LED lights with pics

[max11max]

I have been following a friends grow who spent over £2,000 on led lights. I was shocked when I saw the size of the plants and the room he has them growing in does not look that bright.

He purchased his from http://www.ledgrowlights.com/

Unfortunatley he won't let me take any pics so I can't post anything.

Looking at what he has and the LED's in this thread I'm wondering if you have enough of them.


Good luck and hope the op goes OK and you get back on ur feet pronto.

Max.

[Sad Old Hippie]

Hi, I just had a look around the internet for LED growlights. Lots of advantages to using them apart from the cost Give it a year they will be availible on E Bay

[SmknVTEC]

I just spoke to my buddy. He said the small light pictured gives 30 watts total with both red and blue turned on and the bigger light gives 80 watts total. Not a lot according to the numbers but LED's are different than CFL's & HID's.

Originally Posted by CronicSmoker

Seems like it was built to be more complicated then it really is... You said the lights are what make it cost so much money? HOw much them lights cost per bolb?

Thanks guys,
Cronic, my buddy said the lights are about $6.80 per bulb.

Originally Posted by KamelRedLight

Those must be some powerful LED's if you only need 40 of em to equal a 400w HPS.

That might not be a good comparison. You really can't compare the two; they are just two different. The similarity is that the 400 watt HPS will do about 6 plants and so will the two LED lights I have pictured.

Originally Posted by max11max

He purchased his from http://www.ledgrowlights.com/
Looking at what he has and the LED's in this thread I'm wondering if you have enough of them.
Good luck and hope the op goes OK and you get back on ur feet pronto.
Max.

Max, the lights that you gave there on your link while have many more lights than our LED system, they are the fraction of the brightness and therefore far inferior to the lights we have. According to my buddy who has seen his design next to your links' design, those lights are the old school lights and are out dated compared to our lights. Oh and thanks for the well wishes.

Originally Posted by Sad Old Hippie

Hi, I just had a look around the internet for LED growlights. Lots of advantages to using them apart from the cost Give it a year they will be availible on E Bay

Sad old, my friend plans to get them up on Ebay as soon as the patent goes through (no word on when that might be).

Anyway, this light will be different than what I am used to. My friend says the lights cause the plant to grow huge fan leaves and the plant does not get all that tall but it gives one central, large bud site instead of multiple branched sites and grows the plants short and bushy. Also, according to my friend plants grown under the LED's don't need to be grown weith a fan and the stems still get nice and thick. We will have to see. I will get a couple of seedlings going under them here in a few days. Then after I am back, I will do the clone experiment side by side.

[SmknVTEC]

Hi Folks,
As promised a grow solely under the LED lights. This is not the side by side comparo I plan to do in the future because I want to do that from clones but, this is a grow from seeds. Here are the details:

Soil: Generic no name Professional Potting soil (no nutes).
Lights: See above pictures
Strain: Chronic- 50% Sativa 50% Indica
Fan: NO FAN
Fertilizer: Hydroponic/Soil/Soil-Less (chemical) Veg 20-6-16, Flower 9-30-12
Temp: 22- 23 degrees C or 72-74 degrees F both Day & Night
Pots: 8 inch, 3 Gallon
LST: None
Topping: Maybe
FIM: none

As you noticed for these seedlings I will not be using any fan at all. The reason for this is my associate claims the advantage of his lights over HID lights is growing does not have to be a “big production” with his lights. Stems, stalks and leaves on his plants get thick and strong from the light alone. We will see about that.

Unfortunately, I only have room to get 2 plants under them for now so hopefully if I get one female I can dedicate that to a cloning mother and get a few clones under there, and we can then quickly switch to the 400 watt HPS by LED grow to the finish. So, unless these two are both female I probably won’t go all the way through just yet. But, for a veg comparo, I think it will give us a good idea of the potential of the lights.

Please feel free to ask questions and please leave plenty of comments.

[SmknVTEC]

One more cool shot with the blue LED's on only (the way they will be kept for veg).

[DierWolf]

Looks good, but you sure you have enough LED's? will be interesting to watch.

[senior_ganj]

Smkn, as little as I've heard about LED growing, i'm very interesting. Keep this thing updated as I'm pulling up a chair.

Cause you have no fan, I'm assuming the LED's put off nearly no heat whatsoever. right? Good luck with the grow and keep me posted as I know nothing about LED growing. I'm always up for a little learning.

[reasoner22]

someone in another site is experimenting w/ blue holiday lights+fluoros. seems like a good idea

[gravity]

I'm not an expert on this, but I think that using just blue lights wouldn't be good for the plant. I think that it will be better if you put in a few redlights for the vegetative stage.

[GodsGardener]

wow very interested in seeing how this turns out, as well as very heavily considering converting to LED lights, as a test to see how an entire room takes to the lighting vs. the one plant. innovative guys, real slick.
K+

[SmknVTEC]

Originally Posted by DierWolf

Looks good, but you sure you have enough LED's? will be interesting to watch.

Probably not. We will most likely need to add more based on how they are growing so far.

Originally Posted by senior_ganj

Smkn, as little as I've heard about LED growing, i'm very interesting. Keep this thing updated as I'm pulling up a chair.
Cause you have no fan, I'm assuming the LED's put off nearly no heat whatsoever. right? Good luck with the grow and keep me posted as I know nothing about LED growing. I'm always up for a little learning.

Hi Senior welcome.
The lights put off less heat than a 23 watt CFL I would say. The ballast puts out very little heat as well. The room has stayed a constant 72-74 degrees.

Originally Posted by gravity

I'm not an expert on this, but I think that using just blue lights wouldn't be good for the plant. I think that it will be better if you put in a few redlights for the vegetative stage.

There is one green light amongst the blue ones. I will probably turn on the reds this week or next to see if there is a difference.

I will take pics of them tomorrow. So far they are of no comparison to a 400 watt HPS for example and seem to be growing slower. Maybe that's just because I am used to growing from clones.

[KamelRedLight]

In the beginning I was actually looking into getting some LED's similar to those and making my own fixture. They were pretty high powered ones, I'll definitely be one of your buddy's first customers if all works out. The solar oasis bar I have probly won't do a plant well by itself, and I'd like to be running mostly LED in my garden some day. I agree with gravity about turning the red ones on too though. Really glad to see this grow, I'd +rep you but it wont let me yet.

Question: Is there really a ballast? Or is it just like a transformer or something because I was under the impression that LED's don't need a ballast.

[urgr8estfear]

Originally Posted by KamelRedLight

In the beginning I was actually looking into getting some LED's similar to those and making my own fixture. They were pretty high powered ones, I'll definitely be one of your buddy's first customers if all works out. The solar oasis bar I have probly won't do a plant well by itself, and I'd like to be running mostly LED in my garden some day. I agree with gravity about turning the red ones on too though. Really glad to see this grow, I'd +rep you but it wont let me yet.

Question: Is there really a ballast? Or is it just like a transformer or something because I was under the impression that LED's don't need a ballast.

That's OK. You may +rep me first.

SmknVTEC how many Watts of power do those blue led arrays of yours consume?
I know LEDs have a better efficiency W/lumen but I want to see how many Watts it actually takes.
Also, do you know of any CHEAP LED suppliers?
Most I see here in the Netherworld are XXXXX-tremely XXXXX-pensive.

[SmknVTEC]

Originally Posted by SmknVTEC

I will probably turn on the reds this week or next to see if there is a difference.

Actually folks my friend said under no circumstances should I turn on the reds. The red at this stage will cause it to stretch too much and the stems will droop and the plant will fall.

Originally Posted by KamelRedLight

Question: Is there really a ballast? Or is it just like a transformer or something because I was under the impression that LED's don't need a ballast.

It a "power supply".

Originally Posted by urgr8estfear

SmknVTEC how many Watts of power do those blue led arrays of yours consume?
I know LEDs have a better efficiency W/lumen but I want to see how many Watts it actually takes.
Also, do you know of any CHEAP LED suppliers?
Most I see here in the Netherworld are XXXXX-tremely XXXXX-pensive.

The big light hanging over the plants gives off just 40 watts in the blue spectrum (blue bulbs turned on only).
Sorry, I know of no cheap LED suppliers.

Here are todays pictures. They are now about 2-3 inches away from the bulbs and are 7 days old since poking through the soil. There is no question in my mind now if LED will grow weed. The leaves look nice, green and normal. The plants are about 3 inches tall and look only a little stretched out probably due to the light being 4-5 inches away but now they are fine. Let me know what you think.

[senior_ganj]

the little buggers look a little stretched. How does the growth rate compare to your other grows?