Hey Blades Thought Id get on posting my experiences with LEDs as I know there are a lot of mixed reports out there. I went for the lighthouse 90watt 6 band (1 watt bulbs). I thought I'd spend a little more, as I'm a firm believer in 'buy once, cry once...' Now I'm not the most experienced grower, but Id seen some videos from pros which achieved good results and thought it couldnt be too difficult. The science behind them seemed sound after reading into the exact light frequencys needed and it seemed like all I had to do was give my HPS to a friend and stick the LED in its place... How I was wrong Firstly, my grow space isn't tip top (black and white instead of reflective on the walls & and a cheap exhaust system to name a few problems) So the light literally had to sit on top of a plant to get anything from it... I have room for 4 plants but I just couldn't get it to cover anything like my old HPS... So three of my 4 looked like death was a knocking... Then there was the heat... I might as well have kept them in the freezer tbh, and let me tell you, its easier to get heat to go down than boost it up! Fans cool and help with air exchange as well as strengthen your plants, but when your plugging in heat matts that add on precious wattage its seems counter productive... Especially as the only real reason to go LED is for the green living aspect... After 4 weeks, it also became obvious that there still wasn't enough light, so I invested in a 125w CFL red spec to add to the mix... So BAM, just like that - to counter the problems from going LED im back at nearly 300w/ph. only a minor change in wattage for such a big outlay. but still, I was kinda happy enough... every little helps so they say *Until the popcorn buds started to grow that is* after 2 months in flowering it seemed obvious my crops were more than a little fucked, i've got a full popcorn plant now - with probably only an ounce at most. More annoyingly, the HPS & clone I gave to a friend has produced a much nicer crop - much faster. and his electric bill is only a shade off mine! So ive just gone back to HPS now with the LED as a backup light... and the difference after a week is mind blowing! Id def recommend the LEDs as a nice addition to HPS - as they definitely do work - but if you want the juicy goodness you just cant get away from HPS! To sum up, I think LED is the way forward - but unless your *super* experienced at the old game and really know exactly what your plants need, its just no match for the time being!!! Sorry Lighthouse Hydro... it was worth a shot but I might give you guys a couple of years yet
HELL YEAH!!! I really did have an open mind and a real thirst for it to succeed - but alas, it was not meant to be... Here's some pics now im back to HPS...
Some of the pics of the bottom of the plant really do show how shit they are at getting light far down... :-(
Thanks bruv... Although to be honest Im glad Ive gone through it! Its always nice to try new things and see how they work out! And I'm always game for sharing things with the community... I've got 3 clones nearly ready to go, and my aero cloner will have another couple ready for planting in no time... so I just have to stay sober for a month or two and then Ill be back to blazing!
Lately I've been wondering if i should try led‘s you convinced me that I shouldn't thank you Nice man get back in therr things can only get better
dood, you got nute burn or some kinda serious ph problem. get all those toasted leaves out of the grow room and flush flush flush!
Cheers for the advice...but i've given up fully with that lady and i've straight back to HPS and three new clones...
definitely nute burn. you have less intense light thus the plants use less nutes. give weaker doses. i frikken hate leds but alot is operator error. hps all the way!
Never buy 1w LED lights.... Lighthouse hydro sells the panels that are $300+. Those are the only ones worth it in my opinion.... Theres also the company Advanced LED that sells amazing LED's for a little more expensive, but well worth it.
you expected a 90 watt multi spectrum led to flower 4 plants?? and i bet nute burning them didn't help either, sounds like grow fail not led fail leds work in well designed setups, you dont need to be super experienced but taking care of basics would probably be helpful, leds might be expensive but they work if someone posts about trying to grow with 50 watts of cfl for one plant people jump down their throat about the 100 watt minimum per plant, but you had a 90 watt led for 4 plants and people act like its the led's fault
I wasn't exactly saying that at all dude... You'll noticed in my pics there was only 2 plants, as I removed the worst two pretty much straight away. (should have got that in my first post...) I was trying to point out that there is just no straight swapping of lights, as it causes a new set of problems in itself! Namely Heat for my set up... It didnt help that the only source of heat was my central heating for the most part of my grow, which not only fluctuated daily but actually died during my grow leaving them temps of 15c or less for 2 weeks... EPIC FAIL ;-) The additional 125w CFL didnt raise temps enough... The nutes I used in the grow were standard 7-7-7 tomato feed, which has always served me well with every other grow I've done as I get good compost. I feed them every other watering, but that still seemed to much! PH was always around 6.5 and when the leaves started going bad she was flushed several times which didnt help at all... I got the impression they were just 'sat' in the cold temps not doing anything, and then coundn't quite recover from that when I finally started to get the temps up... Ive left her outside to live out the rest of her sad life, but I'll be interested to see what her roots were like when she finally passes on... So to replace my 400watt HPS, id have to have a 300watt LED and (at least) a 50 watt heat matt. Saving 50 watts! Is that actually a saving, or just a more expensive light that makes people feel greener? Screw it, lets do the math: 50w = energy saved per hour / hours & weeks = time spent on (Duh!) 50w x 16hours x 4 weeks = 3200w 50w x 12hours x 8 weeks = 4800w Total wattage saved per grow = 8000watts or 8kw My electric companies (most expensive) tariff per Kw = 24.077p per kWh 8 x 24p = £2 Id have saved £2 a grow (well I wouldn't, im on a different tariff) HPS = £70 300wLED = £432 + Heat Matt £40 Total = £472 Price between different setups - £402 £2 saving per grow = 201 grows for the electric to pay off the light!!! Yes they work, no I won't use them except for backup lights! HPS FOR THE MOThER FUnKInG WIn!!!
No offense but I don't think that you did an accurate comparison. I don't think light was your problem. Those plants look like shit! They look all burnt and shit. I am not a fan of LEDs yet but I don't think that was a fair comparison. Not trying to be a dick. Just saying. Good luck next time.
Thats more than fair enough dude, was not a straight - here is an led / here is a hps comparison. I just wanted to show everyone the problems I encountered swapping to LED. I got so caught up in working out power usage and light spectrums when looking into them that I completely forgot to think through any other problems it might through up... Id love to give them another go in the future, but Id completely re design the space and run lots of test first, rather than just swapping old for new!!! And to be fair, I shouldn't get so defensive about the grow... it was literally just an epic fail all around! I should be glad people can at least get a good laugh out of it, as it was all it was good for!!!