Hps or cmh converts

Wondering how many people who were successful with hps or cmh have made the switch to led and found as good or better quality. I have only done one run under my QB fixture and was not impressed at all but have come the conclusion it was my fault. That being said I have noticed some facilities I follow on ig try top of the line led fixtures and have publically said the quality and yield was not as good. Have also seen comments by a hydro store selling they spydr fixtures claiming that they had multiple unhappy customers.
So the reason I'm asking for people who have switched and gotten good results is maybe that it's a learning curve. I'd love to switch over and use led as I have enough height to do dual layers on a pallet rack. But I want dense nugs the same quality or better than other lighting otherwise there is no reason to switch.

I've yet to see anything compare quality wise with cmh or yield wise to a 1k hps. But I do see some nice pictures of led grows I also see other grows where the grower seems happy with it but I reminds me of the grow I already did where the bud structure was more airy and not as dense.

Apalchen said:

Wondering how many people who were successful with hps or cmh have made the switch to led and found as good or better quality. I have only done one run under my QB fixture and was not impressed at all but have come the conclusion it was my fault. That being said I have noticed some facilities I follow on ig try top of the line led fixtures and have publically said the quality and yield was not as good. Have also seen comments by a hydro store selling they spydr fixtures claiming that they had multiple unhappy customers.
So the reason I'm asking for people who have switched and gotten good results is maybe that it's a learning curve. I'd love to switch over and use led as I have enough height to do dual layers on a pallet rack. But I want dense nugs the same quality or better than other lighting otherwise there is no reason to switch.

I've yet to see anything compare quality wise with cmh or yield wise to a 1k hps. But I do see some nice pictures of led grows I also see other grows where the grower seems happy with it but I reminds me of the grow I already did where the bud structure was more airy and not as dense.

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My first flower attempt under LED's where a failure by my standards. Only better from there on out. LED's are just a tool in our growers arsenal, it's up to the grower to get the best out of whatever their tools.

And you've seen my LED grows?

I think your prob right, can you share any of your learning experience on how you have gotten your quality back and do you feel you have met or surpassed your quality under the lights you were using before?

Appreciate the reply I think I will try to flower another run under my QB fixture and see if can get the quality where I feel it should be. I have a strain I've grown over and over so I'll use that as a baseline and try to figure it out.

No I don't think I've seen your grows boilo, like I said I have seen some peoples pictures that look really good just never had or smoked the finished product. I will try to find your grows I am not very good at finding shit on here tho. Same questions for you tho are your buds dense like from hid lighting? And do you do anything different than u did when running hid?

Sorry didn't realize was same person lol thought had two diff replies.

There is a definite learning curve with leds, you have to get your plants transpiring in a way you dont have to under hid.
Also, theres a lot of difference in results depending on how you setup your qb fixture.
You have to adjust climate to much hotter than what you would do normally (min 26C and up to 30C will still be beneficial) and a fair bit more humid ( for higher temps, and high intensity light you need higher rh) for what people are normally prepared to accept. This is because led light is just light, no ir, which would help with transpiration. You need to tweak environment in order for your plants to keep up with the light levels youre giving them.Or you will have plants with deficiencies and general unhappiness.

Another thing about qbs: most people tend to drive them to hard(120w-ish), so that plants will only be happy further than 15-18 inches below. This might work out ok in tents where you focus the light but in our open space it wont work, lose to much to the sides.
I suggest 50-75w max and more of them, min 6 to a 4x4. At 75w you could probably run your HLG without heatsink, 50w if you use china clones, which makes the diy build so much easier and cheaper. And if you can get some alu sheet as backing you can run them even higher.

If youre in the US id still rec some HLG boards though cause the service is spectacular.

2 cents.

Apalchen said:

Wondering how many people who were successful with hps or cmh have made the switch to led and found as good or better quality. I have only done one run under my QB fixture and was not impressed at all but have come the conclusion it was my fault. That being said I have noticed some facilities I follow on ig try top of the line led fixtures and have publically said the quality and yield was not as good. Have also seen comments by a hydro store selling they spydr fixtures claiming that they had multiple unhappy customers.
So the reason I'm asking for people who have switched and gotten good results is maybe that it's a learning curve. I'd love to switch over and use led as I have enough height to do dual layers on a pallet rack. But I want dense nugs the same quality or better than other lighting otherwise there is no reason to switch.

I've yet to see anything compare quality wise with cmh or yield wise to a 1k hps. But I do see some nice pictures of led grows I also see other grows where the grower seems happy with it but I reminds me of the grow I already did where the bud structure was more airy and not as dense.

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I'm one of the people that wasn't overly happy with my QB LED boards when I ran my first flower cycle. Now I run 4 288's 2700k dimmed down to 100watts a board and one 315 CMH 4200k in the middle and I have been super happy. Dense frosty nugs with finish weights around 5oz per plant in a 3gal pot. 6 plants in my 5x5

boilingoil said:

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Beautiful

315 4200k 8 weeks...it changed my whole game

Norml56 said:

I'm one of the people that wasn't overly happy with my QB LED boards when I ran my first flower cycle. Now I run 4 288's 2700k dimmed down to 100watts a board and one 315 CMH 4200k in the middle and I have been super happy. Dense frosty nugs with finish weights around 5oz per plant in a 3gal pot. 6 plants in my 5x5

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OP: if you still have problems try this^^
Run CMH mixed with led lights. Could be tricky to get the spread right with qbs and cmh reflector but can be done. Just a little bit of IR/UV and just some general heat and the leds will shine. Leds and CMH can usually be run in the same environment

Well I got to veg my next crop in the 3x3 tents this time but after that I'll do another run with higher temps with the led and see how it goes. meant to get veg room done but been so busy and low on funds atm so I'll be vegging in my tents this time.
I have run the led as supplemental in my 4x8 in winter but it was so packed full of lights it was hard to tell if there was any difference as I had 2x600hps and 1 630 de cmh in there also.

I don't plan on buying anymore tents as I'm trying to eventually take the ones I have down when I get rooms all the way built, so kind of stuck with 3x3 size . I might still keep one to make seeds in a couple times a year. But I will do another led run or two in one and hopefully get the quality up if I can do that I can double up my canopy space as I'll do two layer tables kinda like bunk beds. I wish I had gotten strips instead of QB as that is what I'd like to eventually use but since I already have QB I'll try and make it work just to see what I can do with leds.

Thanks for the replies guys I'm surprised no one has talked shit to me in here yet for questioning led bud quality. But like I said before, I know that they can put out better bud than my initial run with them. I just want to make sure I can get the same quality as hps or cmh before I make the switch. Which will prob be some time away as I just got my de hps up and going this run, and gotta get some use out of them before I drop money on something else.

I really like hid fixtures but after watching @diggs99 set up his new room with those strips it really got me thinking of how much more canopy I can get if I had two 4x8 double tier tables. It scares me to think of switching though as hid just seems so easy to me but thats just years of using them I guess cause a lot of new people start with led and seem to do fine.

What is your par??

I'm running @700 par.

This is my first run using my cobs, everything looking good. I'm going to add some 315cmhs to the mix. I'm at 35w sqft led.

Porky101 said:

What is your par??

I'm running @700 par.

This is my first run using my cobs, everything looking good. I'm going to add some 315cmhs to the mix. I'm at 35w sqft led.



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When you do add CMH look into the newer eye hortilux CMH. They use a different type of glass that allows the UV light to come through. I really wish I would've done this since I just replaced my bulb. Bulbs last almost 2 years so it will be a while before I try it out.

i think out of the box, a CMH is hard to beat. an LED (white) with appropriate supplementation would beat it like @boilingoil is doing now.

but i would almost bet that a MH bud vs HPS would be better quality wise. the HPS will outyield for sure.

rkymtnman said:

i think out of the box, a CMH is hard to beat. an LED (white) with appropriate supplementation would beat it like @boilingoil is doing now.

but i would almost bet that a MH bud vs HPS would be better quality wise. the HPS will outyield for sure.

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I've ran full cycles under a hortilux blue 1000watt MH. It for sure grows some nice sticky buds. I love my CMH/LED combo tho. 715 watts pulling 30oz in a 5x5 6 plants 3 gal pots. No training/topping. I could probably do a lot better if I put in the extra work.

nxsov180db said:

That's because there's a lot of overpriced junk out there. Just because an led (spydr) is expensive doesn't mean it's good.
How many watts of HID did you replace? What area did you cover with your QB for the grow you weren't satisfied with? How many watts, how many boards, and what height above canopy?

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Sorry been busy haven't been on for a min, I just ran a 320 xl hlg kit in a 3x3, I switched it out for a 315 cmh. Height was about 15 Inches above canopy.

3x3 tent and I was only guessing at distance from canopy but should be close to that. And I played with the dimmer a lil bit but mostly ran it full power. It's been almost a year ago that I did the run so don't remember everything exactly. I made the whole run into oil cause it wasn't up to quality standards. But I've gotten better genetics to try under it now and also understand to keep the temps higher,so hopefully the next try will be better. Since the first run under it didn't go so well I just put the 315 back in there cause I have great luck with them.

boilingoil said:

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dude! what plant is that? i love everything about it, the color mix, the terps the thicccness and girth. oh boii

One of the main issues I have with all these claims that are swirling around LED right now is the straight up fact that an LED light is NOT going to make you a better grower. These massive buds you see grown under LED isn't because of the LED it is because of the grower, you would see the same massive buds under a HID if they were grown by the same persond.

I've grown under hps for years, cmh a year and just bought a quantum board clone, should gave some results in a few months. Between cmh and hps is dont really see a ton of differance to he honest.. maybe a little more frost on the cmh but the same strain would get just as frosty under hps so long as everything went well. Really hard to have much info until you have done several runs under both