Mix and match

jmatarazzo

Active Member
Here is a crazy question. I have three 21 watt led's. (They have seven 3 leds per bulb). Could i add a few more cfl to my tent...
 

WeedBulbs

Member
Yes. The plants don't care where the light comes from. What they mostly care about is the amount of Photosynthetic Photon Flux measured in μmol/s or Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density measured in μmol/s/meter². They also care about color balance, for instance white light is typically composed of about 50% green... up to 24% is very beneficial to growth, but over that is just ignored. I have Grow Lamp Quantity Calculator spreadsheet that may be useful if you know the PPF of your prospective grow lamps... I tried to upload it, but this interface won't allow it.

If you can tell me the size of your tent, more about the lamps you have and the lamps you plan to buy... I will see if I can give you a recommended about the number of cfls to use/add.
 

WeedBulbs

Member
Is this the LED you are using?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009L2VGCO
http://www.lampsplus.com/products/21-watt-par30-led-grow-spot-light-bulb__x0476.html

Can't seem to find much useful information on the bulb. How many blue and how many red leds are there?

Also, do you know the "true wattage consumed"? A lot of fixtures are show with "marked watts" which is usually much less. For instance, this LED (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GNWK2XO) is marked 12 watts but is consuming 9.8 watts.
My guess is that they are using 3 watt LEDs in your lamp (3x7 = 21), but are likely under-driving them so that they last longer... but under-driving them also produces a lot less light. Just another trick LED manufacturers play.

It does not matter how many plants you are doing at a time unless you are focusing the light on that plants... so your lamps needs to be about 6" from the top of the plant... maybe a bit more if your plant is getting big.
 

WeedBulbs

Member
Sorry for the delay in answering, been busy.
I have complete test results on a TaoTronics_TT-GL20 12 watt LED lamp that also has the approximate same blue/red ratio as your lamp. It has...
Consumed Watts: 9.8
PPF(Photosynthetic Photon Flux): 10.82 μmol/s

Based on this, I made a PPF estimate for
LampsPlus 21 Watt Par30 LED Grow Spot Light Bulb
Estimated Consumed Watts: 17.15
Estimated PPF 18.93 μmol/s

To grow cannabis you need PPF of 500 μmol/s/meters². This equates to 46.45 μmol/s/feet² and with a 5% wasted light, you need 49 μmol/s/feet²
You current baby is in an area of about 1 sq ft, so with you three lamps you have 18.93 x 3 ... which is more that 49... this means you currently have enough light for the baby.

Your tent has 9 sq ft, so for enough light as your plant grows, you need 439 μmol/s. This equates to about 24 lamps like your current LED lamps.

If you are going to augment with white light 24 watt CFLs, they output about 50% green... but only about half of this green is used... so your girl is going to ignore about 25% of the light. Then this means that the 24w CFLs are roughly equivalent to your current LEDs... so you will need about 21 more 24w White Light CFLs to have adequate light in your tent.
 

WeedBulbs

Member
You should not be looking at watts. Rather you should be looking for either Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF) or Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD)... these figures are your friend because plants don't eat watts, they eat photons. You should ask the supplier for their PPF or PPFD. It needs to be greater than 439 μmol/s.
The balance if light color is also important.
The distribution pattern of the light is also important.

Once you have this, I can help you do an analysis of the fixture, and the costs.
 

jmatarazzo

Active Member
Im sorry i said 400 led. I ment the equivalent off 400 watt cfl. They are the 5000 lumens. I was going to throw like 3 of those in the tent. So i figured with the 3 leds plus the small cheap led panel that i didnt list previously,and 3 of those big cfls that should be more than enough .this is the latest pic of her. She is thriving. Only 12 days old.
 

Attachments

WeedBulbs

Member
Lumens is a measurement of how humans "perceive" light, so when it comes to plants lumens is pretty close to a useless figure.

If you can give me link on the lamp you plan to buy, then I can do some research for you to see if it will meet your needs.
 

jmatarazzo

Active Member
I was just going to go to homedepot. I thaught plants just needed a but ton of light. The more the merrier. Im not trying to be a horticulturalist. I just want to grow some decent weed for the wife so we can have some fun in the sack. The little girl is thriving like crazy. Day 13
 

Attachments

Top