Well I'm relatively new to growing and I certainly didn't do anything fancy for this journal, but I am pleased with both the amount and quality that I got from this harvest (~7 ounces of medicine that's more effective than most of the stuff available from the dispensaries in my state). And I'm fairly positive that I can do even better with the next grow. I already have a new crop of Blue Dream that I'm scrogging out... which means I'm definitely keeping the light. I guess I went into this having pretty low expectations for LED's but that has since changed. So far I'm happy with the Solarstorm, and being that heat, space/ venting, and power efficiency are a factor for me, I think I'll stick with LED for a while to really see what it can do.
Anyway, the main purpose for this journal was to see the results of a grow using only LED light from start to finish (with the exception of T5's for the first two weeks as clones). I know I didn't keep up with this journal as well as I should have but I hope this still gives other medical cannabis patients out there a little bit of an idea how this light performs... especially for those who need a good alternative to HID lighting like myself and have a small legal plant limit.
My final thoughts:
1.HPS still out performs in terms of flowering, but the Solarstorm does amazingly well in vegging and really decent in flowering. Honestly, I was impressed with what I saw growing! Such frosty trichomes!
2. Plants definitely need to be kept on the smaller side due to penetration issues with LED light (or at least with the 400 watt, maybe SS 800w is better?)
3. Doing some type of Sog or Scrog grow to get a flat and even canopy would be a good idea!
4. I harvested in phases over 2 weeks, letting the lower branches get just a wee bit more light and then harvesting those later on (again, back to the penetration thing). This worked fine for me and my small personal grow, but I can see how this might not be ideal for some where volume or time is an issue.
Bottom line is this light is efficient, puts out some heat but significantly less than HPS, works well in small spaces, excellent and vegging, and produces some potent medicine.
Cheers!