PlatinumLED Mars-Hydro comparison grow

Quick height update.


PlatinumLED Bulk is now just shy of 1.75" 4.5cm. This is roughly a .1" .25cm growth in 24 hours.

Mars-Hydro Bulk is sitting at 2.5" 6.3cm at her highest point. She grew approximately .5" 1.27cm in 24 hours.



Light distances will be adjusted tomorrow to account for the new growth.




And I made a cool little picture for the comparison grow in my sig. What do you guys think?

 

That's part of what makes it difficult for customers to choose the light for their application. Anyone can shop by price, or numbers on paper. But even on paper, some manufacturers list PAR numbers for their light, and others list LUX, making it impossible to truly compare two lights side by side. And this doesn't even account for differences in diodes, lenses, drivers, fans, and heatsinks which can all greatly affect performance.


The goal of this journal, is to compare two lights, which are similar on paper, but I want to get down to the nuts and bolts of things, and see which is better. I'll be closely looking at everything from spectrum, to penetration, vigor, plant density, plant height, bud density, trichome production, potency, and quality, to name a few. I'll also be comparing light cost vs. yield/quality/potency on this grow. A yield comparison is great, but a big yield is useless without quality and potency, so this comparison will be made all together.


Both lights even claim to replace specific HID lighting, Mars claims the 100x3 "more than replaces any 600w HPS or MH", while Platinum lists their light as replacing a 400w HPS. I've seen grows from 600w HPS as well as 450w HPS so we have some pretty big claims that I'm going to be looking to see fulfilled on this grow.


The strain I'm growing for this comparison is very vigorous, strong, and potent, especially during stretch, so these lights have a lot of work ahead of them when we start testing penetration.


I would also ask that there be no advertising for your lights here, like the price advertising that I removed above.


I've been on this earth long enough to know that a better price doesn't always mean a better deal, and at the same time, price does not always dictate quality. I don't want to see any followers of my journals ever make a decision based on price alone, so we're going to be looking at the real proof here.

 

And a morning update on the girls.


The whole tent:



Lights are at the same height, which is 26" above the soil, the leaves are still drooping on both girls, so I'll wait until later for another measurement update, and will readjust the lights this evening.


PlatinumLED Bulk:



Mars-Hydro Bulk:

 

Thanks bro, welcome aboard. And yeah, I've seen all the PlatinumLED videos.

Stretch isn't too out of control, so I'm currently wondering if it's even stretch anymore. There's no growth pattern yet, but I'll have a better idea this evening when/if the leaves start praying upwards.

No I did not (Just to answer so all can see it).
As Dutty said it was Curso.

That would not be enough to cause a fire in itself. There just isn't enough voltage or current present to arc that far across the terminals.


To have a fire happen here, you'll need a lot of heat, and minimal current draw, as to not trip the breaker/blow a fuse.


Any type of short would cause a breaker to trip, or a fuse to blow. The circumstances experienced by Curso would lead me to believe there was a draw higher than the power cord and/or plug on the light could handle, but not enough to open the circuit. But whatever the cause was, he was able to catch the problem and prevent further damage to his property, and save himself and anyone else from injury.

 

I know the feeling brother, one mistake and a witch hunt begins.
Curso can fill him in on those details, since I didn't see the original post that was deleted.


I was trying to figure out the best way to compare the lights, keeping them at equal height would let one sit in its optimal zone, and the other may not be at an optimal distance.


But if I switch things up, and go straight to optimal distances for both lights, we may not get a clear idea of penetration and instensity.


So the current plan is to keep a range for each stage, and allow each light to do its best within that range.


For germination and seedlings we're staying in the 24-30" 61-76cm range
For Veg we'll be keeping both lights in the 18-24" 45.7-61cm range.
And for Flower, we'll keep both lights in the 12-18" 30.5-45.7cm range.


It's the best possible option I could work out to keep both lights in a similar range, allow them to sit in, or as close to their sweet spot as possible, while maintaining a similar footprint for each light.


I talked to Mark from PlatinumLED about the Veg/Bloom switches, since I wasn't sure on when the best time to flip is, and he said most people switch on the bloom while still in Veg. So it seems that the Veg spectrum is being used mostly for germination and seedlings, so that's the route I plan to follow as well.