400w LED v 600w HPS Comparison Journal.. Which is the best option? Let's find out!

Sponsored Comparison Journal

600w vs SF4000, VS4300, PL4500

I am not an affiliate and Rollitup.org has nothing to do with this comparison journal.

Sponsors For This Comparison:
@Phlizon LED Grow Light https://www.phlizonstore.com/
@VIVOSUN Official https://vivosun.com/

Approval For Comparison: @sunni

I would like to start this journal off by saying THANK YOU to those who were interested enough with this comparison to participate in it!

About Myself:
I am an old school "Hippie" grower that has spent the last 17 years running various different sizes of HID's.

I have ran everything from 250w digital ballasts, all the way up to a 1kw magnetic ballast and in between.

In the years that I have been growing, I've always had my wife in my ears about how my garden setup is consuming too much hydro and that I needed to start growing outdoors more to bring the hydro down.

For the past few years I've let my wife talk me into running outdoors for flowering, but this year I was determined to put up my indoor garden again, regardless of how much I have to listen to her complain..

After months "winter, spring and summer this year" I finally talked her into letting me put up the garden again, but she didn't want me to hang all of the HID's I have "several of them ranging from 250w-1000w", instead she wants me to use as little hydro as possible..

I started talking to her about LED's and how they are showing to be better lights, save on hydro, and produce better results.

At first she was curious about them, but then she seen how much some of these LED's costs and instantly said, "The lights you have work fine, you do not need new lights, just use less"..

Me being me I was not taking her no for an answer.

After spending all of our "Canada's Wonderland" vacation money on dirt this summer, I figured why not push her more. "she was and is still PISSED about me taking our vacation money, what's just a little bit more going to do lol"

I went out and found a @Spiderfarmerled SF4000 from an off duty officer "IRONIC AS FEK" who tried his hand in growing tomatoes and fruits, but it wasn't for him, so he sold me the light to me for a good price.. "He knew I was a Hippie, I carry that old bearded hippie look everywhere I go"

Once the SF4000 was hung and plugged in I started to get the idea of comparing it to the HID, then I started to think "it's a good time to piss the wife off, I love pissing her off," I got the idea in my head that I wanted to buy more lights, not only because we all love lights, but because I need them if I am going to convert back indoors.. "I am not going to settle with her idea of running just 2 600w HPS in this flower room", that would be unacceptable compared to what I ran before.

I thought maybe I would see if some of these companies would have some nice holiday sales coming up and which would be the best option to go with..

As I started to look around it made me curious "which light option would be the best for this range of power", not only with amount of light produced, but also budget friendly as well..

I figured that since I have the SF4000, it would be a good base comparison..

As I started to talk to several different companies about their lights and which lights of theirs would compare to this range, to my surprise a couple of them decided they liked the idea of their lights being compared in this range and they offered to sponsor this comparison run!!

So again I would like to say a HUGE thanks to @VIVOSUN Official and @Phlizon LED Grow Light, you all are amazing people and I have truly enjoyed talking to you all!

So without any further delays....

LETS COMPARE!

Lights:
SF4000

Vivosun VS4300

Phlizon PL4500


Here is the set up in which this comparison run will be held.

The way it is laid out is I have the SF4000 on the far back left, the VS4300 in the middle, the PL4500 on the far right, and directly across from them, centered to the VS4300, is the 600w HPS
Comparison Room: 10ft x 13ft x 7.5ft


Method Of Growing:
Organic pre mixed soil with various organic additives.. I will give all the ingredients and such in a more detailed "mixing" update.

I will be running 4 plants in 15 gallon pots each that I fill with this mix, they will all get the same treatment.

I am going to run 1 plant under each light and put the goal to "1 lb per plant"..

Let's see if we can pull this off!

Strain Being Ran:
Dotz "Runtz x Stardawg"

I will also be adding a trellis system to the room and other updates as we go along..

I will keep this journal updated at least 1 time a week, maybe more if there are things developing..

Thanks again to all those involved and I am really looking forward to this journey!

Also comments are welcomed in this thread, I would just like to keep it organized and not get off topic too much as we go along, this will be a long journal as it takes a while to veg for 1lb plants.

I am currently growing five white widows from the same seed bank. Each plant is different height and has its own unique qualities. Wouldn't it be a better comparison if you took two clones from the same mother plant for this grow? I'm also curious how long do you veg a plant to get 1 lb?

Hotrod2 said:

I am currently growing five white widows from the same seed bank. Each plant is different height and has its own unique qualities. Wouldn't it be a better comparison if you took two clones from the same mother plant for this grow? I'm also curious how long do you veg a plant to get 1 lb?

Click to expand...

Yeah pheno drift is something I can not control on this run, I already knew this coming into it.. I planned on doing a second run with the keeper mother..

I will do what I can to eliminate as much as possible, I had no mothers since I just got done with outdoor..

I plan on vegging for the rest of the year and look to flip around Feb or so.. Goal is to harvest this round around the time outdoor will be ready to start..

I'm mixing up soil batch now and I will get another updater here in a bit..

Clones are a basic ingredient of a comparison.

Keep in min

Star Dog said:

Clones are a basic ingredient of a comparison.

Click to expand...

Nothing I could do about clones on first run, like I said this will go on for multi runs, when this is done, there will be no doubt which is better.

I just finished mixing soil, I have to put it in bins and water it, then let it sit for a few weeks…
A full update is coming later tonight… I will have my full soil mix in full detail, when Im done with this update, anyone will be able to recreate this soil mix with ease…

Star Dog said:

Clones are a basic ingredient of a comparison.

Click to expand...

Seeds can also be a good ingredient for comparison as well..

HippieFarmer420 said:

Seeds can also be a good ingredient for comparison as well..

Click to expand...

How so?

Nope_49595933949 said:

How so?

Click to expand...

This allows me to see the structure, pheno expressions, ect from seed to finish, this also allows me to see how led's handle from seedling to harvest, compared to how they are when you start seeds with HPS..

This also allows me to choose the best pheno and continue on through the next round of testing..

I figured if I am going to compare, then I am fully going to compare, no half measures here.

Seed start this run, we will see how seeds develop under LED's vs HPS, as they get bigger there will be a general idea of what is going on at that point, then we select the best mother that fits what I am looking for and continue the next round to see how they react with clones..

There is always more to test then just comparing how 1 clone does under a light, many angles you can go about this and still end up with a general idea of which would be the better option.

In the mean time we are still going to push this room to full capacity with 4 plants "got to stay in limits here' and see what we get..

I am not doing full pheno hunt runs here, just trying to find enough to fill the room this first run and find a keeper for the next.

I could do GDP IBL "which does have very little pheno drift, I know from running it before", but this strain is so damn slow that I dont want to be vegging until late spring to fill up this room, so I thought it would best to find something in the Stardawg crosses.

I mixed together the soil for this run..

Here is my process for making an organic batch of soil..

I realize everyone has their own ways, or various different ingredients, but this is the base mix I have been going with..

I ran my outdoor run with this mix as well and it did pretty well..

Sit back and lets mix some soil..

Soil Mix for 3.8 cubic feet compressed bale

This batch will make around 70 gallons..

3.8 bale of Promix is around 45-48 gallons

Sea Compost 25 litre bags: 3 of them

Worm Castings 20 litre bag

First step:
Ingredients, everything starts with having some minimum things..

Here is my list:

Promix: 1 bale Bio Stimulant with Myco
Worm Castings: 20 litre bag
Sea Compost: 3 25 litre bags
Gaia Green 4-4-4: 7-8 cups, I will add the 2-8-4 when I get closer to flipping them
Bokashi Pro Grow: 4-5 cups
Cricket Manure: 1-2 cups
Extra Blood Meal: 1/2 cup
Bat Guano "not a lot in veg, I use it for micro nutrients and it also has traces of boron in it : 1/2 cup
Alfalfa Pellets: 8-10 cups
Dolomite Lime: 1/2 cup
Epsom Salt: 1/2 cup

I will also top dress with compost teas and Microbial Mass



Microbial Mass: I've never used this before, but its in a crazy ass container and this stuff is not cheap at all.. This sample size bottle sales for over $90.00CAD "wont say sample, but same size, same bottle ect".


Step 2:
I lay out a 9x9 foot tarp to mix things up with, cant be making a huge mess..

The way I mix my soil is I move it from one side of the tarp, to the other side ,"by picking up the tarp from both corners and working the soil over to the other side of the tarp and then back".

I keep doing this several times through out the process "its a pain but it mixes pretty good this way..

I start with the Promix "Bio Stimulant, with Myco.. I break up the big chunks by hand..


Once the big chunks are mixed up, I add in the dolomite lime and mix it up

Dolomite Lime: 1/2 a cup


After the dolomite lime is when I add in the sea compost, this will give added calcium and trace nutrients "seaweed and shellfish'
I will then move the soil back and forth several times to mix in this sea compost really well.

Sea Compost: 75 litres


After the sea compost is mixed in well "broken up chunks by hand", I then add in the worm castings and then mix the soil again.

Worm castings: 20 litre bag "you could go more, but I also add bunny poop along the way, I got 4 rabbits".


Once the Promix, sea compost and worm castings are mixed together, I then add in the Cricket Manure.

Cricket Manure: 1-2 cups


Next up after the cricket manure has been added comes the extra blood meal, I then mix both of these up together..

Extra blood meal: 1/2 cup


Now it's time to add in the Bokashi and mix this up as well..


Bokashi: 4-5 cups


Once the Bokashi is mixed up really well, I put in Bat Guano, now some will tell me im wasting it here, but bat guano can be used for veg as well, it has trace nutrients and boron, I add this lightly in pre mix veg soil and wont top dress with it until flower..

Bat Guano: 1/2 cup


I'm out of pic space on this reply, I will continue update on the next reply...

Continued from last reply:

Here is where I added the epsom salt and the alfalfa pellets and then mixed up all this together

Epsom salt : 1/2 cup


Alfalfa Pellets: 8-10 cups


Once all this was mixed up really well by doing the back and forth method, it was time to add the Gaia Green..

Gaia Green 4-4-4: 7-8 cups


Once the Gaia Green is fully mixed, all we have to do now is place it in containers.. I have 44 gallon trash bins that I've used for years.


After this soil is mixed, I then sprayed it all down with about 1 1/2 gallons of water from my backpack sprayer "a bit overkill but I was bored".

Now that it's mixed, watered, I placed the lids on top of the containers and I will leave then closed for around 3-4 weeks to let micro life start to form, after that its all systems go, by then I'll have everything going.

This is the conclusion to my soil mix and the way I mix things, I hope it was thorough and informative enough to follow along..

Feel free to try this mix or don't, it's been working well for me and Im going to stick with it..

Usually I only add 2 bags of sea compost, but this time I got 6 bags for 1/2 price, so why not.

Until the next update:


@VIVOSUN Official @Phlizon LED Grow Light @Spiderfarmerled

So I went out and got a par meter, I was tired of saying "its bright", now I have data to show instead..

Thats going to be one hell of a living soil

Here are results with all lights hung 12 inch, par meter placed in center for the first readings.

@Spiderfarmerled SF4000, 12in, center.


@VIVOSUN Official VS4300, 12in, center.


@Phil PL4500, 12in, center.


600w hps, 12in, center


Par meter used, FH-100 PAR Meter

Are you supplementing any Co2 with numbers that high?

Here are the results at 18in mark.

@Spiderfarmerled SF4000, 18in, center.


@VIVOSUN Official VS4300, 18in, center. Showed the least drop.


@Phlizon LED Grow Light PL4500, 18in, center, this seems to be sweet spot for this light.


600w hps, 18in, center. This is where they catch up..

firsttime69 said:

Are you supplementing any Co2 with numbers that high?

Click to expand...

No plants in room yet, just testing and they wont be ran full blast like this when plants are under them

But yes, I will be getting co2

I've already got my ideas of what is what based off test results, these par meters are amazing

I can see how the 400s can compare to the 600w after I took these readings,.. the hps is good for up close, after that it really drops off badly