Thoughts on "hy-bred" lighting combining HPS and LED's

I've been flowering under 2 600 watt hortilx bulbs, and am adding some supplemental lighting.

The "flower area' area under the light is just under 24 sq ft. (6 x 4 ). Should be enough light already..but it isn't. I grow a sativa leaning strain (the clones were given to me as "Flo") and these girls get...big. I keep them under 3 ft tall with training..but they get 3 ft across too...Like a half barrel size.

The room is sealed, co2, a/c, humidity control..all the goodies, and yields have been good..but I could use more density. Been growing the same strain for a couple years...so I kinda have her figured out. 7 gallon pots, "supersoil"..modified for the strain..

So I ordered up 4, 100watt (2 watt bulbs) Blackstar LED's..gonna hang one in each corner.

So a few questions..
1. Think led's and hps will work together?
2. Is that enough leds?
3. What is the relative value of led converted to hps? 100 led worth 150w of hps?

If the leds are worth say..150 watts of hps each...I'm adding roughly the equivalent of 600 more watts...

I welcome all thoughts

I've always liked the idea of leds...so I figured this can't hurt...

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im currently supplementing with a 120w led. as my 600w doesnt cover all 14 of my plants. running some dirt/some hydro. different heights.

the plants that are more under the led are loving it. edit that... my 120 supposedly replaces 600w's of HID. 90w is said to replace 400w.. i dont think the numbers are quite that high... but who knows.

either way. 100w led will more than replace 150w hps

once i build my rooms. i will be running 1 x 600w HPS, and 2 x 240w LED in flower, on a light rail system

yes led helps with your HPS, remember HPS only puts out 10% usable spectrum led puts out 80+ % usable spectrum so combining the two if you dont feel comfortable with straight led yield is an excellent way to begin seeing the benefits of LED without having to sacrafice anything because your still new to the tech. Picking the right panel is very important if your going standalone LED less so if your picking for spectrum addding because you dont neccesarily need one that yeilds u want one that pumps out trichs if your still rockin hps. If you had one that did both it would be ideal but that costs $$$ so depending on your goals and expectations thats a good way to get started with em.

Yep, Led s are amazing, and perfect for supplementing hps

The Led's are 630, 660, 425. 385 nm 2 watt chips...plus a couple 12k for white blue. I already use 6 26watt uvb bulbs for trich production the last couple weeks. My thought is that I can back the 600's up a little further off the plants because of the added led power, thus reducing radiant heat in the canopy and top of the soil...theoretically allowing less water usage, less stretch and lower cooling costs.

They arrive tomorrow. I'll post pics when I get them hung.

The goal is to keep inter node spacing tight on these lanky sativas, and combined with some lst and super cropping, keep them under 3 ft tall. That way the lower buds will develop nicely..no pop corn.

Dude cannawizard why did you dump that whole book into this thread? I think a link and a few quoted lines was enough

Supplemental lighting sounds like a great idea. I only see 2 problems with trying to do so. 1 is electricity, but LED is good for that and 2 is heat- but again LED is good for that.

Heh actually I have a third problem with it standing in my way- i can't afford to buy any extra equipment to supplement my 1x 600w hps grow Thank god weed grows on tree's cause for me money sure doesn't.

pandan said:

Dude cannawizard why did you dump that whole book into this thread? I think a link and a few quoted lines was enough

Supplemental lighting sounds like a great idea. I only see 2 problems with trying to do so. 1 is electricity, but LED is good for that and 2 is heat- but again LED is good for that.

Heh actually I have a third problem with it standing in my way- i can't afford to buy any extra equipment to supplement my 1x 600w hps grow Thank god weed grows on tree's cause for me money sure doesn't.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I am fortunate to be able to play

I notice an apparent(?) shortcoming of HPS, at least most of the spectral measurements I've looked at, and see that there's a strange drop at ~580-590nm or 5890K. If I do a Google Image for "hps spectral" it seems clear. That said, I'm not seeing discussions about this in the growing community, perhaps because I'm not sure where to look.

Could LED's fill that spectral vacancy? I ask because this is a critical place on the spectrum for flowering. Granted that I'm a newby, but is this an idea worth exploring? I have an iPower 400w dual MH/HPS and this looks like a worthwhile supplement, especially since I can place the LEDs very close to the plant without risk of heat damage.

Here's an example of what I'm referring to....

Thanks for the comments, friends! Is there any legitimacy to the notion of filling in the HPS "gap" with leds that provide that part of the spectrum?