Help me switch to LED lighting please?

[Hisweedwoman]

Hi All!
I'm a on again/off again grower over a number of years. I've leaned most of what I know from reading Jorge Cervantes & Ed Rosenthall's grow books & have done reasonably well in a few different locations & situations. I currently have 2 clones vegging in soil under a 600 Watt MH, 18 on/6 off. I also have 2 different plants in their 9th week, in soil under a 1000 Watt HPS 8 on/14 off. I would like to switch to LED lighting, one grow area at a time. I am on a slightly tight budget. Can some of you more experienced growers help me figure out my best options? Wattage per panel? Total # of panels/wattage per grow area? (Each grow area is about 2.5' x 4.5'). Thanks in advance. HAPPY GROWING

 

[Obi Wan]

Welcome to the forums.

In my opinion, you will need to invest a decent chunk of money to out perform your current setup.

Do not compare watts between HID and LED. Compare light output and spectrum.

 

[Hisweedwoman]

Thanks Obi Wan Can you offer anything more specific? Specific brands that are better than others? What Wattage/spectrum should I replace the 600 watt MH with for vegging 2 plants in their 3' x 4.5' grow room?
How about for replacing the 1000 watt HPS for flowering 2 plants in their 3' x 4.5' grow room?
More specifics would be helpful Thanks again!

 

[Skullman420]

I personally am using the Mars-Hydro pro series (first and second) because of how well they perform. An added bonus is that they let you repair the lamps yourself and the only thing needed to fix your lamp at home is a screwdriver and then follow the instructions they send you. I don't know of many companies who would not require you to send the lamp away to get fixed. They also give you free spare parts the first two years which is great. All parts are interchangable between my lamps. It doesn't matter if it's named Pro or Pro II or 80, 160. 320 and so on. It's the same parts. So if one of my 320's break and I need it to work right now, I could take the part from a tiny 80 while I wait for Mars to send me a new spare part.

I like it and they perform fantastic compared to their price. I would shy away from older series though. Their oldest lamps are going out of production. They're betting all on their champion the Pro-Series.

The availability of spare parts and ease of repair should be factors considered when making a good long-term investment like buying LED lamps.


I wrote a review of their customer service here: Review of Mars-Hydro customer/repair-service

 

[Skullman420]

you were wondering about spectrum. The mars Pro lamps have both blue, red, white and infrared. You can select between one spectrum for vegg and one for bloom. During bloom both spectrums are supposed to be selected.

 

[Skullman420]

Here's more detailed info - When you press both buttons you have what you call full spectrum. For more info go to their homepage. I know there are other interesting brands out there, but I can kinda only tell you about the ones I am using myself. That's the ones I know how works. I don't know how good the other brands are or how easy they are to repair. And trust me - at some point they will need to be repaired

I am using their Epistar models. They also have models with Cree bulbs. I don't know how they perform VS each other but I know the Epistar is the only one with infrared. I believe that induces flowering faster, but can't show you scientific proof for that. It's just something I have an idea of

Mars , Led grow light , Mars Hydro