Need Help With Wavelength and Spectrum, LED...

[Lunatic Lumen]

great reading,

I was thinking about purchasing an LED but they are so much $ . what do you think is a realistic price to pay for a 300w?

[Weezard]

That would depend on how much you pay for electricity.

[warrior #113]

Could we re-open this thread? I have some LED spectrum questions and I need some opinions. I am going to build a Ledengine light using their 10w'rs. Red/blue ratio of 3:1 and then adding some warm whites to boost the orange/green wavelengths. Weezard, I've been running into the same twisted weird growth issues with a couple of my strains that don't grow quite right under red/blue light while others love the red/blue only combo. When I put the weird growing strains back under regular white light they straighten out again. The strain in question is DNA Sour Diesel. I'm thinking of building a light with just neutral whites and deep red leds at a 50/50 ratio, or trying my first idea with the warm whites and extra blue 460nm LEDs. The Ledengine warm whites peak at 440nm instead of 460nm so that's why I would add the 460nm to the mix. I just can't decide which to try first. 50/50 Neutral White/Deep Red, or Red/Blue 460 at 3:1 with added Warm Whites that peak at 440nm. Hopefully this thread is still open and I get some responses. Peace!

[silent leprechaun]

I would save yourself all the trouble and simply buy from the same LED producer as I did.

You can check my 2 grow logs in my signature to see how they work... Nice buds...

I'm using the old version of the Pro-Grow 260. There is now a Pro-Grow X5 out now...

This light looks like it is an animal. l'd love to get my hands on this light !

The light can be switched between veg and bloom, but I just use both spectrum all the time. Amazing light !

[warrior #113]

Buying a pre-made LED light is not what I'm after. I'm trying to understand the photosynthesis process and figure out why some strains are not growing quite right under a red/blue only spectrum. Hopefully others will chime in here.

[Weezard]

Great link Warrior!

The Fonz knows what he's on about!
At least the results of my tinkering seem to support his conclusions.

What I will suggest to you, is full spectral control.
Fixed ratio arrays are fine, once you match the ratio to the strain.
To grow a variety of strains you need to vary the ratio of different wavelengths.
Got bucks?
Buy dimmers.
No can?
Build pure color arrays and adjust their heights above the canopy to change color ratios.

Didn't jump right in and kibbutz straight away because I haven't been experimenting much lately.
Have a friend with a medical condition that will require a large quantity of RSO.
I'll be in production mode for the next few months.
No got time to play for a while.

You lot carry on.
Fonzerelli has a good handle on this, and the budget to to experiment.
I'll jus' sit in da back of the class and take notes.

Mahalo nui,

Weezard

[warrior #113]

Great link Warrior!

The Fonz knows what he's on about!
At least the results of my tinkering seem to support his conclusions.

What I will suggest to you, is full spectral control.
Fixed ratio arrays are fine, once you match the ratio to the strain.
To grow a variety of strains you need to vary the ratio of different wavelengths.
Got bucks?
Buy dimmers.
No can?
Build pure color arrays and adjust their heights above the canopy to change color ratios.

Didn't jump right in and kibbutz straight away because I haven't been experimenting much lately.
Have a friend with a medical condition that will require a large quantity of RSO.
I'll be in production mode for the next few months.
No got time to play for a while.

You lot carry on.
Fonzerelli has a good handle on this, and the budget to to experiment.
I'll jus' sit in da back of the class and take notes.

Mahalo nui,

Weezard

I just want to know if it's worth while to add any green to the spectrum, or to use the white leds. I've read so much that says the green to orange spectrum isn't used and is worthless. I would rather build a bi-spectrum light because of the beauty in simplicity. It also generates such a nice color. If I don't get the bottom of it I may just have to ditch a few strains and keep my favorite one anyway. Just me and my one lady! Aren't we a cute couple?

[mendokid]

Green is useless as far as I know.

In fact, it seems you can buy green lights for working in your grow room during the dark period, and it doesn't disturb the flowering process.

Also, I read somewhere that white were mostly blue anyway, but will make pictures look much more natural. My kessil h350 magenta has ZERO GREEN. All my photos show the "green channel" as pure black in photoshop. The kessil is a quad spectrum (2 red 2 blue)

I'll know in a few weeks if removing the 600w hps was a good idea.

[Weezard]

I wouldn't call green "worthless".
It's just low efficacy.
Takes a lot more of it to do the job.

I just use two wavelengths, red and blue.
Most strains do quite well with that.

I have played with other wavelengths, but for energy efficiency, I've settled on 635/660nm. red and 460nm. blue.
I use a dimmer to vary the ration of red to blue to control morphology.
2 colors will usually do.
Try it, I think you will like it.

If your strains abstain, throw some white light at them to see if they still complain.



Aloha,
Weeze

[warrior #113]

I wouldn't call green "worthless".
It's just low efficacy.
Takes a lot more of it to do the job.

I just use two wavelengths, red and blue.
Most strains do quite well with that.

I have played with other wavelengths, but for energy efficiency, I've settled on 635/660nm. red and 460nm. blue.
I use a dimmer to vary the ration of red to blue to control morphology.
2 colors will usually do.
Try it, I think you will like it.

If your strains abstain, throw some white light at them to see if they still complain.



Aloha,
Weeze

Hey Weez,

What is your 635 to 660 ratio? As in for every 635nm Led, how many 660nm Leds to you use?

I just added some 625nm Red to my Led fixture to boost that Quantum Yield theory.