14 watt LED Panel....Herb Garden?

My wife wants a 5 pot herb garden using my new found hydro skills. I'll be using a small 18in wide container as the base. I bought a couple 2' T5 lights but she doesn't want the lights to be that long. So back they go. I'm thinking a 225 LED panel might be just the thing for her. I'm not looking for super growth yields here and she really truly is growing basil, thyme, oregano, that sort of thing, in the kitchen. I expect the plants will get no higher then 8 to 12" at best. Either the 225 panel or I saw several 125w CFL bulbs but I think the foot print is much bigger then the LED panel.

So has anyone ever used one of these 14 watt 225 red/blue LED panels and would it keep your wife's 5 basil plants happy? I'm sort of trying to replicate the Aero Garden I guess. I fucked up and told my wife I could do better then the Aero Garden guys could, so now I sort of have to prove it.

ok..first~those lite brite models are a waste of money and time! 14w 225 LED's...thats .06 watts per LED...you need to get to at least .5w per diode before they will be effective! So look for another LED light...that China panel is a sure way of failing!:smokin:

... the few guys I know in TO who are using LEDs are using 'em to veg, mostly, and the /minimum/ is one of those 90w (90x1w) UFO thingies, in at least both major spectra.

IF you look around, you should be able to pick up one of these for like 125-140bux, from a reputable dealer off'n eBay. They retail for 150 to 195ish, tho I wouldn't pay any more than 160. I /have/ seen some 'cheapie' 50w panels that look cost-effective enough to play with, (would need 2 minimum, of course), but you need to look at true quad-band, or higher, to get good results with LEDs. Or So I Hear.

There is also a new company supplying these in my area, from a little tiny suburb town on the edge of the Known Universe, and another starting up in TO to manufacture 'em... light is getting interesting out here...:cool:

(c)C :chainsaw:

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Originally Posted by stra8outtaWeed

ok..first~those lite brite models are a waste of money and time! 14w 225 LED's...thats .06 watts per LED...you need to get to at least .5w per diode before they will be effective! So look for another LED light...that China panel is a sure way of failing!:smokin:

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Hi,

I hope this will not sound very offensive, are you saying that based on your personal experience or just a mere guess of calculation? I don't think .5 w will work. :rastasmoke:


Thanks,
Carmel

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Originally Posted by craftsmaster

Hi,

I hope this will not sound very offensive, are you saying that based on your personal experience or just a mere guess of calculation? I don't think .5 w will work. :rastasmoke:


Thanks,
Carmel

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Allow me to interject here because I can speak from personal experience.
The 225 led "china panels" are next to worthless for growing anything but mushrooms.
Hadda open mine when it had a partial failure.

Who'm I kidding?
I open up everything just to see what's inside.
[attachment=o247510]
In this case, I was taken aback by the shoddyness of it's construction.
The "power supply" would be amusing were it less likely to become a cheery little fire.
[attachment=o247509].

Str8 knows what he's on about.
And I'm not sure what you mean by " .5 w " ?


(You can actually grow something with 225 1/2Watt leds of the proper wavelengths.)

Aloha,
Weezard

thanks Weez....you are the tech man :thumbsup::thumbsup:

i just grow em and call it as i see it :jointsmile:

That's made it clear Weez. So basically, the 225 lead China panel isn't good enough to grow herbs except mushrooms.
_________________
Carmel Santos
CEO of Herb Gardening Guide
The Australian Guide to Herb Gardening

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Originally Posted by craftsmaster

That's made it clear Weez. So basically, the 225 lead China panel isn't good enough to grow herbs except mushrooms.

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Well it will work for smaller herbs like thyme, which doesn't produce broad leaves.

I use .5w diodes in my lights for NFT systems that I install. This is the BARE MINIMUM I would dare use (and these are new-gen .5w diodes, which just now got into maturity for this setup.)

However, our OP has mentioned basil. Basil produces LARGE leaves in hydro. You're not going far with that lite-brite panel.

Best bet is a 15w spot (if you're going with small plants) or a 50w panel for larger basils.

Send me a message over aim, yahoo, or skype, I'll help you out. I'm around all times.

And I did try to grow oregano.

They didn't cut it for that, or for basil, or thyme.
Like tryin' ta grow chamomile wit' a candle, it was. :D

No shoot da messenger.:rastasmoke:

Aloha,
Weeze

I ended up settling on T5 HO's for vegging my own plants. I think I will also use a similar setup for my wife's herbs as well. I believe a single perhaps a double 2' T5HO is more then enough for a 2' bed of herbs. I'm planning to build a 2' bed of T5 light for her to grow her herbs in. I cant imagine how quickly these herbs will grow after I apply some of my high tech growing methods. Lettuce will likely be another I want to try as well.

The T5s will do great for basil. In hydroponics, expect that basil to explode. You might even have it start dripping oil right from the leaves :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by craftsmaster

That's made it clear Weez. So basically, the 225 lead China panel isn't good enough to grow herbs except mushrooms.
_________________
Carmel Santos
CEO of Herb Gardening Guide
The Australian Guide to Herb Gardening

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Actually, all the light most mushrooms need is one quick click from a strobe placed above your shroom grow per day.

Hey guys....first of all ive been readin off this site for a little while, and some of you are pretty freakin amazing. Ive been lookin into gettin started using LED, however my budget is pretty tight. Anyway my question for you fellas is if youve ever heard anything about sunshine systems? I was thinking of getting the glowpanel 45, and was wondering if it is good, or crap. Thanks for hearin me out.

the site is The GlowPanel 45 LED Grow Light - led grow lights -Sunshine Systems
if you were curious

ok mr Bujmeup who digs up old posts...here is what I found out. Stay away from LED's at least for now. Maybe there are some out there that work, but even if you find them, they wont be cheap. One thing is for sure, cheap LED's dont work for shit. However your in luck as there are some other things that do work and work almost as cheap if not cheaper then what you just showed me.

Take a look into T5 HO lighting. If you ebay or google T5HO fixtures you can find all kinds of cheap 2' & 4' lengths and bulbs from 4 to 8 per fixture. I built mine, I'm not sure if you will have that option. I purchased the ballast for about 50 bucks which can handle up to 220 watts of T5 bulb. At first I used 6 x 2' bulbs and then later realized that I could put 5 x 3' bulbs in instead and get more out of my ballast. They charged about 5 bucks per bulb and also had nifty little sockets for about 1 buck each which you wire into the ballast and which holds the bulbs. The bulbs run pretty cool but you will want to do something for light cooling. In that case I found 2x120mm fans connected to a 12v power supply did the trick just fine. All of this I did for under 100 bucks and it puts out 220 watts of T5 HO light.

I have since discovered something called "power compact" lighting. The cool thing with it is that you dont need wires on both ends so they can be hung vertically pretty easily without a reflector and between the plants.

Either system you go with, check into the spectrum needed for veg and flower. Lot's already talked about on that subject but if you wanted too you could run T5's all the way to the end.