A few questions regarding LED's

Silicity

Silicity

Well-Known Member
Anyways i've decided to give LED's a go and i had a few questions regarding them.

1. Can LED's be used as supplemental lighting? such as adding a 2 90w UFO's(example) + 1000w MH light for veg or 2 90w red spectrum UFO's(example) + 1000w HPS?

2. Will the plant stress if i had LED's as supplemental lighting?

3. Is an all-blue spectrum 90w UFO(example) better for vegging or should i go with a 60/40 red/blue mix for vegging?

I have also been looking around and due to money issues i have decided to make my own LED panel using 18 3w LED's and have been wondering if a 650-660nm red and 450nm blue (a 10-6 red/blue ratio) and i am wondering if i should add different spectrums such as a royal blue/deep red/orange/white-light?

thanks.
 
somedude247

somedude247

Well-Known Member
1. Yes, but to me the point is to replace ALL other lighting.
2. No, will NOT stress them.
3. I had better results vegging with red in the unit, not all blue.

I like seeing someone make their own, but you need several more spectrums and IR and UV. Look at Advanced and BlackDog and even penetrator pro will give you an idea of what other spectrums to add. But personally, that low wattage, I dont think they will make any difference. With LEDs, either pay for a real good unit or youre just wasting money and time. If you are able to replicate these companies and get around 200 watts you may do good. But using 1000 watts, forget the LEDs. Maybe just a few t-5 UV bulbs would be all the supplemental light you should need.
 
Dont Fear The Reefer

Dont Fear The Reefer

New Member
Be very careful of the led's on ebay... I nearly bought one the other day, thought it was 295 watt till someone informed me that it was only 14 watts and the 296 was number of LED's... Seller wasn;t really being deceitful and cancelled order for me fortunately...
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
Silicity said:
Anyways i've decided to give LED's a go and i had a few questions regarding them.

1. Can LED's be used as supplemental lighting? such as adding a 2 90w UFO's(example) + 1000w MH light for veg or 2 90w red spectrum UFO's(example) + 1000w HPS?

2. Will the plant stress if i had LED's as supplemental lighting?

3. Is an all-blue spectrum 90w UFO(example) better for vegging or should i go with a 60/40 red/blue mix for vegging?

I have also been looking around and due to money issues i have decided to make my own LED panel using 18 3w LED's and have been wondering if a 650-660nm red and 450nm blue (a 10-6 red/blue ratio) and i am wondering if i should add different spectrums such as a royal blue/deep red/orange/white-light?

thanks.
Click to expand...
Somedude247 answered everything exceedingly well. The only thing I would add is that 18 3w LED's isn't much...

CREE makes XP-E's in red and blue... They're the most efficient and produce the most lumens, they're like 400% more expensive than the closest competition, which I believe is Bridgelux but I'm not 100% sure on that. I read somewhere they're about 7-12% better for 400% more money...

You might want to think about 5-6w LED's if you're making your own. Just some food for thought.
 
Silicity

Silicity

Well-Known Member
how bout running around 50 3w LED's and arrange them to make rows with them? I am going to increase my watts but was wondering if 18x3w LED's was enough to finish a small plant (around 2-3feet tall). Also would giving certain colors of lights during different periods of the day, such as having a red light (example) run for 4 hours and have another light come on such as blue (example) then red shut off, would that be beneficial? if so, what colors/nm help to enable growth or any pros?
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
If it's just supplementary lighting, 50 3w should be more than enough... especially if it's just for 1 plant.

Red light is preferred in flowering, and blue is preferred in vegging; but both spectrum's are required in both vegging and flowering so having one color come on and then the other wouldn't be as beneficial as just having them both on at the same time.

If it were me, and I just wanted to use the LED's for flowering, I'd use 75-80% red, 20-25% blue... maybe even throw in an IR or UV or two, just for shits and giggles.
 
Silicity

Silicity

Well-Known Member
Thanks :),

Currently the garden size is going to be 4x6 with a 6 bucket dwc setup and was looking to start clones under LED's and possibly flower them under the LED's alone, but also have some LED's used as a supplemental light with the HPS.

For a start to finish LED grow should i be adding a white light to the mix also? or would a 60%-40% red/blue (and maybe an IR or UV?) mix be sufficient enough for a start-to-finish?
 
Beefbisquit

Beefbisquit

Well-Known Member
Well, from what I've seen from some manufacturers recently is CREE XP-E white light, because of the really high lumen output. I'm waiting for my PG180 to arrive, and it uses quite a few CREE White LED's not sure which ones; probably not XP-E but who knows. I'm not sure if they're warm or something like 12k... guess I'll find out when it arrives. :D

I'd throw in both UV and IR, a couple at least....
 
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