Lighting pick?? 600w HPS or LEC 315 CMH

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Im vegging with t5's and going to use the Lec for flower. Some may say the LeC is a veg light, but the spectrum should kick ass in flower too. I get great results with the t5's for veg.
They flower just fine, no worries there. If you're planning to use the 3100k bulbs and your T5's are 6500k, be prepared for significant stretch, not a bad thing but you may want to allow some extra height first go until you see how they stretch.
 

medicalMonster

Well-Known Member
Never seen many LED at the hydro store? Seems to be all HPS. Supply and demand no?

If LEDS yielded their weight in cost you would not see HPS dominating. Maybe part of it is the cheap non functional led panels vs the well built leds scaring people from dropping coin on a bad ass panel.

But i also know jack about economics so take that with a grain of salt. BUT -

I'm considering doing a side by side same strain same but separate tent, same everything. One with and amazon led (cant afford LEC) and one with a 400mh. Itll be cool I think.

I mean someone must have done that before but I will see with MY EYEBALLS :P

My two cents?

A well ventilated 600w. With quality clean bulbs. And the right climate. Your golden. bongsmilie
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
I'm considering doing a side by side same strain same but separate tent, same everything. One with and amazon led (cant afford LEC) and one with a 400mh. Itll be cool I think.

I mean someone must have done that before but I will see with MY EYEBALLS :P
If that Amazon LED you're considering is one of those purple 3w/5w diode lights you may want to consider reading through the thread below, ran it almost 2 years ago. That was a last attempt at trying to get some production from TOP Led reflector panels just before I switched to the LEC's for flowering. Might save you some time/money. No agenda, just sharing what I saw with my own eyes ;) It didn't matter how much cheap wattage I threw at them, they just didn't cut it for weight. Good quality but a waste of 3-4 month cycles imo.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/chinese-led-grow-75-actual-draw-watts-per-plant-veg-100w-per-plant-flower.800122/
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Could you give me an example of say a good 180w and a good 600+? Solarstorm?
No links but there are tons of grows with different lights here in the LED section, including many of the low end and I've seen the odd SolarStorm. Don't know a lot about those SolarStorms but looking at their specs and cost of those lights I'd recommend any COB-based (Vero or Cree) light over those. There are several commercial COB panels out now if you're not into DIY, running $2.00 - $2.50/watt so for the price of an $1,800 SolarStorm 880 (680w actual output), you could buy 2x 300w commercial COB-based panels and blow that SolarStorm away imo.

On the low end for 180w if you wanted to test something that could grow nice bud without breaking the bank, 2x Area 51 W90's which are Vero based COBs would be a good buy. That said, 2x W90's would be getting close to the price of 1x 315w LEC which would not even be comparable, the LEC would blow those out of the water (double the footprint coverage, no contest) for almost the same price.
 

augusto1

Well-Known Member
how bad is LEC for veg ? I would like to use them, but I don't want to be switching lights for every stage.

Thanks In Advance.
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
how bad is LEC for veg ? I would like to use them, but I don't want to be switching lights for every stage.

Thanks In Advance.
Don't know myself from experience as I don't veg with them. I'd imagine the 3100k's would still veg fine as they have a fairly good spike of blues in their spectrum chart, they also have a 4200k bulb which would veg probably a little better, that's a 1 minute swap. I don't use the 4200k's but I do switch from the 315w to 210w from time to time if my footprint is smaller, takes all of 2 minutes.

Anyone who's vegged and flowered with the 3100k's?
 

medicalMonster

Well-Known Member
I put the spectrum up. It looks pretty solid. If anything a e39 sized 6500/2700 would do the job as supplemental spectrum. Or spydr has light rails (cree) that can be purchased in all temps. That would be ideal if you have $200 per rail. The 1200 is on my bucket list. 2-3k lol..... But it pays for itself in less then a year. Hmmmm. . . .

tahoe og their getting like 2.4 gr per watt with the 1200.... lol
 

BiG PuFFer

Well-Known Member
They flower just fine, no worries there. If you're planning to use the 3100k bulbs and your T5's are 6500k, be prepared for significant stretch, not a bad thing but you may want to allow some extra height first go until you see how they stretch.
Why is that? If i veg them for a week or two with the LeC after the t5's, will that help?
 

GroErr

Well-Known Member
Why is that? If i veg them for a week or two with the LeC after the t5's, will that help?
There's some science behind the greater the difference in colour temperature between veg & flower, the greater the stretch. Mine go from 3w LED's with lots of blues and stretch like mofo's when I switch so if you're going from 6500k to 3100k you should see pretty significant stretch. You may not see any difference if you're currently going to hps in flower though. That combo of the T5's/LEC through stretch might help reduce it and wouldn't hurt to try it. They're essentially going through a fast spurt of vegetative growth through the stretch until they start setting flowers, the 6500k won't hurt in that period, the mix of spectrum could be a good thing all around.
 

BiG PuFFer

Well-Known Member
There's some science behind the greater the difference in colour temperature between veg & flower, the greater the stretch. Mine go from 3w LED's with lots of blues and stretch like mofo's when I switch so if you're going from 6500k to 3100k you should see pretty significant stretch. You may not see any difference if you're currently going to hps in flower though. That combo of the T5's/LEC through stretch might help reduce it and wouldn't hurt to try it. They're essentially going through a fast spurt of vegetative growth through the stretch until they start setting flowers, the 6500k won't hurt in that period, the mix of spectrum could be a good thing all around.
Might not be too bad. My t5 packs the nodes pretty tight.
 
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