⇧Brother OneHitDone's HydroGrowLed MEEt's LETTUCE Grow Test⇧

OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
Hey guys and gals - what we have going here is another one of my whacky indoor lettuce growing adventures. As those who have followed my thread in the LED section know - lettuce is not the easiest crop to produce under led.
@HydroGrowLED has been kind enough to sponsor several of the members on this site with free gear to run and check out the companies tech and spectrum. I was one of the chosen ones due solely on my pursuit of the ideal led for growing food crops indoors I suppose.
So, what we have here is a 22"x22" tent with a custom fabbed NFT Hydroponic system where 9 lettuce plants will be grown to full term under the HydroGrowLed 42X fixture. Fixture pulls 71.7W from the wall putting this grow at approximately 21.5W per Sq Ft.
Lettuce seeds are germinating in rock wool cubes which will then be moved to the nft channels and fed Master Blend 4-18-38, Calcium Nitrate, and Magnesium Sulphate for the duration of the crop.
I have dialed the fixture in at the recommended height of 16.5" above the seedling tray and will maintain this distance the best I can as the crop grows.
So join along for the ride as I get this show started.

I'll start with a few photo's of the nicely constructed fixture. Nice touch with the filters over the fans!!
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Even thought the light is comprised of mono diodes and none of them are white - the light does not appear "Blurple" at all in person. It actually is even "whiter" than these images project.

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HydroGrowLED

HydroGrowLED

Well-Known Member
A special thanks to @OneHitDone who is taking the time and making the space to run this grow test.

I have no doubts you'll be happy with this little light for your lettuce crops. Your popularity around here (especially with lettuce) is what won you a grow light. That and I think you're a pretty cool person from how you carry yourself on RIU.

I love the little NFT setup. The tent looks great and the light is hung perfectly. Will definitely be following along.
Glad you and @hybridway2 have both confirmed now that despite being mono RGB, our lights are not blurple. There's a new "white" light in town and we don't use any phosphors. :blsmoke:
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
So here we are 2 days later. I over-seeded a bit so it's time to do some surgery and thin them out.
Test #1 for a light source to grow lettuce is weather or not the seedlings emerge without having a long neck goose stretch to them.
Did the HydroGrow Led pass this test?? ✔︎

A few photo's from this evening

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HydroGrowLED

HydroGrowLED

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
So here we are 2 days later. I over-seeded a bit so it's time to do some surgery and thin them out.
Test #1 for a light source to grow lettuce is weather or not the seedlings emerge without having a long neck goose stretch to them.
Did the HydroGrow Led pass this test?? ✔︎

A few photo's from this evening
Click to expand...
Best thing about a lettuce grow? It happens so fast! Plus who doesn't love an awesome salad? Glad to see we passed test #1.
 
SSGrower

SSGrower

Well-Known Member
OHD I don't want to clutter your thread just want to post some comparison pics. The thing about lettuce is that it will let you know when things are not right for it. I think intinsity and distribution are critical for lettuce. A diffuse intense light is how to push healthy growth. Spectrum is important, but not as important as distribution.
For what I have under cobs it seems lettuce can only tolerate up to about half the intensity cannabis can.
20190503_095614.jpg
^^those are on the floor of my flower tent which is cobs. The light Is diffuse but not intense enough.
20190503_083915.jpg
The 4 at the top of the pic are under 60w/sq ft diy supplimented cob at 14 in but there are 2 layers of lexan between them and light, still too intense. The 4 on the bottom are almost 3 ft from my amare se350 that has the monos dimmed to 50%. Lookin good.
20190502_203557.jpg
These are under 60w of mixed cob but again using lexan to diffuse the light and reduce intensity. Some lexan, like the vertical piece is goodnfor transmission but not good at duffusion. I see it as a way to organize a single grow area and mange light intensity for different species without having multiple lights.
20190503_104347.jpg
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Most of the ones I started under under t5 and window light got moved outside (protected by a heavy diffusing lexan) or are the ones on the floor of my tent, both are doing way better than the t5.
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
SSGrower said:
For what I have under cobs it seems lettuce can only tolerate up to about half the intensity cannabis can.
Click to expand...
I can only partially agree with this.
Having ran so many lettuce crop in the greenhouse with scorching direct summer sun overhead and even high temps with no ill effects on "heat tolerant" varieties.
I also have lettuce right this moment front and center under a 600W Ushio Opti Blue MH.
Spectrum to me is one of the first priorities.
I think the intensity sensitivity comes into play when we are dealing with an "incomplete" spectrum. White phosphor LED does not qualify as "full spectrum" in my book.
Hence my interest in this HydroGrow LED. Thought has been put into this spectral composition to include Far Red which from my own testing has shown to play a massive role in lettuce's ability to properly take shape.
 
HydroGrowLED

HydroGrowLED

Well-Known Member
SSGrower said:
The thing about lettuce is that it will let you know when things are not right for it. I think intinsity and distribution are critical for lettuce. A diffuse intense light is how to push healthy growth. Spectrum is important, but not as important as distribution.
For what I have under cobs it seems lettuce can only tolerate up to about half the intensity cannabis can.
Click to expand...
All of our side-by-side grow chamber testing done at the University of Washington on lettuce, was performed at a fluence rate of 300-400 umol at the canopy level. According to the professor, this was the ideal intensity for growing lettuce which is why I requested our light be used at 16.5" above the plants.

Much like when you compare our product to HID, the CFL used for the test had a much more even distribution of PPFD. At the end of their testing with our G2 spectrum, our lettuce grew 43% faster. This was attributed solely to the spectral difference between the two lights. Later commercial testing with our G3 spectrum showed almost a 2 fold increase in growth rate and therefore yield. @OneHitDone is using G4, which we released in 2014. Took us from 2009 to 2014 to perfect our spectrum, although it's designed for tomatoes/cannabis and simply works well on lettuce.
 
SSGrower

SSGrower

Well-Known Member
OneHitDone said:
I can only partially agree with this.
Having ran so many lettuce crop in the greenhouse with scorching direct summer sun overhead and even high temps with no ill effects on "heat tolerant" varieties.
I also have lettuce right this moment front and center under a 600W Ushio Opti Blue MH.
Spectrum to me is one of the first priorities.
I think the intensity sensitivity comes into play when we are dealing with an "incomplete" spectrum. White phosphor LED does not qualify as "full spectrum" in my book.
Hence my interest in this HydroGrow LED. Thought has been put into this spectral composition to include Far Red which from my own testing has shown to play a massive role in lettuce's ability to properly take shape.
Click to expand...
The 2 issues basic I have with the light are the immediate losses incurred by the lenses and I want to better understand the thermodynamic characteristics.
I dont think the lenses help to blend the light as they are focusing it, just a fact. I think there are lenses that would provide for better blending and id like to see the secondary opitc with a focal length of infinity.

How far is the MH from lettuce.
Afreed on heat tolerant varieties, these are blackseeded simpson and buttercrunch, IIRC only mildly heat tolerant.

Your real world testing conditions are invaluble. If you can do anything with manual white balance, pics of what the distribution look like up close (like a sheet of paper 6 in infront of the light), and what heatsink temps are in relation to envirnmental temps, I would find the information worth evaluating.
:peace:
 
OneHitDone

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
SSGrower said:
The 2 issues basic I have with the light are the immediate losses incurred by the lenses and I want to better understand the thermodynamic characteristics.
I dont think the lenses help to blend the light as they are focusing it, just a fact. I think there are lenses that would provide for better blending and id like to see the secondary opitc with a focal length of infinity.

How far is the MH from lettuce.
Afreed on heat tolerant varieties, these are blackseeded simpson and buttercrunch, IIRC only mildly heat tolerant.

Your real world testing conditions are invaluble. If you can do anything with manual white balance, pics of what the distribution look like up close (like a sheet of paper 6 in infront of the light), and what heatsink temps are in relation to envirnmental temps, I would find the information worth evaluating.
:peace:
Click to expand...
Will try to get you the info you seek this evening after lights on :peace:
 
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