Ganjaneer85
Member
So I usually don't say anything on forums, because most of the time it causes more problems then solution. However I see allot of confusion and arguments about L.E.D. (Light Emitting Diodes) so I decided that since most people come to me for help and expect me to have the answer in real life. Then I might as well give my two cents on the subject online. Before I begin I am not going to say that led lights are better than other lights, because as far as I am concern "to each their own" if you have a systems that works for you then by all means keep up the good work. If you are one of those people who want to use led but are unsure and need answers then hopefully this will help.
Now for a little background on me I have been growing for a few years now and only been using L.E.D. lights and have never had a problem like some of the people on the web say, but I think I now the answers to those problems. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and most of my class I took actually gives me creditability on this subject, while growing being a hobby of mine. I wanted to write this with pics of my most recent crop, but sadly I was busted by my local police department and had all my picture in my camera taken from me. the only one i had left was a pic on my camera phone that can be seen on my profile pic. I was confident that I am doing a good job on growing with L.E.D.s, because the cops commented on my grow operation being one of the best they have seen and my plants were some of the best looking they have seen as well (fucking cock sucking bastards) but that is a whole different story altogether.
The first question that probably needs to be answered is when company says that a 45 watt L.E.D. is equal to a 250 watt MH light. This is miss-leading and not fully understood by consumers. What makes L.E.D. ideal for growing is that they only use the light wave length that plants use to grow and to produce there wonderful flowers. Now I could get into a heavy detail explanation involving Einstein and his work on ejecting electrons from metals. Using specific light wavelength and how that applies to plant leafs and the photosynthesis process but I won’t. What you need to get out of this is that normal grow lights have a lot of unusable light that plants don’t use. It’s because they are using high wattage of electricity against a high resistant filament to produce white light that has some usable light and a lot of different wavelength that is useless light. So when a company is stating their lights equal certain wattage of another light. What there are saying is there L.E.D lights have the same usable light if not more of whatever wattage bulb they are comparing it to. This does not mean that it will grow as many plants as said MH or sodium light by any means.
This brings me to the next problem I see people talking about when discussing L.E.D lights poor vegetation and poor yield. I think when some people buy L.E.D. and see the comparison info about there 150 watt L.E.D. being equal to a 750 watt MH. They immediately think that they could grow as many plants as a 750 watt MH and that is sadly not true. The 150 watt L.E.D. is still just that, a 150 Watt light bulb and the equation ( I=L/D^2) still applies. I being intensity, L being light output, and D being distance squared from the plant. So if you want to use L.E.D. to grow large amounts of plans at once then you need to get a high wattage L.E.D Light to meet the needs. If you want to grow a few plants then a smaller one will do just fine. What I was doing was using 120 watt Doberman L.E.D light from GrowlLED Inc. as the main light up top, but then I was using four grow panel 45 from sunshine systems in a box formation around the bottom of my plants to make sure the bottom nodes got equal amount of light as the top of the plant did. One of the advantages of using L.E.D. is low heat emission so I could get these lights real close and not worry about harming my women. IMO using lower wattage L.E.D. lights is just as good as using one high powered L.E.D. the key is utilizing what you got to work with and where you are setting up the lights in relation to the plants. If you just place the light randomly around your grow then you’re just wasting money, time, and yield.
So you decided you want to try using a L.E.D. grow light, but you don’t know where to buy it from. Well join the club, just like buying anything its pretty much the motto of Buyer beware. I stated what companies I used, but I know there are other ones out there. You may have also hear about Chinese nock offs that might be shit, well lots of things are made in china that are shit. Hell I buy Chinese knock off of DVD and cellphones and I have no problem, not to mention it so much cheaper doing it that way. You have to do research before you buy something you want to get or your not doing your job as a consumer. All I can say when looking for L.E.D. grow lights is make sure they have technical spec listed on the lights. IMO anybody who spends the time talking about the dimension, wattage, power output, and most importantly the wave lengths there diode produce. Then they are trying to legitimately sell you a quality product. If they just show you a pic of their lights and shout off the benefit and nothing about their actual light specs. Then they are just blowing smoke up your ass and don’t know shit about anything involving the product. Most likely they just put together a useless product that is just for show and nothing else.
You have your light and the necessary supplies and have a realistic idea of how many plants you can grow. Now the important part that needs to be recognized and is overlooked is adjusting your growing habits when using L.E.D. When I grew my plants they were just like me they loved to eat, because they had a lot of usable light and need the necessary nutrients to keep up the photosynthesis. It can be tricking though, because you don’t want to over water or over feed them as well. It’s one of those situations when you need to have the love and time commitment to your plants. If you are one of those set it and forget it types then you will have lots of trouble with these lights, because they grow fast and need a lot of attention. I was using smart pots for my Ice plants and the pots were supposed to keep them fed for around two weeks. I was refilling the reservoir twice a week, because they kept using up the food and water I was giving them. No it wasn’t because of heat evaporation, remember low heat emissions and there was stagnate water for draining the pots that lasted longer on the ground then in the reservoirs.
The last thing I am going to hit on his about the technology of L.E.D. lights. Think of these lights like computer, meaning as soon as you buy them they will most likely become outdated within months after purchase. I remember when I bought my highest watt L.E.D. the Doberman one. The company was talking about UV light spectrums and thricome production literally a month after I bought mine. So keep in mind that as the years go on they will constantly change and get better over time, but it will always be in the positive direction with these changes. The awesome thing about this is that unlike MH or sodium where there is nothing else to be done with them. I know that in the next few years L.E.D. lights will become cheaper and be ridiculously capable of growing some killer bud. I don’t need people to tell me otherwise, because I had grower who were using the standard grow lights mock me for using L.E.D lights. Even though at the end of the day they may have produce more bud I was producing higher quality bud and when smokers compared them I was always chosen over the ones who mock me. I am a firm believer in quality over quantity. Both can be achieve with L.E.D. but its not cheap (not yet at least) I hope this helps people and if you have question I will being able to answer any to the best of my ability.
Thank you.
P.S. here is my picture larger view again this was mid way before the cops came and they were twice the size than what the picture shows
Now for a little background on me I have been growing for a few years now and only been using L.E.D. lights and have never had a problem like some of the people on the web say, but I think I now the answers to those problems. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and most of my class I took actually gives me creditability on this subject, while growing being a hobby of mine. I wanted to write this with pics of my most recent crop, but sadly I was busted by my local police department and had all my picture in my camera taken from me. the only one i had left was a pic on my camera phone that can be seen on my profile pic. I was confident that I am doing a good job on growing with L.E.D.s, because the cops commented on my grow operation being one of the best they have seen and my plants were some of the best looking they have seen as well (fucking cock sucking bastards) but that is a whole different story altogether.
The first question that probably needs to be answered is when company says that a 45 watt L.E.D. is equal to a 250 watt MH light. This is miss-leading and not fully understood by consumers. What makes L.E.D. ideal for growing is that they only use the light wave length that plants use to grow and to produce there wonderful flowers. Now I could get into a heavy detail explanation involving Einstein and his work on ejecting electrons from metals. Using specific light wavelength and how that applies to plant leafs and the photosynthesis process but I won’t. What you need to get out of this is that normal grow lights have a lot of unusable light that plants don’t use. It’s because they are using high wattage of electricity against a high resistant filament to produce white light that has some usable light and a lot of different wavelength that is useless light. So when a company is stating their lights equal certain wattage of another light. What there are saying is there L.E.D lights have the same usable light if not more of whatever wattage bulb they are comparing it to. This does not mean that it will grow as many plants as said MH or sodium light by any means.
This brings me to the next problem I see people talking about when discussing L.E.D lights poor vegetation and poor yield. I think when some people buy L.E.D. and see the comparison info about there 150 watt L.E.D. being equal to a 750 watt MH. They immediately think that they could grow as many plants as a 750 watt MH and that is sadly not true. The 150 watt L.E.D. is still just that, a 150 Watt light bulb and the equation ( I=L/D^2) still applies. I being intensity, L being light output, and D being distance squared from the plant. So if you want to use L.E.D. to grow large amounts of plans at once then you need to get a high wattage L.E.D Light to meet the needs. If you want to grow a few plants then a smaller one will do just fine. What I was doing was using 120 watt Doberman L.E.D light from GrowlLED Inc. as the main light up top, but then I was using four grow panel 45 from sunshine systems in a box formation around the bottom of my plants to make sure the bottom nodes got equal amount of light as the top of the plant did. One of the advantages of using L.E.D. is low heat emission so I could get these lights real close and not worry about harming my women. IMO using lower wattage L.E.D. lights is just as good as using one high powered L.E.D. the key is utilizing what you got to work with and where you are setting up the lights in relation to the plants. If you just place the light randomly around your grow then you’re just wasting money, time, and yield.
So you decided you want to try using a L.E.D. grow light, but you don’t know where to buy it from. Well join the club, just like buying anything its pretty much the motto of Buyer beware. I stated what companies I used, but I know there are other ones out there. You may have also hear about Chinese nock offs that might be shit, well lots of things are made in china that are shit. Hell I buy Chinese knock off of DVD and cellphones and I have no problem, not to mention it so much cheaper doing it that way. You have to do research before you buy something you want to get or your not doing your job as a consumer. All I can say when looking for L.E.D. grow lights is make sure they have technical spec listed on the lights. IMO anybody who spends the time talking about the dimension, wattage, power output, and most importantly the wave lengths there diode produce. Then they are trying to legitimately sell you a quality product. If they just show you a pic of their lights and shout off the benefit and nothing about their actual light specs. Then they are just blowing smoke up your ass and don’t know shit about anything involving the product. Most likely they just put together a useless product that is just for show and nothing else.
You have your light and the necessary supplies and have a realistic idea of how many plants you can grow. Now the important part that needs to be recognized and is overlooked is adjusting your growing habits when using L.E.D. When I grew my plants they were just like me they loved to eat, because they had a lot of usable light and need the necessary nutrients to keep up the photosynthesis. It can be tricking though, because you don’t want to over water or over feed them as well. It’s one of those situations when you need to have the love and time commitment to your plants. If you are one of those set it and forget it types then you will have lots of trouble with these lights, because they grow fast and need a lot of attention. I was using smart pots for my Ice plants and the pots were supposed to keep them fed for around two weeks. I was refilling the reservoir twice a week, because they kept using up the food and water I was giving them. No it wasn’t because of heat evaporation, remember low heat emissions and there was stagnate water for draining the pots that lasted longer on the ground then in the reservoirs.
The last thing I am going to hit on his about the technology of L.E.D. lights. Think of these lights like computer, meaning as soon as you buy them they will most likely become outdated within months after purchase. I remember when I bought my highest watt L.E.D. the Doberman one. The company was talking about UV light spectrums and thricome production literally a month after I bought mine. So keep in mind that as the years go on they will constantly change and get better over time, but it will always be in the positive direction with these changes. The awesome thing about this is that unlike MH or sodium where there is nothing else to be done with them. I know that in the next few years L.E.D. lights will become cheaper and be ridiculously capable of growing some killer bud. I don’t need people to tell me otherwise, because I had grower who were using the standard grow lights mock me for using L.E.D lights. Even though at the end of the day they may have produce more bud I was producing higher quality bud and when smokers compared them I was always chosen over the ones who mock me. I am a firm believer in quality over quantity. Both can be achieve with L.E.D. but its not cheap (not yet at least) I hope this helps people and if you have question I will being able to answer any to the best of my ability.
Thank you.
P.S. here is my picture larger view again this was mid way before the cops came and they were twice the size than what the picture shows
kinda high right now trying to focus and write this... ok . so . btw that what I just said will be for the first coli lets not worry about the 2nd one yet cause i cant get it if I gotta run my meter at 6000W for lights plus 1500W for colling the damn room down and microwave to keep me fed ... lol and electric stove and fridge :/ its not the cost its maninly utility will start asking questions as to why my 2 bedroom apartment hording all the power lol
