Lighting Bilbo's Brief Guide to Choosing Your LED.

[Johnyautoseed]

Okay, coming full circle to:
Bilbo's Brief Guide to Choosing Your LED

IMHO...There is still alot of conflicting information about led's....

How does one choose a light that they feel confident will meeet their current and possibly future needs?
1. Determine the size of your grow space and ideal footprint for your needs.
2. Get some clones of something that is far along enough to start flowering or use auto seeds.
3. Buy the most wattage that you can and which is appropriate for your space. Higher wattage led's does generate a decent amount of heat. Canopy penetration will depend upon wattage.
4. Find a high quality led provider that will fully return your money up to 90 days after if you're not satisfied. ( i.e. advanced led or california light works)...not affiliated in any way
5. Try the led for yourself. Numbers are great. However, there is nothing like seeing results in person to determine if the light is right for you.

Don't have paralysis for analysis....just go buy a light and get growing...

Peace,
JAS

 

[TaNg]

Okay, coming full circle to:
Bilbo's Brief Guide to Choosing Your LED

IMHO...There is still alot of conflicting information about led's....

How does one choose a light that they feel confident will meeet their current and possibly future needs?
1. Determine the size of your grow space and ideal footprint for your needs.
2. Get some clones of something that is far along enough to start flowering or use auto seeds.
3. Buy the most wattage that you can and which is appropriate for your space. Higher wattage led's does generate a decent amount of heat. Canopy penetration will depend upon wattage.
4. Find a high quality led provider that will fully return your money up to 90 days after if you're not satisfied. ( i.e. advanced led or california light works)...not affiliated in any way
5. Try the led for yourself. Numbers are great. However, there is nothing like seeing results in person to determine if the light is right for you.

Don't have paralysis for analysis....just go buy a light and get growing...

Peace,
JAS

I think no3 should be the most output in usable photons and the LEAST amount of Wattage possible rather that the most Wattage.

Also if I could add

6. Look for grow diaries, they are without doubt the best proof a light works. If you can't find a grow diary for a light then ask yourself why?

 

[The Elvis]

6. Look for grow diaries, they are without doubt the best proof a light works. If you can't find a grow diary for a light then ask yourself why?

This is the best and only one that matters!!! Google is your friend..

 

[dankstyle J]

I got a light that a ton of people on line diss but I get good results with it really wish I could afford something better ..but I make it work on am not ashamed to smoke the stuff I pull from it I'm no expert but I'm not growing Reggie either .

 

[Yozhik]

Absolutely, grow journals are 'comforting' and - particularly when there is a plethora of 'real world experience' of ANY item - not just lighting - then it adds to the weight of persuasion.

... with one caveat ...

Read ALL the existing grow journals.
Don't cherry pick ... don't select grow journals that reinforce the decision you want to make.
Don't ignore those that spark an inconvenient, cognitive dissonance.

Absolutely grow journals are an essential element in researching and analysing a purchasing decision.
Grow journals can be faked too, just like any other form of 'online marketing'.

If you can't find any grow journals, contact the manufacturer directly.
Maybe they have a very good reason you can't find any.
Ask.
Don't assume.
Do your own research; exercise discernment.
Make an informed decision ... not just the most convenient one, or the most marketed one.

Caveat emptor.
You, and you alone, are responsible for the buying decisions you make.

 

[HubbaBubba]

This study explains why green is so nice for plants and the mechanisms behind it.

Is this basically yield per photon at various wavelengths?
Green looks pretty good to me.
I know green LEDs are less efficient at converting electric to photons. Just curious, does anybody make a LED grow light with green? I wonder if we will ever see OLEDs (Organic LED) in grow lights. They work pretty good in my phone.

 

[Yozhik]

Just curious, does anybody make a LED grow light with green?

Spectrum King claims to be a 'full spectrum' Cree LED option.

 

[Xagor]

1.Is this basically yield per photon at various wavelengths?
2.Green looks pretty good to me.
3.I know green LEDs are less efficient at converting electric to photons. Just curious, does anybody make a LED grow light with green? I wonder if we will ever see OLEDs (Organic LED) in grow lights. They work pretty good in my phone.

1.Yes yield per wl. It was created by McCree and later updated by Tazawa and is the mean of about 61 landplants.
2. It is.
3. You can find growlights on alibaba with green leds...but its not a good idea, best way to get green is simply warmwhite/White.

Spectrum King claims to be a 'full spectrum' Cree LED option.

as far as I know they only use medium bin/quality chips. And fully passive with that amount of wattage is no bueno imho.

 

[Yozhik]

Are we ignoring one possible element in all of this?

Evolution and the ability to adapt?

Strains and genetics have been played with for YEARS now, and artificial indoor environments have also been tweaked, reinvented, and are as trend dependent as fashion!

Is there any possibility that plants have adapted to the new "holy grail" indoor environments we keep rolling out for them?
In other words, those strains that consistently yield well under the environment du jour ... have they simply been selectively bred to thrive in those artificial conditions? Or have just evolved better than other strains, and adapted to utilise the artificial 'sun' and climate more efficiently than others?

There are still so many secrets this wonderful plant has not chosen to reveal to us yet.

We're not even close to coming to terms with the intelligent design that Mother Nature attests to.
Science is a galaxy of "best guesstimate" theories, in an undefined universe of unconscious incompetence.
We don't know what we don't know.

 

[Xagor]

Also about that SK video...
when he says that he uses a Luxmeter because it measures intensity and other companies say "dont use it" bc their lights dont have intensity...
Then he measures a red/blue "disco clown" panel...


red/blue has like the worst possible values for lumen/lux, while green 555nm has the best possible value...
So lumen/lux is the worst possible way to compare lights with different spectrums...so this way of testing will always let r/b panels look totally bad in comparison, -intention?
And also any values without mentioning the power draw is kinda pointless...If it has those PAR values at say 10Watts...
Also just 1 value in the middle pointless too....important is how the complete growarea is lid up.

See how at 5:50 this spectrometer shows the ppf value of about 800-870 for the r/b Panel.
ppf photosynthethic photon flux/ count of photons., which is almost the same for the hps (910) and they skip mentioning that.
This vid is a good example on how not to do testing or on how to spin a test in your favor.

Is there any possibility that plants have adapted to the new "holy grail" indoor environments we keep rolling out for them?

Maybe thats true, but also plants are hightly adaptable themselves too and constantly tweak their photosystems or the number and location of chloroplasts or other pigments..