Led Lights

[Tigersfann420]

Hi i am about to be using two 300 watt led lights what would be a good amount of plants to fit under if im aiming for about 2 ounces dry weight a plant

[Kingdiamond]

2 -4 plants likely but not sure LEDs are foreign to me .

[Radar5756]

One plant per light. My plants were in 3gal smart pots. I got 2 plus ounces per plant. I did go back to my old setup of one 600 hps light. The coverage wasn't there with the 2 LEDs in a 4x4 tent.

[t-pain]

many people grow with cfl, so if your coverage isn't enough, maybe buy the big cfl if you want to do more plants

[medmanmike]

I'm running two Dorm Grom GR8 450s over a 3 X 8' table. I add two DG 90w Red UFO for flowering. According to DG, these lights cover 12 sq ft.

 

My first two grows with these lights I packed 12 plants in the space. Too many. I averaged 1 - 1 1/2 oz per plant. I also only vegged for four weeks. And, had a couple of very stunted plants due to mishandling.

 

This grow will see a longer veg - 6 wks or so - and only 8, maybe 10 plants. I fully expect 2+ per plant this time.

[Tigersfann420]

many people grow with cfl, so if your coverage isn't enough, maybe buy the big cfl if you want to do more plants

Are cfls good? And are they energy efficient

[Tigersfann420]

I'm running two Dorm Grom GR8 450s over a 3 X 8' table. I add two DG 90w Red UFO for flowering. According to DG, these lights cover 12 sq ft.

 

My first two grows with these lights I packed 12 plants in the space. Too many. I averaged 1 - 1 1/2 oz per plant. I also only vegged for four weeks. And, had a couple of very stunted plants due to mishandling.

 

This grow will see a longer veg - 6 wks or so - and only 8, maybe 10 plants. I fully expect 2+ per plant this time.

Are those led lights?

[Tigersfann420]

2 -4 plants likely but not sure LEDs are foreign to me .

Thats what i was thinking

[medmanmike]

Are those led lights?

Yes, sorry, should have been more specific. Also, they cover 12 sq. ft. PER light.

 

I used regular CFLs before going to the LED. I had a 1200w overhead unit and four (two bulbs each) clip on dome lights with an additional 800w off to the sides. I switched between 6500K (Kelvin) for veg and 2700K for flower. Two plants in a 3 X 3' spaced vegged for 6 weeks and heavily LST'ed gave me 6.38 oz total of dried bud.

[trichcycler]

cfl's will veg plants/clones/seedlings and will poorly flower them too. The light is good but the penetration is poor. Leaf surfaces dont get enough par light to properly process/photosynthesize in order to metabolize all that is given to them. They do grow very pretty flowers, and veg well. some growers are happy with the outcome of course, like flouro's, led growers. not sure if their energy efficient or not. they contain mercury, a real bummer when they break over your plants. by the time I had enough of them to do a poor job I realized the real indoor efficiency is found in an hid light.

[beourbud]

CFL CFL CFL

 

Hang em overhead and vertical , makes up for the penetration thang.

[trichcycler]

600 watts of hid > 600 watts led/cfl .

[Willy]

LED's arent cheap.. ,...i like old fashion 1k bulbs for 4 plants  with a heavy yield... Electric bill rocks, but patients help pay for it... And never had a quality issue... 

[Jjamh]

I'm with willy on this one!????

[Tigersfann420]

I have a lot to think about then ligjt wise. What size tent do i get to grow 2 to four plants

[zachw]

FWIW,  my last grow used one 300 watt LED (actually consumes 130 watts) and one T5 (2' x 4 lamp equivalent) for a 2'x4' space and three plants in 5 gallon buckets. Yield was approx 30 grams per plant.

 

Current grow has the same setup but with two 3-gallon plants and three 2-gallon plants, as well as another 2x4 space with a single 300 watt LED for three 2-gallon plants.

 

PS - I went with LEDs and T5s to minimize heat issues.

Edited April 19, 2016 by zachw

[trichcycler]

I have a lot to think about then ligjt wise. What size tent do i get to grow 2 to four plants

this is your personal choice. I've seen mj growing in a computer box, a closet, a 2x2 tent. all depends on your expectations, grow habits, etc. I have a 400 sf room, not because I need that space for plants, but for my habits. I work in the room, I dont like squatting, bending, or dumping plants in an aisle. I actually use a very small part of the 400, the rest is just a mess of old systems, dirt, cups, nutes, meters, stakes, nothing cool like posters and speakers....

 

I grew 2-4 plants in a 2x2 tent and it made me smile every day when I unzipped it. I vegged those for 6 weeks, till about 12 inches tall topped, and flowered for 60 days. yield was around 2.5 each, under a 600watt hps, no c02.

[trichcycler]

I recently got to check out an led grow. I see I'm tough on them. The smells and flavors were on top, product was indistinguishable from mine, at least by sample of the finished flowers. His lights were very expensive, and he had thousands of watts to get the job done. There was a heat savings, but definitely not a power savings. The leds did penetrate and showed nice tight buds right to the screen, about 6 inch buds, lots of them.

I'm sure these are not your grandpa's LED lights for sure, like the ones I judged from the past. I tried to grow trees like normal....it was a nogo for me, without dozens of cfl-ewww. 

If a (another)manufacturer would like to send me the newest led sets I'd be glad to review them. PM me with details, again....(dejavu for me)

[Kingdiamond]

Are cfls good? And are they energy efficient

Yes and yes

 

If you have enough spread around your plants they work well nothing like a HPS  but decent one thing the more CFLs the more heat  thats the only bad  thing about them though.

[Willy]

how to grow what you need is the question= to size.. you need to be able to produce your monthly use plus 3 more months worth, while new gals grow.. yield has to be enough to do that or your gonna be buying between harvest...Or stagger three plants a month apart. and harvest monthly, dont know if perpetual has been explained/considered either..helps to think about those issues as well,,

Edited April 21, 2016 by Willy

[garyfisher]

one led per plant.  I dont reccomend led.  

Im running two 600w HPS in a 4x8 tent with 4 plants.  # of plants is irrelevant, its the size and health of plants that matters.

You can purchase 2 600w setups for around 200 each.

A pair of LEDs is going to be around 800-1200.

 

I  guarantee you wont come close to yield but if you're looking for an expensive way to grow a little bit of good quality smoke, then go for it.  

Edited April 21, 2016 by garyfisher

[Smallbiz]

I like using HID and LED to flower has worked great for me. I use one 400hps and one 300w LED in about a 5x5, good results for me.

[Big J]

I use a lighthouse LED for flowering. I also run a 400w hps for 9 hours in the middle of the 13 hours I flower for. The LED by itself was not cutting it. But when I added the HPS back in the results were amazing.

[trichcycler]

but the real study is "will the hps by itself cut it"?   in my experience....yes, all day long, expense, failure, power usage, hps is a winner. LED lights dont put out much heat, but I didnt care once I saw it didnt flower near as efficiently as my mh or hps did. led's in photos are cool as heck though, and the added spectrum helps out in flower I agree.  I just know now that my flowers need no extra help.

 

Until we have plants creating their own lights I'm sticking with mh and hps for the win.

 

 

laugh now..  

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/14/5504656/a-natural-glow-these-plants-produce-their-own-light-bioglow-daan-roosegarde

http://www.glowingplant.com/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antonyevans/glowing-plants-natural-lighting-with-no-electricit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bioluminescent_organisms  

Edited July 22, 2016 by grassmatch

[Big J]

I have run HPS alone and LED alone both did ok but together I am getting great results. The LED seems to keep the nodes tighter, the bud is more dense, and it seems the HPS negates the cal/mag issues associated with LED's.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Big J