wal-mart LED's

[KB.BUD]

do the wal mart LED's put out the right light spectrum for veg or flowering? I saw them their today but didn't buy any figured I would ask the experts first!

[BIGBudDug]

They are not adequate for growing the light spectrum is not near as good as HID or a T5 Flouresent would be since they have both light spectrum bulbs in the T5 so you can have half in the Blue, Green and half in the Red, Yellow, So it would be good for both veg. and flowering. LED's are good lights but they are very specific in the lights spectrum and most likely Wal-Marts wouldn't be the right color spectrum for growing, or even a high enough watt. I do know the LED light they sell for a rediculous amount of money better known as the "UFO" are several hundred LED's which have all the Color Spectrums of the Sun possible but for what they want for one makes one wonder where all the money goes? and I personally wouldn't want to spend over 500 USD for a light and find out after a grow cycle it yielded poorly. maybe several of the Wal-Mart LEDs might sustain a good vegitative growth? if they are reasonably priced you could try one, look and see if they give any specs on that light.

[topdeeni]

I saw them there too..

They just don't look like they have the umph to do the job.

There are tons of people with LED panels and bulbs out there now, I found a variety of sources just by looking at ebay auctions.

[morton]

I definitely second the info on the Smartlamp. I use it now and am totally happy.

You have to really be careful when you come across inexpensive led lights -- if the light is less than a procyon or say less than two or three hundred bucks it is going to be low power leds. What does that mean? Well mostly that there is no power to these things.

The next problem is the spectrum of the light. All led lights have red and blue leds which are the main light spectrums that plants need to grow. However, these are not sufficient for flowering. For that you need additional spectrums such as ultra violet and infra red and others. That is why I bought the Smartlamp because it is the only light I can find that has these additional spectrums. If you buy one just make sure that the Smartlamp is the Probloom model which is these spectrums.

Another word about price - count the number of Hi-Power leds (and I repeat Hi-Power, not the low power ones) and compare the price per led between these lights and you will find that the smartlamp is the best deal per led which means per watt of HPS power.

The smartlamp is independantly testly apparently to be 600 watt equivalent and my experience would appear to agree with that. As for the Procyon it has 56 leds to the Smartlamps 150, so if you divide that out that doesn't seem to come anywhere near to 400 watt equivalent, maybe more like 230 watts.

I nice site I just found where you can checkout some independant led tests is Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting

Best of luck to ya.

[morton]

Sorry just another point. If you are buying led don't forget to calculate the total cost to run it versus hps or something else.

If you buy a led like the procyon or the smartlamp, they are expensive to buy up front but pay back pretty quick in power savings in somewhere between one year and three years depending on what you pay in power.

[morton]

Well i am no engineer so how you go about powering all the leds and cooling them properly is beyond me, but the proper functioning of the LEDs and their lifespan requires that they be properly cooled so you will need to figure that out otherwise you won't get the full theoretical light output nor will your leds last as long.

Now if you are doing this because you love electrical projects that is cool, but if your goal is just to grow I would let the professionals as it were manufacture your lamp if it is gonna cost the same thing.

Did you budget some white light leds, ultra violet and infra red in your project? If you are looking for flowering from everything I had read you will need to put that in your system for decent results.

As for looking at the lights, go take a look at Experiments with Hydroponics, Aeroponics, and LED Grow Lighting where they have tests running on both the smartlamp and the smartbar as well as the comments of the guy running the site.

[zolar]

try looking up groworganic.com out of california organic agriculture supplier if you grow is big enough to need a tanker truck of fish emulsion you can get it here


but any way they have i commercial grade LED light system
solar oasis ruby gro-bars

the website has a link to manufactureer and they state that a large portion of the LED output is not visible to the human eye

i haven't got one for myself yet but the farm and garden supply
company has been doing organic for 30 years plus and i heard of them almost twenty years ago when working in a greenhouse

i don't get much heavy stuff because of cross country shipping but other than a few wimpy vegetable seeds once in a while i've been real happy with their tools and garden stuff

their organic rating charts for ferts and pest control are worth getting their paper catalog;[don't lend it out they only do 2 catalogs a year and the only consistant way i've gotten replacements is asking for them in an order....
and they've never sernt more than one even when i ask for two or 3...

[morton]

Best of luck on the project. It would be neat to see a comparison between yours and the smartlamp.