LED Grow Light Forum

rkymtnman wrote:hey rbt,

i didn't want to bust your chops earlier but you'd need lead shielding with 2 1k's in a 2x4 area.

SME, i didn't know that about a rectangular shape issue. i figured a square reflector would be good for sq areas (obvious) but a rectangular reflector would compensate for the different shape.

like a cool tube would seem to be better for a rect shape room.

but rbt, you need to decide what your end game is? i thought i read that you want to do just a few grows per year. i want to do the same thing. vacations, life etc gets in the way. when they are in flower, you need to commit to being around them for pretty much til they are done. so figure out how much you need in finished product per grow. if you do 2 grows a year for example and you smoke an 1oz per month, you need 6 oz per grow.

so start at the end and work your way backwards to figure out how what type of setup you need

RKKY

I think 250w/sqft HPS would be beyond the point of diminished returns.

Yes, to a degree, they *do* work in rectangular shaped areas but not so much when the length is 2 x depth. If you use a single light in too long of an area the end plants suffer since the light has farther to travel. Inverse square...blah blah blah.

I always suggest taking your estimated monthly need and doubling it for planning purposes. It's better to have an inventory and skip a grow than to not have enough meds to get you to the next harvest.

YMMV...

250w/sqft. warp speed, mr. sulu.

it would melt his floor to have that much.

but seriously, rbt, figure out what you want and this whole board will steer you in the right direction
RKY

Ok while other projects are moving along. I put this together from my last experiment. I think is probably the best combination for me now of this tent. My Wife scolded me for not post if other MS & Diabetes people are attempting then I owe them a look it need improvement but here it is. Plants are clones as suggested by SME 10 days old but only three leave and they stink already when you touch them. so those of you that followed what I did last time I would not suggest.

all the tubing you can get at the hydro shop blue tubing is stiff and the black is flexible 1/2 160gph water pump 2-1/2 gal reservoir last more than a week in veg. but here it is I wont be posting progress just and upgrade on the light setup. I hope it helped out someone

I don't know that you OWE them anything but she's right that it could help somebody.

SME, you saud this back i Oct 2013
"Technically, I'd say that a SF200w is too small for a 2x2 area, if you want top-shelf results, but I wouldn't add any fluorescent lights unless you were just trying to add UVB. I wouldn't even use a t8 for veg, let alone flower. It's up to you, of course...it's your grow."

And I just received the Flare 200W to grow my leafy greens. I had planned on a 4x4 area...and now I see this and go ...huh? Is this true for veggies> That the 200W will only cover a 2x2 area or is that for blooming?

Thx, Christopher

And also how do I get to the Flare Journals on this forum?

topherdig wrote:SME, you saud this back i Oct 2013
"Technically, I'd say that a SF200w is too small for a 2x2 area, if you want top-shelf results, but I wouldn't add any fluorescent lights unless you were just trying to add UVB. I wouldn't even use a t8 for veg, let alone flower. It's up to you, of course...it's your grow."

And I just received the Flare 200W to grow my leafy greens. I had planned on a 4x4 area...and now I see this and go ...huh? Is this true for veggies> That the 200W will only cover a 2x2 area or is that for blooming?

Thx, Christopher

And also how do I get to the Flare Journals on this forum?

Yes, that's for flower and for taller plants like tomatoes and cannabis. Lettuce and most other leafy greens are smaller and require less light so the SF will cover more area.

We don't have many SolarFlare journals, most people go for the bigger lights, check the CLW forum, the veggie forum or the grow journal forum...

This is my second grow in a tent. I started in September bought a 2'x2'x5.5' tent and a Solar Flare 200 Spectrum and built a simple flood system. I have since taken a different aspect on growing. However the main thought b behind this system is for the individual who, only has a 2' wide closet to grow in. Here I live in the Desert HOT electricity is at a premium. It is in that aspect that I will continue to try and tweak this it's easy not much to it.

Plants do not grow at or near full potential under any known mixture of monochromatic lighting. Its a fact that for cannabis to grow properly you want to supply spectra of red, blue, far-red, UV-A&B and yes, even Green, as well as the orangish area (whatever you wanna call around 600nm) and probably even more spectra. All that ish about "optimized spectra" of lighting is really BS, it is true that L.E.D.'s will activate more pure chlorophyll in a tube (in vitro experimentation to quantify "optimized spectra") per watt, but when it comes to growing big PLANTS (with chloroplasts, ancillary photosynthetic pigments, and an ability to change spectra of absorption) with lots of desirable PHYTOCHEMICALS to be produced , its a whole different story. Also cannabis Pn (photosynthesis) improves as PPFD increases, all the way up to 1500PPFD, so you want to get as close to that as you can. L.E.D.s have issues reaching ANY the above parameters at anywhere near the cost or m^3 coverage as H.I.D's.

L.E.D.s do have use if growing for personal needs only (growing small amounts, and small colas) and living in an area where electricity is costly, making the savings in electricity worth the extra initial $. They also are useful in areas where heat is a real issue, but a 400w hps in a cool tube is pretty dang cool and much cheaper and better when it comes to growth. The one area where i think L.E.D.s have real benefit in the future is for SUPPLEMENTAL lighting (for HPS and CFLs especially), however to my knowledge there is no high efficiency blue or UV l.e.d.s of any sort that get close to similar PPF/w as H.I.D. lighting made currently.

When it comes to lighting, for >95% of all growing applications you want to grow with H.I.D, for those that live in areas where its hot as hell and electricity is a MoFo, then maybe you might want to look at a L.E.D. & C.F.L. combination. So far, as lighting technology stands r.e. horticultural applications, its still H.I.D. FTW, however L.E.D. technology is progressing much faster than H.I.D. lighting AFAIK, so in 5 years it may be a different story.

Here is the progress 23 days from clone, 2 Blue moonshine "ducks foot" 1 chocolope 6 days from clone.

The Yellow emitters are .5 gal/hr, Black are 1 gal/hr, blue are 2 gal/hr I am using 1/2 vinyl tubing with a 160 gal/hr pump lifting 30" to head.
I like these emitters one "TOOL PUNCHED" in they unscrew can be changed and are self equalizing on pressure to get even flow
emitter output
blue 1cup=3minutes
black 1cup=5.5 minutes
yellow 1cup=10 minutes

the Lights are 2 60 watt CFL's growlights and 2 13watt uvb reptile 200, and the SF full Spectrum

(I'm going to split this one to the CLW forum since it's a new grow. )

The one area where i think L.E.D.s have real benefit in the future is for SUPPLEMENTAL lighting (for HPS and CFLs especially), however to my knowledge there is no high efficiency blue or UV l.e.d.s of any sort that get close to similar PPF/w as H.I.D. lighting made currently.

When it comes to lighting, for >95% of all growing applications you want to grow with H.I.D, for those that live in areas where its hot as hell and electricity is a MoFo, then maybe you might want to look at a L.E.D. & C.F.L. combination. So far, as lighting technology stands r.e. horticultural applications, its still H.I.D. FTW, however L.E.D. technology is progressing much faster than H.I.D. lighting AFAIK, so in 5 years it may be a different story.

While they DO make UV diodes they're not very cost efficient which is why CLW uses fluorescent for UV and thats one of the few uses that make sense. I agree to an extent, LED would make good supplemental lighting but do yourself a favor and skip the CFLs for veg and flower like we skip incandescents.

People have grown with HID in hot climates for decades, you just have to remove the heat and LED only saves electricity if you use less watts which also means less yield so it's like a placebo. 600w+ is 600w+ and LED and and air-cooled HID aren't much different, heat wise. LED is a lot cooler than an UN-cooled HID but few people run them without cooling so, again, heat wise, it's nearly a draw. I think you are right that LED might be more appropriate for micro grows but that's a pretty small percentage of grows. I'd never recommend using fluorescents/CFLs for veg or flower except maybe for UVB. I think it's a disservice to recommend CFLs for veg/flower when they could have much better results by simply designing their grow area right. Remember that the cost of cannabis is high enough that you can build a better grow area and get a ROI quickly with what you save by not paying street/dispensary prices. When you skimp on lighting and other important factors, your product suffers either in quality or quantity...or both.

Once we see 10+w diodes LED might be able to take on HID but how long that will be is unknown. Maybe less than 5 years. However, with more powerful diodes will come more heat and LED is already warmer than the manufactures claim when you get to the more powerful lights. *shrug*

SME thanks for the comments I disagree MHO with the CFL's in a Micro grow and just how to exhaust ones heat is their endeavor. HID HOT no doubt about it. I guess you want me to post in a new grow forum ? I wasn't really going to show all the progress just trying to give some insight into a possible way of doing a grow with a SF. I came to the forum for LED light reviews and I will stay in those parameters with a MICRO grow which really what a SF is only good for. I don't plan on implementing LED on anything else. This is my opinion like so many out their. I will test the final grow and weight but not the bimonthly updates. Thanks for commenting rbt