All COB Users - Lettuce Grow Challenge!!

OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
PicklesRus said:
Very nice :).

I know someone who wants to invest in a small home setup for spinach and wants to get good ready to use lights without wasting money on poor performing leds. With all of your experimentation is there a good deal you know of for lights that grow greens well for a good price?
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So far it looks like Transcend may be the front runner on this.
I will have to at some point pony up and try one
 
muleface

muleface

Well-Known Member
So I'm going to try plan B for lettuce. My cobs failed, mostly because it was way to much light and too hot for them Here is a start to my new setup. I am just building it out right now.

Going with:
4x8 space
18 - 22w 6500k integrated T5 LED light
9 - 4 inch NFT channels

This will provide me with 108 spots to grow a head of lettuce.

This setup pulls 420 watts at the wall, and 3.7 amps, at 13.125 watts per sf. The lights say 22 watts, but they really pull more like 23.3 watts each. I'm guess there is some overhead in the wiring and such.

As far as cobs go, i'd bet with proper cooling, distance and color, cobs would work fine. Maybe get them at 5000k - 6500k and place them way higher over the lettuce then you would over say tomatoes. If you were running in a 4x4 space with reflective walls, you could run 4 cobs at 50-60 watts each, put them like 3 or 4 feet above canopy. Don't use lenses or reflectors. The problem is you would want to keep the space at like 60 to 65 degrees, that might be tuff to do. However with winter here, you might be able to do it in an unfinished basement. Plus you could put your reservoir on the concrete floor and it would cool the water down.

I may try this at some point to see if it would work.
 

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OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
So I'm going to try plan B for lettuce. My cobs failed, mostly because it was way to much light and too hot for them Here is a start to my new setup. I am just building it out right now.

Going with:
4x8 space
18 - 22w 6500k integrated T5 LED light
9 - 4 inch NFT channels

This will provide me with 108 spots to grow a head of lettuce.

This setup pulls 420 watts at the wall, and 3.7 amps, at 13.125 watts per sf. The lights say 22 watts, but they really pull more like 23.3 watts each. I'm guess there is some overhead in the wiring and such.

As far as cobs go, i'd bet with proper cooling, distance and color, cobs would work fine. Maybe get them at 5000k - 6500k and place them way higher over the lettuce then you would over say tomatoes. If you were running in a 4x4 space with reflective walls, you could run 4 cobs at 50-60 watts each, put them like 3 or 4 feet above canopy. Don't use lenses or reflectors. The problem is you would want to keep the space at like 60 to 65 degrees, that might be tuff to do. However with winter here, you might be able to do it in an unfinished basement. Plus you could put your reservoir on the concrete floor and it would cool the water down.

I may try this at some point to see if it would work.
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Depending on the variety you don't have to be that paranoid about temperature.
Most all of the lettuce I have tried grows just fine right alongside cannabis
Note thermometer mid day in greenhouse
IMG_9475.JPG
 
OLD MOTHER SATIVA

OLD MOTHER SATIVA

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
Ok, so lettuce under my "Sauce" spectrum was super micro'ized as seen here
View attachment 3852999

Then I switched the lighting to a 4000K Recessed ceiling light and the growth greatly accelerated but in the strangest pattern I have ever seen lettuce grow in.
Almost like a flower lol
View attachment 3853003 View attachment 3853004 View attachment 3853000

I also had to add some heat to the closet to get things moving, pretty counter productive if you ask me?
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its pretty beautiful looking lettuce..
 
PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
OLD MOTHER SATIVA said:
120lm/w or more self powered led tube lights..are cheap and work well..if one is a problem you just replace it..
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There has to be 120+lm/w 4' bars available for less than 40$ at this point...

Which cheap tubes are you talking about? Those t5 tubes from transcend I saw for 60$ per 4'
 
PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
That is what we are trying to come to a consensus on with this thread.
I know 6500K T5's and MH Lamps will do it well as well as Induction Lamps.
Still yet to see an LED lettuce grow that impresses me - but we need to keep trying and experimenting :hump:
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I'm not sure how this fares, under two LED bars in a closet with no natural light.

I'm going to hook it all back up again in the next week or so.


IMG_0144.JPG IMG_0050.JPG IMG_0141.JPG IMG_0017.JPG IMG_0023.JPG
 
muleface

muleface

Well-Known Member
PicklesRus said:
There has to be 120+lm/w 4' bars available for less than 40$ at this point...

Which cheap tubes are you talking about? Those t5 tubes from transcend I saw for 60$ per 4'
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I picked up some integrated 4ft t5 22w leds 6500k for about 6 bucks each. I had to order them from alibaba, i also got a case of them, so 50. However, with shipping they worked out to be about $6.06 each or so. I would guess there is enough in a case to grow 5 - 4x4 (80sf) grow areas plus have 5 left over for spares. My confidence isn't exactly very high for the longevity of these lights. But who knows, maybe they will last forever.
 

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Evil-Mobo

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
I picked up some integrated 4ft t5 22w leds 6500k for about 6 bucks each. I had to order them from alibaba, i also got a case of them, so 50. However, with shipping they worked out to be about $6.06 each or so. I would guess there is enough in a case to grow 5 - 4x4 (80sf) grow areas plus have 5 left over for spares. My confidence isn't exactly very high for the longevity of these lights. But who knows, maybe they will last forever.
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Very interesting and looks good. I would like to see the progress T5's have a soft spot in my heart. I still can't bring myself to get rid of my Quantum bad boy T5 and I have been eyeballing the Hortilux Powerveg bulbs despite the expense. I just go back and forth because for the cost or less to do so with 8 bulbs I could get a 315 CMH again...........
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
I picked up some integrated 4ft t5 22w leds 6500k for about 6 bucks each. I had to order them from alibaba, i also got a case of them, so 50. However, with shipping they worked out to be about $6.06 each or so. I would guess there is enough in a case to grow 5 - 4x4 (80sf) grow areas plus have 5 left over for spares. My confidence isn't exactly very high for the longevity of these lights. But who knows, maybe they will last forever.
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Awesome stuff going on in this thread guys, I gotta step up my game :oops:
 
PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
muleface said:
I picked up some integrated 4ft t5 22w leds 6500k for about 6 bucks each. I had to order them from alibaba, i also got a case of them, so 50. However, with shipping they worked out to be about $6.06 each or so. I would guess there is enough in a case to grow 5 - 4x4 (80sf) grow areas plus have 5 left over for spares. My confidence isn't exactly very high for the longevity of these lights. But who knows, maybe they will last forever.
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Very interesting, Bought something you might say could be similar from a guy locally that bulk ordered from Alibaba.
Do you have the specifications of them?
 
PicklesRus

PicklesRus

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
That's what we are after is no natural light
What lights are your using?
Those are looking better than any of the COB plants thus far :hump:
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Just the same old first gen DR/B Philips Greenpower Production Modules

Honestly I am super happy with them, and the gen2 are markedly more efficient (I think something like 30 or more percent).
The only down side is you need to buy 6 at once so the investment it higher at about 135CDN each. Around 800CDN.

You have to buy them from a distributor, but it's really easy to find one just check the Philips Horticulture website and give the companies a call. They can do payment over the phone and drop ship to your house.
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
I a very interested in the outcome of the "T5" led's. Those should give a good indication of weather or not it is an intensity issue with cobs causing un-natural growth or just the shitty spectrum of led in general.
It should be noted that when I inquired with Apatchetech about lettuce growing they recommended straight 6500K led's
 
Evil-Mobo

Evil-Mobo

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
I a very interested in the outcome of the "T5" led's. Those should give a good indication of weather or not it is an intensity issue with cobs causing un-natural growth or just the shitty spectrum of led in general.
It should be noted that when I inquired with Apatchetech about lettuce growing they recommended straight 6500K led's
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My 5K COB was close but even now one day under the 6500K T5's my veg tent is much happier and the plants hit a big growth spurt with no watering or feed.........

Can't wait for Monday to slap in the Blue MH :)
 
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