Drowning in conflicting plant graphs - help! (LED)

"I'm no director of research - far from it... but my limited understanding tells me that plants do not use the entire light spectrum equally. In fact, they use quite limited amounts of white, yellow, orange and green"

Im glad you changed that statement. Plants use everything they can. So if we can offer a continues spectrum as full spectrum is jsut a marketing term, and dial in extra red and extra blue into the specs which my induction lighting guy can do then the plants are going to love it a lot more than standard and conventional grow methods. That is the inly point I am trying to get across that there is a better way and Id like to know what is the best.

Oh and from earlier a 600watt HPS draws about 650Watt from the ballast! (Heat wastage!)

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Originally Posted by mrnobody

Plants use everything they can.

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Exactly. Read what you just wrote. "Plants use every thing they CAN." MJ plants can NOT use a great deal of the yellow, orange or green spectra (although, yes, as you stated they use everything they CAN within those spectra). So there is no need to flood the grow room with vast quantities of spectra that they can NOT use. Doing so is simply inefficient. An efficient grow light will produce appropriate quantities of light within the spectra that the plant CAN use.

I'm not sure why you insist on arguing this point unless it is to give props to plasma technology which, judging from the article you posted, claims to produce vast quantities of light across all spectra. If those lights are proven and if they are produced at costs and efficiencies that are accessible, then great; we'll all be using them in a few years. Until then, those of us concerned with heat and other efficiencies will look elsewhere. Unless you have specs on a plasma light that you would like to share?

Based on the literature, I'm doubtful that such a light exists, yet. Take a look at the website of the company that aims to bring this technology to market (as cited in the article you posted) - PLASMA INTERNATIONAL - PLASMA LIGHT SYSTEMS. You will see that they have not yet reach the point of mass production. You will also learn that their grow results were achieved by manipulating the spectra coming out of the light with filters and by deploying supplemental lighting. Certainly promising and worth keeping an eye on but not yet ready for prime time.

FWIW I didn't change my statement. I modified it by adding one word to better reflect the point that I made in the rest of the post.

I agree with what you are saying. But a little of that light that has been lacking in the past can only be a good thing. I will have specs on the lights I am about to purchase shortly. Yes Plasma technolgy actually has only jsut been harnessed in Essex in England, there are newspaper articles from April 2010. Its all linked into Plasma international. I think the company was started some years ago and since they have not had a commercially viable product or patented product. Just because it is not in production does not mean it does not work. Just look at concept cars for an example of that.

I will be using induction lighting but dialled in specifically to my needs. I.e. heavy on blue for veg and red for flowering. Both rooms will have LED at horizontal canpoy level and supplental spot lighting. After smoking my first ever bud tonight i am convinced the extra light spectrums adds serious strength to the finished product. For an example the bottom bud i trimmed three days ago, jsut the one, dryed in a draw sort of ghetto style and smoked tonight. I am more stoned than i have been all year and its safe to say this year i have been surrounded by bud. It shouldnt have even been cropped. Its got 3-5 weeks left on the bottom, maybe more and still is a noticeably tripply, different kind of smoke very remanicent of very good coffee shop bud. Dont get me wrong I know my smoke and am surrounded by grade Blueberry. To say I am excited is an understatement, Photos will be up tomorrow for judging and help and advice.

My next flowering room will be 8ft by 8ft and will use 2 x 300watt induction lamps and about 2000watt of led lighting dotted around. I am using the 120watt rectangular units with more high red than blue. The ufos i use in veg as they are so obviously more blue, i also use them above mothers, They absolutely love it. To date I have not see one bad leaf on all of my plants. Everything looks more healthy than I see all day every day in these forums. I would be glad to hear from anybody playing with other lighting, with no traditional methods involved. Results, smoke, pictures?

More importantly my rooms will not show up from above and will be a considerable amount cooler therefore easier to control the climate. the copters are a constant pain in England, they hate us! Funny thing is that they cant actually see the lights, they see the heat and where the heat builds and exhausts. ADS sheeting helps but without renting or buying a thermal camera who knows and they are a touch pricey!

I'll be more than glad to see an induction light come on stream here. We've seen a lot of talk about them and I've read some disappointing reviews elsewhere but nothing based on implementation. They certainly are of interest. And of course, we all hope that the plasma concept lives up to the hype and makes it into production. I can not run HPS or MH due to my closed basement setup which lacks exterior ventilation which is why I have traveled down this road. That and I don't think I could leave my house with those incendiary devices running full tilt... an accident waiting to happen as far as I'm concerned. I look forward to the piccies!

"My next flowering room will be 8ft by 8ft and will use 2 x 300watt induction lamps and about 2000watt of led lighting dotted around."

That's well overkill for a room that size - you'd do just as well running 3 600w MH lamps and be done with it, IMHO.

"I'll be more than glad to see an induction light come on stream here."

Give me a short amount of time, I have my new prototype finished, it'll be on the way with my next sea freight shipment.

At the moment in my 4x 4 flowering room I have 5 600watt HPS. It probably is overkill but the plants love it. Real light saturation. My yields will be up, the strength will be up and the plants love it.

Once plants reach the stage where they can absorb so more light their cells evolve to ones that can. All plants do this apparently so perhaps the same can be applied to the magic green?

And what is overkill anyway?
Surely more light equals ore bud and more healthy plants. My temp is high, true but only in the mid eighties and the humidity is really low arond 20-30%. I have no mites, insects, mould, fungus or any bad leaves.

I have a pile of thirty HPS just sat here so it seems a shame to not use them. Ok I am now hampered by how much electricity I can atually put through the circuits in my house. With those 5 x 600 watt HPS i also have another 6 HPS 600watt downstairs with 1500 LED power at horizontal level. 100+ lowryders love it!

I use 100 watts of HPS a square foot. I am getting another light for the center but nothing over 150, that will make it around 137 watts a square foot.
187 is a bunch. How hot does it get in your grow room?

i am running my grow room at 85 with a humidity of 20-30. i was concerned with the heat but have good air circulation and lots of fresh air coming in. I have watched them intensely and added fans when the plants looked liked they needed them. I am not so dialled in on my lighting per ft/mtr yet, this being my first grow and having a big pile of HPS to play with I went for overkill, as many as i could get without messing with the climate too much. What i was taught is that you cant have too much light? It just changes the grow a little, watering, nutes etc. What I have allowed for is a lot of root space with my plants being potted in 20ltr compost bags, the roots look like tree roots and still they have not reached the bottom, jsut filling out the bag. As they grow though they pull more mosture from the soil, changing my watering. Plants like heat though. Especially Indicas where their genetics comes from hot, dry climates. As long as I am below ninety and can control fresh air I feel confident but with induction and LEd i will have more of a problem keeping the heat in I think.