STAY AWAY FROM LED's!!!!!

bwes17

Member
For those of you saying you tried LED's a few years ago... I say give it another go, the technology has come a LONG way since then.

And if you're having luck with HID or CFL or MH or whatever, but not with LED, couldn't it be that you need to tailor your grow technique to the type of light? For example, LEDs don't put out as much heat so your soil doesn't dry out as fast. Therefore, you need to adjust your water and nutrient application so as not to drown/burn the plant.

I've seen some sick grows, from 1 to 2 units up to 20+ units, using all LEDs, and the growers were having no problems, only good results.
 

Clonex

Well-Known Member
For those of you saying you tried LED's a few years ago... I say give it another go, the technology has come a LONG way since then.

And if you're having luck with HID or CFL or MH or whatever, but not with LED, couldn't it be that you need to tailor your grow technique to the type of light? For example, LEDs don't put out as much heat so your soil doesn't dry out as fast. Therefore, you need to adjust your water and nutrient application so as not to drown/burn the plant.

I've seen some sick grows, from 1 to 2 units up to 20+ units, using all LEDs, and the growers were having no problems, only good results.
Yeah lend me 12.500 ( what i need to replace my hid's) , i will let you know how it goes :-P
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
For those of you saying you tried LED's a few years ago... I say give it another go, the technology has come a LONG way since then.

And if you're having luck with HID or CFL or MH or whatever, but not with LED, couldn't it be that you need to tailor your grow technique to the type of light? For example, LEDs don't put out as much heat so your soil doesn't dry out as fast. Therefore, you need to adjust your water and nutrient application so as not to drown/burn the plant.

I've seen some sick grows, from 1 to 2 units up to 20+ units, using all LEDs, and the growers were having no problems, only good results.

You have some links to the larger grows???
 

virulient

Active Member
I've seen them in person. The youtube page for Black Dog has some videos from some decent sized grows using all LEDs...and there are a few videos for other lights posted earlier in this thread.
A good number of those youtube videos can't be trusted. People will post videos of some HID-grown plants (or at least supplemented by HID), then they'll take em down and give you a video tour of their "led grow room". We were more or less looking for well-documented journals of large scale grows that either did a side by side or at least grew using LED's on a large scale. It would be best if you could somehow conclude that the person ISNT affiliated in any way with any of the LED manufacturers, but is merely a third party doing some real-life testing in a commercial environment.

This was my 420th post. :joint:
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
Yeah...I don't trust that vid with all those UFO's. Also, it would be nice to see ALL of the buds...not just the primo tops. Even with HID's, before I had some real experience, I would end up with 40% small and loose buds. So, even though I could claim 1 gram/watt, I really only had .6 grams of quality product per watt.

My current grow is mostly a Pre-98 Bubba. It;s, without question, the highest quality Pre-98 I've ever seen...but it's a shitty yielder. Isn't this the case with so many great strains. I get around .7 grams/watt....but 100% of it is perfect dense buds. To get this, a ton of pruning is required...even with 1000 watt HPS's blasting them. I've found that the key to this is to prune in such a way that light reaches the lower branches, but very little light hits the tray. When, and if, I try some LED's, I'll use the same technique, but with 24" plants in a higher density. The 700 and 800 watt LED's are the ones I have my eye on. I'm also looking at the 400 watt induction lights. Or, maybe a combo?
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
check my journal man, its in my signature. I'm very happy with my leds. Which brand did you use and how did you have them set up. From the sound of your first post I would wager you had a bunch of low wattage panels which do suck and should be avoided at all costs. They are the reason this tech gets a bad name. Real LED grow lights cost real money. Anything not throwing out at least 2w per diode is going to be shitty, anything using automotive grade leds is probably going to suck, and any unit that doesn't toss out at least 100w of actual led output, not total chip capacity is probably going to be weak sacue as well.

Please elaborate on your experience.
Uh right then, not to be a dick but wheres the goods you're talking up? I looked at the link in your sig which I thought maybe was your journal but see nothing worth talking up thousands of dollars worth of LED :/
 

sachmo

Member
im just a guy trying to grow some to smoke and looking for some info that will help. thank you to those who try to look at these things objectively and put out information and expereince that can help.

what's up with the rest of you? why do people feel threatened by new technology? hid and sodium lights, and light bulbs themselves were all once new technology. thank goodness edison didnt have people on blogs saying "dude....electric light suck, candles RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

dbkick

Well-Known Member
im just a guy trying to grow some to smoke and looking for some info that will help. thank you to those who try to look at these things objectively and put out information and expereince that can help.

what's up with the rest of you? why do people feel threatened by new technology? hid and sodium lights, and light bulbs themselves were all once new technology. thank goodness edison didnt have people on blogs saying "dude....electric light suck, candles RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok heres an example, I went to my hydro shop (thats I've shopped at for over a year) , and you know how notorious they are for selling you anything you're interested in (especially high ticket items) . So anyway I say to the dude "j , I'm interested in a nice LED, if you can guess which one I'll buy it today" , he just shook his head and said "you don't want an LED" then he went on to explain the stretch and shitty growth so it didn't take much to talk me out of it .I'd rather grow from start to finish with t5s than resort to LED.
 

Clonex

Well-Known Member
If you want to see a factual LED grow comparing 3 different makers, check the link in my sig.
They are small plants in small tents , we already no this can be done ? Nothing new is achieved in your journal , we are disputing using Led's in a large scale or commercial grow op , this is not to slander your efforts , but i am watching this thread with optimism, read through the thread, cheers.
 

trx250x7

Well-Known Member
I read about a Commercial grow for tomatos in NH that switched out all of there 1000w hps light.. Not pot but maybe contacting them would get some good anwsers to how they work. I dont remember the details
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
im just a guy trying to grow some to smoke and looking for some info that will help. thank you to those who try to look at these things objectively and put out information and expereince that can help.

what's up with the rest of you? why do people feel threatened by new technology? hid and sodium lights, and light bulbs themselves were all once new technology. thank goodness edison didnt have people on blogs saying "dude....electric light suck, candles RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First off, I don't think any of us are threatened by new tech. Quite the opposite. Many of us are very hopefull that one day LED can truly compete with current HID technology. You need to realize that new isn't always better. LED definately has the potential to be better, but 90% of the LED's out there are not even close. The bombardment of false claims by the LED industry did 2 things. #1 tons of noobs figured they had the key to being a successful grower. They would be the first kids on the block to go LED, and blow the socks off of all us old timers stuck in the past, and afraid of new technology. The second effect was that once people actually started USING these things, they realized that the claims were EXTREMELY overstated. It turns out that a 90 watt UFO actually DOES NOT grow as well as a 400 wat HPS. In fact, it wouldn't even grow as good as a 250 watt HPS. SO, us old timers did not become "afraid" of new technology, we just became extremely skeptical of LED maker's claims about what their lights can do. It didn't help that every noobie on the web was spouting off about LED's superior PAR, and how HPS were 90% inefficient, and LED's were the only way to go, Bla Bla Bla...All of this, damn near word for word from the LED company's advertising.

Fortunately for LED, a few companies have realized that there is no substitute for pure raw power. We've noticed the new LED's with the most potential are no longer little 200 watt guys. Now, we're seeing 600...700...even 800 watt lights. These are the future.
 
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