Does anyone have any questions about LED lighting or growing under LEDs?

I need to write an FAQ. So, I'll be grateful for any and all questions.

Thank You!

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-Michael

Colours of the LED's needed for vegging and the differences, if any, for flowering right off the hop.

Best blend of colours for the whole cycle and why they are needed. and the numbers of them needed aprox. to be successful. Size as well of the fixtures, etc.

Number of plants under number of lights.

Micheal, I would also suggest you contact Lacy, Hank and BF74 to have their input on this as they have grows underway with LED's. Or I could...

Peace

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Life,
j-angel

aka GP purrie kittie attack cat!


My Little Grow LST'ing w/Hardware

My Outdoor Odyssey 2008 BONSAI MUMS

My Little Grow Indoor To Outdoor 2009

1. why grow with leds?
2. will plants get all they need from leds?
3. why are leds so expensive?
4. what type of bud production can i expect with leds?
5. do leds make buds more resinous?

these are the first five i though of lol
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they call me ishmael, and mobys music sucks. smile if you get it.

Thanks, guys...

Now, I just have to get the answers!!

LOL

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-Michael

lol woo! ill probably find more.

__________________
they call me ishmael, and mobys music sucks. smile if you get it.

Chime in any growers with LED's please! Michael needs your help and this could help many.

Peace

__________________
Life,
j-angel

aka GP purrie kittie attack cat!


My Little Grow LST'ing w/Hardware

My Outdoor Odyssey 2008 BONSAI MUMS

My Little Grow Indoor To Outdoor 2009

Thanks, jangel. But, I have enough to work with for now. I don't think there are that many questions to ask, really. It's a fairly small subject if you limit it to questions the average grower would have and cut out the highly technical stuff (which I don't know, anyway - LOL).

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-Michael

another one would be
how many leds watts do i need to replace 1 hps watt.......or
400 hps = ? led watts
600 hps = ? led watts
1000 hps = ? led watts
they use to say the 90 watt ufo replaced a 600.....then they said a 400
i was thinking 2 hps watts per 1 led watt?....sound about right? or a 350 replaces a 600 hps with no problems

- Because there is a reduction in radiant heat such that the plants are not exposed to heat stress on upper canopy which can stunt growth and destroy crops.
- Because it makes it possible to have a sealed grow room. This allows you to remove the need for large extraction fans. By sealing the room, you have much better control of pest infestations and temperature control.
- By sealing your grow room you can also effectively and cheaply control CO2 production like yeast cultivation without it all being sucked out by the fans.
- It makes it possible to more effectively control the growing/budding stages of growth by changing the intensities of red/blue.
- Remembering that you can save not just on your electricity but on costs associated with fertilisers as the reduced evaporation rate due to the reduction of radiant heat means that you don't need to put the same levels of nutrients into your roots.

- 455nm, 470nm, 560nm, 625nm, 645nm, 660nm, 730nm and UV LEDs are available and pretty much covers everything. 90% of LED's should be 660nm RED LEDs and rest is still up for debate. Some types are more expensive than others but its getting cheaper, and availability is getting better by the month. i.e. 660nm were not available 2 years ago, but are now.

- LED lights are still a new industry. The lights require more current regulated power supplies which are not a common power supply. This usually requires a custom power supply for each application. Purchasing LEDs from suppliers are actually pretty cheap. But retailers jack up the prices. Jaycar here in Australia were selling their 5w White Luxeons for AU$65 which is just outrageous. They were selling LUXEON 1W starts for $15 each. This seems ludicrous to me when you can go onto the when you can go onto the future electronics site and order them for less than US$2 each. Because LEDs are so cheap, retailers and suppliers cannot afford to sell them in small quantities.

-if you take advantage of things like CO2 and the fact that you won't be heat stressing your plants when you jack up the lumens, then you should be getting better buds than ever. However I think it might be a little while till we get it right.

NO and YES. No if you are using one of the 1st, 2nd gen lights that just have Red and Blue LEDs. Yes, if you are using what I would call a 3rd gen light that included UV far Red LEDs. current hypothesis is that the resins are a defense mechanism against UV light. It is suggested UV during budding promotes higher resin production.

Cheers
Phil

A quick note on color/spectrum balance: it's not as easy as it sounds. You might get all the right colors - but, it's really hard to get the power ratios right. That's where the difficulty lies. If you could just string together the correct number of LEDs of different wavelengths and have a good grow lamp, then we would have had good LED lamps years ago. But, it's a far more complex balancing act than it appears.

Dago, I think a 350 more than replaces a 1000 watt lamp. It covers a larger area with just a little bit less penetration. But, even more, the new Illuminator lamps result in far more vegetative growth with many more bud sites. This is because our lights are balanced to inhibit plants' natural Shade Avoidance System. I think a 5-band 350 will out-perform a 1000 watt HPS head-to-head.

My new 5-Band Jumbo UFO should get here today. I'm gonna start some seeds with it to see for myself how much better they are. But, until then, I'll take Doug's word for it. He's a straight-shooter.

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-Michael

I have been waiting over 5 years for LED technology to get off the ground, it seems to be taking way to long to hit mainstream usage.
It's getting better but it will be another 5 years b4 we can feel comfortable using them and the price gets realistic.

For me I expect to pay more up front and don't mind
if an led lasted 10 years and ur supposed to only get 1 good year out of an hps/mh bulb u need to add that in too. 600and1000 bulbs are expensive as hell. Even the cheapies
it's a ton for hortilux
I'm still not 100% convinced about the yield yet. I'll b trying at least one 350 out this fall
probably use 1-600 hps on one side and a 350 led on the other and compare results while using co2

I agree;the price of hps bulbs are to high and i don't replace them after a year because of it.
You should get some good numbers with your testing,be sure you post up the results for us.
I'll spend the cash if it's the way to go,just say the word

There will be a large body of test results within six to nine months, including my own.

I don't really want to talk too much. But, we are finding that our 5-band lights spur on amazing undergrowth and also allow plants to be closer together. Buds are tight, dense and more resinous. I could say a lot more. But, I'm thinking it's best if people who don't work for the ProSource do most of the talking. I'll just try to answer the questions without getting too deeply into specifics.

__________________
-Michael

Something else people need to understand, is just because plants have a pigment that use a specific wavelength, doesn't mean that its neccesary, or even conducive to plant growth.
Like infra-red- There are definately pigments that use it, and chlorophyl even uses it...
They've also done tests that green leaves reflect some infra-red, and that the accesory pigments that react to IR tell the plant that its got a lot of leafy neighbors- This does two things- Tells the plant to mature faster, and to stretch taller to compete for sunlight. Both of these could be good for a lot of plants and crops, but not for the one we're all dealing with.

And for the resin production, Basically, stress stimulates resin production. Resin does block UV rays, so it pays sense that it would be a defense mechanism. Like someone else said, the original UFO also caused boosted resin production, but I believe it was from the stress of only two wavelengths. Also, I would need to know what frequencies the UFO used. If it was less than 445nm, then the diodes could have been producing UV.

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you need to go into UV-B to really stimulate a "sun screen" defense mechanism and pour on the resin. CFLs do this well, you can purchase cfls that reproduce the same UV-B intensity as the sun. Just don't go in the room when they are on.