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8Yoyoyo
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What should I get?
Help Please
- Thread starter 8Yoyoyo
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What should I get?
JimmyJames905
New Member
Phillips 5000k led bulbs from Home Depot. You can buy a 4 pack for around $20. 60w equivalent will be fine.
I did a par test on Philips led vs 100w equivalent CFL. The led uses half the electricity and produces more than twice the PAR.
Scientific
New Member
Because this guy is clearly a beginner on a budget, and CFLs are cheap, readily available, adequate, and often there are a few lying around the house ready to go at no cost.
That said, I actually cut and pasted your comment over in Canadaguy's grow log about the better PAR of the Philips bulbs into my notebook. Thanks for sharing that!
JimmyJames905
New Member
Led is the same price or cheaper. Plus no mercury. I understand growing on a budget can be difficult (which is why I started a fair-priced LED Grow light company for Canadians) but there are other viable options out there.
If you look in my Grow journals you will see a Strawberry Kush mother plant Grow. This was done entirely under LED light bulbs from Home Depot. I built a 14 bulb "seedling" array for under $60.
The strawberry Kush journal was done entirely under that small array.
The diy build is also in my journal.
Scientific
New Member
<edit> You posted while I was writing the paragraph below. Thanks for the additional info. I'm going to have a look at your all-LED grow. Cool. Thanks again for the information!
I'm curious, though. Those Philips bulbs are 800 lumens each. My cheapie 23-watt CFLs were about the same price at $16 for a four-pack but have twice as many lumens per bulb. Are you saying that the PAR and efficiency of the LED bulbs is so much better that it's actually a better deal than the CFLs? That would be good news, even if only because the CFLs have mercury in them and don't last anywhere near as long...
JimmyJames905
New Member
Yes. That is what I am saying.
Essentially you will receive more photosynthetically active radiation to your plant than you ever could from a compact fluorescent. The most important thing with any grow light is that it puts out the proper spectrum in the chlorophyl A and B regions required for the vegetative state.
Unfortunately contact for us and whites contain predominantly green spectrum which is relatively useless for growing. Not to say that it doesn't work just that it works much slower.
You could also use the 100 W equivalent Philips LED bulbs from Home Depot. They are a little bit more expensive but produce considerably more PAR than a CFL
JimmyJames905
New Member
I agree on led being much better. Butt I also use cfl as a sort of enhancer. Not saying cfl are good or crap. Just in a pinch they help a little. Here's the reason I use them. I got this on line.
That looks about right. You can actually perform this test yourself with a simple prism and a piece of paper with a hole in it. You can search YouTube for "Newton's prism experiment" to see how it is done.
The Germinator
Well-Known Member
Mine on cfl. They grew to be monsters. Mostly posted this to show the op the amount of light I have vs his.
I also changed to 600watt mh after a couple weeks. Then to 600 watt hps at six weeks.
Scientific
New Member
I'm reading your Strawberry Kush journal now. It looks like you cut off the top of some of the bulbs(!?). I assume that without the diffusion you get a more focused beam. How did you cut the bulbs? Hacksaw?
(Sorry 8Yoyoyo... don't mean to highjack your thread.
)
JimmyJames905
New Member
I'm reading your Strawberry Kush journal now. It looks like you cut off the top of some of the bulbs(!?). I assume that without the diffusion you get a more focused beam. How did you cut the bulbs? Hacksaw?
(Sorry 8Yoyoyo... don't mean to highjack your thread.
Yes. That is exactly what I did.
Cutting off the diffuser allows the LED to act more as a spotlight and less as a diffusion bulb.
JimmyJames905
New Member
Mine on cfl. They grew to be monsters.
I don't dispute that germ. But they would have grown faster under led in the same setup. At half the wattage and twice the par and a fraction of the heat.
I got 18" high in under 30 days from seed on the SK. Approximately 12" girth. Intermodal spacing every inch. I pulled 22 clones from that strawberry Kush mother plant and I only stripped about two thirds of the entire plant. It has entirely grown back since then (well almost)
The plant is still alive today and I will take a second round of clones off it in 1 month.
Scientific
New Member
I can never resist a science experiment, and this sounds like a really fun one. Thanks again!
You getting all this 8Yoyoyo? Time for those oven lamps to Gogogo.
Scientific
New Member
Mine on cfl. It grew to be... the size of a dinner plate.
But that's because it's a dwarf strain that I stunted in overwet rock wool the first week of it's life, not the light source. (You can see the one LED bulb I took I borrowed from my desk lamp to boost the lumens).
Scientific
New Member
I remember back in about '74 a vice president at Siemens had a block of Lucite with a couple dozen mysterious little red lights embedded in it. He explained to me that they were "light-emitting diodes"--pretty exotic back then and available in two colors: infrared and deep red.
The Germinator
Well-Known Member
Sounds good. If you check my journal mine were wider than the bucket,12 inches in around two weeks. At a month they were very high. But I did change to mh. I had a mix of led and cfl. I could tell the leds were better.
Btw jimmy. I have noticed you're very knowledgeable.
BudBoy2
Well-Known Member
Jimmyjames905, hey bro that's what I'm currently using to veg is a led from Home Depot as my tent is in flower mode now. My question is should I use 2 of them instead of one? It does have a bonnet in a small closet. Thanks man!
BudBoy2
Well-Known Member
Pretty much like the Germinator except using led!
JimmyJames905
New Member
I didn't find exceptional results for flowering under these lights. I only used it for veg before I cut clones. The clones went under Vero 29.
But I can show you how to build a 2 cob Vero 29 unit for a fraction of what most growlight companies are charging.
BudBoy2
Well-Known Member
JimmyJames905 I would be interested. I am going to Colorado this Thursday. When I get back I will be in touch for sure. I know Lootznboots really likes it. I am interested in it. Can you build it?
