LED distance from canopy

I have a Magnum 357 and have looked on their site, what is the distance from canopy for this light. I have it around 15 inches now and my plants are 2 1/2 weeks old. As they get bigger do I move closer ?

You should post a pic and tell people the name of the strain. This will make it easier to see if it's too close or not. If it's healthy looking you're probably OK with the height. Happy Growing.

You can put leds very close. Just make sure they aren't too hot and they could be inches away

thepaintedchef said:

You can put leds very close. Just make sure they aren't too hot and they could be inches away

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This is the worst advice I have seen yet in the LED section, you think its only heat that fries plants?

thccrow said:

I have a Magnum 357 and have looked on their site, what is the distance from canopy for this light. I have it around 15 inches now and my plants are 2 1/2 weeks old. As they get bigger do I move closer ?

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using your hand to tell if the light is too close to the plant is all ways the fool proof method for me if you hold it there for a minute and it still feels like your hand is not getting excessively hot your around the best height .

^^^^Uhmmm budman111, I think you spoke too soon .

Hey Odovan, that's not a very good way for measuring LED height actually. Great for HIDs. LEDs no.

I moved my LEDs closer as the grow progressed until they were about 6 - 8 inches away. That being said, there are lots of variables with LEDs (and we haven't even talked about plant variation) like wattage and optics so I would slowly move the light closer and evaluate the effect on the plant.

So you are saying go way beyond manufacturers distance recommendations?

my led doesn't put off any heat to speak of, I guess I'll stay at 15 inches and move a little closer as they get bigger.

You do realize that the light intensity can burn the leaves if too close as well as a possibility of a severely distressed plant.

so are you saying i'm too close ??

In my experience my manufacturer suggests 6"-18" for flowering. I tried it at 6" and I noticed my top bud seemed to start having some orange hairs instead of white, I believe this is from burning. I have since moved it back to 14" and let my bud grow into it, it is now 12" away. I would say at 15" you should be ok... at least my light would be, but yours may differ. If the manufacturer doesn't list a suggested distance maybe try contacting them directly?

Also keep in mind with LEDs the closer you move the light the less light footprint you have. Keep in mind with an LED most are very efficient mine is 98% efficient I believe. A little light goes a long way with LEDs. Think of it as smoking BHO, you smoke a lot less more BHO than you do bud because BHO is 60-80% THC whereas bud is in the 20% range.

For veg if your light is too close your plant will get lazy and just stop stretching vertically, it will either become very bushy or just stop growing altogether. I would think alot of this relies on strain though.

SativaGrows said:

I tried it at 6" and I noticed my top bud seemed to start having some orange hairs instead of white, I believe this is from burning. I have since moved it back to 14"

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Thanks for sayin that SG. I was just looking at a plant today thinking that the tips of my pistils were brown waaay too early. Think I'll back off my main panel tomorrow. More foot print! Yay!

No problem, I'm still working on my first grow so I'm not 100% sure if it is from burning; but I noticed one of the buds on my plant touching my side CFL and the leaf attached to it died and the pistils started to turn brown. So when I saw a few brown pistils on the main cola I moved my LED way back, I figure it was being burned from intensity not just heat. I found a user guide from the manufacturer of my LED which gave me great advice on hanging the light as well as air temps and everything. After following the advice there my plant seems much happier.

Found this for the OP, looks like a contact via email link I found it in their "Growing with L.E.Ds section. It said contact support team: https://357magled.3dcartstores.com/crm.asp?action=contactus

LEDS, I kept my older led average at about 15 inches, when I got my blackstars, I was able to keep those about 8 inches lowest, those are a bunch of 150 true watt lights. My new 560 true watt hydrogrowled light I keep them at 15 inches over the canopy, some flower tops getting as close as 10 inches. Hope that helps.

I did contact them, they have not got back to me that's why I posted this. I just wanted to get a opinion. I hate to waste 50 bucks worth of seeds.

Yep, a lot of confusion over LED distances. Long story short, the older LED models could go pretty neat without trouble but latest LED models are crazy powerful, especially the 60 degree angle ones.

I fell for this when i got my LED and was fooled with the low heat output at first and got it close to my plants. All i got was a retarded deformed mutated plant with severe calcuim problems but it was a bagseed tester anyhow. I had to start over at a higher up level and find my vipar A100 works best at 3 -4 feet from floor and just let plants grow up towards them.

Adding CFL does NOT combat calcium problems i have found on experiments.