36 watt LED shoe box

Here's a pic of a 36 watt (measured) shoe box using eight 5 watt high power LEDs. Grow area is .27 square feet. LEDs are from Mouser Electronics.

The white LEDs you see have a strong blue and green component. The green light is used for auxin (a light sensitive plant hormone) stimulation (photomorphgenisis) rather than photosynthesis.

No, the plants do not burn with such a high light level and the temperature stays very close to ambient with the box closed. There are several large air holes in back.

Running the fan at 5 volts makes the system silent.

5mm LEDs are a waste of time for flowering/budding. It does not matter how close you pack those little LEDs together, you will not get a high enough photon flux density for good performance (veg growth is different). You really need to use high power LEDs to get a full successful grow (I have 120 watts worth of 5mm LEDs, this comes from experience).

The flowering/budding is very dense at such power levels and is tighter than I've ever gotten from CFL. It's about $90 in parts.


Flickr: Photos from LED and other geek stuff

So, you have flowered under LEDs..

do you have pictures?

I spoke with a sales rep at Oasis and he told me that LEDs need to be 18 inches form the plants to work at peak performance.. what do you think about that..

thanks for the pictures and info..

Are they any LED systems on the market that you would suggest?

cheers

Sorry for the long response time.

I've flowered under LEDs and it's a joke. The high power LEDs can work but they cost way to much. You can do just as well with a CFL. I wouldn't recommend any LED grow light on the market and consider the LED grow light market to be a hyped up scam.

The 5mm LED arrays do work well for mother plants and cuttings, however.