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LED and BUD QUALITY

Phytoplankton

Active member
Well, hopefully the troll is back under his respective bridge. Got a headache reading all that misinformation. But back to the question at hand. Quality LED's will, IMHO, grow weed that is at least as good as HPS. Never seen a lot of difference in quality or quantity between the two. They both take some work to get dialed in. Now to take you on a little artificial light journey. In 1975 I was in College, Humbodlt State University. Best weed to be found anywhere at that time, but it was all grown outdoors, natural light. Almost none was grown under artificial light, mostly because at that time grow lights were in their infancy. My first dorm room grow was under incandescent "growlights", that were no more than a 150 watt spotlight bulb with a light blue coating inside the glass. Grew terrible leggy plants, and always had heat issues. Soon after, HPS became available, but at that time they were very expensive, and the bulb spectrum choices were limited, as most HPS was used for outdoor commercial lighting, the bulbs were high wattage, but it certainly grew better weed than incandescent, but because of the size of the lights/ballasts you needed a big grow space. Some people used neon type bulbs, but again, the choices for spectrum were very limited, the bulbs were really expensive, hard to find, (no internet, no Amazon back then) and they only lasted about 6-9 months before they needed to be replaced. For many years HPS was the gold standard, but then LED's came on the scene, the early "burples" vegged plants great, but were lacking for flowering, then came the veg/bloom models with a setting for veg and one for flower, they were better, but still not great. Now comes the full spectrum lights, and emphasis on quality diodes with better spectrums (301B, 301H), which were really the game changers, along with dimmable lights to help with adjusting light intensity. I can see for the future even more fine tunning of the chips and spectra. Just trying to get this thread back on track.
 

I Care

Well-known member
I’m amazed how many different factors growers selecting for their grows and gaining experience on. And that each has their own vision to encourage their plants to offer a personable appeal.


I know this isn’t a this vs. that or who vs who discussion, a prefab eBay clearance sale thanks to all the skin that is in the research. I haven’t fought through the struggle for the last decade. Serious respect to anybody who has endlessly sought out the spectrum and efficiency to provide these effective fixtures aimed at low yielding indoor annuals. COCO specifically is the entrepreneurial sponsor of my yellow brick road to LED fixtures. Looking around at trial and error and then finding a light that has a similar model producing scientific results offered on YouTube. That hard work led me to the light that powers my persuit of happiness. I remember watching some light reviews from last year where Coco says something certain over powering diodes which mostly affected ppfd/w efficiency.



To be bold about my personal conclusion. The worst mistake I personally made with LED was inappropriate use of the dimmer switch. I neglected to understand that LED (unlike traditional lighting) will light up below its minimum operating efficiency. I did come to understand where mistakes have been made by over driving. As in 1w/diode is inefficient as .1w to 4 times as many diodes and you would get a light starved plant. In the case that 250W be insufficient on 250 diodes similar and also inefficient at 2500 diodes.


I experienced that optimum on a fixture provided by companies, reviewed by public figures with meters, and released to careful consumers. Which I guess would be the same for DIYers. Getting the dimmer where it’s delivering between .2-.3w/ diode with the height 30 - 40cm when the plant Is in fruit. Then I’ve got to have a soil/solution with extra cal/mag/K content in order to keep everything in line. Occasionally I flip the dimmer back and forth but the plants say definitely an optimum thats a click back on the driver for my XS2500Pro powered flower rig.



This is kind of the same info coming from this thread and my own research, at least what I’ve selected and packed away throughout the last year. A year ago my answer to indoor lighting was 1000w sun systems with digital 600-1100. Decision that smaller space means smaller failures I went with 250w XS2500pro to suit my 20in(50cm)x36in(90cm) grow space. The math on that comes out to 4.8sqft (about 1/2m).

My personal experience so far. I think I’m basically agreeing with what others have agreed upon in this thread. Probably want 200 diodes per square foot powered between (.2-.3w)/diode. So about 2000 per square meter or maybe a little more. I can kind of see here where like 2500 at 600-700w in a 5x5(1.5m x1.5m) would work for someone considering so serving the kWh.

Calling this 4.8sq ft might be cheating.
IMG_1020.jpeg
IMG_1021.jpeg
IMG_1022.jpeg

1.6x5=8ftsq if I do a gpw/(ft/m) it will not likely be anything impressive

I lazy manned my way into an issue. leaves are consequence of 4days lazy watering with high nutrient solution and aggressive correction of the issue.

this is a little box drying rig with some frosting.
bug was resting on the wall, so no issue

image.jpg image.jpg
 

PadawanWarrior

Well-known member
I’m amazed how many different factors growers selecting for their grows and gaining experience on. And that each has their own vision to encourage their plants to offer a personable appeal.


I know this isn’t a this vs. that or who vs who discussion, a prefab eBay clearance sale thanks to all the skin that is in the research. I haven’t fought through the struggle for the last decade. Serious respect to anybody who has endlessly sought out the spectrum and efficiency to provide these effective fixtures aimed at low yielding indoor annuals. COCO specifically is the entrepreneurial sponsor of my yellow brick road to LED fixtures. Looking around at trial and error and then finding a light that has a similar model producing scientific results offered on YouTube. That hard work led me to the light that powers my persuit of happiness. I remember watching some light reviews from last year where Coco says something certain over powering diodes which mostly affected ppfd/w efficiency.



To be bold about my personal conclusion. The worst mistake I personally made with LED was inappropriate use of the dimmer switch. I neglected to understand that LED (unlike traditional lighting) will light up below its minimum operating efficiency. I did come to understand where mistakes have been made by over driving. As in 1w/diode is inefficient as .1w to 4 times as many diodes and you would get a light starved plant. In the case that 250W be insufficient on 250 diodes similar and also inefficient at 2500 diodes.


I experienced that optimum on a fixture provided by companies, reviewed by public figures with meters, and released to careful consumers. Which I guess would be the same for DIYers. Getting the dimmer where it’s delivering between .2-.3w/ diode with the height 30 - 40cm when the plant Is in fruit. Then I’ve got to have a soil/solution with extra cal/mag/K content in order to keep everything in line. Occasionally I flip the dimmer back and forth but the plants say definitely an optimum thats a click back on the driver for my XS2500Pro powered flower rig.



This is kind of the same info coming from this thread and my own research, at least what I’ve selected and packed away throughout the last year. A year ago my answer to indoor lighting was 1000w sun systems with digital 600-1100. Decision that smaller space means smaller failures I went with 250w XS2500pro to suit my 20in(50cm)x36in(90cm) grow space. The math on that comes out to 4.8sqft (about 1/2m).

My personal experience so far. I think I’m basically agreeing with what others have agreed upon in this thread. Probably want 200 diodes per square foot powered between (.2-.3w)/diode. So about 2000 per square meter or maybe a little more. I can kind of see here where like 2500 at 600-700w in a 5x5(1.5m x1.5m) would work for someone considering so serving the kWh.

Calling this 4.8sq ft might be cheating.
View attachment 19062675 View attachment 19062676 View attachment 19062677
1.6x5=8ftsq if I do a gpw/(ft/m) it will not likely be anything impressive

I lazy manned my way into an issue. leaves are consequence of 4days lazy watering with high nutrient solution and aggressive correction of the issue.

this is a little box drying rig with some frosting.
bug was resting on the wall, so no issue

View attachment 19062691 View attachment 19062690
Nice. Looks like you're dealing with a little P deficiency. When that happens to me I add some high P bat guano.
 

I Care

Well-known member
I had two problems, my final run off water was 2100 at one point. I use a mix of cal mag, calnit micro, biothrive bloom, molasses and jacks tomato with a ml or two of pk and a ml of armor silicate here and there through flower and try to just keep at 1100-1200ppm watering heavily.

I let some 1470s water slip as the last gallon of input thinking I’ll water next day or two no big deal. 4 days later I get 2100 at the end of run off. burned and then starved. Ill just say… I was wandering around in shoes without socks for the entire week.

this was before that foolishness, dialed in
IMG_0935.jpeg


1400s w/ tent open
IMG_0982.jpeg

Oops
IMG_1005.jpeg


plant is bummed out about all the changes but I stopped more of the sugar burns by cutting back shy of optimum until things leveled off in and out.

I just learned something where I may have better dealt with this. To put the dimmer back one notch to that .2w/diode while I was neglecting root zone. Younger character, one of Dr. Bruce Bugbees colleagues warning about this, that higher inputs can result in a disruption with your EC when running higher light levels.

I’ll blame the plant really cause it’s transpiring had me having to sort out some ppm issue that compounded with pH7+ (probably K-sil).

I mean this pot was dry to the drain holes 8 days ago gave it near 3.0/1500 ph water 5 days before that and every day since I saw 4.2/2100@7+ph; with 1.8/900@-6pH @me to get 2.3/[email protected] running out again, 2 days ago.

The fan leaves saved the days I had shoes on and socks off.
 
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kro-magnon

Well-known member
Veteran
One of the main difference I've found growing with LED compared to HPS is the water intake and nutrients level I had to adjust because of that. I've had to lower the quantity of water given at each watering but also lower the number of waterings in a week.
With the HPS grow I was giving 1L of water for a 10/12L pot 3 times a week with lower doses of nutrients than the charts of the brand prescribed, I had good result with this method for years.
With my LED grows I had to re-learn to water my plants, it has not been easy to lose my old habits but now after 1.5 year using LED I have a better understanding of my plants need. I had to up the nutrients level of my waterings by a good % and lower the numbers of watering by week.
Water and nutrients intake is one of the major point of quality buds as well as the light and environment, I'd like to know how other LED growers are feeding their plants to see if I can learn some new stuff. I have for years used General Organics line who is now Terra Aquatica in Europe but it's the same quality product, I like this line but for my last run I've tried Aptus who allow to separate each elements, it's very useful but I need more grows to know if it makes better buds or not, so far I'm not conviced.
 

I Care

Well-known member
Please ignore my neglect, got my hands full but it’s starting to bulk up now. It’s been warm and humid in there and as suggested I added a little light to see what it can do for the larf at the bottom.

I think it’s really important to stay right at that 1200-1300ppm from early flowering and keep nutrient solution constantly available in the substrate; When growing LED.
FullSizeRender.jpeg

IMG_1063.jpeg
 

Rocket Soul

Well-known member
One of the main difference I've found growing with LED compared to HPS is the water intake and nutrients level I had to adjust because of that. I've had to lower the quantity of water given at each watering but also lower the number of waterings in a week.
With the HPS grow I was giving 1L of water for a 10/12L pot 3 times a week with lower doses of nutrients than the charts of the brand prescribed, I had good result with this method for years.
With my LED grows I had to re-learn to water my plants, it has not been easy to lose my old habits but now after 1.5 year using LED I have a better understanding of my plants need. I had to up the nutrients level of my waterings by a good % and lower the numbers of watering by week.
Water and nutrients intake is one of the major point of quality buds as well as the light and environment, I'd like to know how other LED growers are feeding their plants to see if I can learn some new stuff. I have for years used General Organics line who is now Terra Aquatica in Europe but it's the same quality product, I like this line but for my last run I've tried Aptus who allow to separate each elements, it's very useful but I need more grows to know if it makes better buds or not, so far I'm not conviced.
My advice for led nutes qnd coco: obviously a bit higher than usual, especially when up-potting: weve run 3 EC on our freshly up potted plants with fairly normal run off. It helps to get your fresh coco pot a bit better buffered.
 

kro-magnon

Well-known member
Veteran
My advice for led nutes qnd coco: obviously a bit higher than usual, especially when up-potting: weve run 3 EC on our freshly up potted plants with fairly normal run off. It helps to get your fresh coco pot a bit better buffered.
I don’t use coco as substrate, usually I grow in soil mix made for canna like House&Garden BatMix or some light mix from Mills where l add some dry amendments
 
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100 dollars to anyone who can get Bruce Bugbee to stop blaming Zinc deficiency on red light.



I offered 1000 to force him to admit plants absorb zwitterionic organic salts. Seems the conspiracy against quality Marijuana is larger than I thought. The fan boys are in on it.


Still no nutrient experts in the Cannabis scene? Only light meter salesmen? Someone please post the PAR readings for a meanwell powered 120 watt 188 diode panel at 18" so every new grower can have this data without buying light meters please.
 
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