IF you are new to LED and want help choosing what to buy, POST HERE!

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JohnnySocko

JohnnySocko

Active Member
Update and thanks to Bad Karma and the other regulars here...

I'm halfway into flower using 2ea Kessil 150 purple and 1ea Magenta in a 3x2 tent; 2 ea Green Crack, week 4 of flower...

observations/issues; I may/may not post pics (purple light is a issue) but I'm seeing bad stretch....
I tried a screen but waited too late, plants are about 40" tall and lower branches are obviously not getting enough light

TBH not sure if the stretch is from the strain or weak lighting, could be a lil of both... just a very early guess but I'm thinking possibly 2.5 zips off this experiment... acceptable from a wattage pov (105W), not acceptable from a equipment cost perspective (over $300)...for the money the recommended lights here were proly a better choice...

...I'll probably do another grow if not these seem fine for mother plants given the watt usage
 
JohnnySocko

JohnnySocko

Active Member
PSUAGRO. said:
Supercrop is your friend^^^ and lower your lights after it:-) .......good luck
Click to expand...
I super cropped week 1 into flower as soon as I could see hairs, but both branches on both plants stunted....
whereas my other plants responded well, these GC didn't....
but yeah, at least some of the blame is on me and not the lights
 
E

Edge7

Active Member
To each his/her own choice. Is their a diminishing return on price paid for LEDs and effectiveness? Well, I'm doing alright with my not cheap but affordable Chinese made 3 year warrantied 300W Advanced Platinum LED Grow Light despite messing up with my nutes and pH in my first attempt at a grow. This is Day 3 of flowering in my aeroponic grow 2x4x5 grow tent:




Here are the roots. The skinny one on the left forefront is a cherry tomato plant.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Low Pressure

The various above surface hydro styles include drip, flood

Other methods feed roots directly from below; bubble (DWC), and low pressure systems, including root misting and high pressure

Edge7 said:
I'm new to this, what is lp?
Click to expand...
 
lightsgreenaction

lightsgreenaction

Well-Known Member
Replacing my 8x2' T5HO fixture with one of the XGS-190's from A51. Ordered it, just waiting for it to be filled and shipped. I know he's been backlogged. But it will go straight into my roughly 3.5x3x5 space beside my 400W HPS. I think the two together will provide a nice supply of light without the heat issues I had running the T5 & HPS together in the hot season here. It's a significant increase in the amount/quality of light (right?). So I'll try to follow up in a few months with my thoughts on it.

I've been following this thread for a while and read it front to back a few times, so I realize it's generally thought of as a quality fixture. The question seems to be in the value versus other cheaper alternatives. For me, I'm not talking about buying 10+, so price difference isn't multiplied several times, and I'd rather buy one quality fixture than several over a few years, even if it's equal money. My hope is that EH and A51 will provide the quality and support/customer service to justify buying the "luxury" brand. If not, I will certainly chime in here. If A51 provides satisfying service and results, I'll let you all know as well.

I will say that I've recently gone fully organic soil including AACT's and really trying to maintain the positive fungal/bacterial life in the soil and it's provided an immediate improvement compared to trying to use FFOF and FF nute's. I'll admit I was probably all over the place on dosing due to trying to do it on such a small scale and being a n00b, but so far, I'm really enjoying the simplicity and results from organic soil. So, my hope is that upping my lights a little will bring it all together and provide me with consistently effective meds.:weed:
 
E

Edge7

Active Member
PetFlora said:
Low Pressure

The various above surface hydro styles include drip, flood

Other methods feed roots directly from below; bubble (DWC), and low pressure systems, including root misting and high pressure
Click to expand...
You're suggesting that I switch from my aeroponic sprayers to a DWC? What are the advantages/disadvantages? Thanks.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Once you learn to read the roots you will know yours are nowhere near as efficient as they could be. This is a common problem especially with lp, as the water line is often too far from the bottom of the net cup. This results in long stringy roots in search of the water, like yours. Round root balls provide more surface are for nute uptake

Ideally, you want roots that look more soft ball size, with a lot more density

I gently trim early on to force more lateral roots



Trimmed Roots.jpg


Pic taken while changing out nutes in the rez. This is them when young, but they continue to enlarge in that same basic shape. I keep an air stone directly under each plant

Clone Roots in Dome (1).jpg



Edge7 said:
You're suggesting that I switch from my aeroponic sprayers to a DWC? What are the advantages/disadvantages? Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Dr.J20

Dr.J20

Well-Known Member
Was on the fence about the A51 xgs190; pulled trigger on Indagrow 420 pro PAR induction lamp and will be supplementing with some HOT5. will have a thread up when when its time and would love to throw down with someone purchasing an A51 xgs 190 or SGS 160 for a little friendly grow-off. So, get back at me if you're interested!
Be easy,
:leaf:
 
Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
Dr.J20 said:
Was on the fence about the A51 xgs190; pulled trigger on Indagrow 420 pro PAR induction lamp and will be supplementing with some HOT5. will have a thread up when when its time and would love to throw down with someone purchasing an A51 xgs 190 or SGS 160 for a little friendly grow-off. So, get back at me if you're interested!
Be easy,
:leaf:
Click to expand...
I think that 2 xgs/sgs would be the fair way...
SGS- 160w for a 2x3(6sqft) max
XGS- 190w for a 3x3(9sqft)max
IG420- 420w for a 4x4(16sqft)max (with pontoons 465w)
The IG has 2X the cover and uses more than 2X the wattage.

But glad you're excited to use the new toy. Grow on bro!
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Dr.J20 said:
Was on the fence about the A51 xgs190; pulled trigger on Indagrow 420 pro PAR induction lamp and will be supplementing with some HOT5. will have a thread up when when its time and would love to throw down with someone purchasing an A51 xgs 190 or SGS 160 for a little friendly grow-off. So, get back at me if you're interested!
Be easy,
:leaf:
Click to expand...
I really want to see how well it does, because I read an article in Big Buds magazine last Summer or Spring that gave it glowing reviews. They did their own test growing pot plants and I believe they said that it's at least as effective as an HID. I was hard up for cash until December, so I couldn't afford the $700+ to buy the IndaGrow with LED outriggers. Did you get the outriggers?

I'm interested in following your grow. You could just post the link here if you want.
 
daveroller

daveroller

Well-Known Member
lightsgreenaction said:
Replacing my 8x2' T5HO fixture with one of the XGS-190's from A51. Ordered it, just waiting for it to be filled and shipped. I know he's been backlogged. But it will go straight into my roughly 3.5x3x5 space beside my 400W HPS. I think the two together will provide a nice supply of light without the heat issues I had running the T5 & HPS together in the hot season here. It's a significant increase in the amount/quality of light (right?). So I'll try to follow up in a few months with my thoughts on it.

I've been following this thread for a while and read it front to back a few times, so I realize it's generally thought of as a quality fixture. The question seems to be in the value versus other cheaper alternatives. For me, I'm not talking about buying 10+, so price difference isn't multiplied several times, and I'd rather buy one quality fixture than several over a few years, even if it's equal money. My hope is that EH and A51 will provide the quality and support/customer service to justify buying the "luxury" brand. If not, I will certainly chime in here. If A51 provides satisfying service and results, I'll let you all know as well.

I will say that I've recently gone fully organic soil including AACT's and really trying to maintain the positive fungal/bacterial life in the soil and it's provided an immediate improvement compared to trying to use FFOF and FF nute's. I'll admit I was probably all over the place on dosing due to trying to do it on such a small scale and being a n00b, but so far, I'm really enjoying the simplicity and results from organic soil. So, my hope is that upping my lights a little will bring it all together and provide me with consistently effective meds.:weed:
Click to expand...
I used to use all fluorescents, including a panel that contained 8 x 2 ft T5's. Always had heat problems with it. Got an Area 51 SGS-160 a few months ago and am extremely happy with it. I actually need to add CFL's to warm up my cabinet. The results so far are much better than I got with the shitty fluoro's. You can tell that my cabinet is much brighter with this light, just by looking inside. And my plant is much healthier than all my previous ones. You can check out my journal through the link in my signature.

I'm sure you'll be happy with your purchase. Another good thing about Area 51 is that when your LEDs are past their useful lifetime, you can replace them easily by ordering replacements from the company, for about half the cost of a whole new panel.
 
chazbolin

chazbolin

Well-Known Member
Congrats on your purchase Dr. J! I look forward to seeing how your plants respond to the new light. Curious what made you decide to pull the trigger on the IG? Also did you get the pontoon?
 
E

Edge7

Active Member
PetFlora said:
with that much surface agitation you don't need lp. Just raise the water line
Click to expand...
I raised the water level 3 inches so the ladies can drink from the magic elixir better, thanks Petflora. I'm still using the sprayers because they agitate the surface so well, 1 on 4 off 45 sec cycles.
 
Dr.J20

Dr.J20

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
I think that 2 xgs/sgs would be the fair way...
SGS- 160w for a 2x3(6sqft) max
XGS- 190w for a 3x3(9sqft)max
IG420- 420w for a 4x4(16sqft)max (with pontoons 465w)
The IG has 2X the cover and uses more than 2X the wattage.

But glad you're excited to use the new toy. Grow on bro!
Click to expand...
Yeah that sounds about right--so who's go two panels to go up against one Induction lamp? I'm in dirt too, so probably a soil-led combination would best stack up...

daveroller said:
I really want to see how well it does, because I read an article in Big Buds magazine last Summer or Spring that gave it glowing reviews. They did their own test growing pot plants and I believe they said that it's at least as effective as an HID. I was hard up for cash until December, so I couldn't afford the $700+ to buy the IndaGrow with LED outriggers. Did you get the outriggers?

I'm interested in following your grow. You could just post the link here if you want.
Click to expand...
Yeah i'm totally psyched about this too. I'll have a journal/thread up when I get started but my soil has only been cooking a week, so its going to be a hot minute before anything really gets started. I did some ufo LED grows back when the tech was brand new (like gen 1 POS chinese ebay lights) and actually still use the led for other applications around the house--still works pretty well for windowsill herbs. Then I went CFL after reading buds for less; then popped up to HOT5 when I really got through some PAR research. Now its time for Electrodeless! I will certainly keep you posted when things heat up, and pop a link in this thread for sure.
About the pontoons:
Nope, i bought the light for one very fortunate reason and that was because I got a bonus about 700 clams more than I expected at the end of the year and figured i could swing the rest on my own. the pontoons would have priced me out, and i figured i could add them in the future for bloom. Till then i've got plenty of T5 to supply what i'm missing from those pontoons. I'll be following Hyroot's thread,I believe he's got them, or got them coming~memory is fuzzy for a minute. I know they'll be a sick addition whenever I get around to it, but i'm sure using the zoomed florasuns and some far red/ir/uv T5 mixes will suffice. Of course, that does mean i wont have completely severed the cycle of replacing expensive spectrally specific bulbs.
Thanks so much for your interest and I'll be happy to have you along following the grow.
Be easy,
:joint: :leaf: :joint:
Dr.J
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
I think that 2 xgs/sgs would be the fair way...
SGS- 160w for a 2x3(6sqft) max
XGS- 190w for a 3x3(9sqft)max
IG420- 420w for a 4x4(16sqft)max (with pontoons 465w)
The IG has 2X the cover and uses more than 2X the wattage.

But glad you're excited to use the new toy. Grow on bro!
Click to expand...
well I'll have more a51's eventually and do the comparison. I think it would take 3 panels to match the coverage for the IG 420 combo. its close to the same watts. A51 sgs 160 does looks like it has a pretty big foot print. We'll see . I'll try the max amount of coverage. It seems most people have it in a small tent or closet.

I will be rocking each 420 combo over a 5x5.The vpar does help with that space though. I was doing a 5x3 this last batch (low plant numbers). I will probably drop 10 cree globes total on 2 sides for side lighting with the IG's. I read and saw a tear down video, some of the philips a19's fail at 9 months due to bad solder joints. They have a 6 year warranty though. cree's probably better.
 
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