High Tech

[BobBong]

Low light plants include: African violets, some orchids, parsley, fleshy-stemmed herbs, some annuals. Some low light plants may require less.

High light plants include: Peppers, tomatoes, some orchids, roses, woody-stemmed herbs, some annuals.


It seems overly expensive for the amount of light you're actually using. I see lettuce and parsley and african violets , which.. to be frank don't require a lot.
I personally feel that LED lighting would be ideal for seedlings and clones as you can strongly control the spectrum of the light.
However.. for a 3 foot plant 6 weeks into flower....well.. I guess we won't know until it's done!

Thanks for the Links, hope to see more LED research in the near future.

[Mockery]

Luxeon is breaking the rules on LED and power output. But, still a little costly. Leaning towards mass flood and prox. to the plant. Instead of costly output. In fact, considering stringing LED's through the plants after 3 week flowering stretch. And have ideas for a cola booster of sorts.

Cut the bottom of a 2 & 3 liter bottle off. Line the inside of the 3 liter with aluminum foil and add about 4 of these in blue and red. Place the 2 liter inside the 3 liter, and hang it on your colas.
http://www.theledlight.com/light_bars.html

Considering I've read that only 1% of the light coming from the sun, gets to, and is a usable spectrum by plants. The numbers on HID lights is only slightly better with 6%, mostly due to directional lighting.

There is massive amounts of LED info coming online in the last 2 years. And, the technology is advancing faster than we get it. Meaning Luxeon scratches half of what they make, because they made it better before it went to market.

At any rate, after a year of research, I have nearly $400 in products shipping, and should have a working prototype within 45 days.

[Mockery]

The makers of the LED grow lights, I listed, are using 3mm bulbs, 5k - 10kmcd, with a viewing angle of 40 - 60 degrees. I'll be using 5mm and 10mm bulbs, 40k - 65kmcd, with a wiewing angle of 90 - 120 degrees, in quite larger arrays.

[Mockery]

Some better examples of LED's and Prices.
http://stores.ebay.com/TopBright-Led-Store

[Mockery]

Using less LED lights than thought, so I'll have plenty of backups.

[Opie Yutts]

Well I'm looking forward to seeing this progress. I'm probably not a lot of help at this point, I've only researched and toyed with LEDs. I've found the way that makes the most sense is to use 3 and 5 watters. 10 and 15 watters make the project much more expensive for the same amounts of light. I'm sure this will change in the near future. I don't think proper LED grow lights exist, though a few come close (SnS). I'd build my own for sure.

Are you familiar with rockwool? If not, I suggest not using it. It's hard to work with and in general it sucks, though many people seem to like it. Clay pellets are much easier, cheaper, and safer.

Bob is worried that LED might not work for a mature plant, but I disagree. Depends on wattage, viewing angles, and spectrum. We have just begun to scratch the surface of what is capable with LED grows. What I've seen is just not quite there yet, but it's very promising and getting closer all the time. Maybe you can be the first to really make something big happen. I think it's real simple. Use a lot of 465 in veg, and a lot of 660 in bud. Maybe a little 300 at certain times, and maybe some 735 so you can have an extra 2 hours of light in budding, or maybe not. Just blue and red will do just fine if set up properly.

I'll be watching. BlueBear is probably in the ball park about people not responding because this is relatively new technology. We'll show em.

[xcrispi]

Hey Opie ,
Don't think my man had too much luck . lol
That threads 2 yrs old now .

:S5:

Crispi :stoned:

[Opie Yutts]

wow xcrispi, I didn't even notice. I feel kinda stupid now. From his talk in a LED thread I thought this was up and going. Maybe I should look at dates.