Failing growing with leds strips.

taproot

Well-Known Member
I've recently put together a diy led light using 9x "BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3"
strips mounted onto a aluminum frame I made and driven by a hlg-185h-c1050a. The lights footprint is 18 inches deep and 24 inch wide. It turned out great, It's bright as fuck and I know that doesn't mean anything to plants but just comparing it to other lights it's pretty damn bright. It runs cool even with the driver turned all the way up which according to my killawatt is 220W. The problem is I'm having a horrible time trying to actually grow with it. I'm not a huge experienced grower like a lot of folks here but I have a few under my belt with pretty good success. This is my first time growing with LED! My past grows have used HPS and I did very well with it but damn it's hot as fuck and I live in a state where it's fucking hot as hell in the summertime so I figured a led would help in the summertime. I've never tried this led before and just got it together this winter and decided to try it. I'm not sure if it's too cool to use in the winter or not and I'll touch more on that latter ..if temps are playing a issue in my failure ....but I'm actually have to use a space heater in the room right not to try and keep the room around 80F. I'm wondering if just using hps might be a better option for winter since it put off a lot of heat as a by product...I'm assuming running a space heater is negating my power conservations of the leds. Anyways...I digress...I'm just having a very frustrating time trying to grow with this led lighting. My plants just don't seem to respond and look tired and sick and eventually the leafs tips start to turn brown and that works its way up to eventually turn the whole leaf brown and crunchy. I've raised the leds, brought them down closer ..turned up the watts and turned them down. Sometimes the plants seem like they are starting to respond as in they start to raise their leafs up like they do under the hps instead of droop down. But, a few days will go by and not much growth at all and then I see what looks like nutrient deficiency but it's not. I'm using the same stuff , dynagro, that I've used in dwc and hempy before. I even bought some ph perfect nutes just to make sure and to help take ph out of the question even though my meter says it's fine. What's so frustrating is I can take the plants right from under the leds and put them under my hps at the same wattage and within 24hrs the difference is big. The plants start to respond as in the leaves are perky and the plant seems to get more color to it and there's some little growth. Nothing else changes except just simply moving them from under the leds to the hps. My research so far seems like it might be a heat issue or lack of heat in the case. Since the hps puts off IR it really has that penetrating heat whereas the leds are just warm, I mean you can feel the penetrating heat of the hps with your hand vs the leds just feeling warm. The room with the leds running only is about 70F @ 18% humidity and about 75F at the canopy. I've tried lowering the leds and turning them up a little to get the canopy more in the 80's because with the hps at the same distances put the canopy at about 86/88F. The leds brought down too close or too high to try and get the temps in the 80's seems to be causing what I'm experiencing for the first time as light burn so ...I've found again in my research that keeping leds about 12 inches to 18 inches away from the canopy is best. I've moved the leds up to 12 inches at it's running at 180W ---to about 220W in my testing. I also brought in a space heater and am now heating the rom up to about 78-80F and also I've deployed a humidifier to get the humidity up to about 40-50% This has seemed to help but still the plants just look so stuck and eventually they start to have the brown spots appear on the leaves again...back under the hps and a few days they are exploding again. I'm so frustrated .... anybody experienced this? There's a ton of guys using the same led strips I am and the same drivers and having awesome success. I just have a hard time understanding this.
 

taproot

Well-Known Member
Here some pics. It looks like nute issues but if I put them under the hps they start to improve. I've tried these plants in hempy and now soil with basically the same results. My ppm is about 600M with dyna gro foliage pro with a tap starting at 200ppm.
 

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taproot

Well-Known Member
They just look a little nute burned is all.
They do great just by changing the light src to hps so I don't know what they'd be nute burned. And, I'm feeding at about 600PPM with a starting water from tap at 200PM so that should be about 1/4 to 1/3 strength. I've had pretty good luck on several runs before in hempy and dwc with hps but this is my first led attempt so I've basically just treated it like I would if I was growing with hps. I generally start off a little weak on the nute and as they grow and show me they are healthy I increase it like the back of the bottle shows.
 

CoB_nUt

Well-Known Member
Looks like salt burn from the solo cups drying out.I get it when they are drying out before 24 hrs and need to be transplanted. That low of humidity aggravates it..
 

CoB_nUt

Well-Known Member
It's the environment.The hps creates radiant heat & ir.The led strips don't have this luxury.Your vpd & environment is off under the strips.The hps,has your vpd in a good range,hence the reason you see improvement when you switch it back.Get that humidity and temp up.They'll be fine.
 

taproot

Well-Known Member
It's the environment.The hps creates radiant heat & ir.The led strips don't have this luxury.Your vpd is off under the strips.The hps,has your vpd in a good range,hence the reason you see improvement when you switch it back.Get that humidity and temp up.They'll be fine.
I guess I have to heat the whole room then, dam ...that's not why I wanted to run LEDS! ..lol. I thought it might be heat related so I thought I'd increase the power on the driver and lower them to about 6in from the tops until the thermometer that's next to them said 80-83F but the problem is turning it up and lowering them down that low bleaches them.
 

whytewidow

Well-Known Member
The low temps and humidity has them blocking nutrient uptake more than likely. Then when you water/feed again the nutrients are still in your media. And then you add more nutrients bc its feed time and you've switched to hps they got better started drinking more. And they are getting too much nutrients. I didnt read the book you wrote. Idk what media you're in. But I would flush them with R.o water or tap water that's set our for awhile to dilute chlorine. 24-48hrs get your temps up and humidity. And let em go. Up pot them to atleast one gal.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
I guess I have to heat the whole room then, dam ...that's not why I wanted to run LEDS! ..lol. I thought it might be heat related so I thought I'd increase the power on the driver and lower them to about 6in from the tops until the thermometer that's next to them said 80-83F but the problem is turning it up and lowering them down that low bleaches them.
You'd have to give us info on how you grow, substrate, nutrients etc... because that wall of text you posted!! OMG I grow something decent and any other grower here that grows decently can't read that on a f'd up Saturday. If you haven't got an answer by Monday maybe I'll remember to try to read that wall of text.

Sorry....... tl;dr white space is your friend
 

CoB_nUt

Well-Known Member
I guess I have to heat the whole room then, dam ...that's not why I wanted to run LEDS! ..lol. I thought it might be heat related so I thought I'd increase the power on the driver and lower them to about 6in from the tops until the thermometer that's next to them said 80-83F but the problem is turning it up and lowering them down that low bleaches them.
Airflow,will halt bleaching.Well it does in my case.Theres a few bubba kush nugs within <2" of my qb's.No detriment to the colas.I've also had my 50-75watt cobs within 5-6inches of the cobs..No bleaching.
 
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whytewidow

Well-Known Member
I guess I have to heat the whole room then, dam ...that's not why I wanted to run LEDS! ..lol. I thought it might be heat related so I thought I'd increase the power on the driver and lower them to about 6in from the tops until the thermometer that's next to them said 80-83F but the problem is turning it up and lowering them down that low bleaches them.
Dim them. Get em as close as possible. Jus dim them enough to not bleach them. I have mine about 6 inches from my tops. Running Samsung f series gen 3s in3ks and 27ks. One light. And another light with Samsung f series gen 3s 3k and 4k and H inFlux_L06 4k strips.
 
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CoB_nUt

Well-Known Member
The low temps and humidity has them blocking nutrient uptake more than likely. Then when you water/feed again the nutrients are still in your media. And then you add more nutrients bc its feed time and you've switched to hps they got better started drinking more. And they are getting too much nutrients. I didnt read the book you wrote. Idk what media you're in. But I would flush them with R.o water or tap water that's set our for awhile to dilute chlorine. 24-48hrs get your temps up and humidity. And let em go. Up pot them to atleast one gal.
Listen to this guy,he has strips and went thru some temp issues.
 

CoB_nUt

Well-Known Member
You'd have to give us info on how you grow, substrate, nutrients etc... because that wall of text you posted!! OMG I grow something decent and any other grower here that grows decently can't read that on a f'd up Saturday. If you haven't got an answer by Monday maybe I'll remember to try to read that wall of text.

Sorry....... tl;dr white space is your friend
Ha! I read it before I started drinking.
 

CoB_nUt

Well-Known Member
You'd have to give us info on how you grow, substrate, nutrients etc... because that wall of text you posted!! OMG I grow something decent and any other grower here that grows decently can't read that on a f'd up Saturday. If you haven't got an answer by Monday maybe I'll remember to try to read that wall of text.

Sorry....... tl;dr white space is your friend
Her too.
 
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