E26/E27 LED bulbs for single plants?

Daniel Lawton

Well-Known Member
I just want to grow single plants, and I want to use flood lamp style LED bulbs for various reasons.

What I've learned on led bulbs so far: There's E26/E27 led grow bulbs all over ebay and amazon. Here's a pic to show what I'm talking about. E26 or E27 do in fact both fit in american sockets. And all bulbs I bought (8 different ones) will take european or american voltages. Get yourself one of those cheap clip-on flood lamp holders, and remove the hood.

Forget what wattage they claim. If you're lucky, it's half. Best I found was a 36W LEVIN light that is actually 19W. Worst I found is a 54W no-name that is 12W. Most 24W are lucky to be 14W. However, 14W seems to be enough to get an ounce out of a lowryder.

Even if the true wattage is the same, some focus very sharply to a smaller area than others. Those are easier to concentrate on the plant, before it's branches stretch out. LEVIN is pretty good about that, but once the branches spread out maybe focus doesn't matter much.

I've grown sprouts to finished buds with only that weird colored led light, so don't get overly worried about needing some white (green) also. LowRyder#2 seems to love led light. You get an amazingly compact healthy dark green little plant until the big stretch.

Some of the bulbs I bought bragged about including a single led for a different color, or for IR light, or who knows what. There's no difference I can see between them except more actual wattage is better.

Here's my questions for experienced growers:

1. After the big stretch, there's no way to cover more than half the leaves with a single E26 bulb. Will both sides of the plant share the wealth, or do you need to turn them 180 degrees once in a while?

2. Any opinions on how far from potential average yield a single 19W E26 bulb gets you, for a dwarf autoflower? I mean, if you had 2 of them, one shining on each side, would you double the yield, or not really?

3. If you're doing 24/0 light (lowryder doesn't mind), and you have a few lucky S1 clone seeds on buds at the bottom, but those buds get almost no light, will the plant share the starches it produces to help mature the seeds, even though there's no darkness?

(Ok, good genetics doesn't produce lucky S1 clones. I did encourage them a bit).

4. I've got leaf curl. There's 6 different autoflowers going, and certainly I over water (but in felt pots). There's gnats all over the place. But, I can't find a single likely explanation for WHICH plants having curled leaves, and which don't. I tried adding white light, letting some dry out more, and even war on the gnats.

The leaf curl seems to be just kind of normal for some. Am I off base? If so, what'll be the actual loss from leaf curl?
 

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