LED vs. HPS - veg to flowering using LED

[EL MAGNIFICO]

my buddy is on his 1st grow and starting with an all led operation, with an irrigation system. I asked him to make at least a growth journal. I use MH and HPS. So we are comparing notes. I think his plants are 3 or 4" tall, and maybe 1 week old. hit me up, if anyone else wants to keep tabs on how his operation is doing. I am on my 2nd grow, and still learning obviously.

 

[miklosh]

Thanks to everybody's response both pro and con.It looks that every body agrees about switching the veg Lighting to LED.My next question-will the LED be good enough as a supplement to sunlight on foggy days and shorter day light(1-1.5hr morning and late afternoon).I've decided last year to switch to daytime grow.After stripping a 16x8 old Shasta Travel trailer to the bottom, I built a 17x9 sun room that can be trailered anywhere on the property,the main idea is rotating the room daily 180 east to west and back.At the moment I'm content with East/West stationary position.Original thought was to reduce the number of grow lights(6x1000hps)by50% and use them strictly as permanently attached to the ceiling supplement lighting to the sun.It will be real nice having 6-10 weeks off every winter.Bless you all.Peace.Miklosh..

 

[BUNNOS]

my buddy is on his 1st grow and starting with an all led operation, with an irrigation system. I asked him to make at least a growth journal. I use MH and HPS. So we are comparing notes. I think his plants are 3 or 4" tall, and maybe 1 week old. hit me up, if anyone else wants to keep tabs on how his operation is doing. I am on my 2nd grow, and still learning obviously.

i'd like to see thwm photos of your mates led progress mate

 

[Phestizio]

im currently using LEDs in both flowering and veg both are working wonderfully
but here is the kicker my LEDs are Christmas lights i setup and arranged 60%red 40% blue i have 1,600 in flowering and 400 in veg with 4T8 florescent lights
all my veg plants ignore the florescent lights and cluster on the blue lights i have to rotate them daily
i spent about 5-6 dollars per string of 100 lights which is about $120 on the LEDs which is about the same as i spent on the florescent lights
this was an experiment i tried separate from my HPS lights
here are my results

growth was ever so slightly more with the LEDs in veg nothing i can prove was the lights could have been the strain just growing faster (white rhino)

they need MUCH less water as there isn't any heat drying my soil (soil-less mix)

in flowering i saw almost no difference in growth between my 1000 watt HPS
and the 1,600 LED lights growing from 24' to 48' (ish) in my 8 week flowering cycle yielding 2-3oz per plant
mind you i only had 5 plants under this light set up

i think ill be investing in many more lights and giving up mt HPSs

it did take some time to put the lights together in rows of 100
but the money i saved/will be saving is WELL worth the time

i arranged the red red blue red red blue red red blue red red blue red red blue red in rows tied them all together plugged them into a multi-tap and timer

i won't be turning back to HPS its just not worth it
if i was you i would do the same or at the very least try this experiment yourself it cost me under 200 (including nutrients) to yield close to a lbs
that's 200 a lbs can you argue with that?

 

[Phestizio]

hey as i said it was an experiment in a very small section on my op i wasn't going to waste money getting a ton of lights if it didnt work
and i wasn't going to waste my plants in there if it didnt work so i tried a small test of 5 plants thats all
what are you getting off 5 plants? just 5
not sure how many plants could really work on with my current setup
i dont think i mentioned that the lights i have are 16watts each
im also growing within my legal limit sadly im RI you can only hold 2 1/2 oz at a time with my patient card i had to gift out the rest to fellow caregivers
rules here are weird
i never have more than 5 plants at any given harvest and i dont put new plants in as soon as i have space
my electric bill was $240 a month for those 2 months also
so when you add up the bulb the fixture and the ballast alone ive spent close to $600 with an electric bill of $415ish thats $1015 for the same 2lbs
so $1015 vs $320
saving of $695 for basicly the same yield
as far as pictures go its going to have to wait a little while until i start a new flowering cycle
being as i only use about 1/4 a week i wait about 2 weeks between cycles
ill take some pics when my new cycle enters and through out the weeks

if you have some tips as far as nutrients or mix that could increase my yield that would be rather helpful
right now i have
fox farm ocean forest mix
grow big ,tiger bloom ,big bloom and cha ching
this is the chart i have been going by as a feeding schedule
https://foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf
as far as my lights

aaah i forgot to mention i started this LED experiment a little early in case it didnt work i could switch back to the HPS
w/e no matter

 

[Phestizio]

bah i batched this all up sorry im a little medicated and to lazy to fix it again
feel free to ask me anything ill try to reply fast

 

[CrookedStem]

Hey Phestizio, I am anxious to see pics of your set up. I'm about to construct my room and would like to start with a less expensive set up and work my way up if necessary.

Did the LED Christmas lights come with the color bulbs you described or did you have to get the bulbs separate? Do you know the brand by chance?

How did you mount the lights? Spacing? If you could provide more details of how it is physically set up I would really appreciate it. I came across this thread while looking for LED vs HPS and you have piqued my interest.

Congrats on the success of your experiment and thanks for sharing the details!

 

[Phestizio]

i hope this works

 

[Phestizio]

ok as far as bulbs they came installed on the string they arn't the kind you can replace each bulb sadly as far as brand i go i simply went to ebay and bought some LED christmas lights each was $1.00 + $5 shipping so 6 bucks a string i couldn't get them to give me a deal on postage even though i bought so many all at once they didnt come in all at once either
i kept my plant in flowering within 1/2 an inch or the lights since they dont give off heat

i took each string of 100 lights and taped them in a row the put them on this lattice with some zip ties it was a little bit of work but it was worth it in the end
the last picture is my Co2 generator made with a 2 1 gallon jugs one filled with yeast water and sugar connected by aquarium tubing to an empty jug (incase of over flow) with a 2nd hole in the cap to another tube going into the plant area

 

[CrookedStem]

Nice! Thanks for posting the pics so fast.

 

[Phestizio]

no problem ill try to upload pics when i start flowering next

 

[Glyphia]

I am interested in talking with someone who knows how much heat a 900 to 1200 watt led lite produces compared to say a 1000 watt hps.

 

[Weaselcracker]

im currently using LEDs in both flowering and veg both are working wonderfully
but here is the kicker my LEDs are Christmas lights i setup and arranged 60%red 40% blue i have 1,600 in flowering and 400 in veg with 4T8 florescent lights
all my veg plants ignore the florescent lights and cluster on the blue lights i have to rotate them daily
i spent about 5-6 dollars per string of 100 lights which is about $120 on the LEDs which is about the same as i spent on the florescent lights
this was an experiment i tried separate from my HPS lights
here are my results

growth was ever so slightly more with the LEDs in veg nothing i can prove was the lights could have been the strain just growing faster (white rhino)

they need MUCH less water as there isn't any heat drying my soil (soil-less mix)

in flowering i saw almost no difference in growth between my 1000 watt HPS
and the 1,600 LED lights growing from 24' to 48' (ish) in my 8 week flowering cycle yielding 2-3oz per plant
mind you i only had 5 plants under this light set up

i think ill be investing in many more lights and giving up mt HPSs

it did take some time to put the lights together in rows of 100
but the money i saved/will be saving is WELL worth the time

i arranged the red red blue red red blue red red blue red red blue red red blue red in rows tied them all together plugged them into a multi-tap and timer

i won't be turning back to HPS its just not worth it
if i was you i would do the same or at the very least try this experiment yourself it cost me under 200 (including nutrients) to yield close to a lbs
that's 200 a lbs can you argue with that?

Cool idea! I've never heard of that one before. + reps for innovation