why wont led's work

They do work, just not as effectively as others... YouTube - New LEDgrow 62 watt, week 9, Harvest day

i thout thay did i have a few of them im about to build a box and try them out

Go for it man! Start a journal for it.

Why not waste your time using another BETTER light?

Because he has the lights already?

There is a pretty simple reason why LED isnt an acceptable light source,its due to the low intensity of the light,they are nowhere near strong enough at this point,they need to increase the output,then & maybe then they will grow good weed but until then they are just an expensive toy thats surrounded in hype & bs electricity saving nonsense,total up the extremely low yeild & extremely slow growth rate & there is no savings.

Yes they will grow weed but the overall yeilds are crap compared to any other light source, even tube florescents.

dankiestdank said:

Go for it man! Start a journal for it.

Click to expand...

i want to run off batterys and solar to charge batterys soon

LEDs do work, just don't expect good yields.

Adding some UV would help during the budding phase.

juanaman said:

i thout thay did i have a few of them im about to build a box and try them out

Click to expand...

dont waste your time. search led and you will find plenty of people who have done it and wasted their time.

the technology is not Ready.
Stick to what works

I have done some research and quick calculations just last week. for the led's I have sitting around, I would need about 800 per square foot to reach the same lumens as a hps, that was my goal. I'm sure it could be done with 200-300 led's per plant. the light is focused pointing downward, and have specific colors that the plant uses, so it may yield ok results, but the time the project would take to put together that many led's just isn't work my time to try it. I'd rather go all out and buy a 430 watt son agro lamp!


on a side note, it is fun playing with led's. I soldered 25 blue leds in a small square. shine it in someone's eyes and they see yellow spots for the next few hours. 90% of the time, it was me looking into it by mistake. cheap amusing toys. this past weekend, I rigged a single white led in an 88 cent flash light from walmart. works very well, but I'm still gonna add 2 more to it.

The 5mm LED arrays just don't have the intensity needed for good flowering. I use LEDs for my mother plants and cuttings.

The high power LEDs work but no better than CFL and LEDs are also rather expensive. Don't waste your money on LEDs for flowering (I have $700 worth), they pale in comparison to HPS despite the BS hype from the LED grow light manafactuers.

what about if you use them as side panels for the small growth? while also running a 400w metal halide unit?

supplemental light would sound yummy to me if I was a plant. but in the position of the human buying the equipment, is it worth the extra money?

Leds have their kicks, I mean if you already have the LEDS using them with a CFL,HID,or HPS is a good idea, it gives a better array of light such as more blue and more red.

You can always go to garage sales or value village/salvation army and grab some remote controls and steal the infra-red LED's in them.

The better array of light means better plant growth.

ive got 2 panels which are 30x30cm each which i bought for cloning maybe they would not emmit much heat because of the fragile situation the plant is in (good idea?) , but ive heard about how led's make the stem and branches elongate too much with just them so i used them on the sides of the plants to make them stretch for lightso id get faster clones lol but the thing is im a first timer so i dont know how long they should take to grow...
and another thing ..ive closed the big fan leaves with rolling paper so that the top light reaches the small growth in the middle easier, am i stressing the plant in a way? like circulation or anything? again it looked like a good idea for a noob

led's make the stems elongate because the light intensity isn't strong enough. not sure if they still would act the same way when using led's to supplement another light.

the way it works is the cells of the stem will reproduce faster in dim light and slightly slower in brighter light. if it's dimmer on one side and brighter on the other side of a stem, this makes the stem turn and bend to grow towards the light. with only one dim light source, the stem grows faster on all sides, making it grow taller with fewer foliage, trying to get closer to the light. it does this as if it was in the wild and would have to overcome a nearby bush or other plants that might shade it. make sense? hope so, cuz I'm out of it today. lol

lol so um so in non botanical words is what im doing a good or a bad thing?

I'm hoping, if I'm wrong about anything I say, a real pro will chime in.

supplementing an hid lamp with led's on the sides of the plants would be good. it would help add extra light in areas where it would normally be shaded. it should help grow more fuller foliage, but wont necessarily make stems grow longer.

dont waste your time.......ive got a bunch of leds laying around also...they were ripped out of an led grow i tried a few months back..........halfway through i got rid of them and stuck a 150w hps in there instead....leds give slow growth and little fluffy shity buds that i would rather throw out than let anyone else smoke.........but hey...if youve got the time and patience more power to you....but if you are going into this thinking you are going to get a good yeild and grow decent bud....forget about it.....