300w LED vs 1000w HPS Hydroton Drip Grow

almightyfig

Member
THE LEDS HAVE ARRIVED! WEEK 5 DAY1
The LED's arrived 3 days ago and were set up then. Pictures below were taken today. I've noticed that the plants in the left drain table (under the 1000 watt) are noticeably larger than the ones in the right table. The plant heights are not different due to the light change, it is just how they turned out.

However, I have noticed that the 1000 watt plants are leggier, where as the LED plants are shorter and fuller in size.

I have noticed random spots appearing on one plant, its not nute burn, and I am concerned it might be a diseased plant? any comments? Pictures of the plant will be posted tomorrow. :eyesmoke:

Oh yeah, just got a shipment in of some super compressed headies from Cali, daaank.
 

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hardroc

New Member
yea man right on, looks good. I can't wait to see the end result. I'm actually rooting for the led's but my instints go with the 1000's
Good luck with the grow
scribed
 
first of all well done, interesting experiment.

I am also growing for first time with LED, I got a 300W LED with (288*1w-chips). 10 plants from seed (5 moby dick, 5 critical super silver haze) in a 1m*1m tent. I find it hard to keep the lamp close enough and at the same time reach with sufficient light to all the plants... I would really need at least 2, 300W LED´s in that tent to cover better.

Question. You are using 126W LED. Is each chip 1w? cause i am looking at buying some new LED´s and I have been recommended to buy the ones with at least 2w chips or as some claim to have 3w each chip. making it 3 times stronger than the standard, and sometimes considered, "cheap" LED´s.

will be following you success..

best. J
 

nomaninsf

Well-Known Member
I'm watching another grow where somebody is using LED's and they are moving so slow. The quality is ok with the LED setup but the guy is going on week 14 already and they're still not finished. Good luck. I'm going to keep an eye on this.
 

almightyfig

Member
first of all well done, interesting experiment.

I am also growing for first time with LED, I got a 300W LED with (288*1w-chips). 10 plants from seed (5 moby dick, 5 critical super silver haze) in a 1m*1m tent. I find it hard to keep the lamp close enough and at the same time reach with sufficient light to all the plants... I would really need at least 2, 300W LED´s in that tent to cover better.

Question. You are using 126W LED. Is each chip 1w? cause i am looking at buying some new LED´s and I have been recommended to buy the ones with at least 2w chips or as some claim to have 3w each chip. making it 3 times stronger than the standard, and sometimes considered, "cheap" LED´s.

will be following you success..

best. J

Thats awesome that you are using some 300w leds. I am not sure what the chip watt is per light. But I have noticed with many companies they advertise that you can keep the LEDs 2 or 3 feet away from the plants....I feel these claims are very unrealistic. Also I feel that there are many LEDs that claim to work but there needs to be better brand recognition through grows like mine and yours to really set the story straight on LEDs. Me personally, I use HydroGrowLEd.com's lights and I am becoming a strong believer in them. I keep my lights only about 3 inches away from the canopy. Check my update for the reasons why. Ill have it posted in about 30 minutes.
 

almightyfig

Member
I'm watching another grow where somebody is using LED's and they are moving so slow. The quality is ok with the LED setup but the guy is going on week 14 already and they're still not finished. Good luck. I'm going to keep an eye on this.

Hey man , thanks for the comments..I am a little nervous about flowering but watching the veg is really exciting. If the same delivery comes in flowering as it does in veg then im expecting a much larger yield from the LED. I will go into my explanation in the update I'm about to post.
 

almightyfig

Member
Ok guys here are some things that I have done in the last 2 weeks.



A few of you have been sending me messages about the LEDs and compared this grow to others and I just wanted to give some personal incite on the LEDs.
I have been having great success thus far in veg state with my LED but I do not believe all LEDs are made equal. My LEDs are from Hydrogrowled.com and they try and set themselves apart by using IR light, white light, and 60 degree led bulbs. They also don't advertise to hang the lights 2 or 3 feet above the canopy. Its common knowledge that there is less light farther away from the light, so why keep your lights any farther away than they need to be?I keep mine about 2 or 3 inches from the canopy,

Anyway in this update I took some below canopy shots to show some differences in the LEDs vs the 1000w.
If you look you'll notice that its thin very thinned out in the 1000w plants and its like a wall of green under the LED. I want to reiterate the height difference between the 1000w and the LEd plant is not due to the light performance it is due to transplant shock of moving the 20 plants into the next tray. They have otherwise kept the same height difference as they have grown.
A strange thing that I have noticed happening under the leds is spots appearing on the leaves. These spots are almost perfect circles and resemble burn marks, only they have the same feeling as the regular leaf parts. It is almost as if they have been bleached. These spots only appear after the plant have been sitting against the lights for a day or so. My hypothesis is that the white light or IR light is causing these bleach spots. It almost as if there is too much light in those spots. Anyways check out the pics. Feed back is greatly appreciated.
 

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TCurtiss

Well-Known Member
It does look like the 1000w is making them stretch and the LED is supply the correct wave length but not enough of it as the 1000w can

That is why they are smaller and bushier than the bigger light

Looks good though great test
 

CaptainPointless

Well-Known Member
In all honesty, it looks like it's growing how it theoretically should given the circumstances.

The red and blue spectra of the LEDs are readily absorbed by the plants, and also penetrate more than the light from their HID counterparts. Because the LED-grown plants don't have to work as hard to receive the correct amount of usable light necessary for stem growth, it follows that it wouldn't be necessary for the plants to stretch as much towards the light. As for the HID-grown ones, the percentage of usable spectra is so low that it has trouble penetrating the canopy. Therefore, in order for as much light as possible to be utilized, the plant needs to stretch to allow more leaves light exposure.
 

almightyfig

Member
In all honesty, it looks like it's growing how it theoretically should given the circumstances.

The red and blue spectra of the LEDs are readily absorbed by the plants, and also penetrate more than the light from their HID counterparts. Because the LED-grown plants don't have to work as hard to receive the correct amount of usable light necessary for stem growth, it follows that it wouldn't be necessary for the plants to stretch as much towards the light. As for the HID-grown ones, the percentage of usable spectra is so low that it has trouble penetrating the canopy. Therefore, in order for as much light as possible to be utilized, the plant needs to stretch to allow more leaves light exposure.

Honestly I'm excited about it because there are tons of nodes everywhere. I am thinkin that it might be packed with bud since it penetrates so well. Instead of the top stem being thick in full, all the stems will be thick and full. I have my fingers crossed! I will be flowering next week! Soooo excited.:weed:
 

CaptainPointless

Well-Known Member
Honestly I'm excited about it because there are tons of nodes everywhere. I am thinkin that it might be packed with bud since it penetrates so well. Instead of the top stem being thick in full, all the stems will be thick and full. I have my fingers crossed! I will be flowering next week! Soooo excited.:weed:
Will most definitely be watching.

Something else I was researching is temperature differences and plant growth. The consensus that I found is that the larger the temperature differential from light-to-dark cycle, the longer and stringier the stems. The smaller the differential, the stockier the stems get without the elongation.

So again, it makes sense why the LED-grown plants are shorter. Under the HID-lamp, temperatures are significantly warmer, and more than likely have a high temperature differential once they are shut off. The LEDs, on the other hand, run cool to begin with. So if there is only a 3-5 degree difference with LEDs, there might be a 10-20 degree difference with HID. It follows that the LED plants would be shorter and stockier, while the HID plants would be taller and more spread out.
 

surphin

Well-Known Member
I'm subscribing to this one. Can't wait to see the outcome. I can see your side on taking a less yield for the sake of safety. Especially if the quaility is still there and you can do it with less overall electricity use, why not. Good luck and keep the update's coming.
 

almightyfig

Member
I'm subscribing to this one. Can't wait to see the outcome. I can see your side on taking a less yield for the sake of safety. Especially if the quaility is still there and you can do it with less overall electricity use, why not. Good luck and keep the update's coming.
honestly man im thinking that I might have a higher yeild under the leds. But that remains to be seen. Im really impressed with their output. If things go well I will be getting a commercial account with hydrogrowled.com and be putting them up for sale.
 

almightyfig

Member
Ok guys I cloned two females in my homemade ez cloner and the roots look crazy. the stem expanded and looks like a big spike ball. Interesting.

Anyways I chopped out all the males which is a fun task for me. I'm left with 28 plants from my original 41.

I'm beginning to worry about the capabilities of the LED. while the LED plants are thicker in foliage the stems and leaves are skinnier. I don't know if this is a bad thing or not but it seems to be bad because the stems wont be strong for the bud weight.

Anyways here are the pics from this week along with the cloner pics
 

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axjnkee

Well-Known Member
. In the second vs the 400Hps the LED produced the same only it took a week longer to crop out but had way more resin production. .
I've had this same result trying out LED's vs my friends hps, same clones..Mine took a week longer, but had WAY more resin prodution.
 
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