L.E.Ds?

i had seen some LED growing lights on ebay. they only make blue and red light, as that is apparently the only spectrum plants use for photosynthesis. i was wondering if anyone had ever used these and how much sucess they had. i am constructing a cabinet setup and was wondering whether to use these or cfl's or both. power consumption is about half as much as with cfl's as they dont waste energy making all spectrums of light. also, they pretty much never burn out. i just dont know how well they grow weed. thanks in advance.

I've heard of them but have no idea if they work well, I'm interested to see if they do work or if anyone knows or has used them..

lol I'm surprised too, I guess they are pretty new and not much is known about them. But there must be some info, try googling it..

there was a thread were sumone tried l.e.ds threw the grow..cant remember what it was called..

HTGSupply sells L.E.D. grow lights, so I would assume that they must work pretty well.
You can buy separate red and blue spectrum L.E.D.'s.
I've never used them, but here's a link High Tech Garden Supply

yeah this one https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/14441-50w-killer-setup-god-knows.html

i use leds to focus light on the bottom part of my plants. I use them as a boost of light for my lower buds. What ive read is that the leds arent quite there yet for a flowering plant. But a combination of sunlight cfls and leds can be successful. But u cant get sunlight in ur wardrobe. I hope they perfect leds as it would be cheaper and energy saving.

i was planning on using LEDs but would they realy work?

Its no longer a question of whether they work or not. The only thing left is price. Indica 44 has posted some useful sites for information and purchase of led's. He posted them towards the end of My Current Setup: Journal??
The 14 watt light that HomeGrownLights sells gets tested in the last link he posted, I think its on page 16, so you don't have to read the whole journal. Other information that I found indicates you need 25 watts of led's to replace 100watts of hid's. So to replace a 600 watt hid light you would need 11, I say 12 because I'm a balanced kinda guy. 168watt. Set up in a 3' x 4' grid it will cover my tables very nicely. These units are shown covering one sqft. with the light centered (duh) over the plant. I'm thinking you could make a frame for them out of pvc, lightweight, sturdy. No heat issues, just good air movement. Same lights the entire grow. Ryan, the companies owner responded quickly to me e-mail's, I received two answers from him in one day, that's impressive, makes you think he care's about his business. No rash claims, lets others do the research and has made improvments in his product from the 9 watt to the 14watt.
The panels are not quite 5" sq. which should make it easy to build a grid, one measurement will be ditto'd. I will have to wait until I get back from vacation to buy the lights, I am going to check out some pvc for a frame for them. If you do contact them, at least mention where you got the information that lead you to him. If we can get them priced at $50./ panel assembled or less it just makes sense to me. So simple, wanna grow a plant, you need one light, three plants, three lights, add as you grow. Have a 4' by 4' table, you need a 4' by 4' grid. Using these lights instead of what I have now should save about $50.00 a month @ .10/ kilowatt hour. VV

I just bought 900 Leds, 4 panels of blue and red.
I am going to try as I don't like the cost of the hi watt bulbs

I will let you know how it works.

I am also thinking on buying more to line the cabinet, not sure if thats what I'll do though... just a thought.

I have seen those panels, I think they will do a good job. VV

I've been thinking about led's a lot too, I think it would be cool, to set them up on a line, and string them throughout the plant.
1: it would look like christmas tree.
2: it would spread light throughout the entire plant.
as supplemental lighting I think they would be great. I'm not sure how well they grow though as I haven't seen it. on that 50 watt killer setup, it looked as if he was getting some good results but abandoned ship before anyone actually got to see how well it would produce full flower. I'm sure there are other led grow's out there. I'm gonna check out google.

quadrophine said:

I've been thinking about led's a lot too, I think it would be cool, to set them up on a line, and string them throughout the plant.
1: it would look like christmas tree.
2: it would spread light throughout the entire plant.
as supplemental lighting I think they would be great. I'm not sure how well they grow though as I haven't seen it. on that 50 watt killer setup, it looked as if he was getting some good results but abandoned ship before anyone actually got to see how well it would produce full flower. I'm sure there are other led grow's out there. I'm gonna check out google.

Click to expand...

sweet idea man, puts some presents under it aswell! lol

I too am very interested in the LED lights. If you google LED you will get a lot of info. The question being who do you believe? The post are biased for whatever setup they are pushing. Also there are numerous listings in EBAY for the light setups. Again they give you comparison charts,but again who made these comparisons? I would welcome the benefits of LED's if indeed they do pan out. I have seen the panels on EBAY that sound like the one that" irockyou" refers too. I hope he will give us some updates. Last but not least Iam a little surprised there is as little info on something that could change the face of growing as this would! I hate how hot the HID and MH bulbs get. I can't grow in the summer months just to hot no matter how much cooling you do. These would change that.

You could probably use one of parallel wired "holiday" haha strings with a transformer on the front. Would take some chopping and mad soldering but it would work good.

You should just use led"s for vegging since they use less energy and use a hps for flowering.High times magazine are doing research right now and they are saying flowering with the leds show slightly a bigger yield in buds but they are using the ufo light which is expensive as hell.But until it is confirmed that these lights are the future for indoor growing im sticking what the experts are saying now.And they are saying That hps light's are more intense and efficent for flowering.I have also talked to some horticulture store owners and they say it is a good idea but the technology just isnt there yet and they would talk you out of buying them.

yes, we need more experiments.. and would you mind posting the link to indica 44's work
?? I suck at forums

irockyou said:

I just bought 900 Leds, 4 panels of blue and red.
I am going to try as I don't like the cost of the hi watt bulbs

I will let you know how it works.

I am also thinking on buying more to line the cabinet, not sure if thats what I'll do though... just a thought.

Click to expand...

I have this exact setup arriving very shortly

It will be interesting to see what kind of results I get from vegging with the panels + 210w CFL lights. (Since I have four 105w bulbs on the way, I must admit a certain temptation to run a 420w setup... )

Im growing in a metal cabnet 3 1/2 ft wide by 2 ft by 4 1/2 ft tall and have bought 3 strands of LED's blue christmas lights. Ripped the Plastic covering off to expose the real light of the LED and not the dimmed light caused by the plastic covering. This took some time about 3-4 hours to complete, using wire cutters. I then drilled 150 holes into a board to fit the ceiling of the cabnet. I also covered the board with foil. I also use 5 CFLs 2- 100 watt day lights and 3 120 bright white. I only used the LEDs for about a week. I didnt really tell a difference. Ive read that they should be placed a bare minimum 4 ft away from the tops to prevent sunburning. Was it worth it prob not. But im 33 days into my grow, 3rd day of 12/12 with 2 plants. One really took off and had numerous node regions and is prob 1 1/2 ft to 2 ft tall. The other isnt doing so well. Still dont know if theyre male or female. Ill try and get pics up soon of the whole set up to show you guys the LED board and other shit.

Hey, good luck with the grow. One thing though I thought the real advantage of led's is you can practically have the plants grow into the light. Do they not feel cool to the touch? Also thought this because others have said that cooling fans arn't needed. waiting to here more.