LED grow lights... input please.

[luvfriday]

posted below are photos and a grow diary. i dont know if this is what your wanting but it appears to be the most extensive work ive seen thus far - he observes that on his next LED proj he would req of the manuf hes working w to increase the amt of RED lights used to foster more flower development

we can do better than this kids if we all share what were doing and how its working as for me im ordering my 1st ste of OFO's this week and starting my 1st LED grow under thier currend BLUE matrix and will f/u by req that a more RED matrix be developed


Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting

oh looks like I was not the only one to find that site Did you order your UFO, I found out 2 days before Xmas they are totally out and the list runs into the first part of 2008

[Ziggy Stardust]

the above cited report - Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting - ends in part with this statement "im waiting for justin at HIDHUT to swap me out for a 70/20. i still believe this is a better mix...." apprerantly this is refering to a period earlier in the grow whereby he had some problems do to the lack of BLUE in the LED matrix. i did call Justin and asked him if his co. had obliged the greenpinelane.com researcher by producing the more balanced light requested. he responded by informing me that due to the input provided in this paper that the WHOLE line was tweaked to 70/20 with some changes made in the const of the UFO.

after throughly looking into this new product and looking at the DOZENS of pics, specs and charts provided by greenpinelane.com id have to reccomend the HID UFO tp all those intrested as just 2 of these in a 6x3 ft area would be more than enough to veg 6 plants. right now thier only looking at an "all around fixture" but in the future you can bet there will be - just as in HID lights - a spectrum for vegging and one for flowering.

i know the $$ is hard to swallow - especially when all you grow for is yourself but to those like me who grow for really sick people try to look at the upside:

1). MONEY - if you started growing more than a year ago you paid almost $200 for a HID ballast and if in your 2nd year youve already replaced your 1st bulb and if u bought a good one that was like $80 bucks - for a total of $160 now add an inexpensive reflector like an ECONOCOOL that was $150 - TOTAL is already $510 (and you still have to buy more bulbs every year)

2). ELECTRICITY - if your spending $300 a month in juice costs - that will go down to $50 bucks - over a year thats a $2500 savings (the cost of 4 UFOs and a few keggers of imported beer) AND remember thats just for lighting the lamps! dont forget the cost of

3). COOLING - the room during the summer and DEHUMIDIFYING (its these last 2 aspects that KEEP most cultivators out of the cycle during the summer months) ...not to mention electricity the added $$$ ...another EZ $100 a month

and i did also look at his end results and there were excellent

[Opie Yutts]

I'm tired of stats. Someone just make it so. And document it with photos.

[luvfriday]

I'm tired of stats. Someone just make it so. And document it with photos.

I was most impressed with the photos and grow logs done on nearly all LED lights on the market and some not yet on the market. I am also guessing this experiment is rather reliable as HID HUT changed the light to this guys recommendations.

Crap I am looking at the buy it now button but I want to see how that new competitor LED grow turns out.

PS- I have no clue what I am talking about, but the guy seems to know how to get his stuff growing and his 2nd UFO test with the 70/20 just got going on 12-28, while his other one for .....oh hell check it out he is saying his plants under procyon 100 doubled in size in 4 days (UFO competitor)

Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting

I would love to know your opinion Opie

[Ziggy Stardust]

oh looks like I was not the only one to find that site Did you order your UFO, I found out 2 days before Xmas they are totally out and the list runs into the first part of 2008

this is the drawback although you can prepay and get to the top of the list by maybe offering to buy a large # along w some other equipment as did our coop when we also ordered ebb and flo systems

THESE WERE SOME OF THE FINAL WORDS BY THE RESEARCHER found at Untitled Page

Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting ...this report is complete Opie and i would highly reccomend that you review it as it also COMPARES the cloest competitors the PROCYON 100 (at $600 w a slightly more blue matrix) and the LED Grow-Master LGM5 PRO (which apprears to be vastly cheaper although you have to wire it yourself and not anywhere as powerful using 100s of smaller weaker LEDs on seperate grids)

Blossoming continues on the center and right tomato plants. The plants have gotten pretty large. Much larger than they are supposed to be as they are advertised to be 9-12 inches. These things are approaching two feet. They're very hefty with lots of vegetative growth. The Florida Petite and Florida Basket in the center and right are blossoming the most. The Red Robin has a few but still seems to be more in the vegetative state. I've shut off the blue bulbs for a while to see if the increased red ratio will have any effect on blossoms.

Plenty of blossoms are stil dropping without fruiting, but more and more are seeming to fruit. I don't necessarily think blossom drops are necessarily a light problem. There are thousands of other reasons for this inside of course. Hey, this is my first attempt with these particular tomato varieties and using the UFO for the first time.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the performance of this light. One thing the UFO can do for sure is grow big tomato plants. I'll continue to try different nutrient formulas for the blossoming stage. To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure exactly what this'll take and the experiments will continue. Hopefully soon, the 70/20 Red to Blue UFO will arrive. I'm hoping I made the right guess. I'd like to see if I can avoid using extra blue bulbs and have a 100% UFO grow nest time.

as ive stated befor if you can endure the price this is it maybe next year the $$$ will come down....and all the pics a person could want are there as well

[Opie Yutts]

Thanks Ziggy, I've been watching that from nearly the beginning.

Tomatoes - Yes
Big Dank Nugs - Still not convinced

[NorCal Grown]

I read through this thread and I have yet to see any solid reasons why you would WANT to use L.E.D.'s??? :wtf: Anybody see any killer L.E.D. grows? They are inefficient, dim, and have to be almost touching the plant to have any real effect. Sure you could buy $3000 worth of L.E.D.'s and grow a plant or two, but whats the point? Thats a huge waste of money, and money = energy. I think the most efficient setup would use ether a Dual 600w Digital ballast HPS or a 1000w Digital ballast HPS.

I posted this in the an other L.E.D. thread: "I really don't think LED's are going anywhere, they are not even more efficient then a CFL for Lumen output per Watt used. Low pressure sodium would be the most efficient, but not for growing. So high pressure sodium would be the next step down in a efficient light source. Maybe sulfur plasma lights will get better/cheaper soon??

Here is some Lumen's per Watt:
Candle : ~.3 (Lm/W)
Incandescent : 20~24 (Lm/W)
Halogen : 30~36 (Lm/W)
L.E.D.'s : 26-70 (Lm/W) The high of 70 is for prototype white L.E.D.'s
CFL's : 45-105 (Lm/W)
Sulfur Plasma : ~100 (Lm/W) light output VERY close to sunlight, better than any other artificial light source.
Metal halide : 80~125 (Lm/W)
High pressure sodium lamps : 140-160 (Lm/W)
Low pressure sodium lamps : 180-200 (Lm/W)"

[Blumen]

The 100 lm/W barrier has been broken by lot's of high power manufacturers for white LEDs last year (Cree/Luxeon/Seoul Semiconductor), available at stores.

[NorCal Grown]

I guess I wasn't up to date on prototype white L.E.D.'s. I looked around a bit and found the prototype white LED achieving 150 (Lm/W). The rating they gave it was VERY misleading. You might notice that it was rated using Lumen's per watt of light output, not per watt of electrical input. It was emitting 420 Lumen's at 8-watts. Witch is 52.5 (Lm/W) by my math. :wtf: They are trying to show some advancement, maybe to get some goverment funding?? Like wind and solar maybe???

[NorCal Grown]

Side note: The theoretical maximum is 683 (Lm/W).