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CMH vs LED vs HPS

linde

Well-known member
I've got enough fire power to start World War 3. My LED is for seedlings and mother/clones only.
 

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JKD

Well-known member
Veteran
Max 1226 lm/diode @ the 5700k they produce the fixture at. 1 lux at >900m, my earlier post was incorrect.
 
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dimodz

Elite StrainCloneHunter
Moderator
Veteran

jwm

Well-known member
Veteran
I’ve used them all, like most of you. Was one of the first to use CMH which were designed for parking garages and factories because their light is very white, high CRI.
I’ve been using LED for years now and love them. Quality is as good or better than HPS OR CMH imo.
Like most things not all are created equal.
I’ve been using the ES180 V3 in a small 20”x36” tent w/ great results.
Crescendo went 55 days.
 

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kro-magnon

Well-known member
Veteran
In my experience everything just grows better at this temperatueres under LED, if you go with like 24 C you also have to feed way less otherwise you get problems with overfeed. Im not saying its not possible to get good crop with lower temps, in last weeks I also reduce temperature. But in my opinion you get better results with higher temps, mainly because LED dont have that much waste heat. Also I use selfmade organic soil, the microbes etc. work way faster with higher temps, look up van-’t-Hoff’sche Rule.
So far the plants don't struggle with nutrients intake, honestly I'd need too much energy to get to 29°c in my flowering space, that's too expensive to do , I'll see later in the year if it helps to make a better harvest or not. In summer it will be easy have this kind of heat I'll be able to compare the results between this harvest and the next ones.
 

snakedope

Active member
Dimodz - beautiful plants, a lot of foxtailing, a lot of that LED look... dunno, all flowers under LEDs look the same or it's just me...
I’ve used them all, like most of you. Was one of the first to use CMH which were designed for parking garages and factories because their light is very white, high CRI.
I’ve been using LED for years now and love them. Quality is as good or better than HPS OR CMH imo.
Like most things not all are created equal.
I’ve been using the ES180 V3 in a small 20”x36” tent w/ great results.
Crescendo went 55 days.
Really ? Better ? 🤨
So far the plants don't struggle with nutrients intake, honestly I'd need too much energy to get to 29°c in my flowering space, that's too expensive to do , I'll see later in the year if it helps to make a better harvest or not. In summer it will be easy have this kind of heat I'll be able to compare the results between this harvest and the next ones.
This applies mostly to high yield ops
If your just doing it for fun theres no reason to fight nature
Just flow with it
 

Gooseman23

Active member
I’ve used them all, like most of you. Was one of the first to use CMH which were designed for parking garages and factories because their light is very white, high CRI.
I’ve been using LED for years now and love them. Quality is as good or better than HPS OR CMH imo.
Like most things not all are created equal.
I’ve been using the ES180 V3 in a small 20”x36” tent w/ great results.
Crescendo went 55 days.
Exactly, people who bought off brand LED or bought them from China went to down LED… they should try a light like electric sky, or HLG, or any of the bigger names. It’s crazy people still behind in the times and downing LED. If you want to use HPS cool use it and it works great, but so does LED!
Dimodz - beautiful plants, a lot of foxtailing, a lot of that LED look... dunno, all flowers under LEDs look the same or it's just me...

Really ? Better ? 🤨

This applies mostly to high yield ops
If your just doing it for fun theres no reason to fight nature
Just flow with it
1675129374662.png

You swear LED doesn’t produce dense nuggets. hlg 350r gelato OG seedsman. And they were dense ass nuggets. The truth is it’s genetics and the phenotype has a lot to do with bud density. Some strains just grow denser nuggets and they will do so under HPS or LED and some strains like certain sativas will be airy and fluffy under HPS as well as LED. I’m sorry you had a bad experience with LED but post some pics of YOUR dense HPS buds?
 

moose eater

Well-known member
I went from standard non-digital MH/HPS in the old days, decades ago, to digital mh/hps in my main boxes, and an experimental run some place in there in a mother cupboard with a smaller couple of LEDs, which worked ok (but produced differently, as well as the plants 'asking' for different feeding), but wanted to decrease heat while improving light spectrum and, went to the 315cmh in four 4'x4' boxes, with augmentation in all 4 corners of the boxes running (4) 250-watt equivalent, LED, outdoor-rated flood lights in 3000k to 4000k spectrum (depending on stage of growth) and a a 40-degree beam on the corner flood lights, and haven't been disappointed.

My flowers are more dense and at least as good of quality under the current lighting set-up as they were under the older 400 to 430 watt mh/hps, whether digital or standard.

The Sun Systems hood for the 315cmh has a larger foot-print than the Phantom hoods by Hydro-Farm do/did back then, so I went with those, in order to stay in the 4'x4' boxes' foot-print.

Another forum member sent me a link to these (below), and he's been at it for many years, stating these work quite well for him, but they're apparently pretty spendy. He reported that he replaced his 1,000 watt hps with these. He reports no difficulty with canopy penetration with these

I'm attracted to them, and could even safely make them fit into the ceilings of my 4'x4' boxes, but don't see me making the leap and cash outlay any time soon. It'd reportedly be about $6,000+ USD to light up my 4 boxes with these.

https://fluence.science/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SPYDRx-PLUS-180327.pdf
 
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snakedope

Active member
Exactly, people who bought off brand LED or bought them from China went to down LED… they should try a light like electric sky, or HLG, or any of the bigger names. It’s crazy people still behind in the times and downing LED. If you want to use HPS cool use it and it works great, but so does LED!

View attachment 18806689
You swear LED doesn’t produce dense nuggets. hlg 350r gelato OG seedsman. And they were dense ass nuggets. The truth is it’s genetics and the phenotype has a lot to do with bud density. Some strains just grow denser nuggets and they will do so under HPS or LED and some strains like certain sativas will be airy and fluffy under HPS as well as LED. I’m sorry you had a bad experience with LED but post some pics of YOUR dense HPS buds?
Sorry bro, it's nothing personal, all led bud looks the same, and not in a good way
You talk about budding and density but you miss the point bro
I wish we smoked the density, but we smoke trichomes.
Density, size of plants and colas and bud sites are all grower/time/light dependent and u can change these factors all the time, one thing u can't change is the response your plants make, a response that manifest itself in forms of glue, trichomes, call it what u want
We said already you will grow very good healthy budding plants with LEDs, no biggie I've done it also
But they are not the best light to flower under
Not yet..
As for my and your genetic claims, yes, to a point, but I will bet that 90% of strains grown with LEDs, could've been much more better under HIDs in flowering in final product terms - to further clarify, final product for me is the trifecta, potency, taste, smell
weight, dense or fluffy wtf do I care that's all small talk, a gram is a gram bud
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Sorry bro, it's nothing personal, all led bud looks the same, and not in a good way
You talk about budding and density but you miss the point bro
I wish we smoked the density, but we smoke trichomes.
Density, size of plants and colas and bud sites are all grower/time/light dependent and u can change these factors all the time, one thing u can't change is the response your plants make, a response that manifest itself in forms of glue, trichomes, call it what u want
We said already you will grow very good healthy budding plants with LEDs, no biggie I've done it also
But they are not the best light to flower under
Not yet..
As for my and your genetic claims, yes, to a point, but I will bet that 90% of strains grown with LEDs, could've been much more better under HIDs in flowering in final product terms - to further clarify, final product for me is the trifecta, potency, taste, smell
weight, dense or fluffy wtf do I care that's all small talk, a gram is a gram bud
This is simply not true. I’ll tell you what I will agree with. If you grow with hps for 20 years then you switch to LED you probably have more knowledge on how to get the best buds because you’re used to hps. That doesn’t mean hps is better it just means you out the time in and got it right. Same as a beginner in a new job vs somebody who has been doing the job for 20 years… and I no this bud was loud and smoked great! Again it’s genetics. There are people who have done side by side tests. Here is one here from grow weed easy. https://www.growweedeasy.com/lec-vs-led-grow-lights-side-by-side-journal
Again that may be your experience. But how many different brands of LED did you try? How many different spectrums? Isn’t it possible that the brand you chose just wasn’t the best spectrum? Do you know there are LED that you can completely tune the spectrum to exactly what you want? Like the raging kush? Did you try that light? You’re so stuck on saying LED is bad without giving it a fair shake. And that link is a side by side with real lab test results. Please don’t ignore the questions as I’m really trying to understand what evidence went into you being so sure that LED is inferior bud quality…
 

linde

Well-known member
All of the scientific mumbojumbo says that LEDS are superior. Better spectrum this and that. I have yet to see better results.
 

snakedope

Active member
The evidence is the people smoking it.
And they are not happy campers
If you think you need to try all LEDs mfgs in order to find the "one" then buddy you are not thinking with ur brain
It's not all genetics, yes it does play a role, but to an extent, environment is the most critical thing other then genetics, and light source is part of that environment, you will get what they told in the specs, it's the human brain who tries to combo things up
No one would've bought this tech if the mfgs just said oh well we they are best suited for veg nothing more
I've seen buds under 90w ufo LEDs
I've seen buds under cfl also, halogen, you name it, we were poor and out of means once, but it grew, was it good ? No.
Sorry but I don't believe lab tests, I believe what I feel and taste and smell when I smoke and it's nothing like before LEDs took over the market, not even close.
My boy flew to India just to get away from all this plastic 15 min low high weed, smoking hash all day in malana mountains haha
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Sorry bro, it's nothing personal, all led bud looks the same, and not in a good way
You talk about budding and density but you miss the point bro
I wish we smoked the density, but we smoke trichomes.
Density, size of plants and colas and bud sites are all grower/time/light dependent and u can change these factors all the time, one thing u can't change is the response your plants make, a response that manifest itself in forms of glue, trichomes, call it what u want
We said already you will grow very good healthy budding plants with LEDs, no biggie I've done it also
But they are not the best light to flower under
Not yet..
As for my and your genetic claims, yes, to a point, but I will bet that 90% of strains grown with LEDs, could've been much more better under HIDs in flowering in final product terms - to further clarify, final product for me is the trifecta, potency, taste, smell
weight, dense or fluffy wtf do I care that's all small talk, a gram is a gram bud
So I posted actual evidence of somebody running LED light against CMH. You throw numbers out and say 90% of plants would be better under HPS. Where is your side by side grows? That is the only way to actually say that. All LED bud definitely doesn’t look the same. That is a fact. I can grow 3 different strains in same tent and they all look different under the same light? The guy who posted earlier in this thread bud doesn’t look the same as the pic I posted and everybody who looks can see that… clearly they don’t all look the same.
All of the scientific mumbojumbo says that LEDS are superior. Better spectrum this and that. I have yet to see better results.
have you tried though? That’s all I’m saying? And if you did did you use quantum boards? Bar lights? COBS? What spectrum? All of these things come into play. So if you tried one kind of LED light and it wasn’t good then that doesn’t mean LED is no good. That’s my point. Y’all are bashing LED but you’re not mentioning what brand you tried or what type of light? The only fair way to say LED is no good is to run side bu side clones and then show proof? Other than that y’all just sound like you want to stick to what you know. And that’s cool to do but don’t go making up things telling people all LED sucks when I’m reality you don’t know because you haven’t tried all LEDS. Please click the link I posted in the post above. A real comparison of LED vs CMH with real lab test results. Y’all are just giving opinions with no basis.
This is bud grown with LED. This one is not my pic tho Looks pretty triched out to me… but to you I guess your bud under hps looks better?
 

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linde

Well-known member
So I posted actual evidence of somebody running LED light against CMH. You throw numbers out and say 90% of plants would be better under HPS. Where is your side by side grows? That is the only way to actually say that. All LED bud definitely doesn’t look the same. That is a fact. I can grow 3 different strains in same tent and they all look different under the same light? The guy who posted earlier in this thread bud doesn’t look the same as the pic I posted and everybody who looks can see that… clearly they don’t all look the same.

have you tried though? That’s all I’m saying? And if you did did you use quantum boards? Bar lights? COBS? What spectrum? All of these things come into play. So if you tried one kind of LED light and it wasn’t good then that doesn’t mean LED is no good. That’s my point. Y’all are bashing LED but you’re not mentioning what brand you tried or what type of light? The only fair way to say LED is no good is to run side bu side clones and then show proof? Other than that y’all just sound like you want to stick to what you know. And that’s cool to do but don’t go making up things telling people all LED sucks when I’m reality you don’t know because you haven’t tried all LEDS. Please click the link I posted in the post above. A real comparison of LED vs CMH with real lab test results. Y’all are just giving opinions with no basis.
This is bud grown with LED. This one is not my pic tho Looks pretty triched out to me… but to you I guess your bud under hps looks better?
Yes own a nice 600 watt bar LED. Nothing wrong with the light. It works fine. My Solis Tek/Raptor 1000w setup has atleast 2x2 better coverage and simply grows better bud. The money I save in electricity with LEDs I in turn lose with smaller harvests. I see no benefits with LEDS.
 

Gooseman23

Active member
The evidence is the people smoking it.
And they are not happy campers
If you think you need to try all LEDs mfgs in order to find the "one" then buddy you are not thinking with ur brain
It's not all genetics, yes it does play a role, but to an extent, environment is the most critical thing other then genetics, and light source is part of that environment, you will get what they told in the specs, it's the human brain who tries to combo things up
No one would've bought this tech if the mfgs just said oh well we they are best suited for veg nothing more
I've seen buds under 90w ufo LEDs
I've seen buds under cfl also, halogen, you name it, we were poor and out of means once, but it grew, was it good ? No.
Sorry but I don't believe lab tests, I believe what I feel and taste and smell when I smoke and it's nothing like before LEDs took over the market, not even close.
My boy flew to India just to get away from all this plastic 15 min low high weed, smoking hash all day in malana mountains haha
So where is the pics of your great HPS buds? That’s what I want to see. And no you don’t need to try them all, what I’m suggesting is maybe you didn’t do enough initial research and made a poor buying decision. You still didn’t mention any brands you tried? So no don’t buy them all. Do research and find people with good results with a specific light and then deicde to buy that one. If you’re not willing to do that ok cool so it’s you are lazy. Not that LED is no good. And if you actually click the link it’s not just lab results and it’s a full grow journal all the way through and they actually talk about the actual smoking experience. Not just lab results. But as you just admitted you’re not willing to read a few pages to get a better understanding. You just think LED sucks and no matter if you have proof of truth you will just ignore it…
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Yes own a nice 600 watt bar LED. Nothing wrong with the light. It works fine. My Solis Tek/Raptor 1000w setup has atleast 2x2 better coverage and simply grows better bud. The money I save in electricity with LEDs I in turn lose with smaller harvests. I see no benefits with LEDS.
A nice 600 watt bar light? What brand? And of course you get more yield with 1000 watts of HPS… it’s 1000 watts vs 600 watts… you have to do your research. I’ll bet I could easily see the ppf of the 1000 watt you have and the ppf of the 600 watt you have and clearly know that it would not get the same yield. For the most part LED you would need 70-75% of the watts as HPS to match or exceed the yields. Also as I said spectrum plays a big role. And if you are using a bar light then are you training a nice flat canopy? Because if you’re not then I can tell you the best way for you would COB LED as those have great penetration. So if you really want to replace the 1000w hps and match or exceed your current yield and quality try 750w COB. Be sure to look at the numbers and par tests. You could try something like the optic 8. And from what you said it seems you just heard LED was super and didn’t do enough research and thought 600 watt would yield more than 1000 watts. And because if that experience you say LED is no good. But that’s not the case you just didn’t do enough research. Btw bar lights can be great but again if go with atleast 700 watts to replace a 1000w hps. And I’d do due diligence on the company and the spectrum and the par tests before purchasing. The truth is a photon is photon. Get a good spectrum and make sure the ppf exceeds the 1000w and then you want be disappointed. But you have to do the research as it depends on your grow style. But if you’re used to a hps then COBS will be your best bet as they will get that penetration like HPS does. But if you’re willing to train your plants according to the light you have then you need to focus on a flat canopy. And lollipop bottom 1/3 of the plant as they don’t have the same penetration as HPS.
 

Gooseman23

Active member
Yes own a nice 600 watt bar LED. Nothing wrong with the light. It works fine. My Solis Tek/Raptor 1000w setup has atleast 2x2 better coverage and simply grows better bud. The money I save in electricity with LEDs I in turn lose with smaller harvests. I see no benefits with LEDS.
For example purposes, if you want to absolutely exceed your 1000w DE yields it has 2100 ppf so this would blow it out with 2900 ppf:
photontek xt 1000 but you’ll probably need CO2 with this because it’s that intense.

Or if you’re looking to match your yields and possibly exceed them but also save on power this pulls 715w but the even spread will likely help you to yield more then go with something like this hlg scorpion Diablo as it also has 2100 ppf same as solis tek 1000w DE hps
horticulturelightinggroup
And if you want to go with COB for that deep penetration all the way down the plant then go with something like this
Timber which also has right at 2100 ppf
These are all just examples and it’s plenty other companies out there and you can also get discounts on those light in other places. But see you have to actually match the output instead of listening to a sales pitch…
 

Gooseman23

Active member
See y’all can’t be going and buying a led light with 1000 ppf and then comparing to 2000 ppf and claim LED yields less and sucks. So you’re going in the same space. And giving the same amount of plants less light! And we all know if you do not provide plants enough light then they will produce lard and leafy buds. So I believe from what y’all are saying that’s what’s happening. You feel for a sales pitch and didn’t actually do your research on the par tests and ppf output. So you grew buds with some larf because most likely you didn’t provide the plants with enough light. Which we all know the same thing would happen with any light. It’s not the LED. It’s you not having the right knowledge to actually convert to LED in the first place. That’s what I get from what y’all are saying here.
 
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