Why are so many new growers choosing blurple/led over hps/mh??

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Bugbee says led are way better. I don't know what your waiting for.
For now HID lighting meets my needs. LEDs or some evolution of them are the future. However they are an evolving technology and as rapidly evolving tech goes you pay a high price for the bleeding edge best and not all the parameters are as yet understood so there will be more evolution. All this is paid for by the early adopting consumer.

I'm sure one day I'll have different forms of light in my grow rooms but until the tech gets more uniform I can afford to wait. But I have seen fabulous grows under LED however until there is more research and the tech matures my plants do well enough for me.
IMG_0630.jpeg
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Have you used anything other then HID
Sure have. Rock my little girls under my 8-tube bank of T-12s and have 24 small plants under my 11 - bulb bank of 9w LEDs with the tops popped off atm.

I got nothing against LEDs of any kind. Just get PO'd with little boi attitudes that they are so f'n great when good HIDs still are what they compare themselves to. I rock good HIDs like Hortilux Super HPS. My grow room is way too cold to need a cooler light source like LEDs COB or otherwise. I'd need the heater on with the lights and heaters don't grow plants.

Every situation is different and to claim there is but one solution is to show your ignorance. Ignorance can be cured with education. Stupidity is forever.

:peace:
 

christopher jordan

Well-Known Member
seems like because weed has been illegal for so long, there isn't yet consensus on anything in the growing world. Pretty confusing for newbs.
Oh there definitely is, you just have to be on here more.
Sure have. Rock my little girls under my 8-tube bank of T-12s and have 24 small plants under my 11 - bulb bank of 9w LEDs with the tops popped off atm.

I got nothing against LEDs of any kind. Just get PO'd with little boi attitudes that they are so f'n great when good HIDs still are what they compare themselves to. I rock good HIDs like Hortilux Super HPS. My grow room is way too cold to need a cooler light source like LEDs COB or otherwise. I'd need the heater on with the lights and heaters don't grow plants.

Every situation is different and to claim there is but one solution is to show your ignorance. Ignorance can be cured with education. Stupidity is forever.

:peace:
Heat is the same watt for watt regardless of source. Education?
 

christopher jordan

Well-Known Member
For now HID lighting meets my needs. LEDs or some evolution of them are the future. However they are an evolving technology and as rapidly evolving tech goes you pay a high price for the bleeding edge best and not all the parameters are as yet understood so there will be more evolution. All this is paid for by the early adopting consumer.

I'm sure one day I'll have different forms of light in my grow rooms but until the tech gets more uniform I can afford to wait. But I have seen fabulous grows under LED however until there is more research and the tech matures my plants do well enough for me.
View attachment 4468452
Led has basically topped out at about 3.0 umols per watt. It won't be going much higher any time soon.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Sure have. Rock my little girls under my 8-tube bank of T-12s and have 24 small plants under my 11 - bulb bank of 9w LEDs with the tops popped off atm.

I got nothing against LEDs of any kind. Just get PO'd with little boi attitudes that they are so f'n great when good HIDs still are what they compare themselves to. I rock good HIDs like Hortilux Super HPS. My grow room is way too cold to need a cooler light source like LEDs COB or otherwise. I'd need the heater on with the lights and heaters don't grow plants.

Every situation is different and to claim there is but one solution is to show your ignorance. Ignorance can be cured with education. Stupidity is forever.

:peace:
I use a couple T5HO lights mostly for cloning and seedlings or in the male room ;) when I was running large mothers I used a plasma light and it was absolutely amazing. It had the best light penetration I've ever seen. However it was quite expensive and died early. Also my cloning method evolved to a more efficient system so replacement was an unnecessary expense.

I keep looking at adding in an LED and that's what brings me to these wars (reminds me of the PC vs Apple wars as things were rapidly evolving in computers). I'm waiting for a matrix of price to performance with a concomitant flattening in the evolutionary curve. Then I'm sure I'll buy one.
 

christopher jordan

Well-Known Member
Where I live, electricity costs 4x as much as it does where you live. $400 a month in electricity bills is enough money to add a new 260W quantum board kit every month and still have money left over to power it.

Also, it's hot as balls where I live, and being able to run my tent 10 degrees warmer saves me even more on AC costs than I save on lighting costs.

Also, I yield more than you do both per watt and per square foot due to efficiency, optimal environment, and better spread.

Also I will never have a fire because one of my HPS bulbs just fucking exploded for no reason and rained down flaming hot death on everything in the growroom.
You mean you don't want a big hot bulbous thing exploding in you face? lol. Nicer on the enviro.
 

gwheels

Well-Known Member
I won an HPS and ran it in my bloom room with my cobs strips and boards. I moved things around to get the wattage down a bit and try and maintain the heat.
1000 watt HPS with an air cooled hood extracted outside. Running at 750 watts
If i did not have to run a dehuey i would have no heat issues. But the extra wattage with the light is causing issues.

Its not the light exactly....its the 1500 watts with the dehuey....I can run it at 1200 or so with the dehuey (regardless of light) and it will maintain perfect temps.

Buds do grow different under both lights. I prefer the way a COB or a board makes the colas look but you have to clean up the bottom stuff a lot more. The HPS power goes deeper.

I think the LED has more terpy flavor but i will have a better guess on the next harvest. its half under a 3k board with 660nm far reds and half under the HPS hood. Harvests in a couple of days.

all lights grow. Even the blurples.

Efficiency is a big deal except that gov weed costs 11 a gram...so whats a gigawatt here and there. For the cost of 1 oz of that stuff i grow as much as i could ever consume....for around 300 i grow over a pound every month. And that opened up making hash and rosin and getting the hang of that too :D

Of all of the lighting i have....slight edge to cobs because they seem to get deeper than the boards...but its a minor difference. Boards grow some frosty ass buds. But conditions of your room effect the lighting requirement.

I might even grab one of those new mars 150 things for a 20 x 36 tent i will free up when i build a dryer next week....I love trying a new light.
 

christopher jordan

Well-Known Member
I use a couple T5HO lights mostly for cloning and seedlings or in the male room ;) when I was running large mothers I used a plasma light and it was absolutely amazing. It had the best light penetration I've ever seen. However it was quite expensive and died early. Also my cloning method evolved to a more efficient system so replacement was an unnecessary expense.

I keep looking at adding in an LED and that's what brings me to these wars (reminds me of the PC vs Apple wars as things were rapidly evolving in computers). I'm waiting for a matrix of price to performance with a concomitant flattening in the evolutionary curve. Then I'm sure I'll buy one.
They make some nice t5 replacement leds that are twice as efficient now.
I won an HPS and ran it in my bloom room with my cobs strips and boards. I moved things around to get the wattage down a bit and try and maintain the heat.
1000 watt HPS with an air cooled hood extracted outside. Running at 750 watts
If i did not have to run a dehuey i would have no heat issues. But the extra wattage with the light is causing issues.

Its not the light exactly....its the 1500 watts with the dehuey....I can run it at 1200 or so with the dehuey (regardless of light) and it will maintain perfect temps.

Buds do grow different under both lights. I prefer the way a COB or a board makes the colas look but you have to clean up the bottom stuff a lot more. The HPS power goes deeper.

I think the LED has more terpy flavor but i will have a better guess on the next harvest. its half under a 3k board with 660nm far reds and half under the HPS hood. Harvests in a couple of days.

all lights grow. Even the blurples.

Efficiency is a big deal except that gov weed costs 11 a gram...so whats a gigawatt here and there. For the cost of 1 oz of that stuff i grow as much as i could ever consume....for around 300 i grow over a pound every month. And that opened up making hash and rosin and getting the hang of that too :D

Of all of the lighting i have....slight edge to cobs because they seem to get deeper than the boards...but its a minor difference. Boards grow some frosty ass buds. But conditions of your room effect the lighting requirement.

I might even grab one of those new mars 150 things for a 20 x 36 tent i will free up when i build a dryer next week....I love trying a new light.
The inverse square law makes light penetration the same. Led actually penetrates great because it has more green than hps.
 

gwheels

Well-Known Member
The inverse square law applies to all lighting.

wouldn't more power equal more penetration? because if you lose say 50% at 24 inches (whatever it is) 50% of 1000 is still 500 and more power than a board at 24 inches....

I run boards and cobs and boards do not go as far as cobs do not go as far as the HPS.

And lets not forget the giant hoods. The biggest problem i have is clearance. If i could mount that HPS at 7 feet i would really give it a go.
 

christopher jordan

Well-Known Member
7 feet/
The inverse square law applies to all lighting.

wouldn't more power equal more penetration? because if you lose say 50% at 24 inches (whatever it is) 50% of 1000 is still 500 and more power than a board at 24 inches....

I run boards and cobs and boards do not go as far as cobs do not go as far as the HPS.

And lets not forget the giant hoods. The biggest problem i have is clearance. If i could mount that HPS at 7 feet i would really give it a go.
7 feet. Don't do it. led's 40% better efficiency and light spread vastly out perform hps.
 

baldmountain

Active Member
I'm a new grower. Let me tell you my journey.

In August a dispensary opened in town so my wife and I went to check it out. While I was there I got to talk to one of the guys who works there and he suggested that I try growing. "That's legal?" ""Yes it is, and it's easy." When I got home I started researching. I didn't know about RIU or any of the other growing sites, but I did know about leafly. And I found this article: https://www.leafly.com/news/growing/how-to-build-cannabis-garden-for-100-500-1000-dollars Most people don't have $500 or a $1000 to start a new hobby. I sure don't. So you start with the $100 option and that means you are going to start with blurple light. You might have a bit more than $100 and decide to upgrade a few things. Considering that the light in the $500 option by itself is more than the entire $100 option you don't upgrade that. Mainly because at this point you don't know that the light is the most important part of the grow space.

And that really is the problem. There is so much contradictory, confusing and just plain wrong information that it is impossible for a new grower to build an inexpensive starter grow space without making a lot of mistakes. My grow space is really broken. I have 3 plants in a 3x3 tent (too big) with an older model Mars Hydro blurple light that is WAY TOO SMALL to light that space. I don't have money to buy a proper light so I make do with what I have. And honestly, I still have no idea what light to get for that tent without spending at least $250. (My space is in my basement with no A/C and it gets warm in the summer (mid 80s) so a light that generates a lot of heat is not an option.)

So, rather than calling new growers newbs or morons or stupid, get together as a group and put together a starter grow space that is reasonably priced. Make sure the parts can be used in a clone or veg space as the grower get more involved and upgrades. And write up an easy to follow grow guide that someone completely new to growing can follow. And get that information out there!

Being made to feel stupid because we are confused by how to start makes you wonder why you'd want to be part of this community.
 

gwheels

Well-Known Member
7 feet/

7 feet. Don't do it. led's 40% better efficiency and light spread vastly out perform hps.
I have 5 foot 8 clearance and no way around it. But i had to give it a go. There was a raffle and i won it. Its the fixture that is the clearance problem.

The room goes back to all COB BOARD STRIP with a 315 to fill 1 spot. I will put the HPS away in case i need it for something.
 
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