Just got the my SolarStorm the other day and will put it up against the Sunblaze 4x8 (8)bulb T5.


The Test:
Plants are currenlty vegging in 1gallon bags for a month now. They should be transplanted to 5 gallons bags but my flower room wont be ready for at least a couple of weeks. So for the meantime I will test side by side SolarStorm vs. T5 for veg. All plants have been flushed prior to the test. When the flower room is ready I will move the SolarStorm and use as supplementary lighting to existing HPS. Stay tune.

11/10/11

Excellent setup! I am psyched to see how things go . .

Week 1

After 1 week of veg, both sides seems to produce new growth and filling up the canopy nicely. I do notice however that the new growth under the LED has started to curl. This could be the plant adjusting to new spectrums. Note that all plants were flushed prior to test to avoid salt or nutrient lockup. After a couple of weeks we will move the SolarStorm to the center of the flower room (pic below) and use as supplementary lighting. I am very excited to see if the UVB light in addition to the LED will produce better quality and yield.

Just a question but I thought you were doing a test against the sunblaze 4X8 T5 yet in your pic's it looks like your using HID lighting? No more updates?

AfganBerry wrote:Just a question but I thought you were doing a test against the sunblaze 4X8 T5 yet in your pic's it looks like your using HID lighting? No more updates?

The Sunblaze test was for veg. I find that I like to veg with Sunblaze better as my plants seems to be stressed by the LED. Leaves were curling and had a wilt to it. At first I thought it must be the adjustment period but weeks went by and it never got better. I also notice that plants under the Sunblaze grew taller and plants under the LED were shorter with shorter nodes. A friend who has used LED in the past says that was normal and that I am unable to grow big trees under LED.

I have since moved the LED to my flower room and using it as a supplemental lighting to my HIDs. Just finished the 2nd week of flower and you can clearly see that plants under LED are shorter. The flowers around the perimeter and further away from the LED seems to have stretched much more. Growers that have limited ceiling clearance should find the LED lighting more suitable. I utilize trellising so height is not an issue for me. I have not yet turned on the UVB option but plan to turn it on at week 6-8.

Feel free to post questions.