600w of Chinese LED power

Hey folks, I figured if im going to go around offering advice I might as well let you guys in on what im up to these days. After 2 successful and tasty harvest with my 2 180w led panels I decided to invest in a 3rd panel and I got a really good deal on a direct from china unit off ebay its 240w and I got it for a little less than I paid for each 180w panel. Currently growing 5 white widows that were cloned from a clone of my original white widow plant so I know the genetics are good. Clones were cut around aug 23rd, kept in a humidity dome for a week then planted on the first. The first topping was done about midway through last week, and today I fimed all the new shoots that came out, similar to how I dealt with the original mother plant. I have been fighting tooth and nail with pests so the the leaves are a little roughed up from my daily anti-spider mite bath, I used safers end all in a strong concentration 3 days ago and since have been watering down the plants with a spray bottle of ph'd tap water with a small amount of nitrogen and a wetting agent all using my spray bottle. I intend to spray with end all again tomorrow to take care of any residual eggs that have hatched, but in my 3 times daily inspections with my loupe I haven't seen any new mites since the first end all treatment, so heres hoping they are eliminated.

The setup is a 2x3x5 tent, 5 3g pots, cheap organic potting soil with dolomite lime added, advanced nutrients sensi grow for nutes, 2 180w leds (white case) and 1 240w LED (black case). There is a 4inch fan and carbon scrubber for ventilation. The whole thing is packed into a closet that stays at the perfect temperature all day with the door open barely a crack.

Anyways on to what we all want to see, the pics! I'll update this thread with progress every week or so.

I am very interested in this.
I have a t5 that gets hot.
I have a 250 watt hps that does not really heat up my little room, but if I could get more light in there with led...

You can definatly pack a lot of LED power into a small space without heat. In fact some nights lately I need to close my bedroom window and close the closet door so it dosent get to cold in there lol. I don't have a temperature monitor but even if I leave the door closed for hours at a time with lights on it never feels to warm in there and I haven't had any issues with heat stress even during summer months, though in the summer I only close the door at night so the sound of the fan dosent keep me up. most of the time leaving it open just a little crack seems to give the perfect feeling temperature

How close do you have to keep them LEDs? Im interested in them just cant afford them but i do like the safety you have for you and your plants no heat issues ever sounds like growing ezpz. How much light pen does the chineese 250w say/ claim/ do i dont know much about them for growing other then big $'s

Twizzlor said:

How close do you have to keep them LEDs? Im interested in them just cant afford them but i do like the safety you have for you and your plants no heat issues ever sounds like growing ezpz. How much light pen does the chineese 250w say/ claim/ do i dont know much about them for growing other then big $'s

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Currently they are about 2 feet above the plant, the plan is to train them and get a nice even canopy on short plants, I wont raise the lights unless they grow to within 8 inches of the light. Idealy 1 foot above the canopy is what u want for flowering, max 2 1/2 feet for veg. With led you want some distance so the lights from each bulb can blend together before hitting the plant, the plant could be right up against the light and it wouldn't burn but it would block out at least some of the bulbs.

this is the 240w light I got http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Full-Spectrum-2013-240w-LED-Grow-light-Flowering-3W-LEDs-For-VEG-Flowering-/161089283496?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item2581ab65a8, mine was a littler cheaper since I bought it on auction, I had to pay import tax of about 20 dollars when it arrived but still a fantastic deal. The other lights I have are these ones http://www.ebay.ca/itm/180w-6Band-LED-Grow-Light-for-Flowering-Veg-US-warranty-Free-shipping-/230875574877?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c141b25d, I got them back in feburary back when I was wary of Chinese sellers when I bought them they were free shipping though. However as it turns out the guy just buys them from a factory in china and resells them lol, go figure.

I grabbed a 300 watt panel, why not?
It from from a US shipper, so it will be here in a few days.
I'll be using it in my veg/seed crop room. The first run with it will be a feminized seed crop.

It is my understanding and experience that you need to have LEDs prety close to the tops of the plants just like with floros. IME any farther that 12 inches and you get stretching and weight is effected.

Trousers said:

I grabbed a 300 watt panel, why not?
It from from a US shipper, so it will be here in a few days.
I'll be using it in my veg/seed crop room. The first run with it will be a feminized seed crop.

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Nice one! Hope it works good for yah

intenseneal said:

It is my understanding and experience that you need to have LEDs prety close to the tops of the plants just like with floros. IME any farther that 12 inches and you get stretching and weight is effected.

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LED definatly do not to be as close as fluroescents. If your to close to the light individual diodes will be blocked out and unable to reach other leaves leaving out part of the spectrum, the light needs a good distance so all the spectrums can blend together and each leaf is getting light from most if not all of the individual bulbs. One foot for flower and 1-2 feet for veg is the norm from everything I read. Ive got my lights 2 feet away and I haven't gotten stretch on any of my grows so far. they will work at very close distances but I think its better to have some room

Update
Today I decided to give my plants another spray down with end all, I haven't seen any mites but the prosepect of them coming back makes me nervous. The fungus gnats have still hanging around so I decided to drench the soil as well. My moisture meter was reading 7/10 so it was probably to early to water again (last watering was over a week ago) but I figured the damage fungus gnat larva could do was worse then what a little overwater could do. After watering I used my moisture meter to poke holes deep into the soil to aerate it a little to help the roots breathe a little better. Each pot took about 2 liters before runoff started.
I figure now I will let them rest for a week, maybe with an occasional spray down with regular water and then next week if they are big enough I will start with LST.
Ive made a deal with a friend to sell him my 180's and I will be replacing them with 240's this wont happen until the end of October though but it will bring my wattage up to 720 just in time for flowering.
heres a pic of them after bath time

there is a noticeable increase in size since my last pictures 2 days ago, so the LEDs seem to be really doing there job

Looking really good! I use a pro source 180watt LED for my veg, Really rate the LEDS, will be keeping an eye on this thread as im planning on doing some white widow in a couple of weeks!

id say the distance you should Keep just strongly depends on the utilized lenses, if there any. The smaller the angle the higher u have to Keep them, regarding that blending. For distance just get a paper, pencil and a triangle. also your 240W Panel actually has 160W, same for ur 180Watter they have around 120W.

lax123 said:

id say the distance you should Keep just strongly depends on the utilized lenses, if there any. The smaller the angle the higher u have to Keep them, regarding that blending. For distance just get a paper, pencil and a triangle. also your 240W Panel actually has 160W, same for ur 180Watter they have around 120W.

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yes im aware of how LED power draw works, thanks. 3w bulbs draw 2 watts of power roughly, different color bulbs have different power draws but 2w is the average. If a 3w bulb ran at full power there would not be a significant increase in light and the lifespan of the bulb would be greatly decreased. its just how LEDs work.

Was in admiring the dense structure my plants are developing and thought id share. Pulled back the leaves so you could get a good look

Trousers said:

I am very interested in this.
I have a t5 that gets hot.
I have a 250 watt hps that does not really heat up my little room, but if I could get more light in there with led...

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I find it odd that your T5 light is the one that has a heat issue compared to your HPS. I haven't dealt with 250W but my 400W puts off a decent amount of heat in a large area... What size is your T5? I have two 2' T5 in a 2x3 closet that don't seem to heat the room at all...

It is a 4" 12 bulb t5. Turning off a few bulbs does not make that much of a difference.
different ballasts from different companies probably make a difference


I have seeds in dirt waiting for the LED to show up.

Adjorr said:

Was in admiring the dense structure my plants are developing and thought id share.

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Subbed up Adjorr. Seeing many more growers making the switch to led. Could be the heat of the summer that's making LED a really popular solution right now.

Takes growers like you posting LED journals to prove it can be done. Good luck.

Time for pics, they are really growing fast. At this rate I might start flowering on oct 1st instead of novemeber like I had planned, we'll see. There not in the same places as I never seme to pt them back in the same order I took them out. Keep in mind that each plant has been topped twice on all shoots

Trousers said:

I have seeds in dirt waiting for the LED to show up.

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Let me know how that turns out man.
I've allways wanted to try the L.E.D, but never really believed anyone LOL
You know your shit, if you said it was good I'd trust you.

The UPS just tossed the LED on the porch.
It is hooked up and running.

It made my eyes feel weird pretty quickly, gonna wear sunglasses.

8" x 19"


It is really small and it throws a lot of light.
So far so good.

This is the one I got:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indoor-Hydroponic-Red-Blue-White-300W-LED-Plant-Flowering-Flower-Grow-Light-Lamp-/171114734965?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d73ba575





spilled a bunch of dirt on the floor in my veg space, D'OH!

Trousers said:

The UPS just tossed the LED on the porch.
It is hooked up and running.

It made my eyes feel weird pretty quickly, gonna wear sunglasses.

8" x 19" and it throws a lot of light.
So far so good.

This is the one I got:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Indoor-Hydroponic-Red-Blue-White-300W-LED-Plant-Flowering-Flower-Grow-Light-Lamp-/171114734965?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27d73ba575


spilled a bunch of dirt on the floor in my veg space, D'OH!

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Nice! Not the same manufacturer I bought from but looks decent, hope it works good for yah. I tend to go for the 6 or 7 band units, but that one has white bulbs as well as red and blue so hopefully that fills in the complete spectrum
Let us know how it works out