STAY AWAY FROM LED's!!!!!

panhead

Well-Known Member
Stay away from LED's? Oooooh scare tactics. New technology comes along and some people get excited and some people get defensive. Pity. But someone said here it may be bad for you? Or your eyes? Or something to that effect. I've been wearing sunglasses in my led area because of nausea. But aside from that I don't worry...pfft..I already have skin cancer anyway.
Its not just you who wears glasses in the grow room,i were glasses in the bud rooms too,i also wear head cover if im going to be working near the hps lights.

I can only be exposed to hps light for a few minutes without getting a head ache,a 15 minute period where the hps light hits my unprotected head will give me a migrane that will drop me to my knee's,needless to say i try not to forget to put on a white headband before entering the room in full light mode.

Ive had migranes so bad ive thrown up violently,this is before i started wearing eye & skull protection.
 

zvuv

Active Member
HIDs grow excellent weed for a cheap setup, if something is not broken why try to fix it ?

although if i were a hipster hid's would be way to mainstream for me, i would have to choose LED'S :)
Really! HID's just fucking grow dope! Even if you screw up, you still get a nice chunk of dope and when you add it all up, they are probably cheaper than any alternative.

If you are using HID's there's no end of people who can help you if you have a question.

Sure if you want to have fun and experiment, LEDs could be good. But if your goal is just to grow dope then HIDs rule.
 

Corbat420

Well-Known Member
Really not trying to start a pissing contest here. Just sharing experiences. Your avatar is bad ass btw
:D i dont want to start a pissing contest either, im sure we both get enough of those in the workplace....... im a horticulturalist in Northern BC, i deal with alot of people who know alot but cant accept there is more out there they dont know. i like to think of myself as one of the people around that has an open mind on these kinds of things.

Horticulture is more to do with greenhouses and gardens than lights, so its not exactly my forte, but Plant growth is one of my specialties :D maybe together we can come up with some REAL conclusions.

P.S: What brands of LED are you using? (PM me if you don't feel comfortable posting it here) i got into the LED debate because of there potential for vegetative growth, but haven't been able to find a model to compete with my Homemade 380 Watt CFL Fixture. i want to take a look into those models, maybe i can find something worth it :D

P.P.S: im doing some heavy readin with that pen state paper, there is some stuff in there i just LOVE to talk about, like the duty ratio of intermittent light. Which is one of the things LED manufacturers need to take into consideration.... light pulsing is actualy GOOD for plant growth :D HID lights have a 1/1000 Pulse ration, one of teh reasons they are manufactured for plant growth....
 

hoss12781

Well-Known Member
zuzuv you're correct, there aren't a lot of people out there that can give good led advice.

Haven't read the link yet Corbat but will - bout to head home for the day. I'm not too worried about people griping at me for which brand I use, my skin is thick enough. I use mostly the Pro Grow series from Hydroponics Hut. It was the only brand I could find that allowed me to switch the spectrum and had the warranty I needed to justify my investment.

That and I spoke with my exec director of my bio sciences field station about lighting (pertains to my job). He said if I was going to buy something to replace hid in my wife's veggie garden (for the record I do actually grow veggies in addition to mj) it should be a light that allows me to control which spectrum is firing. This made sense given I was already switching mh/hps and different kelving temp cfls.

Thanks for sharing the links I'll be sure to check them with my morning coffee tomorrow!
 

SmokesLikeBob

Well-Known Member
I thought we had already been reminded of that courtesy... not even 12 hours ago... ;)
.............
A little redundant comment. The guy changed it. Did you just need to get in that last little snip? How cheesy.
Seems pretty snippy to point this out when the guy changed it.

OT : For someone like me, who only needs to flower like 2-3 plants at a time to keep up with my needs, I think LEDs have potential. But I also agree that at this point, for large operations, they're not even close to practical. But that pr0fesseur has a neat thread up showing even more alternatives. https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/358190-led-without-leds-my-first.html is what I'm talking about. Where do you think this weighs in on the heat/growth scale for small growers?
Wow, sorry guys...For some reason, I didn't see the comment with his apology. Must've overlooked it somehow, probably too baked! Lol My bad... :D
 

reggae234

Active Member
Sorry man but leds are great u just gotta make sure the diode angle, band, wavelength and spectrum are correct. The cheap 14 w led panels use make just more lumens than a cfl only its 95 percent efficient. However those 1w diode do not penetrate canopy well. Use those panels as side lighting where they are within.6 in of the plant and u will see them move along. Or get a UFO. Just not a cheap Chinese one
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
Off my rocker? For asking a question? Did I insult the grow? Was I rude in any way? I wasn't even reffering to the lights. My question was why would any chem take 84 days? It's a 60 day plant...always has been. I'm growing some Tahoe OG X Chem Dawg right now that finishes in 56 days. My question is related to the strain. Please take your rude comments somewhere else. Many of us have worked to keep this thread polite...which can be difficult with any LED discussion. Then here you come. Thanks.
 

Corbat420

Well-Known Member
My question was why would any chem take 84 days? It's a 60 day plant.
im with collective on this one, as it is a widely known fact that marijuana receiving the proper amount of light will finish in the desired time with proper dark periods and no light leaks. with marijuana receiving a high amount of light, with proper nutrient regimes, can also shorten the flowering time.

it is ALSO widely known that when a plant, any plant, does not receive the proper amount of light the development of that plant will be slowed, when a 60 day (8-9 week) Strain takes 82 Days (12 weeks....) That is usually a sure sign that the plants are light deficient.

Edit: Major stoner grammar lol.

84 days isn't worth 1.32g/w?
not if i can do a 42 day flowering time, and get 1G/Watt. im a perpetual SoG Grower, more small plants> few large ones. the main strain i grow finishes in 42 days (6 weeks) 1/2 the flowring time of the 82 days. over those 82 days i Will harvest 2G/Watt compaired to the 1.32G/W you harvested......
 

zvuv

Active Member
Well I find LED grow lights very interesting. IMO they have a big future and will eventually displace both HID's and CFLs as being both the cheapest and the most effective grow lights. HID's & CFL's are improving too, but there is a limit to what you can get out of that technology. Both HID & CFLs require thin glass envelopes holding a vacum. There's a limit to how cheaply those can be made and the handling expenses reduced. Solid state technology may be expensive to set up but once you have the manufacturing set up, you can crank them out for very little cost.

Right now, it's still early days and they are damn expensive. In a couple of years there will be better units for a lot less money.
 

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
im with collective on this one, as it is a widely known fact that marijuana receiving the proper amount of light will finish in the desired time with proper dark periods and no light leaks. with marijuana receiving a high amount of light, with proper nutrient regimes, can also shorten the flowering time.

it is ALSO widely known that when a plant, any plant, does not receive the proper amount of light the development of that plant will be slowed, when a 60 day (8-9 week) Strain takes 82 Days (12 weeks....) That is usually a sure sign that the plants are light deficient.

Edit: Major stoner grammar lol.

not if i can do a 42 day flowering time, and get 1G/Watt. im a perpetual SoG Grower, more small plants> few large ones. the main strain i grow finishes in 42 days (6 weeks) 1/2 the flowring time of the 82 days. over those 82 days i Will harvest 2G/Watt compaired to the 1.32G/W you harvested......

Corbat, I was thinking the same thing, but really just wanted to address the rudeness. Also, I'd like to see the pile of buds that added up to 1.34 gms/watt. I'd bet my next harvest that over 50% of those buds were too small and too fluffy to market....but they were still counted.

I used to get around 20% unmarketable buds until I started heavily pruning for quality. Canopys like the one shown in the vid will produce a pile of unmarketable buds. Since I started growing for various collectives, I've had to fine tune my canopy for bud size and density. These buyers are very finicky over what they will purchase. With proper pruning I was able to maintain my yield, but 100% of it is marketable. When I used to grow a very dense SOG ( like the one in the vid), I would end up with too much small/loose stuff...only good for hash and edibles. I'm convinced that LED's still don't have the penetration needed to pump up the lower buds. I do think that they're good enough now to get some good yields with the proper canopy. If I were using LED, I would grow 4 un-topped plants/sq ft to a finished height of around 14". I think that any taller would just produce larfy lower buds. If you look at the plants in my grow op, you'll see 36" plants with golf balls just 6" above the medium.

I guess my point is, I still would like to see a large LED grow totally. This means close up pics of the WHOLE pile. Most underlit gardens can produce some good looking tops. I believe the vid is showing the best buds, and quoting yields from the whole pile. Unfortunately, it takes more than just tops to fill those turkey bags. Your point about low light = long flowering times is well put.

I curious that none of us have brought up induction lighting. I know there are fewer producers, and thus less marketing going around. I've seen the 400's in action and was more impressed by those that any LED I've seen. Has anyone seen any links to some big induction grows????
 
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