Hi everyone, this will be me and one other's first real go at growing. Without going too far into it....I looked into the LED option for multiple reasons. Main ones being small use of power, target of light wavelengths, lack of heat(closet grow), and just really wanted to build a high power led circuit.
The light consists of 24 luxeon leds, each consuming around 3watts of power. So a total of around 72watts of leds. There are 18 red, and 6 blue leds and are being driven by a 24v 4.5amp power supply which is running near it's max. The power supply is hooked up to a LED driver circuit which has adjustable voltage from where the led's barely turn on, to all the way up, which is where they are very close to. It also controls the current flowing through them, so that it doesn't change and overdrive the leds when the voltage changes. This setup is 4 rows in parallel of 6 led's wired in series. If you are curious about the circuit, here is the basic plan I followed. RGB Color Controllable High Power LED Room + Spot Lighting: circuit operation - Instructables - DIY, How To, home, tech . The led's are mounted on what seemed like a strange fancy aluminum fluorescent bulb fixture which were given to us, when they didn't know what it was at the closeout store. We cut the fixtures down into 26inch lengths and used high temp silicon to glue the leds to each fixture. Yes, those are clothes hangers holding them up....only temporary as we need to source a drill from someone.
We have two cheapo flourescent bulbs that were temporary for the first 4 days or so until I got the LED fixtures built. They are in with the LED fixture just because we figure there can't be enough light, and are rigged up messily, but I am open to any suggestions on changing the setup. There is a largish fan for circulating air in the closet, and a small fan mounted right over the led driver circuit to prolong its life.
Now to the plants....There are 13 total in there, with many of them being planted at different times over the past 10 days or so. The stems were a bit skinny, so that's when we got the fan, and have recently added dirt close up to the small clover leaves. We have also recently got some vigoro 24-8-16 all purpose plant food for vegging, and have added 1/2 a tsp to a gallon of water like it says on the container for seedlings. I am curious to how often this is to be used. It says on it every 14-28 days to use it, but it seems like people here use plant food more often.
Also, I am unsure on the watering. I am thinking about getting a hydrometer tomorrow to help, but it just seems like I am scared of overwatering, but at the same time the soil is hard to judge if it is too dry. The seedlings started off fast, but then kinda slowed down after a few days. I guess the lack of light to begin with could of been one cause. One of the more recent seedlings in the last few days has only been up while the leds have been in and has developed a much larger stem and has almost caught up with the others that are around 7-9 days old.
Overall, I'd just like some input on the whole setup, and what I could change within reason to produce better results. Anyone who would like to watch to see what a high output LED setup can do is more than welcome to keep up with this grow, but there is room for newbie error too. However, all the LED haters, go your way, I've read enough of the hating in some of the other threads. I believe alot of people would rather be able to brag about their lighting setups, than their results. It helps none with the interest and experimentation with alternative lighting methods. Thanks for looking!
My buddy and I have decided to add some 42watt cfl's to help add some more lumens and to provide more wavelengths of light. Also, some have said leds aren't the best for seedlings. I shall post some updated pictures soon.
Question: Does this seedling look small for being almost 10 days from being put in dirt right after germination? It seems like I've seen pictures of plants with the 3 fan leave pairs at around 10days. But maybe they were talking about after the seedling stage. Also, how often should we use the plant food? Every 14-28 days like on the container, or every other time we water?
i'm also growing using led's
one plant under led's combined with t5.
one just led
one under t5
and one using only sfl
so far the fastest growing plant is the one under t5+led.
I am the closet-keeper of this little experiment we've got going. This is my first time growing at the point we're at now... (I tried once before but an angry roommate let the cat into my closet to eat my plants before they got past young seedling stage.) I've got a couple questions that experienced growers can help with, I'm sure... 1. The thing I'm shakiest on is knowing when to water and how much to use. We have an analog (I guess that's the term, it's not digital) moisture meter that's currently saying the soil is at a 9 on a 1-10 scale of moisture, but the top layer of soil is pretty dry. I was just wondering if the lower parts of the soil seem wet enough, should I go ahead and water normally, or just spray the soil? Any other tips about how to water are greatly appreciated too. 2. Is there a time when it's best to water? As in before the lights go off for the night, or before they come on, or any little time I feel like watering? We've been reading up on the forum getting info, and watching instructional videos, but direct critique on our grow would be great. Thanks.
Oh yeah... One more question I have is about the location of the plants themselves. We've been balancing the distance of the lights from the plants with the optimum lighted area with pretty good results, but I'm having to rotate the plants every few hours to keep them from growing all crazy-crooked from trying to grow towards the best light source. Is this normal? is there anything I can do? Right now optimum coverage by the lights looks to be about 9 square feet (about 3x3) with 12 plants growing right now. some of them are just S.O.L. for a few hours until they get rotated. Is this something you guys run into as well? I guess what I'm getting at is... does anybody have a tested system for placing the plants, or do you just wing it? That's what I've been doing, and it has worked.
Im no pro but I can tell you what I have found by researching.
A lot of people dont like LEDS lol.
I am currently in the middle of a grow with MH and HPS lighting but I am building a LED stealth cabinet. I have found out, and have seen tests of lighting and 25% blue to 75% red has been tried and proven to be the best mix. As far as placement of the plants you want them as close to directly under the lights as you can. None under the canopy and use reflective material like mylar everywhere to use all the light.
You think your plants should be larger? Maybe the grows you look at are in hydroponics, they do grow faster you know. I wouldnt worry about it. My advice to you would be to be sure to balance ph, dont over water, once a day max. those leds dont dry up the soil. and dont over nute, stay at 50% of whats recomended untill you see 5 point leaves.
Try to keep some humitity in the room about 60% while there young and about 80 degrees. small fan to gently firm up the stocks would be good.
I followed your link to the High powered led room setup and after reading his post and realising I could build the curcit needed I went and purchased 10 highpower leds in royal blue for my veg section. I intend to use them with a couple t5 3000k 24" lamps.
I have built my LED flowering lamps first,
light spectrum needed by plants:
Chlorophyll b 410-453nm
Chlorophyll a 642-662nm
So, I used compact fluorescent (cfl)
and LEDs to hit those wavelengths
56 watts (4X14w cfl) = 180w 3000k (probaly move up in watts but its 50/50 for now)
42 watts LED 25% blue 455-485nm 75% red 615-655nm
Three panels, 272 0.05w bulbs per panel.
Heres link to panel test: LED Test
18 watts LED red 662-680nm
4 90 led PAR 30 spotlights
Total 1172 leds
Now they are not the 3 watt like yours but there are several of them.
I bought 3 panel kits and assembled them.
I am still workin on getting it together, they dont look like much but when I try and take a picture of them there real bright. I will attach a pic of one panel reflecting in the mirror, thats 75% red but look at the blue ring the camera shows. the next pic is what it looks like (I got it off the site)
Here are a couple more pictures I took with my phone. I'll upload some better ones tomorrow or the next day when I can get a chance to. We ended up getting a total of 8 42w cfl's. Used 3 2-way splitters on each cable and it makes a very nice "fixture" that covers alot of area. So i think with these and the dominantly red light from the led's should be decent for flowering some plants. Also, we acquired a moisture/light/ph meter which is pretty awesome, but we found our ph to be on the high side of 7, and the water here is a ph of 7.8 or so from some water ph tests. So we are now using vinegar to bring the ph down of the water, so hopefully soon it will bring our ph of the soil down.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
First Grow w/ LED (Lots of Pics)
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks