LED grow lights,anybody experienced.

[highfihoney]

My wife & i have grown fern's inside our home for going on 20 years now,growing indoors with artificial light is not an easy task & takes pratice,we use a combination of light sources,Metal Halide & High Pressure Sodium,these 2 light sources cover most of the color spectrum needed for healthy plants but they are not without major drawbacks like heat & high power bills.

Growers are now using LED grow lights to cover the blue & red color spectrum,we are thinking of adopting the new LED style lights but are worried,my wife has several ferns that would be worth close to $1,000 each if they were being sold at a nursery & we are afraid to damage or kill any plants by going LED.

Anybody use these type grow lights yet & if so how do they compare to HPS & MH growing systems.

 

[Gimpy Ric]

Ferns worth 1k Learn something everyday. Whats are you growing under all that hardware?

 

[highfihoney]

Ferns worth 1k Learn something everyday. Whats are you growing under all that hardware?

Im dead serious,we ARE talking about Fern's here,Ferns are very hard to keep in your home with some breeds being next to impossible to keep alive for an extended life span,Orchids are another species that are very costly & extremely hard to cultivate.

We have Birds nest ferns,Blue ferns,Staghorn ferns,Green Wave ferns & a few other rare breeds,to go buy a healthy fern from any of these breeds will cost you atleast $50 for a tiny specimen,the larger/older hey get the more they are worth & would cost at a nursery,ive seen a several ferns at my growers supply that were priced well over $1,000 each.

I could not go out right now & take $10,000 with me & replace the plants my wife has if there was a mishap.

 

[Davemcc]

I could not go out right now & take $10,000 with me & replace the plants my wife has if there was a mishap.

That generous Christmas bonus is already gone???

 

[highfihoney]

That generous Christmas bonus is already gone???

Nope,that sucker is simmering in my bank account,just waiting till i retire in a few more years,i meant that it would not be possible to replace the plants at that cost,plus my wifge would strangle me if i hurt her plants,she talks to them & plays music for them.

 

[Johnd]

"Ferns", huh?

Yeah, yeah, I got some "pea pods" I want to grow hydroponically. Any tips out there?

Just kidding highfi. What about fluorescent? I grew some underwater plants like weeds with full spectrum fluorescent. I'm kinda old school with this, and I know they don't have the power of halide, but I would think enough fluorescent would do the trick at a cheaper cost than halide.

 

[highfihoney]

"Ferns", huh?

Yeah, yeah, I got some "pea pods" I want to grow hydroponically. Any tips out there?

Just kidding highfi. What about fluorescent? I grew some underwater plants like weeds with full spectrum fluorescent. I'm kinda old school with this, and I know they don't have the power of halide, but I would think enough fluorescent would do the trick at a cheaper cost than halide.

We tried the hydro approach,not a cheap way to grow & requires way too much time,one wrong step with hydro & everything die's overnight

We use fluorescent right now to reinforce the blue & red spectrums of the MH & HPS systems but with fluorescent alone we've not been able to get enough luminen's without having lights everywhere.

From what we've been reading about LED is they have superior luminens when compared to fluorescent.

 

[10010011]

I have not tried it but I suspect it would work with the right blend of white and colored LEDs.

I have been researching LED lighting myself. I have found that many of the white LED's tend to have very large blue content to their spectrum. Come to find out this is because they make white LEDs by overdriving blue LEDs

I would suggest you try it on a smaller scale like a single plant until you get the proper spectrum worked out

 

[highfihoney]

I have not tried it but I suspect it would work with the right blend of white and colored LEDs.

I have been researching LED lighting myself. I have found that many of the white LED's tend to have very large blue content to their spectrum. Come to find out this is because they make white LEDs by overdriving blue LEDs

I would suggest you try it on a smaller scale like a single plant until you get the proper spectrum worked out

Im thinking along these lines right now,the 1st of next week im going to order a small LED full spectrum kit & test it against a 150 watt MH system i have thats not in use right now,i will post my results of the comparison but its going to take a month or so to see any differences in growth or bloom.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

"Dude, check out these killer ferns!" "Whoa! Pass the bong, those ferns rock!"

 

[majorloser]

Ferns...........YEAH, RIGHT!

(Honestly officer, I was told they were a raw variety of Jamaican fern)

They just busted 4 grow houses and a meth lab last week a couple of blocks from my job. In an area of million dollar homes.

Grow house operations are VERY common in Florida. They usually get busted by the power company since the electric usage is much higher. Or they get busted by police helicopters at night flying over with infared cameras. The grow houses glow on infared. Metal halide lighting crank out the heat and if you use the AC to compensate, the electric bill would be freakin' huge. I could see where LED lighting would get around these problems.

 

[highfihoney]

Sheesh,tough crowd

Just try growing this puppy in an outdoor garden & see how far ya get.

[/IMG]

 

[highfihoney]

Grow house operations are VERY common in Florida. They usually get busted by the power company since the electric usage is much higher. Or they get busted by police helicopters at night flying over with infared cameras. The grow houses glow on infared. Metal halide lighting crank out the heat and if you use the AC to compensate, the electric bill would be freakin' huge. I could see where LED lighting would get around these problems.

Ive been called to task twice over the years by our power company,they call up on the phone all sneaky like, asking if there are any kind of problems with our electric service,the first time we explained to them that we were indoor growers & that we kept reptiles with heat rocks & lighting.

The 2nd time they called a few years later we just played dumb & asked if a service man would come & check our service which they promptly did,the guy from the power company freaked out,we showed him around my wife's plant room & the reptile room in the basement,then we showed him the stereo gear.

He left wondering how come our power bill wasnt higher than it is,we havent had a problem with the power company since,our electric bill is outta sight too.

 

[race4aliving]

AWSOME flower.

 

[10010011]

Im thinking along these lines right now,the 1st of next week im going to order a small LED full spectrum kit & test it against a 150 watt MH system i have thats not in use right now,i will post my results of the comparison but its going to take a month or so to see any differences in growth or bloom.

You know maybe even a simple spectroscope could speed up this process a bit.

It would at least give you a good starting point.

Building a simple Spectroscope

 

[Alex2507]

Sheesh,tough crowd

Just try growing this puppy in an outdoor garden & see how far ya get.

[/IMG]

Which part do you smoke?

 

[masak_aer]

Which part do you smoke?

All you need to do is to cut the petals and dry them up in the sun. Roll it with the usual paper you use for your weed, light it up and voila, you got fern's smoke!

 

[highfihoney]

Which part do you smoke?

The good part.

 

[sparky77]

Does anybody really take growing with lights serious anymore..... I grow some of the hottest peppers in state of north dakota with indoor lighting, and have been interested in switching to LED lights too, just not a lot of information available as none of the systems have been effectively tested yet. I still doubt the efficacy as a lighting source due to lumen to watts output, you would need a VERY LARGE dc power source to run the LED's properly without shortening their life span. If I do find any credible reference material I will surely post it for those that are serious in legal plant cultivation.

 

[dorokusai]

Do you have some more pictures? That orchid is outstanding!

Mark
Polk Audio CS