HPS & LED: Anyone done it?

[Angdablowed]

I’m growing in a 3.5”x5” wall in closet. I have two 300 watt mars leds and a 400 watt hps. Has anyone ever tried it or have any suggestions or am I just fried for even thinking about it? I know the hps will have to be higher thus creating “shadows”. I may just try it and journal it if no one stops me.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I did it with HPS and Quantum Boards, but my issue was heat

The HPS was higher, did cast shadows, but seemed to work
Only lasted a few days due to heat

 

[Greenlizard]

As Chris pointed out heat is the enemy at hand. I would suggest hanging your HPS in the center and use the LED's as supplemental side lighting hanging vertically instead of the normal horizontal position. That way you avoid your shadow issue.

 

[Angdablowed]

I did it with HPS and Quantum Boards, but my issue was heat

The HPS was higher, did cast shadows, but seemed to work
Only lasted a few days due to heat

I have a maxcool hood. I think I’m doing it. Fuck it I’ll let ya know.

 

[OldSchoolToker]

Heat is the issue with HPS and MH lamps this I know from experience.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

I live on the surface of the sun so I fight heat 8mo a year

 

[gr865]

Winter 16/17
This was not a planned grow, seeds did not show so had to use some freebies I got with one of my purchases, Super Citrus Haze and WW.
I used an SS 400 LED and a 315W CMH. Rotated the plants every few days. 15 plus zips off the two plants 9 off the SCH and 6 off the WW.

 

[Angdablowed]

What do you got going on there just drip hoses or what. Been thinking bout trying a couple deep water buckets also.

 

[gr865]

That was years ago, I have upgraded my irrigation a couple of times since then.
Never done deep water buckets, I love my coco.

 

[Angdablowed]

Update. End up going with a 600 hps and “300” amazon dual spectrum special. I’ve been moving the led around every couple of days. First grow back in 10 years and I’m liking what I see. I’m used to 1000 watts of heat producing orange light. Which I will probably end up with until I can afford and understand led better.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Has anyone ever tried it

Sure, lots. When LED grow lights first started getting popular, there were people here (on the forum) doing "side by side comparisons" between HID (generally HPS) and LED lighting - only some of them weren't really side-by-side comparisons so much as they were grows that had two different types of lighting technology, lol (in other words, instead of setting up two separate grow spaces, they just placed one light type on each side of ONE space, with nothing to keep the photons from intermingling.

It's been years, so I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember one such grow, specifically that the plants on the "HPS side" started leaning towards the LED light, people took that as a sign that the LED was more powerful/useful... and that after the harvest was dried, those "HPS plants" produced a better yield . (Again, this was some years ago now, so the LED used would have been "blurple.")

You'll be fine, and so will your plants. People have been arguing for years that HPS makes <BLEEP> fine grow lighting - and they're still correct . The counter argument was always "but HPS produces something like 90% of its (light) output in wavelengths not directly useful to the chloroplasts" - which should have told people that there's a LOT more going on in the plant world than just photosynthesis, lol... because if you removed all that "not useful" from (for example) a 400-watt HPS' light output, you'd end up with a 40-watt desk lamp - and everyone knows that it's patently impossible to produce a half-pound (or more) of bud from a 40-watt desk lamp, but this is pretty easy to accomplish with the aforementioned 400-watt HPS. Or, to put it another way, if you measure the mass of an object to be four ounces, but then drop said object on your foot and... then need a new foot, lol, then it's pretty obvious that something was flawed - either your measuring device or your way of thinking (that mass was the only relevant factor).

I think I might be rambling...

I know the hps will have to be higher thus creating “shadows”.

Uh... Why? They make air-cooled HID reflectors, and they make pretty powerful LEDs, lol. I've seen plenty of pictures of bleached-out tops under LED lighting, too. If you try pairing a 1,500-watt stadium light HPS with one of those "600w LED" blurple products that are actually 115-watt devices, then yes, you'll have problems if you try to park them at the same level. And the same would be true if you tried running a 70- or even 150-watt HPS at the distance that your (actual) high-wattage LED was set at. But that's just a "product choice" problem - choose products that have comparable output intensities.

I've got an Amare Technology SE350 that - with the six lenses installed over the COBs in it - might be rougher on plants than a 400-watt HPS if they were hung at the same level. Possibly even a 600-watt one, and it's only a ~350-watt LED panel, all in. I could be wrong, though, because I've never tried running it in the same garden as my HID. Not because I don't think it'd work (it would), but because my home only has 30-amp electrical service.

DISCLAIMER: I probably don't know what I'm talking about .