LED Grow Light Forum

Hi everybody,
Quite new here, not only being "fresh" with this LED. Great to have a specified forum dedicated to LED GROWING.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
The first HID light I bought was my 400w MH? Three decades ago. Next I purchased a 1000w MH. A natural progression, like internodes... Always used those handy phosphor coated bulbs as they were great for VEG and FLOWER alike.

Jumping forward three decades, to the present, I just recently acquired my CLW SolarStorm 880 a couple of weeks ago.
Also Had to buy some Method Seven Operator LED glasses, just to work around this SS 880, as it's so glaring.

Enjoying reading the thoughtful threads and learning more about this brightly lit new avenue, thanks to the awesome interesting successful journals from several of you converts. It's only a slightly different lighting world.

Some very nice folks here, who enjoy sharing and learning from others, whose vast experiences dwarf my humble thirty years.
So if learning is yearning, I beg to be taught and still having so much fun, doing it.

Please do Have yourself a long sweet toke on me. or however you may toast this beautiful fall day.

Wishing you all a very pleasant afternoon, tending your plump aromatic "tomatoes". Hahaha, Ahhhhh, the sweetness!!

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker wrote:Hi everybody,
Quite new here, not only being "fresh" with this LED. Great to have a specified forum dedicated to LED GROWING.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
The first HID light I bought was my 400w MH? Three decades ago. Next I purchased a 1000w MH. A natural progression, like internodes... Always used those handy phosphor coated bulbs as they were great for VEG and FLOWER alike.

Jumping forward three decades, to the present, I just recently acquired my CLW SolarStorm 880 a couple of weeks ago.
Also Had to buy some Method Seven Operator LED glasses, just to work around this SS 880, as it's so glaring.

Enjoying reading the thoughtful threads and learning more about this brightly lit new avenue, thanks to the awesome interesting successful journals from several of you converts. It's only a slightly different lighting world.

Some very nice folks here, who enjoy sharing and learning from others, whose vast experiences dwarf my humble thirty years.
So if learning is yearning, I beg to be taught and still having so much fun, doing it.

Please do Have yourself a long sweet toke on me. or however you may toast this beautiful fall day.

Wishing you all a very pleasant afternoon, tending your plump aromatic "tomatoes". Hahaha, Ahhhhh, the sweetness!!

RedHotPoker

Hey there! I'm not sure how I missed this, but it's good to have you here. The Solar Storm is really impressive, isn't it? I loved mine for the time that I had it, alas I went back to HPS. In the end I just couldn't justify it to myself financially, but I have seen and respect so many people's finished crop under that light.

I'd really be interested in seeing what you do with it! Do you plan on doing a grow journal here?

How're the method 7s treating you? You should take a picture from behind them to see if it turns out well enough to show us how they affect your vision with them on.

Have a great day, and happy growing
MC

Welcome to the forums!

Hey hey hey,
Peace and Love my forum brothers.(Sister)

SME,
You really are, planning on packing up your desk & leaving us way too soon?
That was quite quick. Well, here's to wishing you a swell run, in your next big green adventure. Happy 2015~Infinity...

Posting a journal, sharing techniques, pics, with a view while staring through the green looking glass... In an Alices Winter Wonderland no less. Yes, these Method Seven Operator LED glasses are great. Love that they have been designed specifically for us.
I understand why some may desire to stick with the tried and thus true HID lamps. They work well for the price. But the power consumption heat generated and the ever changing of the bulbs... I just need a good change for awhile. These lights are very heavyy though, so hanging them takes different considerations.

Not sure about an indepth journal per say, though I will Definately be sharing some hd pics and brilliant quips about this LED panel along the way.
After thirty plus years of paying my dues in this rich field, much of it has become so very second nature in my mind. I could run a small operation in my sleep. Read so many books of which are in my own personal library, and watched so many awesome and incredible vids, that I have literally already forgotten more about this hobby, than many will ever garner in a short lifetime. I have kept a journal since 1990. That small book is nearly compete. Shall I publish it, online perhaps, for my trusted friends to decipher. Hahaha, it's all in plain English, with subtitles and all. We shall see.
I have some "small" seedling plants that are presently recuperating from being transplanted from pro mix soil to presoaked Grodan Rockwool cubes. (4") When they perk up some, I will share some pics. I am still figuring out which ones I want to keep and the rest will be given to a friend.

I know many of these green grow forums have a ten count limit. I am well above that # still. So, There are a few that look better than the rest, but with no sexual differentiation yet. So there is still some time to wait for those tell tale signs to appear. I wanted to start several different strains and grow them out, all while under this CLW SolarStorm 880. Just to see if some preferred and performed better under this extreme light panel than others. So far, they are all doing about the same. Unfortunately, several of these were staggered, and that offset has some a few weeks younger than others, so it has been difficult to keep this light at the correct and proper height for all of the plants involved. I had some seeds that were stubborn to open, and even though they were soaked before germination, they didn't pop, and I figured they were duds, and so, I went ahead and planted some others, with a few more stubborn seeds here as well. Then to my amazement and happy surprise, I suddenly had nearly 100% germination rate, and had seeds popping up out of the dirt days and even a full week later that their sisters, planted on the same day. Weird, I never had that happen before. But I never discount the potential that every mature viable seed may inherit. Why they sat dormant for nearly two weeks from first wetting until they finally poked through the soil is something only Mother Nature and the all knowing Lord out there, might answer.
Anyway, I must have had it hanging a bit too low in the beginings, and that generated the energy that got to them. But too, as I have already found a couple of burnt leaves, and the older more mature ones have very compact growth with very little internpodal stretching between progressive leaf sets. Much more like small bushy hedges than elongated graceful plants, so I know the light should have been moved higher, sooner. Anyway, this SolarStorm is a beast of a light. It has simply outperformed way above my high expectations. What more could I expect after spending this kind of money for one light panel. At first I thought to myself, that I had made a huge spending mistake, and that I might have spent the money in better places, but after this initial change over time, & I'm still getting over the shock of this awesome new direction in my green hobby. I feel confident that this will be the beginning of a great partnership, and new friendships here and a couple other places and
I feel very good about it all. Costly or not.

Eh, Thanks for the welcome, belated or not, still feels good to get some love.

RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker wrote:Hey hey hey,
Peace and Love my forum brothers.(Sister)

SME,
You really are, planning on packing up your desk & leaving us way too soon?
That was quite quick. Well, here's to wishing you a swell run, in your next big green adventure. Happy 2015~Infinity...

I understand why some may desire to stick with the tried and thus true HID lamps. They work well for the price. But the power consumption heat generated and the ever changing of the bulbs... I just need a good change for awhile.

Yeah, about 6 weeks...I've been here, almost every day, for over 3 years; I'm just doing it somewhere else for a while. I'm not hard to find.

I think you'll find that you still have to deal with heat and with less power consumption comes less yield. Changing bulbs to maximize output is a minor maintenance task like repotting in soil or cleaning a reservoir between cycles, at least HID bulbs can be changed. LED diodes lose power over time too but you can't swap in new ones as easily. I have an LED light that I'll be testing (hopefully soon) but as I've always said: there are pros and cons to virtually every growing decision we make. The decision to flower with LED (so far) instead of a similarly sized HID has, so far, meant less yield and density which are some of the measures of quality.

Looking forward to seeing pictures!

Heat has never been an issue for me, my resovoir is always cool enough, so it's able to keep the nutrients in my root trays, 10* below the room temp at canopy. Ah, besides, I have plenty of space, a whole room, which is 3meters x 3meters. I can also open a window if necessary.
I know this first LED trial will tell me much, particularly about some specific strains. That's why I have five different blood lines. Yeah and so I Too look forward to seeing the final result. Since it May very well be less, I can always turn on the 400w, perhaps next time. Or even the 1000w run them side by. Last Two weeks. 10/14hrs dark.

RedHotPoker

The method 7 glasses are awesome! I got a pair about 2 months back. I highly recommend them to anyone to use when working under LEDs. Also if you want you can take pics very nicely with a camera behind them. All the pics on my grow journal are taken behind my M7 glasses.

Yes, the M7 Operator LED glasses are great. It makes the room much more inviting, while wearing them, like well, a Rock Star...

I am still quite amazed by the bright rays of this powerful LED Panel. Considering how small the tiny LED's are.

All my plants are doing well, under this panel, even the three small late bloomers.
Those three unfortunately, will have to be sacrificed, as gifted plants to a friend. They just will not have enough time, in the following three weeks, to catch up enough, in height.
I still have not placed this LED, in a permanent position. As I haven't decided yet, how I want the room set up this go around. Still experimenting, to get the best footprint for my root trays.

Also trying to save up enough money for the new DI-1000 - THE MINI - from http://www.biowaveindustries.com/products.htm
That's going to be another G note, down the drain... Hehehe, but if it performs the right tune, hey!!

RedHotPoker

Let's not promote these kind of questionable devices...

"Biowave machines emit subsonic harmonic waves that resonate with plant frequencies and cause the Stomata to dilate."
Reminds me of the silly pyramid power/crystal power/insert-other-scams-here crap of the 60s-70s. Don't waste your money.

It's easy to have doubts about things we know nothing about. That's a given, but hey, hold on a minute. This concept has already been around and proven, for a couple years in the USA. But it's new for us in Canada, so let us, have our fun, for awhile before condemning it, ok.

And by the way, it's Not a questionable device at all. One university has already done extensive tests of them.
I have a friend in the industry/business here, who has one Mini unit, already ordered, it should have been here today or tomorrow.
Was In customs...
He has a trusty, educated cohort, whom will be giving it a serious two month cannabis test trial. So it's going to be awesome, getting the truth from a first hand source. Someone I know, a trusted confidante and friend.

Like I said earlier today, I would buy one on the cool factor alone. but I am a gadget Oriented sort of guy.

Not going to debate this, as neither of us has one, to draw experienced knowledge from. None. Hahaha
Check back here in two months from now, and I shall share the learned wisdom... & Of this SolarStorm 880 experience too.

RedHotPoker