My LED Experiment

My LED Experiment


Introduction


I have looked around many websites that grow using LEDs. None have given a concrete guideline as to how to grow with them.


Different ratios with blue vs red give you stretched or bushy buds. Some steams appear to be thin and root systems appear to look weak.


My experiment will let you see what I am using, how I am using it, and what it makes.


Goals


My goals are simple. Make a guideline as to how to have the largest yields while using as little power as possible.


Later, when I have more money in my pocket, set up a solar power system to have my grow completely off the grid.


Design


I will only grow one plant at a time. I have made a plastic box out of acrylic sheets (aka Plexiglass) that I found in my Garage. The box is L 14 in, W 15 in, H 28 in. I have chosen these dimensions because I was limited on how much sheets I have. On the inside, there will be duct wrap for reflection.


I will be using hydroponics so I can grow faster and come up with results faster. At the bottom of my box, I will have a draining system and my plants will be kept 2 inches above the water.


So far, I will have 179 LEDs. They are 5mm and range from 10K Lm to 15K Lm. At first, I will have only Red and Blue at a ratio of 6:1 respectively. The reason for this because I have found someone growing using only blue and red and said that this ratio works best.


Later, I will introduce yellow, green, white, amber, UV, and IR. These LEDs will be driven by 12v DC 500mA. 4~5 red LEDs can be connected in series, and 3 blue LEDs can be connected in series. These groups will then be connected in parallel.


Sidenote: In the future, I will be connecting a 700 mA to 1 A 12v DC power supply.


I will have a 12v CPU fan that I will be using. I will also make a $3 carbon filter on the intake and exhaust. It will be completely sealed. Later, I plan to make a steam generator for clones.


Price


Every time I spend money on this project, I will post it. I want to keep costs WAYYYY down. I know plexiglass is not cheap, but it was free . I would suggest some sort of plastic material so that mold does not build up, and so that the smell is at a minimum.


So far I have spent:
Plexiglass – Free
Ebay
25 x 5mm blue LEDs - $3.99 USD (with shipping )
25 x 5mm red LEDs - $3.24 USD “
25 x 5mm green LEDs - $2.99 USD (for the future)
110v AC to 12v DC inverter - ($1.00 x 3) plus S&H = $8.58 USD
12v PC fan - $1.55 USD
Single Seeds Sales
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]3x Blue Mystic (seeds) - Regular for $3.30 each. - $18.40[/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Total: $38.75[/FONT]

I'm kind of broke right now. I still have time because the seeds have not arrived. I will need to buy more LEDs.

btw, this is my first time growing



Any advise, questions or comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Day 1

Germination.

I have just received my seeds and going to start to germinate the first one.

My technique is the paper towel method. I thought of the water in a cup method but I could not find much on the topic. This method seems to be the popular one.

Anyways, the fun starts. I am a bit worried because my LEDs are not in yet. It said 5 to 20 days to deliver. Oh well, I have a few red ones but they are not as good as the ones I ordered. It might be a temporary solution.

Any comments/advice is greatly appreciated as this is my first grow.

No advice but def gonna be watchin, awesome idea of doing LED then solar to power them later on. If it works this will be a great way to stay off the grid

Can't wait to see the results. Are you going to do mass testing? What i mean is single color LED on some, multi on others etc?

Definitely looking forward to the information & knowledge gained through your testing

+rep man.

gona be watching this one for sure.why the green led's?good luck

Yea, me too. Will certainly be watching. I'm building an LED array to supplement my HIDs and am very intrigued to see how LEDs in isolation will fare. Have done quite a bit research around the net and it would seem that deep-red LEDs around 660nm wavelength, blue around 470nm and in some cases infrared is the general concensus as to your LED requirements.

48 Hours Later:

The seed finally cracked. Theres a little white root appearing inside the crack, so good news.

After 24 hours, I noticed the seed did not change at all (size or shape) so I thought I needed more water. The paper towel was a tiny bit moist, but now its soaked again.

Im going to leave it for another 12 hours until I get a definite root. I just need to ask the experts on this one, When should I start the lighting cycle? And what cycle should I use for the first week or two? I was thinking 24/0 but I think I will have massive stretching. I am limited on space but if it gets worse, I can make another place to keep the plant.

I read about the strain and it said it is a bushy plant. Maybe a 18/6 cycle to let it become bushy yet giving it a lot of growth.

So far, I have wired 60 LEDS (25 red, 30 blue). I need to wait for the rest of the LEDS to come in.

As for the green spectrum, I dont think I will use it. I guess I will put in about 10% UV though, and maybe 10% IR.

Thank you for all the advice Im probably going out to buy a pump and stuff for my setup, ill post pix when its done.

And another thing, I talked with a friend about forums in general, he advised me not to post pictures of my plants, but my setup is okay. I will be posting measurements of the plants, weight, height, leaves, etc.

as soon as it pops up to start its life

hes just being paronide ive never heard of someonegetting busted thru a forum theres just to many people and u can have all the pics u wants of plants just dont b dumb and tell people in ur local area thats how u get caught

Why green leds?

The new gen LED growlites, have blue red white or blue red orange. Green spectrum doesn't do anything to chlorophyll being as its green and reflects that color.

If you want anything to turn out decent, get some cool white spectrum(t5 bulb rack) and/or some warm white(orange)warm 100watt replacement or better cfls work great.

LEDs that I used produced bushy plants with tight internodes, and almost uncontrolled growth with the phototron pruning method.

LED only has been proven to not be worth it, yet. At least as far as I have seen.

robtoker said:

hes just being paronide ive never heard of someonegetting busted thru a forum theres just to many people and u can have all the pics u wants of plants just dont b dumb and tell people in ur local area thats how u get caught

Click to expand...

Totally agree, and thats how I will keep it. That was my argument last night, he is a pessimist, and I am an optimist.

MeisterYo said:

Why green leds?

The new gen LED growlites, have blue red white or blue red orange. Green spectrum doesn't do anything to chlorophyll being as its green and reflects that color.

If you want anything to turn out decent, get some cool white spectrum(t5 bulb rack) and/or some warm white(orange)warm 100watt replacement or better cfls work great.

LEDs that I used produced bushy plants with tight internodes, and almost uncontrolled growth with the phototron pruning method.

LED only has been proven to not be worth it, yet. At least as far as I have seen.

Click to expand...

Makes sense, high school physics. I said that I was not going to use them. My initial thoughts were to use different types of LEDs and green was one of them. After research, I realized that green just wouldnt cut it.

As for those LED bulbs, they are overpriced. Im showing that it does not need to be expensive to grow. I will show my wiring later when I finish. To date, I have spent less then $10 on LEDs.

With something like LEDs, I believe the environment can be managed easier, without the need for cooling. If you need to cool anythiing, you are wasting energy.

Im a cheap bastard.

After seeing a bit of a root, I placed it in a puck soaked with water pH ~6. Until I go digital, its up to the drops and a rough estimate to determine the pH.

The seed was exposed to the light 24/0. The light source is a LED lamp that I had. I think it has roughly 12 "white" LEDs. I say "white" because it is a blue light with a phosphor coating to change the monochromatic light wave into a wide spectrum light.

Apparently, blue is important as it grows. We'll see.

Today, I noticed that it had a protruding root about 1/8 inch, I pointed it down delicately with clean fingers. I lightly covered the rest of the seed in about 1/8 inch of the medium. Im not sure if its too early to cover, but there is always time, right?

I was told to keep the puck very lightly moist, if it gets dry, spray it with water, or dab water on it with your finger. I also covered it with a plastic cover to keep the humidity up. The LED lamp produces a little heat, which might make it a good environment (im no expert).

Anyways, so far so good .

yeah don't use green.... as a noob do some more research. You want to use the led's in the correct spectrum. On the other hand i am with you on the led's!!!! i just boutht one from htg the 90 ufo. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks to know theres people on the LED side. Dont get me wrong, HID has proven itself time and time again. I prefer LEDs tho.

On another note:

Day 6

I think its time for an update. The white LED lamp has been on non stop since I planted it in peat moss. The little sucker has poped out of the ground, and is about 2 shell heights up. I thought she was going to be a late bloomer, but so far so good. Been feeding it with water pH greater then 5.5 but less than 6.0. Its looking good so far. The lamp is creating a bit of heat, which heats the cup that is over the plant. Im guessing that its creating a little bit of humidity in the cup. Not completely sure tho since I dont have any way to monitor the temprature or humidity ... yet.

The shell has not come off yet. Cant wait for that to happen tho. This is exciting.

Okay, some blair witch sh.t happened when I was gone. So, I transplanted my little dudette from her puck to soil. I did this because I was leaving for a few days and didnt know if the puck would hold the water. I asked around here and people answered my question and advised me to transplant.

I did.

I also decided to germinate two of the other seeds in the soil.

I come back today, and check up on my girls. The original one had the seed head sticking out of the soil when I transplanted. It was gone. I was VERYYYYY confused. I took a very strong light and magnifying glass and did not find ANY traces on top of the soil. I had watered the soil a lot before I left but I made sure not to get any on the seed. I didnt. I remember checking if the seed was still visible. It was.

WTF happen? I HAVE NO CLUE!!. I started very gently skimming the surface. Maybe it decided to go the other way. It had a root that was about 1/2 inch. NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. Biggest trip of my life. I put the soil back. Ill keep the soil moist incase I somehow missed it. Ill give it 3 weeks, if it doesnt pop up, then Ill know its gone.

On a good note: I remember I had a huge seed and a smaller seed. The large seed germinated like crazy. It was still under the soil but the root was curved downward and looked pretty thick. That made my day. I put it back and put light on it. The second smaller seed did not germinate. I found it easily. I put it in water and it dropped like a rock. I guess its ready but not ready. I put it in a moist towel and Im leaving it for a few days.

I guess im restarting, Day 1 was July 2nd. Lets hope I dont fuck up this one also. Feel free to call me an idiot cuz I feel like one.

Just a question to the people who are viewing this:

Does this plant look more like a 5 day old plant or a 13 day old? I might have gotten my plants mixed up.

it is about 1 1/2 inch tall.


On another note. I installed my LED array. Just waiting on some white, UV, Orange and yellow LEDs.

I am going to start a cycle for my plant. What would you guys suggest? Its on 24/0 now.

20/4 or 18/6? Its a feminized plant so I dont want to stress it.


But yeah, from my experience with LEDs, they seem fine so far. Mind you this is my first grow. If there was a way to angle them. I noticed my plant gets a few lights on it. If there was a sort of cone with LEDs in it, it would probably be better then UFO that ive seen. Or even better, a lens.

Day 14

After some stupid confusion on my part, I have realized that I didnt misplace my plant. It was there the whole time.

IT STRETCHED LIKE CRAZY. 1 inch in one day!! It was just over 2 inches and I buried it deeper up to its leaves. The round leaves are pretty big now, 1/4 inch, and new sharp leaves are growing. Its starting to look more like its supposed to.

I water it about every second or third day, depending on how dry the soil is. I add a few drops of water, not too much.

Im TRYING to germinate the second seed. No progress so far, its been two days. Not even a crack in the seed. Any advice? It does seem smaller then the other ones. Maybe not mature enough?

Feel free to leave any advice or comments. I always appreciate all the help I can get.

well i germ my seeds in a moist paper towel and then put under a warm laptop or under your mattress. which ever works for ya. they usually pop in a couple days.

Day 15

Well, second seed doesnt want to germinate. Im thinking that if it doesnt pop by tomorrow, then I will put it in a match stick box with sand paper on the side. I read that works, but I dont have any experience with it.

Yesterday I burried my plant to the leaves because it stretched too much. Now its about 3/4 inch. not bad I think. Its the second day of 18/6. I thought I'd share my setup with yall. I intended this to be my veg box where I keep my mother plant. In the future, after my mother can produce clones, I will try my hand with DWC. People tell me its hard but I will start with one plant at a time. If I eff up, then no big loss.

Its an open top box that I made with plexiglass. Its 15 inches by 14 inches horizontally. Right now, its 28 inches vertically high but its able to expand upwards, depending on my plant. My LED array is not ready yet, as you can see. I have my red and blue ready, just waiting on white, yellow amber and UV. I have a little computer fan blowing air around.

Next step for me is to make a CO2 bottle with yeast to promote growth. I wont be doing that yet, Ill probably start when I introduce nutes. Which brings me to my question.

When should I start using nutes? I know Im a long ways away. I have had some advice to start at week 4-5 but thats one persons advice. Id rather hear what other experienced growers have to say.

Day 20

I made a 150 LED little array, very tightly spaced. I arced it so that the light centres on my plant. Looks great.

Colors so far:
Red (75)
Blue (15)
UV (15) It looks more like purple, I thought we cant see UV. looks like I got ripped off.
White (15)
Yellow (15)
Amber (15)

I will keep adding as I make some free time. It took me 4 hours to set this one up. My plant is thriving in it!!

So far, 8.65 theoretical watts. It is pretty bright, let me tell you. As my plant gets larger, I will be adding more and more.

Now on to my plant. It has 2 sharp thin leave that are about 5/8 of an inch long. On the top, it looks like a hair, I guess im going to have a node soon. I just cant wait to clone.

Im starting to think about how and where I am going to clone. For clones, I might have a set for LEDs, and another one for CFL + LED. 8 clones in total. But thats another journal.

Hope you guys like it.

P.S. one of the pics is the UV LEDs if anyone is interested in seeing how it looks. It looks purple, not UV. Doesnt matter, purple is good too.