Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting

this dude is SMART and on top of the LED issue and this forum is responded to by many LED industry wireheads who are on top of the whole game ..... lotsa tech stuff...LOTS of pics...lotsa spec

theres mention of both the high watt (100 rather than the single 14 OR 28W panels) LED products UFO and PROCYLON i suggest that all those who are posting here look at the site these dudes are posting to and rethink a lot of the stuff weve been considering and reasoning. after taking a look ck out what one of em passed on to me......out of his concern and our respect im not gonna name his (unless someday he wants to be famous).

as he is the UNKNOWN i still wanna thank him and give him his props

Ziggy,

I've spent some time looking over your forum from the link you provided.

These are my opinions, but please remember I'm just learning and have a long way to go. So, my comments are based on this and what I've found out by my testing which is all public for you to see. I could be wrong and reserve the right to be!

Anyway:

Forget about the small led bulbs and Ebay 14 watt panels like Flower Forcer, Grow-tec, HTG, etc They are not efficient nor powerful enough to do the job.

The Luxeon, Cree, LedEngin, etc, 1W - 15w high powers are the only way to succeed and are 30-100 times more powerful and much more efficient than the above.

The below is how I approach my grows. If I stick to these rules. I do well.

Because of my emphasis of controlling Blue/Red ratios, none of the lights sold are perfect yet for both stages. The UFO and Procyon are great foundations right now and have the power to do great things. However, if they had blue/red adjustments they would be much better. I'm finding I will need to suplement these lights with 3 watt High Power single red or blue bulbs as needed. The UFO tomato grow journal shows this theory working well and results quite quickly in the photos.

This is also the reason I am building my own high power light. I have a lot of controls built in.


Veg Stage:

Nutrients - grow formula

Lights: 18 Hours

I, and most of the knowledgable folks that correspond with me and others I can trust for honest opinions seem to be landing on a 1/3 ratio of LED to HID with pretty decent results. So far this ratio proves pretty good if not better than HID in the Vegetative stage only.

This means if you are challenging a 400 watt MH in a veg stage contest, you would need 125W of high power LEDS run efficiently, meaning the electronics are designed to run the LEDS at top performance and temperature controlled meaning the most LUMENS per watt.

Most important - The Blue to Red ratio is heavy in blue. This is the biggest mistake I see with LED growers. They are not using enough blue in the veg stage! Possibly 50/50 red/blue to start seeds and be at 60/40 - 75/25 red/blue at end of Veg Stage. It is important here to keep a balance of red/blue for fastest leaf/stem/root growth balance. Stretch control is your key. If too much stretch, your later success is doubtful.

My findings: Root growth suffers if not enough red. Stretch happens not enough blue. Leaves are too small if too much red. Leaves are to big if too much blue. Use these indicators to adjust blue-to-red ratios.

Blossom Stage:

Nutrients: Bloom formula.

Lights: 12 hours

This is most likely a 90/10 - 80/20 red/blue ratio. Red needs to be strong. Bring the blue down until all growth stops, but maintains good leaf and stem strength. You want minimal veg growth, but maintain good plant foundation. At this point, lower the blue to stress plant slightly. This should force blossom stage and if stressed properly, good blossom performance. Once number of blossoms are satisfactory, increase blue back to that point where plant leaves and stems get just healthy looking and strong. This should be about 90/10 - 85/15. This gives me best blossoms on every plant I have tried. However, there is need for improvement. Numbers of blossoms are there, but maturing them is another matter.

Opinion: Blossom stage still needs work, HPS is still better at the 1/3 LED/HID, but I believe from what I've seen, that a lot of bad blossom performance is being caused by stretched veg growth in every LED grow I've seen. You must pay attention to the veg stage to have a good blossom stage.

Future - I also think some orange and possibly some deeper blue will still need to be added, but some high powers in needed ranges have now just come available. I should be testing some of these shortly. a touch of UVB and some IR have not been ruled out and there are good scientific arguments that these are needed. This is proven by the fact that plant growth under the sun using tinted filtered UVB/IR glass is poor in the blossom stage.


now where to from here ???

one last thing if you post there dont say nothing about no ganja weed or shit like that ....lab coats