my first grow

I was lucky enough to get a hold of several led light fixtures and ballasts from my last warehouse job before it shutdown in Feb. 2012, been unemployed since. Decided to grow using what i had. Bag seed so i don't know what strain. This is my first grow ever so be easy on me. I am open to advice. I am glad to have found this place.

Just thought I'd post my set-up. I had some major stretching with these plants due to the lights not being as close as they should when they were vegging, I know better next time. The buds look nice and dense though as you can see from the picture above. We'll see what the end result brings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hey ElFlakiviti31, what else can you tell us home viewers about the lights? Off hand it looks like you could use some more 630-680nm, but then again that first picture looks pretty damn good!

Hey FranJan, how are you. Could you explain to me what 630-680nm means? I'm super fresh to this and this is my first grow with lights I had already, more of an experiment than anything. They are originally for outdoor signs. I have several drivers:. This is what one of the lights look like off the fixture it came with:. And this is what one of the diodes look like:. This particular light emits brilliant white, but I also have an intense blue, as you can see from one of the pics above. All I know is that the drivers are 120vac input and puts out 12vdc 60w output, I think. I also have a cople of regular grow bulbs up there that I plan to change to cfl soon. i also plan to get some reds as well.

Just set this up yesterday in another room:. Still needs some work,and lights, this is strictly for vegging.

ElFlakiviti31 said:

Hey FranJan, how are you. Could you explain to me what 630-680nm means? I'm super fresh to this and this is my first grow with lights I had already, more of an experiment than anything. They are originally for outdoor signs. I have several drivers:. This is what one of the lights look like off the fixture it came with:. And this is what one of the diodes look like:. This particular light emits brilliant white, but I also have an intense blue, as you can see from one of the pics above. All I know is that the drivers are 120vac input and puts out 12vdc 60w output, I think. I also have a cople of regular grow bulbs up there that I plan to change to cfl soon. i also plan to get some reds as well.

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Hey Elf, 630-680 is an area of the visible spectrum that is basically necessary for flowering and is roughly the red spectrum. I see you have blue, but it helps to know the exact spectra to see how well they will work. And the whites appear to be RGB SMDs but without better pics or more info on the panel I can't be sure. They look like they have enough to veg but not enough for effective flowering. How many LED strips run off a driver? This may give us some clue as to what wattage you're running. And what is the other writing on the right side of the 2nd picture of you're third post? That may help find out more info on the LEDs. For a stealth setup they may be perfect.

Blues. Right side of white. Left side of white. As for the drivers, I have 2 pushing 5 white strips, 2 hanging above plants, and 3 running up and down the walls as my reflective surfaces, and 1 driver pushing the blue strip above the plants. The drivers say no more than 3 strips per driver, you can, but they will dim a little. I have 3 more drivers not in use, and a bunch of white strips not in use as well. What is a stealth setup? The fixtures are strips of 5 connected in series, each strip contain 3 diodes per strip on the whites.

Hey Elf, when I say stealth I mean a grow that is hidden and quiet. Leds are good for that since they're low heat and low wattage. Will hopefully have some more info on your lights for you later. I gotta go to the beach first .

I appreciate all of your help FranJan, and enjoy your day at the beach!

Now here is a quick question, since I don't have the reds right now, would it work if I put some kind of red cover or lenses over the white diodes? Or would that be a waste of time? Money is tight right now.

The problem with using a red cover is you'll decrease your output and you don't really know what the real spectrum of the light is. You will probably be fine for vegging with those LEDs and you can add Red 630nm spots later.

Here's some info for the whites. They seem to be excellent veg lights IMHO. These sign companies use some really bright LEDs. The companies that make lighting for gambling machines use particularly bright LEDs from what I've seen. I haven't gone over all the data but so far so good.
http://www.permlightforsigns.com/product.php?id=1
http://ledsmagazine.com/products/25884
Data Sheet:
http://www.permlightforsigns.com/files/F1A18085511170100.pdf

The blues are a little tougher to find info on. I believe they're 2 watt LED. One place says they're green running at 1.8 watts apiece . Axiom's website isn't much help. You may have to call or email them to get more info on the blues, (AX-LE4), they seem to be older and are out of production I'm assuming. They're probably in the 450nm ballpark and should work fine.

You're lucky I'm into finding out about strange LEDs that one can use for growing .

This is some awesome info. So basically, I am set for vegging, but need the red 630nm for proper flowering. Any suggestion on where I can get some on a low budget? And yes, I am lucky. Thank you again.

^^^ Your welcome. And for the reds on the cheap, the cheapest in my opinion would be to build your own SMD based spot light. You've got an extra driver, right? Then all you need is a chunk of aluminum, and I mean a pot or pan will do, some wire and some thermal mounting compound. Then just buy one or two 20 to 30 watt red 630-660nm SMDs like they have on Ebay.

SMDs are cheap, easier to use than individual LEDs, which would be even cheaper than the SMD solution but you have to wire, solder, and mount all the LEDs as opposed to just mount one and do a little soldering and wiring. You'll probably have to do some research to see if they work with the driver and they're probably gonna run a little hot. See Gastanker's Organic UV thread also. He's making his own high powered LED spots using SMDs. He's a good egg and would probably help you build your own spot. And stay away from those red led light bulbs. They don't cut it most of the time. Good Luck!

Found some on Amazon. Didn't realize how affordable those single modules could be! Excellent.