Germinating Under LED

[Marvin2006]

Have a 90 watt UFO and would like to know if it will work for germination. If so, would also appreciate thoughts on proper distance from top of pots. Thanks for any and all input.

 

[Hosebomber]

Technically a seed doesn't require light for germination. Three things are required : Water, Oxygen, and Temperature. A wet paper towel on a saucer plate in my window seal has worked well for me. (air flow, moisture, and about 80 deg. F)

Light is only required after germination in the seedling or sprout stage and beyond. Will your 90 watt UFO be enough light for the seedling to continue growth? Yes it should be. There are so many variations of the 90 watt UFO LED light out there that it would be next to impossible to tell you the best height to place it at or how much light it is giving off. I would suggest no closer than 8" above the seedlings no further than 16".

 

[Marvin2006]

Thanks for your input Hosebomber.

I guess what I should have asked was would it be all right to use in the "seedling or sprout stage". Wanted to make sure that type of light wouldn't damage such young plants.

And just for clarity the LED is from ProSource 5 band tri-spectrum.

 

[dadums]

What color or mix. Allot of red in veg will stretch.

 

[Marvin2006]

What color or mix. Allot of red in veg will stretch.

Not sure of ratios but it is 5-band tri-spectrum. I believe that the colors are infrared, red, orange, blue and ultraviolet.

 

[GrowGSL]

Not sure of ratios but it is 5-band tri-spectrum. I believe that the colors are infrared, red, orange, blue and ultraviolet.

Well Orange isn't gonna help ya much, also I have yet to see a real UV led diode under $75 a piece. I highly doubt any UFO has a decent UV spectrum...

 

[Marvin2006]

As far as I can tell the plants seem to be liking it. Maybe you should try adding some Orange and UV to your product line and prove that they don't have any positive benefits. Highly doubting something doesn't make it fact.

 

[Hosebomber]

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the use of UV, green, amber, yellow, and orange LEDs. A few topics down there is a whole thread about UV. Everyone has their own thoughts and opinions on the subjects of what colors, ratios, exact wavelengths, and the interactions that each have. As a person that considers myself a Gnostic, I don't take anyone's word on anything that I'm interested in. I'll stay up way too late reading (usually dry, long, and drawn out) research papers from 50 years ago if it has the slightest insight into something I'm looking for. This is also the reason that there are thousands of different companies selling LED grow lights. >95% of those companies are people trying to get rich quick by hoping on a hot topic and using a cheap Chinese drop shipper to make a fast buck before someone realizes that their product is trash. They then get a bad name, drop that company title, reg a new one and start again until the fad is over.

Hope it helps!

 

[GrowGSL]

As far as I can tell the plants seem to be liking it. Maybe you should try adding some Orange and UV to your product line and prove that they don't have any positive benefits. Highly doubting something doesn't make it fact.

I have tested Orange it useless, but cheap "hint"

As far as UV I think there is some benefit, however the cost of the wavelengths that work are to hight for LED diodes. I usually tell customers asking for UV to supplement with a few $5 CFL's.

 

[Hosebomber]

I don't know if I'd say orange is useless... It is part of the wavelength for phycoerythrin. Phycoerythrin is an accessory pigment to chlorophyll pigments responsible for photosynthesis. Absorption peaks in the visible light spectrum are at 495 and 545/566 nm. (Yellow/Amber range and orange/red-orange range)

 

[GrowGSL]

I don't know if I'd say orange is useless... It is part of the wavelength for phycoerythrin. Phycoerythrin is an accessory pigment to chlorophyll pigments responsible for photosynthesis. Absorption peaks in the visible light spectrum are at 495 and 545/566 nm. (Yellow/Amber range and orange/red-orange range)

Hmm,

495 nm = Yellow/ amber??

You mean Blue???

545/566 nm = orange/red-orange??

you mean green??? This is "close" to my green spectrum which helps the plants absorb the other colored spectrums.

 

[Hosebomber]

Close, I was doing too many things at 1 time and crossed a few things.
495nm would be Cyan.
545nm would be Green.
566nm would be Green-Amber mix.

Thank you for correcting that. Phycoerythrin has an emission wavelength of 590 which is yellow/amber.
Orange would be Phycocyanin at 620nm.