New Grower, Homemade LED's

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garyinok

Member
First time poster here. Back in my college days, which were a long time ago, I always wanted to try growing my own. It wasn't legal back then so I never did, but now that it is I thought I would give it a try. Not being sure if I could even do it, I picked up a couple of clones and converted a closet with some home made LED lights just to give it a try. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I used what I had lying around. This was my first grow, and it came out ok, but it produced a lot of popcorn and loose buds. I spent a lot of time reserching using household bulbs, but most of what I could find said I could probably veg with these lights but flower wouldn't go so good.

Now I am on my second grow. I rebuilt my light, moved to a 2 X 4 Tent, and found some clones with good genetics. I am now running sixteen 100W lights (272 actual at the wall draw). I'm am using the basic Fox Farm nutes and I am 32 days into flower. Since I haven't been able to find a lot of info I though I would share how mine are doing for anybody thinking of trying a DIY light.

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nmibud

Well-Known Member
This kind of set up works fine.You can change your spectrum or wattage with the twist of a bulb.They out grow many of the cheap china lights.Their only drawback is the lumens per watt are low.
 
G

garyinok

Member
After my first grow I was really on the fence about trying this again. I looked at a couple of the popular grow lights, but just couldn't see spending the money. I only ran eight 60W bulbs the first time, and the end result smoked good, but they weren't top shelf that's for sure. Got a lot of nay sayers too which had me doubting this would work. I have about $95 into this light and so far it seems to be working much better than I was expecting. Looking to improve with each grow so I appreciate the comments.
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Looks like those lights are doing as good as those fake 2000 watt LEDs on Amazon that claim to replace a 1000 watt HPS. And for your second grow you're plants look much healthier than half of what I see posted here from people dumping a dozen bottles of designer nutrients using the latest most expensive LED setup. Good job.
 
Bignutes

Bignutes

Well-Known Member
I was on the fence about doing the same lights for my seedling tent but went with the clamp style bell housing, what deterred me was using junctionboxes, it was a small issue, one that you've got setup and setup well. I like your setup man, its different and more along the lines of household power setup. Another nice feature is your ability to change up and mix and match different spectrum bulbs or when one shits the bed. Good job on the grow!
 
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garyinok

Member
Well being that it's 420 I thought I would post up a progress pic. Day 45 in flower about 15 to go using Lowes and Wal-Mart LED's. Starting to turn cloudy and swell. I'm actually really surprised by these lights. I was gonna do just the one grow with these and build a COB light next go around but now I may just keep running these.

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nmibud

Well-Known Member
Looking good!This is how I learned to stay away from mars lights.My plants under homemade lights were at least 2x as big as the mars plants.Then I moved to cobs and strips.
 
Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence

Well-Known Member
nmibud said:
Looking good!This is how I learned to stay away from mars lights.My plants under homemade lights were at least 2x as big as the mars plants.Then I moved to cobs and strips.
Click to expand...
But Mars current offerings aren't the old slug diode tech that you were using. Their lights are actually half way decent now and are not a bad option for the budget minded grower who is uncomfortable doing DIY.
 
Bad Karma

Bad Karma

Well-Known Member
garyinok said:
First time poster here. Back in my college days, which were a long time ago, I always wanted to try growing my own. It wasn't legal back then so I never did, but now that it is I thought I would give it a try. Not being sure if I could even do it, I picked up a couple of clones and converted a closet with some home made LED lights just to give it a try. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I used what I had lying around. This was my first grow, and it came out ok, but it produced a lot of popcorn and loose buds. I spent a lot of time reserching using household bulbs, but most of what I could find said I could probably veg with these lights but flower wouldn't go so good.

Now I am on my second grow. I rebuilt my light, moved to a 2 X 4 Tent, and found some clones with good genetics. I am now running sixteen 100W lights (272 actual at the wall draw). I'm am using the basic Fox Farm nutes and I am 32 days into flower. Since I haven't been able to find a lot of info I though I would share how mine are doing for anybody thinking of trying a DIY light.

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Click to expand...
You certainly have some frosty ladies there, nice job.
The reason that you're getting so much loose bud, and popcorn, is due to a lack in photosynthetically active radiation, aka PAR.
The diodes in those LED bulbs simple don't produce enough light intensity to properly light that space up for flowering.
That can be easily fixed by upgrading your light, whether its the DIY COB lamp you talked about building, or something else.
Luckily for you there are a lot of inexpensive options out there for lighting up a 2x4 grow space like yours these days.
 
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garyinok

Member
Thanks. I'm excited to see how they dry out and compare to my first go around. COB build is probably my next go. So hard to tell anymore the good from the bad. I'll post up the finished product in a couple of weeks for anybody interested in a budget friendly option.
 
S

spek9

Well-Known Member
garyinok said:
Thanks. I'm excited to see how they dry out and compare to my first go around. COB build is probably my next go. So hard to tell anymore the good from the bad. I'll post up the finished product in a couple of weeks for anybody interested in a budget friendly option.
Click to expand...
Do you wire the lights in series, or in parallel? Mind posting a pic of the back side of the board?
 
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garyinok

Member
Everything is wired in parallel. I didn't take any shots of the back but basically each socket is connected to the adjacent all the way around. That way I can pull bulbs in veg when I don't need as much light. After I harvest I'll post up the some pics to show the wiring.
 
G

garyinok

Member
Well I thought I would give one last update. Harvested today. Lights did really well. Don't have a yield total yet but overall I was pretty pleased. Really can't see a reason to not run these lights. Checkout the results. Two Kick Flip #7's in a 2 X 4 tent and fox farm trio and molasses.

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garyinok

Member
Well final total a little over 5 oz. Right at 1/2 gram per watt. Some nice buds and overall pretty pleased. I had so many people tell me they would never flower or would yield a bunch of popcorn. I think I can say it can be done with household bulbs.
 
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