RE: Thunderchunkie,
I have viewed your journal, and I must say your set-up is quite impressive. I have had experince with LED's and I would hate to see the time, effort and money you spent go to vain.
Therefore, I will throw some facts at you that may aid you in your endeavors:
NASA were the ones to first make public the use of LED's for plant growth, now you probably heard the hype and so have many....
Has anybody wondered why the heck NASA would give a $@#! about plants???
There are two reasons:
The first is space food is obviously garbage, but more importantly food needs to be brought with the astronauts to space this inturn adds additional cargo weight (something they want to avoid obviously) and especially for long missions that can last upto 6 months (just imagine how much food that would be in a space shuttle with 4 astronauts) so obviously growing plants in space would reduce the initial cargo weight and develop an alternative, the second reason is they wanted to experiment with the zero gravity of space and plant growth, so to do so they would require a light source (they can't use the sun because of the unfiltered solar radiation UV-A, B and C which will kill plants)
Also they could not use an HPS's MH's or CFL's simply because they consume too much power from the space shuttle-therefore VOILA! LED's were the prime candidates.
Now I assume everyone is still wondering what the &*^! this has to do with growing???
It's simple, LED's were intially used to save power NOT to yield maximum results..which I assume is every grower's mission- to grow the best bud.
However, LED's have one good thing they emitt the perfect wavelengths that the plants need. Going into chemistry, the sole purpose of the color spectrum in growing is that certain wavelengths make the plant send a chemical signal to initiate certain types of growth...these chemicals are called Chlorophile A and Chlorophile B...Ideally, Chlorophile A needs 400-430nm (nm=nanometers) of blue light and 650-670nm of red light. Whereas, Chlorophile B needs 420-470nm of blue light and 620-670nm of red light. Theoretcially, if your were to give the plants all of the wavelenghts I mentioned above they would grow like mutants. Now that you know about LED's and how they effect plant growth I can move on to the misconceptions.
I have experience with 5mm LED's (like the ones you're using on your PAR lights and boards). Simple rules of botany and photosynthesis tells us that in order for light to penetrate the plant's epidermis (the plants outer layer kinda like a skin) it has to be of a certain intensity. Obviously the higher the lumens the higher the intensity. Unfortunately Thunderchunkie, the 5mm LED's you're using may be cheaper, but just dont cut it if your gonna use them exclusively- unless if your not looking for excellent growth and yield (which I doubt). This is why the boards and PAR bulbs you bought are so much cheaper than the LED UFO... The reason why the UFO is so popular and expenisve is that they use eighty 1WATT LED's that boast 100+ lumens per watt wheres as 5mm LED's are barely .04 WATTS each and have almost half the lumen/watt output!!!! Now Thunderchunkie I aint tryin to put you down- your setup is awesome. I just dont want you to end the same way I did, with eratic fluffy buds (less than 1.5oz per plant).
The only suggestions I would have at this stage in your operation is that you add one of those high powered lights you showed us earlier ontop of your plants ASAP...otherwise you'll get a weak yield... Another way to jump start your slow growth is to add CO2...if the CO2 option is too expensive or time consuming the other option I can give you is Hydrogen Peroxide. Now my formula does wonders and its simple: go to any store grab a hydrogen peroxide bottle 3% solution (dont worry about mixing your own from a 35% solution- all those other places that tell you its better dont knw what they're talking about) My formula is simple: add 3.2 - 3.4 ml of hydrogen peroxide to every 1L of water... WHEN EXPERIMENTING NEVER GO OVER 4ML/LITRE-TRUST ME I KNOW....Now for all you skeptics Ill explain the chemistry behind it, hydrogen peroxide (H202) has a radical oxygen atom (means a very reactive extra oxgen atom) this radical oxygen atom holds a negative charge you can say it is almost ionized this makes this atom especially attracted to other oxygen atoms and organic molecules, this attraction makes the radical oxygen atoms combine with organic matter or other oxygen atoms (you can experiment with this when you put drop of hydrogen peroxide on an open wound- you'll see it react and start fizzing and bubbling)... So because Thunderchunkie is using an aeroponic system, there's nothing else organic to get in the way of the oxygen atoms from attaching themselves to the roots of his plants (unless if there is organic matter in your nutrients-which does not render it useless but just less intense) - giving them the added kick in growth they need.
To conclude, with regards to your experiment I think it's a great source for any young and upcoming grower to get a greater insight on LED growing. Unfortunately, from my experience with LED's I can assure you that you'll end up with a weak yield. If you added more 1+WATT LED's (judging from how many plants you have I would say you needed atleast 20-40 extra) and put them really close to your plants, then I think it would be safe to say you'll get some excellent results confirming your experiment and also the "greatness" of LED's. Otherwise, adding high power lights (HPS or MH) and C02 or Hydrogen Peroxide, is the only thing you'll need to grow some fat buds!!!
Best of Luck,
Canniboid Alchemist
THIS MESSAGE IS STRICTLY FOR pigs, jhonny law's, pork patrols, DEA, RCMP, local corrupted police officers, popo, pussy's with a legal gun and badge, any law enforcement agencies, agents, or contractors, rats, snitches or affiliates:
Everything I have mentioned above is all just lies that I decided to fabricate solely for the purpose of entertainment. Thank You For Watching...P.S. do us all a favor and go commit suicide