Bridgelux COBs, single or combo for full-grown tomatoes

Hi,
new to this forum but have read a lot and appreciate the expertise here. I only have vegetables in hydro and my setup is 8x2,5 with 10 buckets of dwarf tomatoes and some other smaller herbs and peppers. I hope I still qualify as grower
I'm using today the cheap Yxo 50W DOBs 3500K and honestly the setup works quite OK. I have one active 65W cpu cooler with one 50W DOB on each of them that are individually height adjustable above each bucket, they run directly on 230v (i'm in Europe).

I'm considering an upgrade to some affordable COBs and have identified that Bridgelux have some that i could use.
I will keep the CPU cooler and just add new COBs and drivers. Stripes are not an option as all the plants are different heights and I would like to keep my existing coolers.
I don't want to change COBs for different growth stages and would like to use same setup from first stage to ripen fruits. My question is what would be the best setup from below options.

1. Use one V18C Thrive 3000K COB BXRE-30S4001-C-73 , i see that Thrive series are popular and have high CRI, this 40W COB will probably be much more efficient that my cheap DOB today.
2. Use two smaller V13C Thrive 2700K + 4000K (or higher) BXRE-27S2001-C-73 + BXRE-40S2001-C-73 , both of the V13C will fit on the same cooler and should have similar output to the single COB.
3. Use Vero instead of Thrive? Same here, one 3000K Vero 18C or two different K Vero 13C ?
4. As I'm on a budget and pure tomatoes hobbyist I would also like to use the cheaper MW LRS-150 drivers. Are these OK for budget use paired with above COBs?


Thanks in advance!

Well I learned what a DOB is today ... and it's not a typo.

I use Vero 29s. 300 W per 2x4 space.
They absolutely crushed my cayenne this past Fall.
And when I'm done with my 4x4 cannabis grow I am putting in a square foot garden in my 4x4 under 600W COB.
16 square feet, one plant per square foot. Dwarf toms, peppers, peas, onions, garlic, lettuces etc...

Anyway, can't answer all your questions, hopefully someone will.
But I can vouch for COBs growing fruit and vegetables.

drsaltzman said:

Well I learned what a DOB is today ... and it's not a typo.

I use Vero 29s. 300 W per 2x4 space.
They absolutely crushed my cayenne this past Fall.
And when I'm done with my 4x4 cannabis grow I am putting in a square foot garden in my 4x4 under 600W COB.
16 square feet, one plant per square foot. Dwarf toms, peppers, peas, onions, garlic, lettuces etc...

Anyway, can't answer all your questions, hopefully someone will.
But I can vouch for COBs growing fruit and vegetables.

Click to expand...

Thanks, the Vero 29s seems to be too powerful per single plant, but maybe I'm wrong. My coolers are rated at 70W TDP which should be more then enough even for Vero 29s and i probably could use the cheaper MW LRS-150-48 to power those, was thinking to use the 36V version before.
How about the "K" ? Single 3000K from beginning to the end?

You can dim them.
Best to have more than you need and dial it back than not have enough.
3K or 3.5K ... I don't think it's a huge difference.

I'm also considering alternative with 2-3 x 280mm EB Series™ Gen 3 Thrive stripes per each bucket.
These two will probably provide enough light for each plant , or I might even go with three of them per bucket. The buckets are 400 mm so three stripes next to each other would be around 30W of efficient light which should be better then my 50W today.
Seems like these EB Series™ Gen 3 Thrive 480mA does not require active cooling either.
Is this better alternative than Vero COB?

Are you hand pollinating or by air circulation? Not an indoor tomato guy, but 3000-3500k sounds right for full cycle? If your continuing on dwarf varieties=strips could be a better match.

Only one way to find out grower

PSUAGRO. said:

Are you hand pollinating or by air circulation? Not an indoor tomato guy, but 3000-3500k sounds right for full cycle? If your continuing on dwarf varieties=strips could be a better match.

Only one way to find out grower

Click to expand...

I'm hand pollinating by using an old electric toothbrush, vibrating on the flower stem
I've tested 8 dwarf varieties in hydro but have now chosen only 2-3 of them that have good resistance and size with many flowers and fruits. 35L / 7,5Gal buckets with Kratky , but i do change the whole solution twice during the ~90 days cycle.

The EB Gen 3 Thrive seems to fulfill my criteria.
I might go with 8 x 1120mm and divide my space in 2 so i can adjust the height on half of the plants and keep them in different cycles so i always have tomatoes
Next question would be if 4 x EB Gen 3 @3500K and 906mA would be enough for four tomato plants. My buckets are 40cm so with some spacing the four stripes could cover four buckets

I'm also not sure about the driver for these, it reads 40,6V and 906mA , i was considering the cheaper MW LRS-150-36 . Can one of these drivers power the four 906mA stripes. According to MW product sheet the LRS-150-36 could be set to 39.6V and could take up to 4.3A which should be fine for four of these strips but i'm not really sure as i've no experience with LED drivers.

Final question, would a heatsink of 20mm wide and 6mm high across the whole stripe be enough for cooling, i'll have some fans above to circulate the air. My grow room is not a tent so there is some air circulation from the garage space ...