Hi guys!
I'm new at this forum but researching on Led lighting I've found that this is the best resource for information and advice. I've seen impressive grows and lamps as well I must say!
I'm fairly new at indoor growing, my first grows used the old Evoled 70 v3 panels from Knna. Besides they weren't the best spectrum available, the plants were delayed on flowering and very spaced between nodes, I was very happy with the results (60w was barely noticeable on the bills and still got some quality stash with them) so I had sell them and will start building my own lamp this year, adapted to my own needs. But I'm not the best handyman here, so It's being a tough process to learn all this stuff about leds, spectrums, electronics and so on.
I have a 1square meter cabinet that I can use, but I will start with half of the surface or maybe something around 60x90cm so I don't need an amazing wattage and will be able to start experimenting. I want to keep things between 90w and 120w maximum, depending on led configurations and budget.
So far, I've seen that with efficient led lamps, you don't need that much wattage as the spectrums and results and usable photons from each bandwith are amazing even with lower powers. I must say that I mainly grow long flowering sativas between 12-16 weeks, sometimes in scrogs and LST. The main reason I started growing indoor was to grow the plants that I can't manage outdoors in the cold rainy autumn and to make controlled reproductions and selections as well. Although of course, I will use the lamp for some stash comercial crops as well or even medical indicas.
As for the panel, I'm planning to make a mixed spectrum lamp (usable both for vegetative and flowering stages, maybe with a veg/flower switch to change the spectrum a little bit, so I will use less power for vegetative phase and turn everything on for flowering stage, turbo boost on!). Passive refrigeration with alu pipes and for the spectrum and leds, i'm still researching but so far, i've thought about using red, deep red and blue spectrum + adding some whites with good efficiency to get more photons and fill the spectrum in the best possible way without any lacks.
The leds I will use after reading they're the best nowadays are:
-Reds: Xp-E cree
-Deep Red: Luxeon ES, as I couldn't find the better Olsons LH CP7p-3T4T to buy online yet.
-Blue: Luxeon Es or maybe XP-E otherwise (should those be Blue or Royal Blue?)
-White: I was planning to use XM-L2 or XP-G2 but after reading, maybe I will go with the cheaper XT-E R3. I wasn't sure on using cool or warm white but i've read great results with warm 3000k whites combining them with good blues.
The spectrum, I'm thinking in several options after reading and looking many great lamps and explanations on how 75% should be red, 15-20% blue, the amounts of Deep Red vs Red (knna used to say 50% each should be fine), which white temperature using, if Royal Blue or Blue and so on. Even some places say about other colors as Green, Infrared or Far red and a whole mess for my head!
I've seen a few interesting mixed spectrum panels with several combinations so far:
More deep red:
-3 red, 7 deep red, 5 white, 2 blue.
-2 red,4 deep red, 2 white, 1 blue.
-1 red, 3 deep red, 1 white, 1 blue.
More/equal red:
-3 red, 3 deep red, 2 white, 1 blue.
-7 red, 1 white, 1 blue.
No white:
-27 red, 2 far red and 4 blue (just 9, 3 ,2 working for growing mode and all of them at full power flowering). Used by the Ledgrow.eu lamp, the tests were quite ok and many people keeps the statement that red and blue are enough for cannabis if the spectrum is ok.
All of them seem to give good results although I'm sure there is a reason for everything and nowadays, there are lot's of experience led growers with stuff to say about the best spectrums. Which one you guys think it's the best one to go with? I've read about far red (720m) delaying flowering but at the same time, necessary. I've read about how some colors (660 deep red) make the plants to strech more (bad for wild sativas, good for indicas maybe). Some have more 660 deep red vs 625 red, others the opposite, I guess it would be for making them more compact or stretchy, right? Blue percentage seems to remain quite constant while whites vary as well, I guess it also depends on the relation between white and red amount, as warm white has more reds an cool white more blue, so it could need more red leds, right? It's a whole fucking world on its own! But that's the great thing, how you gotta research and become almost a light scientist and later a pro electrician, only then, you will be able to grow and improve your skills to make the most of the light and the plants!
Initially, I'm planning to run everything at 350-500mA to get the most of the chips and the passive cooling. Im still figuring out how to make everything for grow/flower mode swiching. Even which pcbs to use, if star pcbs or multiple pcbs... I guess using different chip brands and models will be messy for soldering everything but let's see, I have a friend who nows some electronics so hopefully he'll help me with it. Also I'm not sure about using a big sware/rectangular alu panel or long bars with several light spots on them, each one with a fraction of the whole spectrum. It seems a cool way but the most important thing I guess it's how the light is evenly spread all over the grow surface. I don't like the idea of having just an usable light spot to place a sog plant under it, as I grow sativas with crazy branches all over the place, that's why I decided to use scrogs most of the time.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the time and any advice will be very welcome guys! Once I have everything cleared down, I will start ordering components. I can't wait to start building it! I just need your supervision and blessings to go with it!
Vibes to all!
I'm new at this forum but researching on Led lighting I've found that this is the best resource for information and advice. I've seen impressive grows and lamps as well I must say!
I'm fairly new at indoor growing, my first grows used the old Evoled 70 v3 panels from Knna. Besides they weren't the best spectrum available, the plants were delayed on flowering and very spaced between nodes, I was very happy with the results (60w was barely noticeable on the bills and still got some quality stash with them) so I had sell them and will start building my own lamp this year, adapted to my own needs. But I'm not the best handyman here, so It's being a tough process to learn all this stuff about leds, spectrums, electronics and so on.
I have a 1square meter cabinet that I can use, but I will start with half of the surface or maybe something around 60x90cm so I don't need an amazing wattage and will be able to start experimenting. I want to keep things between 90w and 120w maximum, depending on led configurations and budget.
So far, I've seen that with efficient led lamps, you don't need that much wattage as the spectrums and results and usable photons from each bandwith are amazing even with lower powers. I must say that I mainly grow long flowering sativas between 12-16 weeks, sometimes in scrogs and LST. The main reason I started growing indoor was to grow the plants that I can't manage outdoors in the cold rainy autumn and to make controlled reproductions and selections as well. Although of course, I will use the lamp for some stash comercial crops as well or even medical indicas.
As for the panel, I'm planning to make a mixed spectrum lamp (usable both for vegetative and flowering stages, maybe with a veg/flower switch to change the spectrum a little bit, so I will use less power for vegetative phase and turn everything on for flowering stage, turbo boost on!). Passive refrigeration with alu pipes and for the spectrum and leds, i'm still researching but so far, i've thought about using red, deep red and blue spectrum + adding some whites with good efficiency to get more photons and fill the spectrum in the best possible way without any lacks.
The leds I will use after reading they're the best nowadays are:
-Reds: Xp-E cree
-Deep Red: Luxeon ES, as I couldn't find the better Olsons LH CP7p-3T4T to buy online yet.
-Blue: Luxeon Es or maybe XP-E otherwise (should those be Blue or Royal Blue?)
-White: I was planning to use XM-L2 or XP-G2 but after reading, maybe I will go with the cheaper XT-E R3. I wasn't sure on using cool or warm white but i've read great results with warm 3000k whites combining them with good blues.
The spectrum, I'm thinking in several options after reading and looking many great lamps and explanations on how 75% should be red, 15-20% blue, the amounts of Deep Red vs Red (knna used to say 50% each should be fine), which white temperature using, if Royal Blue or Blue and so on. Even some places say about other colors as Green, Infrared or Far red and a whole mess for my head!
I've seen a few interesting mixed spectrum panels with several combinations so far:
More deep red:
-3 red, 7 deep red, 5 white, 2 blue.
-2 red,4 deep red, 2 white, 1 blue.
-1 red, 3 deep red, 1 white, 1 blue.
More/equal red:
-3 red, 3 deep red, 2 white, 1 blue.
-7 red, 1 white, 1 blue.
No white:
-27 red, 2 far red and 4 blue (just 9, 3 ,2 working for growing mode and all of them at full power flowering). Used by the Ledgrow.eu lamp, the tests were quite ok and many people keeps the statement that red and blue are enough for cannabis if the spectrum is ok.
All of them seem to give good results although I'm sure there is a reason for everything and nowadays, there are lot's of experience led growers with stuff to say about the best spectrums. Which one you guys think it's the best one to go with? I've read about far red (720m) delaying flowering but at the same time, necessary. I've read about how some colors (660 deep red) make the plants to strech more (bad for wild sativas, good for indicas maybe). Some have more 660 deep red vs 625 red, others the opposite, I guess it would be for making them more compact or stretchy, right? Blue percentage seems to remain quite constant while whites vary as well, I guess it also depends on the relation between white and red amount, as warm white has more reds an cool white more blue, so it could need more red leds, right? It's a whole fucking world on its own! But that's the great thing, how you gotta research and become almost a light scientist and later a pro electrician, only then, you will be able to grow and improve your skills to make the most of the light and the plants!
Initially, I'm planning to run everything at 350-500mA to get the most of the chips and the passive cooling. Im still figuring out how to make everything for grow/flower mode swiching. Even which pcbs to use, if star pcbs or multiple pcbs... I guess using different chip brands and models will be messy for soldering everything but let's see, I have a friend who nows some electronics so hopefully he'll help me with it. Also I'm not sure about using a big sware/rectangular alu panel or long bars with several light spots on them, each one with a fraction of the whole spectrum. It seems a cool way but the most important thing I guess it's how the light is evenly spread all over the grow surface. I don't like the idea of having just an usable light spot to place a sog plant under it, as I grow sativas with crazy branches all over the place, that's why I decided to use scrogs most of the time.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the time and any advice will be very welcome guys! Once I have everything cleared down, I will start ordering components. I can't wait to start building it! I just need your supervision and blessings to go with it!
Vibes to all!
