These lights?? LED how many can they grow?

Trigga92

Active Member

It is a mixture of red and blue lights and claims to give the plant what it needs. its 30cmx30cm so im thinking of making a box which is also 30cmx30cm and have the light as a lid of the box. How many plants do you think this light can grow and how many plants could you have max in a 30cmx30cm box thanks.
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
I've got 7 going right now under two lights. They are from seed and are doing better than I ever dreamed; growing insanely.
 

bigjohn4prez

Active Member
potpimp. do these things really work? i have seen them advertised but just thought they were a scam cuz it doesn't seem like enough light
 

Trigga92

Active Member
two of these lights. im thinking of making a 30cm x 30cm x 50cm box with the light as the lid. These lights do not produce alot of heat. and apparantley 1w led = 3w hps.
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
Just plugged my T5's in yesterday. Been using just the LED's since I put the seeds (ungerminated) in the rapid rooter plugs 2 weeks ago. A week ago there were 2 leaves, not even true leaves! Wednesday there were two true leaves and today you can see what I came in to. I can't say enough good about these things. I have a 400w MH and HPS light and some huge CFL's but I love to experiment and I have to admit that I'm a sucker for new gadgets.




 

gangjababy

Well-Known Member
pot pimp, you will be severely dissapointed once you try to flower them. For vegging, they work well but are lacking for flowering. Your plants are only a couple weeks old, you can't really say they work well yet...
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
You're probably right and I'm not expecting them to do well for flowering; I'll blaze em with the HPS when I start that. Might use the LED's and T5's for side lighting though. The way I look at it is that now I'm doing 24/7 and that only costs me pennies a week with this setup. Throw on that 400w HPS and the damn meter starts spinning the paint off, LOL.
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
They are advertised as being 50w but they are actually 45w. I think there are 108 lights on each panel. The lights are 3/8" wide and nearly 1/2" tall and VERY bright.
 

Trigga92

Active Member
well that 56w light is about £70 and the 16w is about £30. so would my idea of using a 16w panel to grow 4 plants a bad idea. Would leave the lights on 24 hours
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
They might be enough to get through about half the veg stage Trigga. If you want fast growing plants that mature with big, fat, dense buds you're going to need a lot more light, probably HPS. A 16w LED (with red and blue only) is equivalent to a 150w MH or HPS since only about 10% of those lights spectrum are actually used by the plant. The light from red / blue LED's are 100% usable.
 

Trigga92

Active Member
Ok i will purchase the 50 watt Led Panel that you have RED AND BLUE. im hoping that would be enough for 4 plants?.
 

potpimp

Sector 5 Moderator
It's only a 12" x 12" square so you're still back to square one. The idea is to cover all the leaves with light. Leaves that don't get light die and that's just wasted energy. When mine get to where the lights that I have are not enough to penetrate the canopy then I'll be using side lights to augment the upper lights. Check out the T5's at Lowes; I bought two 42" double-lamp strips and bulbs for under $100. They are very effective lights for growing, very energy efficient and do not give off much heat. You could still get one of the LED panels - or save up and buy the three pack for $400 (yeah I know that is a LOT of money!).
 

Trigga92

Active Member
I plan to stick 4 in that 12" x 12" area and with foil around the walls as im making a box 12" x 12" and having the led panel as the lid. I do like the idea of these led lights. low power consumption. and just the way they look. I will leave the lights on 24hours for the grow.
 

Jonus

Well-Known Member
You're probably right and I'm not expecting them to do well for flowering; I'll blaze em with the HPS when I start that.
If you havent been through that exercise before heres a suggestion or two from some lessons I learnt when using LEDs as veg and HPS as flowering.

It pays to slowly introduce them to the HPS because of the gentle way LEDs light plants the plants can go into shock by going from 2000 to 3000 lumens per square foot of light with relatively low heat, to 10,000 lumens or more per square foot with high heat.

Might use the LED's and T5's for side lighting though.
I found that LEDs didnt make such a good side lighting especially when you have healthy plants and the leaves are relatively horizontal. LED light is so directional that it barely touches the leaves from the side, mostly just the tips of the leaves that are down turned. Whereas the fluros radiate light differently making them perfect for side lighting.
 

Trigga92

Active Member
yeh these give off 4000 lumens for a 30cmx30cm area?? im planning now to grow 8 plants in a 60cmx60cm area. Have ordered my AK47 X Lowrider 2 auto plants. Will take aout 5 weeks to grow them so the packet says and they are small plants which is good for the room :D. I hope they will grow with this.
 
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