Cannaprentice
Active Member
Hi! 
Usually household led bulbs are regarded as a really poor lighting option.
Some go as far to say CFL's are better than those!
But I did a healthy amount of research and experimentation and y'all might be surprised with the outcome of it all! So here we go: let's raise awareness and help all the broke growers like me who want dense nugs without cashing out!
First I'll cover the don't and do and then we'll take a look at the results!
Don't:
-Don't even dare to look at the "equivalent wattage". They compare it to incandescent bulbs and those are a really poor standard as they don't have what it take to grow plants
-Don't let the plastic covers. They are designed to diffuse the light when what we want is a nice bright and
straight beam aimed at the canopy.
-Don't screw them on a plain boring square board. I went through three versions and my first two where like
that. Turns out it acts like a heat trap which make your bulbs run even hotter and that can't be good.
-Don't bunch them up! you'll bleach your plants. I know they have a bad reputation but they'll fry your crop if
you underestimate their light output!
Do:
-Do the math and calculate the right amount of bulbs for your growspace. I calculated my number of bulbs two
times, once based on actual wattage and then based on lux. Turns out the number of bulbs matches! It's
somewhat of a hint at a nice efficiency.
-Build a frame with gaps. It will allow the heat to rise, your bulbs will run cooler and it will all be easier to
manage. Plus it will be a whole lot lighter.
-Buy two sets of bulbs. A cold light one and a warm light one. I mix them, adding a bit of warm in veg and a bit of cold in flowering to try and get a fuller spectrum but I'll need more research to claim it makes a difference.
Now that this is out of the way let's look at my current light setup and results!
First of here's my fixture, I made it fancy because I like DIY projects but all you really need to do is a wooden grid with E27 light sockets wired in parallel. You want to spread them evenly and far apart enough so that the light is evenly distributed across the WHOLE canopy. If you don't, all that math will go to waste as your light footprint won't match your grow space.
The girls on the pics are both LSD25 from fastbud.
Doing pretty good and gaining weight fast! Can't wait to see what it's gonna look like two weeks from now.
The purple pheno smells like grapes and berries and the greenish one leans towards lemony diesel smell.
Now for some bud shot of finished runs. Both are sour diesel auto from dinafem/
Those were nice, smelly and dense and had a nice trichomes coverage!
Made a lot of happy friends at parties!
I hope I'm gonna inspire budget growers to move away from cfl's because this is so much better and has a similar price tag. In my book there's no looking back really!
I know commercial led growlight are better but this is a fraction of the price and can get you serious bud!
If you got any questions or suggestions I'd be more than happy to talk about it!
Usually household led bulbs are regarded as a really poor lighting option.
Some go as far to say CFL's are better than those!
But I did a healthy amount of research and experimentation and y'all might be surprised with the outcome of it all! So here we go: let's raise awareness and help all the broke growers like me who want dense nugs without cashing out!
First I'll cover the don't and do and then we'll take a look at the results!
Don't:
-Don't even dare to look at the "equivalent wattage". They compare it to incandescent bulbs and those are a really poor standard as they don't have what it take to grow plants
-Don't let the plastic covers. They are designed to diffuse the light when what we want is a nice bright and
straight beam aimed at the canopy.
-Don't screw them on a plain boring square board. I went through three versions and my first two where like
that. Turns out it acts like a heat trap which make your bulbs run even hotter and that can't be good.
-Don't bunch them up! you'll bleach your plants. I know they have a bad reputation but they'll fry your crop if
you underestimate their light output!
Do:
-Do the math and calculate the right amount of bulbs for your growspace. I calculated my number of bulbs two
times, once based on actual wattage and then based on lux. Turns out the number of bulbs matches! It's
somewhat of a hint at a nice efficiency.
-Build a frame with gaps. It will allow the heat to rise, your bulbs will run cooler and it will all be easier to
manage. Plus it will be a whole lot lighter.
-Buy two sets of bulbs. A cold light one and a warm light one. I mix them, adding a bit of warm in veg and a bit of cold in flowering to try and get a fuller spectrum but I'll need more research to claim it makes a difference.
Now that this is out of the way let's look at my current light setup and results!
First of here's my fixture, I made it fancy because I like DIY projects but all you really need to do is a wooden grid with E27 light sockets wired in parallel. You want to spread them evenly and far apart enough so that the light is evenly distributed across the WHOLE canopy. If you don't, all that math will go to waste as your light footprint won't match your grow space.
The girls on the pics are both LSD25 from fastbud.
Doing pretty good and gaining weight fast! Can't wait to see what it's gonna look like two weeks from now.
The purple pheno smells like grapes and berries and the greenish one leans towards lemony diesel smell.
Now for some bud shot of finished runs. Both are sour diesel auto from dinafem/
Those were nice, smelly and dense and had a nice trichomes coverage!
Made a lot of happy friends at parties!
I hope I'm gonna inspire budget growers to move away from cfl's because this is so much better and has a similar price tag. In my book there's no looking back really!
I know commercial led growlight are better but this is a fraction of the price and can get you serious bud!
If you got any questions or suggestions I'd be more than happy to talk about it!
