LED light boost?

[Ricardo77]

My 1st attempt at growing autos was (I like to think), pretty successful but I was in southern Spain with masses of sunlight.
I am now in Berlin and having another go. Obviously less sunlight but I'm growing on a bright, 4th floor, west-facing balcony but I've already noticed a lag in the seedlings development.
I was looking at cheap LED lights on Amazon, LED lights and wondering if they might give my girls a little boost.
I have very limited space and thought 4 or 5 hours with these little lights might help.. I'm baffled by the wattage vs lumens PPE umol/J .... etc

What do you guys take on this?

 

[Jpkindbud]

You are growing outdoors? Prob not a good idea to bring plants inside as there will be bugs. And not a good idea to have a light outdoors. If you already have seedlings accustomed to outdoors, I’d let them grow and start a couple indoors. You will want at least 100-150 true watts. Beware of Amazon lights! There are good ones on Amazon but may take a little “window shopping” before finding a good one. Mars Hydro TS 1000 is a good light and dimmable.

 

[Ricardo77]

I am growing outdoors but they really are small seedlings at this stage..

 

[Jpkindbud]

I am growing outdoors but they really are small seedlings at this stage..

Do you have an indoor space? Is it possible for you to grow indoors? Just saying if they are lacking light you could probably find a good LED bulb from store that would supplement your plants til they are bigger… take a med-lg cardboard box and line with aluminum foil and hang the single LED bulb over it. The foil will reflect light towards seedlings. Maybe two or three bulbs. Like 75w equivalent 3500-4000k. It should help. This is a budget friendly solution. And seedlings under led (autos) can be lights on 24/7. This should help keep seedlings from stretching too much.

 

[Driver77]

Find something stronger if you can. It would help.....but something that draws 50w to 100w would be much better as a supplement.

 

[Ricardo77]

Do you have an indoor space? Is it possible for you to grow indoors? Just saying if they are lacking light you could probably find a good LED bulb from store that would supplement your plants til they are bigger… take a med-lg cardboard box and line with aluminum foil and hang the single LED bulb over it. The foil will reflect light towards seedlings. Maybe two or three bulbs. Like 75w equivalent 3500-4000k. It should help. This is a budget friendly solution. And seedlings under led (autos) can be lights on 24/7. This should help keep seedlings from stretching too much.

Thanks. This is the sort of set up I was thinking of just to give them a bit of help but my space is really limited and it's difficult to hang anything so the leds that stuck in the soil seemed like a good solution if they're up to the job.
I have four seedlings so I thoght one light for each pot... maybe.

 

[Jpkindbud]

Thanks. This is the sort of set up I was thinking of just to give them a bit of help but my space is really limited and it's difficult to hang anything so the leds that stuck in the soil seemed like a good solution if they're up to the job.
I have four seedlings so I thoght one light for each pot... maybe.

Yes, one for each. Leave the top open for heat dissipation. Small 6” clip fan or stand fan gently blowing over whole setup. Once they get established they can start going outside. Hoping for sun for you! Are they in their final pot? And what size?

 

[Son of Hobbes]

Thanks. This is the sort of set up I was thinking of just to give them a bit of help but my space is really limited and it's difficult to hang anything so the leds that stuck in the soil seemed like a good solution if they're up to the job.
I have four seedlings so I thoght one light for each pot... maybe.

What's your budget for additional lighting?

 

[Jpkindbud]

Oh, and there is nothing wrong with budget! One member got LED bulbs, cut the white diffuser off and used an array over his plant. You can keep diffusers on or use utility knife and remove the diffuser exposing the LED diodes. Removing the diffuser gets you every lumen available.

 

[Son of Hobbes]

You don't need nearly as strong of lighting during veg as you do in flower. These are like 18W light bars (each bar,) with four bars in a 4 ft section. And you can either let the plants grow up into them, or lower them down to lower your stretch, but they aren't going to burn your plants because of the proximity to them.