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Cosmiculture, groovy ;-)
I too have tried growing "lettuce" under the LED's. Got these strips of 12 led's from china and used 3 red strips for each blue one. about 100 strips per board. I dont know if its sacriligious or not but I called it my "Electric Jesus", because thats all I could think of when I saw it turn on. Maybe it would save me ?
In early growth, the plants were VERY satisfied with the light. Healthy, quick. But in mid growth and flowering, I had to keep raising up the light board and I could tell the bottom of the plant wasnt getting enough, so I added a cheapy grow light from the garden store, and it seemed in the area where the incandecant light and LED light mixed, it would confuse plants. they would grow away from that hemicircle, and the plants there looked either burnt or tired. I dont think they liked the mix. Also all I was giving em was miracle grow, that magic NPK firespitting technology which I know now is trash.
They did well but I have seen better with real HPS lights. One month, when I was away and my room was on autopilot and both EJ's running, my electricity bill was only 12 dollars. about 300 watts for 2 EJ's, compared to the theoretical 1500 watts of (1 big and 1 small) HPS light.
But personally, to have a room where soothing violet light brings up some plants, works very relaxing. I do not think I saved "MONEY" by 'brewing my own' , seeing how the lights were a thousand and the rest of the expenses might be around 500... Would have been cheaper to get my "FOOD" from the supermarket... but I did get alot of knowledge and experience which you couldn't have bought. and I still have my EJ!
It seemed after 1 year of use, 1/5 of the blue light strips had faults. They would flash on and off, and that cyclic nature prob. burnt them. They would always flash before they burnt out, but only the blue ones. The blue LED's used about .4 v more then the red ones.
So, yes, LED's work well. You either pay money in the beginning for better lumen producers, or pay money later for oversized electric bill.
I too have tried growing "lettuce" under the LED's. Got these strips of 12 led's from china and used 3 red strips for each blue one. about 100 strips per board. I dont know if its sacriligious or not but I called it my "Electric Jesus", because thats all I could think of when I saw it turn on. Maybe it would save me ?
In early growth, the plants were VERY satisfied with the light. Healthy, quick. But in mid growth and flowering, I had to keep raising up the light board and I could tell the bottom of the plant wasnt getting enough, so I added a cheapy grow light from the garden store, and it seemed in the area where the incandecant light and LED light mixed, it would confuse plants. they would grow away from that hemicircle, and the plants there looked either burnt or tired. I dont think they liked the mix. Also all I was giving em was miracle grow, that magic NPK firespitting technology which I know now is trash.
They did well but I have seen better with real HPS lights. One month, when I was away and my room was on autopilot and both EJ's running, my electricity bill was only 12 dollars. about 300 watts for 2 EJ's, compared to the theoretical 1500 watts of (1 big and 1 small) HPS light.
But personally, to have a room where soothing violet light brings up some plants, works very relaxing. I do not think I saved "MONEY" by 'brewing my own' , seeing how the lights were a thousand and the rest of the expenses might be around 500... Would have been cheaper to get my "FOOD" from the supermarket... but I did get alot of knowledge and experience which you couldn't have bought. and I still have my EJ!
It seemed after 1 year of use, 1/5 of the blue light strips had faults. They would flash on and off, and that cyclic nature prob. burnt them. They would always flash before they burnt out, but only the blue ones. The blue LED's used about .4 v more then the red ones.
So, yes, LED's work well. You either pay money in the beginning for better lumen producers, or pay money later for oversized electric bill.
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