Led Users Unite!

How's it going? I'm currently growing 5 big bud under 2 Super Grow LEDs...I'm fairly confident I have too many plants/not enough light. After I harvest these I will stick to 2-3 plants and I'm also getting another light. I'm thinking Blackstar? Thoughts? Check my previous post for more pictures. Auto flower, big bud, LED, GH hydro nutrients..any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/570180-beginner-scrog-diy-led-help.html

I am looking for an LED for my starter/mother setup. I can get them custom made with the led's of my choosing what spectrum (nm) led's and in what ratio's should I be gearing towards?

Hey,
About to start 1st grow. I am only growin 1 auto to start. Will one of those flat panel led lights suffice for this?somewhere between 10-20w using 225 led's ratio is 1/3 blue/red!
If anyone can advise or recomend it will be much appreciated!
Oh I should add just lost my job so skint I have about £30 to play with!
Thanks

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Excuse my lazyness, I've read close to 20 pages ....

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1. Is there another brand other than VIPAR that's recommended? Something for Canada?

What about the Lumigrow?

http://www.lumigrow.com/products/pro-series-greenhouse-lights/

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2. Is there a 5 watt bulb setup recommended?

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3. Is there a full spectrum, or wide spectrum, bulb array recommended?

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I had some hermying with a cheap set of UFOs a few years back and it put me off LEDs. I'm now looking at both 300 watts of LED or Plasma to replace my 600 watt HPS. Recomendations appreciated.

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Don't know if any reputable vendors are in Canada. I and many others grow blackstar.

5W are still pretty new (this year)... would recommend whichever light you are thinking of finding as many actual grow threads as possible and reading them rather than worrying about anything anyone says to you here everyone's got their own opinion.

Full spectrum is not needed. Most LEDs come with 6 or 7 spectrums though (although almost all of the LEDs are usually simple blue/red)

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Thanks Semseimillia, Blackstar looks like the one.

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Thoughts on the Blackstar EFSF 8?

I has 120 lights @ 3(?) watts per but is placed in the 300 watt area. They are missing info in their description, the watt range.

I would like some UVA and some far red or orange for the Emerson effect.

What do you knowledgeable people think? I need to replace a 600 watt HPS with the lowest watt LED lamp built to replace it. Stealth grow.

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http://www.blackstarled.com/360wefsf2013.html

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LED experts what are your feelings on getting some UVA for trichome production and some orange or far red for the Emerson effect?

The Blackstar ESFS 8 that I'm looking at has neither and has only 3 bands.

Thoughts and comments appreciated.

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Hobbes - I got the 400w solarstorm from Cal light works and it has some UVB side lighting from fluorescents that you flick on for the final weeks of flowering. I signed up for the grower feedback forum so I got it for $599 vs $899 or whatever retail is. You could apply to the grower feedback forum - I've seen some other Canadians that are part of their program on their forum.

The non-ESFS blackstars have a UV diode but it's just one so probably doesn't do a lot. You don't need to buy an expensive LED to flick on some UV CFLs you can get those at almost any pet store haven't heard much bad about that company though so hopefuly it works out

Senseimilla said:

The non-ESFS blackstars have a UV diode but it's just one so probably doesn't do a lot. You don't need to buy an expensive LED to flick on some UV CFLs you can get those at almost any pet store haven't heard much bad about that company though so hopefuly it works out

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Too true. Although I have to say I was attracted to the all-in-one-unit-ness of it. Sad to admit but otherwise it's something I'd probably never get around to adding myself.

Nothing against those ESFS lights, they look fine... but if you're gonna stay at 3w diodes you might as well stick to the original 2012 models... i'm waiting for 5w lights to get a little more mainstream and hoping to make the jump to those then... my blackstars have only been running 6 months so hopefully they make it til then

this may be heresy to put in an LED thread, but i'm also awful curious about CMH

cmantis said:

I am looking for an LED for my starter/mother setup. I can get them custom made with the led's of my choosing what spectrum (nm) led's and in what ratio's should I be gearing towards?

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for a mother setup a 90w UFO would do the job and be nice and cheap, for veg you only really need a small tri-band (3 spectrum) model, I can only imagine 'custom' would be more expensive than getting an old cheapo blackstar. But you want anything from 400nm to 520nm for the blue spec and you want to throw in a bit of red at 610nm to 720nm for veg your going to want a good 70/30 - blue/red split.

Just look at some established grow light companies and see what spectrums they use in their veg models, that'll give you a picture of what everyone's using and what works!

MrShell said:

Hey,
About to start 1st grow. I am only growin 1 auto to start. Will one of those flat panel led lights suffice for this?somewhere between 10-20w using 225 led's ratio is 1/3 blue/red!
If anyone can advise or recomend it will be much appreciated!
Oh I should add just lost my job so skint I have about £30 to play with!
Thanks

Click to expand...

Sorry 'bout your job, same happened to me last year, had to start on cheapo CFL's each grow paid for itself and more, 2 grows later got a 250w HPS, 2 more grows and now I've got an awesome 270w LED.

But the LED diodes on those lamps your looking at are what 0.2w each, they may be good for side lighting but even then I would say they are a waste of time... If your on that limited money you really don't wanna be going LED lol try for some CFL's you want some 2700k ones (for flower) and 6500k ones (for veg) as many as your ventilation system can handle! They are also good if stealth is required. And for a whole setup from scratch I'd say the minimum you could do it well on is £55-60.

Hope that helped you guys!

Stay Frosty!

CMH bulbs are fine for veg, but kinda suck for flowering compared to an HPS. stick with the LEDs, where the PAR spectrums are matched to the plants' needs and less is wasted as heat.

figured a lil video would be nice

A little misleading, pet. Get a panel with 1w leds and a panel with 3w leds as close to the plants as possible without any ill effects and the 3w should outproduce the 1w, in general. There's a reason why 3w have for the most part replaced 1w panels. A 3w panel doesn't need to be run nearly as high as most people recommend. The reason why they are run higher is to increase coverage and find the sweet spot in terms of intensity and coverage. But you can safely get a 3w close enough to the plant to make that argument irrelevant. The reason why I would choose 1w over 3w is efficiency over power. Hgl compairsons were done with magnifying lenses on the 1w and without on the 3w, that's why they appear brighter in those videos. If you can drive a 1w chip at max rating, with proper cooling to achieve max efficiency without degrading the lifespan, then I recommend 1w over 3, otherwise, stick with 3w. Theres so many other aspects of a led chip to consider that simply saying one vs the other is the way to go should be taken with a grain of salt. But in general, 3w should get better results than 1w.

I'm running my all my 3w, 5w and 10w diodes at a bit less than 1w (expensive 24w all-CREE DIY lamp). Going by the datasheets, they all get more efficient as their potential power increases.

I like PetFlora's point, though, which might be paraphrased like so: LEDs drawing 1w can be kept closer to the canopy than those running a higher current, so you can end up with more photosynthesis per watt.

There's also an argument for having enough power in the LEDs to keep a bit of distance and still have plenty of light, so the different colors can mix and each leaf gets something close to the right balance.

Holy crap 570 pages

ironcross360 said:

Holy crap 570 pages

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Very informative post.

/golfclap

I think the main issue between 1w and 3w (and higher) debate is penetration. You will have lower penetration ability on the 1w LEDs, thus it might be more effective for SCROG type grows. I think it solely depends on the style.