.625 inches wide.

I'm stuck on lighting options however, and I'm leaning towards the Vero 10 because I'm budget oriented on this build.

Can any of you LED masters give me some build suggestions, or how much lighting and which drivers I should get? (preferably kingbrite sourceable :D)

Alternatively, does anyone have any lighting and driver recommendations?

Thanks in advance!
 
OLD MOTHER SATIVA

OLD MOTHER SATIVA

Well-Known Member
we are working on micros greens and aquaponic greens

we have tested led bars, led panels, now testing led tubes, ..soon trying vero 18's nichi a130b...

everything you mentioned works...you just need to find what works best for you .your budget and how far away you want the lights..

there is nothing conclusive here yet..you either save dougn on cfheaper drivers / chips ..a mix of good and not as efficient..or go for gold..3590's on meanwell drivers

how you do it may have a lot toc do with hydro costs and [again] distance from the plants
 
S

Seriousbuds

Active Member
OLD MOTHER SATIVA said:
we are working on micros greens and aquaponic greens

we have tested led bars, led panels, now testing led tubes, ..soon trying vero 18's nichi a130b...

everything you mentioned works...you just need to find what works best for you .your budget and how far away you want the lights..

there is nothing conclusive here yet..you either save dougn on cfheaper drivers / chips ..a mix of good and not as efficient..or go for gold..3590's on meanwell drivers

how you do it may have a lot toc do with hydro costs and [again] distance from the plants
Click to expand...
Thankfully my dad is a handyman so we're saving a KILLING as opposed to just buying a prebuilt system (saving about $2500 when you factor shipping in)

so I'm willing to spend more on COBs but it depends... with a wide reflector how many Vero 10s or Cree 3590s do you think you'd need for adequate coverage of a 4' by 19" growing shelf?

I considered 3w LED stars but I figured I'd need 430+ 3w LEDs for the whole grow and it's just too much to spend on older tech, for me. Unless I'm totally off on how many LEDs you'd need to cover that area.

Wonder if anyone experimented with a wide angle lens for more even COB coverage with this
 
OLD MOTHER SATIVA

OLD MOTHER SATIVA

Well-Known Member
we took lenses off some of ours..it allows you to get closer

we are not using reflectors ..hence wide wide angle

one 3590 will grow herbage 1.5 x 1.5 ft..micro greens are less depanding..the vero's should be good

4 ft bar of three or four cobs will do..the height is important..too close and you burn em..

then there is how ahre you will drive them..just read a 1000 pages here and it willstadt to click[joke]

check out the cob lettice challenge
 
nevergoodenuf

nevergoodenuf

Well-Known Member
For greens the Redbird strip-it kits would work awesome. They come in 21" (22w) and 4' (44w) with dimmable drivers for about $2 a watt. I just through together a display for my friends store with 2 two footers. These would make great shelf lighting. You get a price break at 10 or 11, comes out to one free. That is 59,000 Lux @ 32 inches.IMG_20160613_190133493.jpg IMG_20160613_190108875.jpg IMG_20150821_233012_877.jpg
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
OLD MOTHER SATIVA said:
we took lenses off some of ours..it allows you to get closer

we are not using reflectors ..hence wide wide angle

one 3590 will grow herbage 1.5 x 1.5 ft..micro greens are less depanding..the vero's should be good

4 ft bar of three or four cobs will do..the height is important..too close and you burn em..

then there is how ahre you will drive them..just read a 1000 pages here and it willstadt to click[joke]

check out the cob lettice challenge
Click to expand...
There is probably something to be said for smaller cobs growing greens, something with some more spread. Vero 10s might be a false economy though.
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
Seriousbuds said:
Hey guys, my plan is to build a 3 shelf NFT system comprised of 12 shelves and 48 channels total. Each channel is 4ft long, and 4.625 inches wide.

I'm stuck on lighting options however, and I'm leaning towards the Vero 10 because I'm budget oriented on this build.

Can any of you LED masters give me some build suggestions, or how much lighting and which drivers I should get? (preferably kingbrite sourceable :D)

Alternatively, does anyone have any lighting and driver recommendations?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
So each shelf is 4ft long, and 4 channels wide, so about 7 sq ft with close spacing? And they'll be 12 of them?
 
S

Seriousbuds

Active Member
JorgeGonzales said:
So each shelf is 4ft long, and 4 channels wide, so about 7 sq ft with close spacing? And they'll be 12 of them?
Click to expand...
After re-evaluating my space and consulting with my girlfriend, she's okay'd a bigger setup :clap:. new plan is three shelves, each channel is 4ft long and my total allowable grow width is 30" wide

(I'm actually unsure what I'll end up getting for the width of channels, because I'm looking at chinese knockoff suppliers... NFT channels are expensive!! shipping is the real killer..)

So a total of 98 channels and 14 shelves to light. (the math is weird because I'm building one 6 levels high, and the others will only be 4 levels high.)

My current thought is buying LED strip lights like this http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5M-SMD5050-Grow-LED-Flexible-Strip-Tape-Light-4-Red-1-Blue-4-1-Aquarium-Greenhouse/32564130674.html

It would be the cheapest option by a long shot.... I just can't find anyone who's tried micros with strip lights, so i would be a guinea pig
 
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S

Seriousbuds

Active Member
nevergoodenuf said:
For greens the Redbird strip-it kits would work awesome. They come in 21" (22w) and 4' (44w) with dimmable drivers for about $2 a watt. I just through together a display for my friends store with 2 two footers. These would make great shelf lighting. You get a price break at 10 or 11, comes out to one free. That is 59,000 Lux @ 32 inches.View attachment 3707324 View attachment 3707326 View attachment 3707333
Click to expand...
@ $2/w it would cost about $1,232 to light the whole setup with a single lightbar down the middle..

every setup i see people using has about 2 or 3 of these modules on each shelf, so that would increase the cost to $2,464, both are too expensive for a non-COB build ya know?
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
Seriousbuds said:
@ $2/w it would cost about $1,232 to light the whole setup with a single lightbar down the middle..

every setup i see people using has about 2 or 3 of these modules on each shelf, so that would increase the cost to $2,464, both are too expensive for a non-COB build ya know?
Click to expand...
Vero 10s would cost even more at $4 a pop. You'd want 16 per shelf to hit right around 300 PPFD at 7 sq ft. So that's $1600 on a fairly crappy cob, breaking 40% efficiency if you are lucky, about 1300W. Plus drivers. Plus heatsinks.

The problem is, you are looking at a hefty amount of light if you aim for 300 PPFD, which seems to be optimal from a quick google, and no solution is going to be cheap, especially one that you can run at shelf height. You can't exactly have 10 cobs running at 120W.
 
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JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
Seriousbuds said:
After re-evaluating my space and consulting with my girlfriend, she's okay'd a bigger setup :clap:. new plan is three shelves, each channel is 4ft long and my total allowable grow width is 30" wide

(I'm actually unsure what I'll end up getting for the width of channels, because I'm looking at chinese knockoff suppliers... NFT channels are expensive!! shipping is the real killer..)

So a total of 98 channels and 14 shelves to light. (the math is weird because I'm building one 6 levels high, and the others will only be 4 levels high.)

My current thought is buying LED strip lights like this http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5M-SMD5050-Grow-LED-Flexible-Strip-Tape-Light-4-Red-1-Blue-4-1-Aquarium-Greenhouse/32564130674.html

It would be the cheapest option by a long shot.... I just can't find anyone who's tried micros with strip lights, so i would be a guinea pig
Click to expand...
You'd probably need 10 meters of that per shelf, but. Yuck. You'll hate looking at those, blurple is pretty gross.

I guess at the end of the day you need about 100W/shelf give or take. I'd use that to ballpark solutions.
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
Here is my idea. 4 of these per shelf: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/samsung-semiconductor-inc/SI-B8U221B20WW/1510-1414-ND/5992247

Tell me that isn't awesome. $40 a shelf, 144lm/W. One bar per channel. Easy peasy, just need to figure out drivers. This would probably work for a heatsink: http://www.heatsinkusa.com/2-079/ Ok...just did the math, a 4ft section of that is good to cool 28W of -heat-. You'll probably be around 12-14W, so overkill and stupid cheap.

Just need um, 224ft of it. So now we are at $650 and in need of drivers. And this is where somebody else should step in.
 
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OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
It is seeming like T5 is still killing led as far as cost.
Most every led solution I am running into will work and MAY? save some wattage but the upfront cost is huge!

We need to find a solution that will properly deliver 300ppfd to a 4x4 area for less than $500
 
JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
It is seeming like T5 is still killing led as far as cost.
Most every led solution I am running into will work and MAY? save some wattage but the upfront cost is huge!

We need to find a solution that will properly deliver 300ppfd to a 4x4 area for less than $500
Click to expand...
Look one post above yours? AND PREPARE TO BE AMAZED!!!1
 
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JorgeGonzales

JorgeGonzales

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
Nice find :bigjoint:
But your not gonna grow very nice lettuce under 3500K
How bout this one?
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=SI - B8R341 B2 0 WW
Gotta work out how to drive a whole bank with 1 driver
Click to expand...
I have no idea what lettuce needs, I didn't even look at the spectrum, it seemed to come in them all. Why does it grow so well under like 10:1 red to blue if it needs 5000k?

This is the same light, 5000K. Same price. About $150 per 4x4 with a 200W driver. Man, that's like $0.75/W. @Bill Lidgate might be on to something.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/samsung-semiconductor-inc/SI-B8R221B20WW/1510-1416-ND/5992249
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
JorgeGonzales said:
I have no idea what lettuce needs, I didn't even look at the spectrum, it seemed to come in them all. Why does it grow so well under like 10:1 red to blue if it needs 5000k?

This is the same light, 5000K. Same price. About $150 per 4x4 with a 200W driver. Man, that's like $0.75/W. @Bill Lidgate might be on to something.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/samsung-semiconductor-inc/SI-B8R221B20WW/1510-1416-ND/5992249
Click to expand...
Wiring that up are you looking for a constant current driver and wiring all the strips in parallel?
So add up the total voltage of the strips combined and pick the appropriate current?
 
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