First grow: Northern Lights with LEDs

Title edit: LEDs suck ass!!! Unless your next door neighbor is a DEA agent that has nothing better to do than spy on his neighbors, do not waste your time or money!

I've been reading alot of info on here (wish the search worked) and I'm finally able to start my grow.

Right now I have planted:
5 Northern light from Nirvana-shop (started 6 but 1 didn't crack)

6 bagseeds (BS1) which have all cracked and sprouted

2 other bagseeds (BS2) planted 3 and 1 didn't do squat.

For Nutes I got the Fox Farm Trio for hydro gardens. Paper ph test strips and a ph up /down kit w/ liquid ph test.

Some seeds I started in water and others I started in Rockwool. You'll see in some of the pictures one plant is not in any Rockwool. This little one pushed herself out of the cube so I carefully set her up in the clay rocks, and seems to be doing well.

For lighting right now I have 2 24" flourecent fixtures that are putting out about 2000 lumens each and a aerogarden hood, I think it's putting out about 2000 lumens.

I'm going to use two of these: http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/product.sc?productId=10

I choose the led panels because I'm not going to be able to run a fan to exhaust heat. I'm living in an apartment also so I don't want my usage to seem high. They say one 45 watt LED panel is equavilant to a 250 watt hps so by the company's calculations 90 watts of LED is the equivalent to 500 watts of HPS light output. Saying that LED is better than a 250 watt HPS to me is like saying margarine is better than butter. I'm kinda of skeptic about that claim, but I figure that for my first grow some of my plants my not make it and some will be male. I'm hoping that the LEDs will support the number of plants I will have (6-.

I'm moving in about 3 months so if this grow is successful I will search for opportunities to expand at my next location. Use the LEDs for clones and HPS for flowering.

But anyway I'll add pictures and tell me what you guys think.

i see those ufos are 90w and cost $549.99... you got 90w for around $280

jack tripper said:

i see those ufos are 90w and cost $549.99... you got 90w for around $280

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Ya I'm hoping it works out for me

blueybong said:

Nice set-up, but your lights are too high/above the seedling. Lower them to about 4" or 5" above them and they won't stretch as much.

Peace!!

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In the last picture the lights are as close to the plants as they can get. Good looking out though

Bud for 550 bucks you can buy and have delivered 2 1000w hps or mh lights.

DaBombSquad said:

Bud for 550 bucks you can buy and have delivered 2 1000w hps or mh lights.

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dynamitejack said:

choose the led panels because I'm not going to be able to run a fan to exhaust heat. I'm living in an apartment also so I don't want my usage to seem high. They say one 45 watt LED panel is equavilant to a 250 watt hps so by the company's calculations 90 watts of LED is the equivalent to 500 watts of HPS light output. Saying that LED is better than a 250 watt HPS to me is like saying margarine is better than butter. I'm kinda of skeptic about that claim, but I figure that for my first grow some of my plants my not make it and some will be male. I'm hoping that the LEDs will support the number of plants I will have

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I think that pretty much sums up why I didn't buy a HPS just yet. (plus they were $280 not $550)

Dude all you need to veg is 2-3 4' florecent lights. With a cool white and a warm white in each one. Add a little mylar and you are good to go. Dont go with LED lights, they are a waste of money. If LED's worked as good as they say everyone out there would use them. They might do ok for veg. I dont know but not for budding.

there are some led grow vids on you tube, one guy got some ok buds with 60watts. there is a 70w led vs. a 70w hps video, and the buds look the same. its too bad that the 300w led is so expensive...almost $1800.

I kept the seeds in cups of water until they each started cracking. That was about six days ago. I moved them to Rockwool inside of plastic bags and kept them in the dark until they broke the seed and started to sprout. Well on day six a few girls made it out of the net pod.

jack tripper said:

there are some led grow vids on you tube, one guy got some ok buds with 60watts. there is a 70w led vs. a 70w hps video, and the buds look the same. its too bad that the 300w led is so expensive...almost $1800.

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The 300w is a beast, on their website they have a couple of pictures of the 300w being used commercially.

Update Today is day 7 since I first started the seeds and these things are starting to get big! I havn't started them on any nutes yet because I'm waiting on my ph test strips and ph up/down kit.

I decided that the lighting I had wasn't enough for 14 plants and bought 2 48" floro fixtures with GE daylight 6500k bulbs. I jumped from about 5000 lumens to over 12,000

Some of the sprouts were stretching to old lights so I bent them over to try to experiment with LST. I'm going to LST all of the plants if possible.

Pic uploader wasn't working so heres pics



Roots




Starting LST

Wow after about an hour:


One of the largest plants:

I gave them a bit of sodium free Seltzer water

Is there a rule about using an image host for pictures that I'm not aware of?

Day 8:
I added some Fox Farms Grow Big last night at 1/4 strength I added 1 gallon of water with 1/2 tsp to fill it up and added 4 tsp to the other 9 gallons. It seems that with the increased light and Grow Big has doubled their size in less than 24 hours. Most of the plants have at least 2 sets of leafs and some are starting to show a third set

dynamitejack said:

Day 8:
I added some Fox Farms Grow Big last night at 1/4 strength I added 1 gallon of water with 1/2 tsp to fill it up and added 4 tsp to the other 9 gallons. It seems that with the increased light and Grow Big has doubled their size in less than 24 hours. Most of the plants have at least 2 sets of leafs and some are starting to show a third set

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nice definitely doubled up. Let me know how the Glowpanel 45's work, im really interested

I'm curious to know what kind of spectrum those LED lights put out. Do they have different options for veg and flowering or are they just universal?

Btw, some of those plants look like they're kinda lanky. Get those lights down on them a little more.

Mcgician said:

I'm curious to know what kind of spectrum those LED lights put out. Do they have different options for veg and flowering or are they just universal?

Btw, some of those plants look like they're kinda lanky. Get those lights down on them a little more.

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i think he's just using his 2 floro's for now, maybe the 2 glowpanel LED's didn't arrive yet?

Btw DJ.. those rubbermaids.. what size are you using, did you cut the holes yourself?

chusett said:

nice definitely doubled up. Let me know how the Glowpanel 45's work, im really interested

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I'm going to keep this thread updated. I hope they work well.

Mcgician said:

I'm curious to know what kind of spectrum those LED lights put out. Do they have different options for veg and flowering or are they just universal?



Btw, some of those plants look like they're kinda lanky. Get those lights down on them a little more.

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Sunshine Systems makes 3 different spectrum's. Blue, mixed and red. I bought one mixed spectrum and one red.

For the first week I thought that that 2 24' floro's would do it but they didn't, hence the streaching. I'm using 2 48" floro's now with a 6500k temp.

chusett said:

i think he's just using his 2 floro's for now, maybe the 2 glowpanel LED's didn't arrive yet?

Btw DJ.. those rubbermaids.. what size are you using, did you cut the holes yourself?

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I'm getting the LEDs in the mail tomorrow. But I'm thinking I should send back the mixed spectrum panel and get another red one instead. I like what the 48" are doing for my girls.

I have 3 10 gallon RM containers 2 for growing one for mixing their food. I did cut the holes myself I cut a piece of string to see the circumference of the netpod right under the lip and cut out a piece of cardboard about 2.9 inches in circumference. Then I cut the holes I drew with a razor like a pie and then took the razor and cut out the rest of the circle. Then I sprayed a layer of spray paint on the top and bottom of the lid. It took about 2 hours start to finish

I posted up a picture of this plant a few days ago with the root running across the clear cup. Well now its huge! Luckily it is just random bagseed I pulled out of some good mids.

At least the roots like healthy!

I'm kind of wondering what the hell to do with this one. She grew much faster than I had expected.

All 5 NL girls are getting huge. I had no way of testing the ph of the water but I used 5 gallons of RO distilled water and 5 gallons of tap water. First I added about .5 ml water stabilizer that removed chlorine and metals and let it sit 24 hours. I figured it was safe after a week to add 1/4 strength nutrients to the 5 NL and 1 bagseed (which I have labeled bs1) and they are taking off!

I'm waiting for my final order to come in it has: ph up/down kit with liquid tester, 10 3" netpods, paper ph test strips, and LEDs. So when I finally get everything I need I can add better lights and nutrients.

Woo I got my goods in!

I finally recieved the last of the things I needed.

Paper Ph test strips

Netpods (for the poor 6 bagseeds in clear cups)

Netpod covers

Ph up/down kit with liquid tester

LEDS!!!!
These things are pretty bright. It's not possible to look at them straight on






back of the panel




You could very easily mount these panels to dry wall for side lighting


If I like the LEDs I'll probably put 2 12x12 panels over each res


I think the lights are to high for such small plants but where they are at right now is the lowest point they can go and keep the plants evenly covered with light. I'm going to leave them in there for 12 hours and see how the plants respond. I may have to bring back in the floros until I'm done vegging.




Northern lights with Mixed red and blue spectrum. There is 2 red LEDs for every 1 blue LED.


Bagseeds under full red spectrum LEDs

My ph level was running a little b
it to high in both resevors. The res on the left is the northern light and on the left is the 6 bagseeds. I added 1/4 strength nutes to the NL plants a few days ago now that I have the ph between 5 & 6 I hope they will take to them a little better. I added 1/2 strength nutes to the bagseeds and balanced the ph.