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LED lighting hindsight

Farmall

New member
Over the last 7 weeks or so I have stated that my hydro grow was mediocre compared to the soil grow and I had mentioned it was maybe due to the LED lighting as well as nutes and ph. As they had been switched to flower and a 12/12 light schedule I did notice the same development as the soil plants. I’d always felt the lighting was too “hot” at 1000w each but in reality, 284w per unit.

i was informed that these LED’s were essentially the same as a 600w HPS. I have taken a leap into the lighting experiment since the growth had straightened itself out and was then on par with the soil, I added ANOTHER 1000w LED. I was convinced the lighting was the root of the trouble but I can draw a conclusion that the nutrient solution and/or ph was causing the issues I had as well as not starting out with cfl on seedlings. Their stretch was probably due to lights being far away. Since the soil was living on a 315LEC and a 1000w LED and had performed so dang well, I decided to boost the lights on the hydro. Since that addition of an extra 1000w, the buds development had jumped into high gear, the tops were significantly more dense and the last growing nodes developed under 4” compared to the 6-7” of all previous growth. Keep in mind the extra 1000w is still only just under 300w equivalent. Thanks Dr. Photon for that clarification.
the total equivalent on the hydro grow would turn out to be just under 980w. I detailed these thoughts in case someone is looking into issues that might have similiar undertones. I think....only think, I may have found an answer to my initial grow questions in hydro
 
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I was meaning to go through the forum and find a led thread or something..Good timing...

I started off with a 600w MH/HPS setup and i was very pleased by my then hydro harvest. just over 300g from 4 plants.
I then moved to soil 10L pots with autos under the 600w HPS 4 plants gave me 280g
I went and got a 900w (360 actual) off amazon and thought i could hit 300 or 400 with 4 autos and 1 photo.

I've been reading on the web and i have found that people get 1x - 1.5x the actual wattage in yields which is way better than getting 300g from a 600w ACTUAL HPS.
The only problem i am finding is i should have gotten 2x 450 or 3x 300w to cover my 5x5 better and suit the 5 plants for flower as i only have a 4x3 core coverage..

I will get back here if the thread is still running when i setup and post about my findings.

I also found that Led,COB Led and QB's have drastic differences in overall results so again that plays a role..

a 300w QB will do way better than a "Purple" 300w Led if compiled correctly and will eat up the same actual wattage. The spectrum is unreal including Green Yellow in par with Blue and Red and the penetration(which most purple leds lack) is as good as that of an HPS.

To make point,i saw 380g-+ off 3x 300w viparspectra's in a 1m² scrog with 2 plants.
 
Call me nuts BUT, I also hung a spare 1000w HPS running at 50% at a side angle to illuminate the side of the plants that were wider than the light coverage. Added the extra port to the t6 cloudline exhaust and it handled it extremely well. My biggest fears initially was light burn on the leaves. I found that with the reasonable increase in brightness, they did notshow signs of light burn but of major growth and bud development. That had just truly changed my regrets on what I might have called mediocre hydro performance. It solidifies my belief that the ph and nutes caused the interruption in development.
 
Sorry for my lack of understanding...what does QB stand for... I may know but it just ain’t coming to me
 
Looking like a mad scientist lab
 

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