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LED grow light testing (Lvjing High Power 120w Led Plant Grow Light Panel)

Okay so everything finally arrived on Wednesday, after taking a day to set up everything I'm pretty much set up, just wanted to share the results with people here.

Okay so anyway I bought the Lvjing High Power 120w Led Plant Grow Light Panel because of the lower price and the good reviews. After purchasing that and the PVC elbows I was ready to go. However I decided I would need test subjects, so I went around looking for cheap plants that you could easily tell if they are getting enough light or not based on colors. I ended up purchasing a live flytrap from lowes, and then they had those dormant rhizomes on clearance for $3 so I picked up one of those too because I'm curious about those kits.

Anyway here is what you get, two "dormant" rhizomes. One sarracenia (rubra I think):
STmmLWZ.jpg

And one fly trap:
7ENtuhU.jpg


If you are purchasing one of these make sure you check that there is actually both rhizomes in the packet. The first one I checked did not have a sarracenia in it.

Anyway after washing off the plants here is what we have. Apparently roots are not important haha:
Uf0nxBR.jpg

Sbgsp13.jpg


I also wanted to test these on live plants as well so I picked up a live flytrap from lowes as mentioned above, and though a purpurea would be a good subject because they grow low so they won't grow into the lights.
RYmC3Re.jpg


These plants were both light deprived, which was what I was looking for, you can see the pale green color they have:
QDeDxN1.jpg

74j6e93.jpg


Okay so that's it for the plants. On to the setup I made a simple 2' x 2' rack, and hung the light in the center. The light is 1' x 1' and supposedly has a 2' x 2' radius. The shelves are spaced out by 16" pvc pipes. I figure the pots are 3.5" tall, the light should probably be 12" from the plants, so this is perfect. It is actually probably closer because the light is hanging down a little:
OxtM6WP.jpg


And here are the plants. I'm planning on getting some wooden boards to place across the shelves, but this will have to do for now. I'm also planning on adding more foil to reflect the light back towards the plants.
j0ltlFU.jpg


And just an interesting last photo. From what I understand from science classes, colors you see are pretty much light of that color being reflected back into your eyes. So a green plant is green light being reflected back at you, while the red and blue light is being absorbed. Since the LED grow light only uses red and blue light, there is no green light to reflect back into your eyes, meaning the plants will look brownish/black:
6cyzLLa.jpg





Anyway one last think, I actually want to review the light itself, since some of you are probably interested. The light seems pretty bright, it isn't blindingly bright or anything as I had heard. It's does seem to cover a 2'x2' area if it's 12" away from the surface. Only time will tell if the light is bright enough, but based on the reviews it seems to be good enough. The only problem I have with this unit is the cord length. It is like 4" long. If you plan on getting this make sure you get an extension cord with ground. The unit is very light, I was actually a little worried about this at first but it weights maybe 1 pound or less. There was also a rattling sound when I received it, and after opening it up I found it was a chunk of glue that came off. Basically the light itself is a sheet of metal with the leds and then 3 controllers glued onto the back, and then put in a plastic case. Heat wise it runs warm but not hot in any way.

Anyway that about wraps this up. I will be posting weekly updates on the plants for you guys to enjoy.
 
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Interested to see your results. I have had nothing but amazing results, I hope yours is the same!
 
would be nice if someone would post some spectral results too please

example
narva5000k85cri.jpg
 
would be nice if someone would post some spectral results too please

example
narva5000k85cri.jpg

If you want to PM me how to do this I would be more than happy to test it for you.
 
Ooh, good, I purchased one of these, too. I'm testing it on my Pings.
 
Ooh, good, I purchased one of these, too. I'm testing it on my Pings.

Nice, I would love to see your results. Also after thinking about it for a bit I think that "purpurea" is actually a hybrid, probably like purp x flava or something. It just seems too upright.
 
@SSS, it's probably a S. x catebaei.

I'll let you know. A week isn't sufficient time for any results. I'm hoping for some better colors without upping the amount of time under the lights.
 
very interesting keep us posted on results
 
Nice, subbed for results. Thanks for sharing.
 
  • #10
Biweekly update for ya:
ByTf2Kj.jpg

DqO1M0D.jpg

Sarracenia is growing, seems to be doing fine.
4DzPIKa.jpg

FDpkcgv.jpg

Can't really tell what's going on with the VFT, seems to be alright. I've been triggering the big trap every couple of days it snaps shut really fast, that's a good sign right? Also the "dormant" fly trap is starting to grow.

I also got a capensis from a local nursery just to test out sundews as well, and plants that require less light. Had it for maybe 4 days now, it's growing and maintaining dew, we'll see if the newer leaves are any bigger.

EDIT: sorry for the large images, don't have time to resize them right now.
 
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  • #11
Biweekly update. Last week:
Mj2PYz4.jpg

1RPtSpY.jpg

This week:
utgLgeG.jpg

ltLKoL1.jpg


Anyway basicly the results so far are that all plants are growing, success I guess, the catebaei is growing a pitcher which so far is taller than the older ones, but also has no color yet (although this might happen after it opens up). I think the flytraps have the most interesting results, the new growth has much more color too it and actually has red in the traps, unlike the old growth, but as you can see they are much much smaller:
lA8eLkQ.jpg


I'm a little disappointed at the results so far, while yes everything is growing, after looking at Millipede's results these seem less then desirable. I actually ended up caving in and purchase the exact setup Milipede has to set up a second shelf, just to see the difference in results.

Also sorry for my crappy photography skills, I didn't even check the photos last week so I had to use what I had.
 
  • #12
I want to update this because after being very discouraged by the initial results I have found that one month later these plants are finally starting to look a lot better.

Here is the sarracenia comparison from first picture 2 months ago to now, the pitchers are twice as big as they were:
dHV1QDq.jpg

Here is a close up of the sarracenia, it's getting a lot of color and you can't really see it in this picture but it's also developing nectar droplets along the mouth of the pitcher"
B2tgRK7.jpg

And here are the flytraps and the dormant plants I got:
8hGc1Wi.jpg


Overall the flytraps seem to be doing the best, they are really coloring up and regaining their size. The hybrid sarracenia has developed it's viens and is actually coloring up on one side of the lid. These leaves are probably about 1-2 inches from the light now, so that might have something to do with the sudden coloration.
 
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  • #13
I've been testing the same system on my Mexican Pings. (Sorry, no photos of before and after). I haven't really seen much of a difference. I think the plants are getting a bit larger, perhaps, but color did not get any better.
 
  • #14
I recently moved several of my dormant plants under these lights to see the rresults. so far the dormant filiformis have awakened from dormancy, they aren't as red as normal but they are producing dew. also I am increasing the timer so the light will be on 17 hours vs 14 hours from before, I'm curious if a longer photoperiod will yield better results. I'll keep you guys updated
 
  • #15
you should just get a new light
 
  • #16
Do you have any recommendations?
 
  • #17
sss - Thank you for documenting your experiences with this new unit. Sharing your experiences with the rest of us is certainly helpful to me and probably others as well.
 
  • #18
http://www.amazon.com/Watt-Aquarium-Coral-Light-Dimmable/dp/B00881FXKA I use an older model that is only blue and white leds. I don't have any meters, but from years of practical experience with growing corals and now recently plants these are about the equivalent of a 175W metal halide. It will light an approximately 2' x 3' area sufficiently bright to grow any full sun plant you wish. I started a thread about it: http://www.terraforums.com/forums/s...-LED-Fixture-Test-Thread?highlight=taotronics
I really don't take very good pictures, so I don't have any more current pics, but Sarrs, Pygmy Drosera, Ophrys and Catasetum orchids, Geissorhiza species and Passionflowers, among other plants have grown very well under them, . So far everything I put under them grows well once I get the lighting right. Color on my Cephalotus 'Emu Point' is very good. I just moved it outside this morning, but I'll get a pic of that tomorrow morning and post it here.
 
  • #19
Current crappy pic of the Ceph, but it does show the coloration. As far as growth, the plant approximately doubled over the time it was indoors for the winter. Admittedly a bit more than half of that time was under different lighting.
 

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  • #20
I ended up going against your advice for another cheaper option, the Apollo GL60LED. Received it today and my first impression is it's freakin' bright, I remember somebody saying the Lvjing was blinding, I never really got that impression, looking into the light never really had me seeing spots or anything. This new unit is blinding though, I looked into the light for maybe 1.5 seconds and was seeing black spots for the next 20 seconds. Right now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to set this up into my current shelf system and once that's done I can begin testing on the new unit.
 
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