LED Grow lights

[karstopography]

I liked my FECiDA 600W LED Grow Light Dimmable.

[Cranraspberry]

I have three lights - some cheap Walmart shop lights that I use for germination, then I move the trays up under GE 24” grow lights. I also have a few GE grow bulbs on the window sill for additional things that are in pots (herbs, onions). I have to say I REALLY like the GE lights, but I REALLY dislike that they went up in price basically overnight almost 2x. I purchased mine last year for something like $33, now they are $56 which is kind of crazy.

At the same time with the cheap shop lights I have to create a “shield” out of mylar space blankets because the glare is extremely strong and my seed rack is in our living room. The GE has a canopy and glare is minimal, even my husband doesn’t complain about it (and he’s always turning our dimmers down and claiming it’s too bright).

[svalli]

I have used all sorts DIY and ready made LED lights for growing my seedlings many years and last year I purchased first time set of actual grow lights. These are 14000K cold white lights and they seem to work well for peppers and flowers, but some tomato varieties got edema or intumescence due to lack of UV. Last year I had to then switch back to my old fluorescent tubes for tomatoes.

LED lights with UV are now available, but are quite expensive. There is an EU regulation, which prohibits selling of fluorescent tubes after August 24th this year, so while it is still possible, I purchased a 30W 6500K tube, which is meant for reptiles and have higher UV percentage than regular fluorescent tubes. I'm going to use that with the 14000K LED light to grow tomato seedlings. I may put the fluorescent tube to different timer than the LED lights and keep it on shorter time.

[worth1]

I have used all sorts DIY and ready made LED lights for growing my seedlings many years and last year I purchased first time set of actual grow lights. These are 14000K cold white lights and they seem to work well for peppers and flowers, but some tomato varieties got edema or intumescence due to lack of UV. Last year I had to then switch back to my old fluorescent tubes for tomatoes.

LED lights with UV are now available, but are quite expensive. There is an EU regulation, which prohibits selling of fluorescent tubes after August 24th this year, so while it is still possible, I purchased a 30W 6500K tube, which is meant for reptiles and have higher UV percentage than regular fluorescent tubes. I'm going to use that with the 14000K LED light to grow tomato seedlings. I may put the fluorescent tube to different timer than the LED lights and keep it on shorter time.

Other than tanning lights flames and an arc welder what other sources are there for UV?

[svalli]

Other than tanning lights flames and an arc welder what other sources are there for UV?

Sun is naturally the best source of UV needed by plants for healthy growth.

Regular fluorescent tubes emit small amount of UV-wave lengths, which could be enough for indoor grown plants. Lights for reptile terrariums have a bit more UV than the regular lamps, but there are also light sources, which have just UV light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviol ... al_sources

[worth1]

Other than tanning lights flames and an arc welder what other sources are there for UV?

Sun is naturally the best source of UV needed by plants for healthy growth.

Regular fluorescent tubes emit small amount of UV-wave lengths, which could be enough for indoor grown plants. Lights for reptile terrariums have a bit more UV than the regular lamps, but there are also light sources, which have just UV light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviol ... al_sources

I've robbed all my 100 watt equivalent CFL lights and need to convert to LED in the near future.
But I want to use the bright daylight screw in lights for the frame I've already made.
Just trying to find a work around.

[Rockporter]

I've robbed all my 100 watt equivalent CFL lights and need to convert to LED in the near future.
But I want to use the bright daylight screw in lights for the frame I've already made.
Just trying to find a work around.

You could try the GE screw in grow bulbs.

https://www.gelighting.com/led-grow-bulbs

[worth1]

I've robbed all my 100 watt equivalent CFL lights and need to convert to LED in the near future.
But I want to use the bright daylight screw in lights for the frame I've already made.
Just trying to find a work around.

You could try the GE screw in grow bulbs.

https://www.gelighting.com/led-grow-bulbs

For 160 dollars I can get 5 of them to put out my required 1250 watts of output power on the lights.
Each one draws 32 watts.
160 total watts.
That's 1.33 amps.
By boosting that much power I don't have to worry about the lights being close.
I have 12 total sockets so I can put in some that give off UV as well.

[worth1]

This is going to be my giant indor onion experiment.
I'm going to fool the onions or at least try.
Run them up to about 23 leaves and crank the light time up to make them bulb out.

[svalli]

This is going to be my giant indor onion experiment.
I'm going to fool the onions or at least try.
Run them up to about 23 leaves and crank the light time up to make them bulb out.

Onions may grow fine with just regular 4000-5000K LED lights and do not need the UV. I grew my onion seedlings last year at cool garage with a cheap 4000K 50W LED flood light. I kept them there because it was cooler than in the house and the only light source was the LED controlled by timer to be on less than 12 hours, so that the seedlings did not start bulbing before planting out.

[svalli]

Last month I found a good deal on some small grow lights, which fit perfectly as supplemental lights for my African violets during winter. These are marked as 14W 750 lumens and 3500K. There are some purple LEDs with the white ones.

plant light.jpg

To test the lights I tried growing couple of micro tomatoes in a dark spot of the house under one of them. For comparison I had same varieties under my 14000K 13W grow light. All of the plants were started under that 3500K light and half of them were moved under 14000K tube when potted up about a month ago. An uncalibrated lux meter app shows about same values both lights. Both of the places do not get any direct sunlight. Comparison in the growth was quite clear.

Venus.jpg

Rosy Finch.jpg

The ones on the left were under the 3500K light and the right side ones under 14000K light. Brown leaves on the taller Venus are due to being too close to the light in the beginning, but it has grown fine and has already a small fruit growing. The Rosy Finch which was under the 3500K LED has started drop leaves, which usually is sign of that intumescence problem. It seems that the 14000K light keeps the growth more compact and still it does not inhibit bud formation, so those will be the ones I will use for growing seedlings indoors.

I do still like those other lights, because they have built-in timers. After powering up, the light will stay on for 16 hours and be off for 8 hours. These will be good during winter for house plants grown by windows.

Sari

[Labradors]

Svalli, interesting about the intumescence problem! I had a problem (yet again) with a LED light. This time, I had two small tubes in parallel, one was a T5, the other a LED. My micro tomatoes had a lot of dead leaves on them, even those leaves that were not close to the lights. They eventually stopped producing new growth. When I took the plants out from under the lights and put them on the windowsill, they revived in the light from the window and have begun growing again. I'm done with using LED's for tomatoes .

Linda

[davood]

Best lights I've purchased are Viparspectra from Amazon. I have several sizes, largest one being the P2500 that I use for my overwintered succulents and houseplants. I use XS1500 for seedlings that have been transplanted into larger pots. I haven't had any issues with these lights and the plants love them. But for seeds I've just planted I use some cheap Acke led panels from Amazon, they're like $15 for a pack of two with a power supply and built in timer. Most of the seedlings seem ok, I've only had edema problems with tomato rootstock so far, maybe they're just more susceptible.

[AKgardener]

I have 2 spider farmers 1000 lights there great a holy bright but I found that it was to intense for some of my tomatoes I have a lot of Dried leaves and curling now so I switched back to my Walmart blue and red light ,, until my new grow lights show up . I got the domain grow lights 20 wats full spectrum my plants love them but again don’t keep them to close !!

[Cole_Robbie]

I am finding with cannabis seedlings that it is easy to over do it with led light intensity.

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

I'm trying out Spider Farmer SF600's this season. Will report back on my likes/dislikes....

[wxcrawler]

I've found new tomato starts do better at about 30% intensity with my new Spider Farmer 1000. When I first got the light in January, I had it set at about 80%, and it was too strong.

Lee

[rossomendblot]

My grow light is 100 W and I only ever use it at a maximum of 50% intensity (for fully grown micro toms). This winter I grew basil Kratky style with the light at 25% and the plants did great. Currently my pepper seedlings are under it at 30% intensity. My grow tent is only 3ft high so I don't have the space to use the light at max intensity without scorching leaves. I think it's only high light intensity loving plants like cannabis which would be comfortable with 100%.

[davood]

I have tried different kinds of grow lights, "45w" hanging blurple squares that were popular on amazon a few years ago, an older 100w equivalent hanging blurple light, cheap "Acke" led boards, and Viparspectra hanging lights, "P" and "XS" series.

The blurple lights don't seem good for seed starting and in general plants seem stunted under them. The cheap led boards that come with power supplies that have built in timers are pretty good for the price. I use these to line the undersides of shelves. Only downside seems to be that they don't have any UV, which may have caused edema issues with rootstock.

Out of the group, the Viparspectra "P" and "XS" series which are a mixture of cool white, warm white, red and UV LEDs seem to be making the plants happiest. A P2500 covers about four 1020 trays. An XS1000 covers two 1020 trays. I've been using these for about two years now without any issues.

[Yak54]

I have one of these coming Wednesday.


This is the new improved version of the one I bought last year and it's brighter and seems to be of higher quality.

Dan