LED lighting ...worth it or not??

OK i have been hearing so much hype about LED lighting and how if you use those it lessens heat, flowers the plants quicker....ive been hearing mixed opinions so please please help me with this .... whats the difference between them...?? i want to know more.?? Why are they better if they are better??

please help


kudos in the meantime =)

 

From what I have read the main benefit of leds is efficiency. The spectrums are tweaked towards the usable spectrum for plants and as you said less heat. I would doubt that the plant would flower any quicker as photoperiodic plants are usually only affected by the duration of the cycles (ie: 14 hours of darkness would finish quicker than 10 hours of darkness).

The leds will be awesome for saving $$$ on the electric bill yet they still represent a considerable investment to purchase at this point. If they start to become more mainstream and if China can produce one that is reliable the costs should drop to the affordable range.

IMO they do not appear to have the penetration that the HIDs do but add enough and adjust the growing technique (ScrOG, SOG) and it probably would not matter.

High Times had a decent review of the UFO and I think that badboy is $500.00 USD.

 

Thank you bill for both replys on my threads. So i guess LED is a good choice knowing youll be saving money and you will be keeping the heat down which is a good LEGAL thing in my opinion if you catch my drift. Ne wayz i understand how to germinate them now thanks too you. But im still a lil confused on this lighting situation......LED that im talking about looks like your little sisters lightbright. and its really not that much over here where i live plus most of my setup is pvc piping. So with that said...the Question im asking is with 2 of the square looking LED lights on each side of the grow diagonally mounted would be less productive as far as YIELD?? or more?? or would the MH or HPS lights be better?



and before i go between
flourescent, MH, and HPS

Whats best for Veg and what best for Flower rooms??

thanks again.!!!! KUDOS

 

No prob my man

A rule of thumb is MH for veg and HPS for flowering. Flos are good for seedlings/clones.

Light penetration has always been the problem with indoor growing. In order to get great penetration for 4-5 footers the lamp wattage must go up - but so does the $ and heat (or you can trim the plant 2' up the stem to let the upper canopy grow more vigorously). LED side lighting would remedy that, however if you can maintain a 1-2' height when inducing flowering it isn't really necessary. It is the ole many small plants vs fewer large plants question. After a while you will be able to co-ordinate your timing in regards to cloning, vegging and flowering. It is easy to overgrow your garden while waiting the 10 weeks for the ones in flowering to finish. Base your lighting on your grow area and shoot for 40-50 watts per square foot.

I hear what you are saying about the leds - they look pretty cheesy for the $$$ they want for them.

Many ways to go all lead to sucess!

 

Also, color is important, your sisters flash lite is probably with white bulbs wehreas to grow one needs more red n blue bulbs. This technology is still in it's infancy so far I'm not convinced it's better than floro's!

 

As i wake and bake:spliff: Thank you so much for the info back both of you. KUDOS! btw the "light brights from my sister" was an expression so you could get a picture in your head what it looked like but i was just told yesterday that 4 of the $55 USD panel for $200 produce what a 400w hps produces and the hydro dude also told me that floro are prolly the best efficent for veg section

light concealment would not be and issue. This being because theres no fricken light where it is end of story lol.... but now I was cloning questions?? and male and female questioning him lol....so ne wayz got basically down to DOME and aeroponics??

Dome: oldschool and cheap as 5USD total for setup without hoses and pump

Or this thing called Botanica aeroponics cloner for $60USD??


Thanks guys ill check in a few./

Karma goes along way =)

 

Cloning can be done either way with an equal amount of success.

Clonex, No-Wilt spray and either rockwool cubes, peat pellets or right into soil. IMO the most important part is a sharp razor blade and having at least one trimmed node dipped and inserted into the rooting medium. No Wilt spray works wonders as it limits the transpiration and limits the need for a dome. Just try and ween the clones off of the dome to encourage rooting (2-3 weeks).

Aeroponics for cloning works but you can assemble one yourself. Airpump, airstone, aquarium (or similar heater), plastic bin and rockwool cubes or as my man NatHi uses grow plugs. Check out his "grow" thread.

Call me crazy but its good to use a little Superthrive in the water. Its a b1 supplement to help with root growth.

I had a litebrite myself over 30 years ago Crappy thing - I put too big a lightbulb in it and it melted. wah wah......

Good vibes to ya as well!

 

thanks for all the positive feedback! well most of the stuff i have as far as setup goes only thing left is flowering room and seeds selection and where to buy them from if i have too?? strains?? any recommendations?? first hydro grow...with high yield?

 

NL#5 is always a winner. I am sure you can find a seedbank But bagseed can produce wonderful results. Don't worry about yield, if grown properly the yield will be there. Just be sure to have a pH meter and TDS meter if going hydro. Those are the most important tools to sucess.

 

Google: What is watts in lighting? The top one "Lighting" will tell you watts is the amount of work done. (unless you are a half watt, or is it wit?) Watts is how the electric measures your electric usage by the amount of work it has done. Lumens is how you measure brightness not watts !!!

As far as plants, wavelengths is what is need for growth and flowering.
NOT HOW BRIGHT IT IS TO HUMAN EYES.

If you are growing plants indoors, then the color of the light that your grow light emits is quite vital to your plant's health. Young plants at the seeding stage require blue light in order to grow properly. Mature plants, such as a flowering or fruiting plants, require red, yellow and orange light in order to get the plant to produce the flowering and fruit that you want.
All of this is dependent on the light that you use with your plants. LED Lamps come in a wide variety of colors, so it is easy to get the exact grow lamps you need in order to get the results you want from your indoor plants.

I hope this has helped in understanding LED's.

 

I honestly think the HPS are probably the best

 

Well my man, you forget that typically the lumens are in direct proportion to wattage (compare HIDs to 500 1 watt diodes). With the common usage of HIDs it is understood that a 30 watt/sqft is a guide for grow area. In order to compare the two the LED mfgs compare "Super LED X" = "250 Watt MH" for a frame of reference.

If you want to go into LEDS (for me at least) cover: Heat generation, $/watt, life expectancy, light intensity (penetration), area coverage.

The led manufacturers are still tweaking the commercial units balance of diodes. Even phospor coated diodes are being used. Problems with the cheap chinese diodes (Qa/Qc).... etc. You just don't order a bank of blue and a bank of red you need them in the specific wavelengths (nms).

The spectrum is the easy part once they standardize which specific diodes are needed.

One thing is that it is not mandatory to have a spectrum switch for flowering if a general broad spectrum is used. Take the MH, strong in the blue so so in the red. Flowering is neither hindered nor hampered by it. You can do the reverse with HPS. Yes there are some minor growth differences BUT in general it just shows how a plants needs are not that specific.

Anywho thanks for the refresher!