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Light gardening of the 24th century: LEDs ?

Hey folks,

I'm very curious to know if any of you know of this new technology of LED lights being used for plants?

I ordered a set of bulbs from these guys off ebay (a way cheaper way to go) www.gro-tek.com (they have a lot of info but when i search the web the only other info I can find is from other LED lamp makers, no product reviews.

Anyhow, being a gaget nut I have ordered a set of seven bulbs which look like red and blue traffic lights (supposedly enough to bloom Cattleya orchids over 12 square feet or a 3 ft x 4 ft terrarium). Supposedly emitting only the spectrums that plants need, so they loook really funky and dark to human eyes, like a light garden from an episode of star trek or something but I thought I'd be adventurous and give them a try.

Anyone else ever heard of these or used them? They are pricey but if they only draw a few watts of and actually grow the same as HPS or MH without the heat or power this would be awesome!
 
According to Clint they are the new thing. Yet I haven't heard anything about them yet. I would love to see if they can bloom a light hungery Cattleya though. Then the next thing would be to see if you can use them to bloom a Vanda. I would also love to see if it give the plants the coloration of natural light.

I am glad to see someone experimenting with them. Have you got your test plants yet??
 
I'm not sure what I'll test grow under them, maybe Daturas as they are quick growers/early bloomers if they have good light and I have plenty of seed from last years datura festival in my front yard. If all goes well I'll put them over my highland chamber to get "brght" lighting with no heat emission. I'll leave a twin tube strip of normal FL for looking at the plants with my eyes. If that doesn't work I did just buy an air cooled HPS lamp & enclosed reflector a couple weeks ago for the Highland chamber but I figured since the LEDs were a reasonable price I wanted to jump on it and try it.

Let someone else pay the power bill to run the HID's if these puppies work! I think my whole LED setup is 14 watts instead of the 400 + I planned to use. I just wonder if the orchid room shown on the companys website with 4 or 5 of the sets I bought is for real or just for the pic.

I've also been thinking of adding one or two reptile UV lights to simulate the higher UV levels experienced by the montane pitcher plants, orchids, etc.
 
Phantom Dave uses LED's. I was pretty interested when I saw them on his website.

xvart.
 
Yep I say they are the future.

you can even get LED's that only produce (or almost only) light that is good for growing plants, so it looks ugly and it looks dark but the plants are AWESOME under it.

After the initial investment you save money in the long run.

Whenever i'm a rich doctor lol, I want a light bank of them. 6 foot long, 34 foot wide for one awesome terrarium!

And you can program them to simulate natural sun movements across the sky and different intensities overall and stuff. It's neat lol.

It's REALLY hard to imagine how 6 watts will be better than the hundreds of watts we use.
 
:0o:

six watts... i cant wait till im a millionare... then ill have a whole grow room set up with with the walls as these. and then do the program thing that JLAP is talking about...

lol not reallly but Im sure every one would have one or two florecents sitting aroud still, cause you still wanna see the pretty colorfull green plants :beer:
 
Yes, I use LED lights for some of my plants and they work pretty well for me. I have some under pure LED, but most are combined with fluorescent as well. The trick with growing plants under LED lighting is that you need to get the correct distance between the plant and the light source.
 
Thanks for that link I will read it in just a moment.

You don't need to be a millionaire to get LED's, I just stuff junk mail for my daily bread. I got a set of seven bulbs for $260 including shipping off ebay from the Manufacturer (which are guarenteed to work like new for 10 years or send back for free replacement). The only local Hydroponics / indoor gardening store wants over a thousand dollars for a prebuilt setup with the same number of bulbs. I just got bulbs so I have to build a light hood or set up two tracks of track lighting to mount the 5" x 5" bulbs but I like building stuff and they use normal household lamp sockets. Not payng anything for running them and still growing "like MH or HPS" is what made me decide to splurge. It's funny to think that the fresh air fan and humidifier on the terrarium will now cost more to run than the lamps!

They do look real weird in the photos (mine haven't arrived yet). I read what i could find online but I still don't "get" how I could possibly grow plants with such an aparently dim light source as I'm used to thinking about lumens and watts and intensity of light on leaves.
 
  • #10
i'm a bit skeptical about 14 watts generating enough light for plants to grow. Even though it is in the spectrum plants use, it's still hard to believe.
Not to mention the cost is pretty outrageous. I think that the t-5 high output fluorescent lights would be a better investment.
If these bulbs truly did what they said, wouldn't there be more people growing, and talking about it?
Peter.
 
  • #11
http://www.solarisled.com/

Look at the coral! The hood is nice to, except for the control panel on the front. They should have put it on the back.

That is some MAJOR cash right there. $849 for a 14 inch model.

If you have a 6 foot tank, prepare to shell out over 3 grand :)
 
  • #12
After reading some of the research on the application of LEDs to plant cultivation, I'm very interested. The low operation and maintenance costs have me sold. I saw some conversion bulbs on eBay for a modest price - they screw into standard incandescent fixtures and look kind of like showerheads - and I think I'll pick some of those up the next time I'm looking to add to my lighting setup. 12 bulbs for $160 is a little steep, but supposedly four bulbs will light something like a 4' x 3' space for 10+ years, and at less than 14 watts per bulb, that's a pretty much unbeatable deal when you factor in energy consumption. I'd like to add them in to supplement my T12s, and then maybe phase out the fluorescent light if things go well. I'm excited to hear what results people have if they try these.
~Joe
 
  • #13
When you're looking for LEDs look for lamps with the highest number of LEDs per bulb, most of the ones I've seen only have 40-80 LEDs per bulb. The ones I've got coming have 160 or more LEDs inside each bulb. Definately go with DIY screw in type ones way cheaper than some fancy schmancy factory made parts save that $ buy more plants (or coral).
 
  • #14
Swords please document your experiences and experiments when you get them. I would like to see someone grow two plants from seed. One with traditional lighting and the other with the LEDs and compair the growth. If growth is about the same then I would be sold! The less need for cooling and less power used is a definate plus.
 
  • #15
i'm a bit skeptical about 14 watts generating enough light for plants to grow. Even though it is in the spectrum plants use, it's still hard to believe.
Not to mention the cost is pretty outrageous. I think that the t-5 high output fluorescent lights would be a better investment.
If these bulbs truly did what they said, wouldn't there be more people growing, and talking about it?
Peter.

That's what most people said about modern science. In 50 years I bet NOBODY will be using incandescents anymore (assuming we're all still alive and survive global warming and all that).
 
  • #16
I got my lamps and bases a few weeks ago but I haven't gotten all set up with them yet though. The ones I got are pretty neat, like a stop light that's really bright. I tested them by just putting them in a table lamp socket and it shot a beam of colored light all the way up to my vaulted ceiling some 15 feet up. The photos used on the site I got mine from ( http://www.gro-tek.com ) sure don't do the lamps justice. That still don't mean they'll grow plants (or corals) but if they do, I'm definatley gonna use them over any other type. $260 to light 12 sq foot of growing space for 10 years - I'm sold! But we'll see!
I will be documenting my experiences with them (both setting up and growing with them) on my grow info site www.captivejungle.com and on terraforums too of course! :)
 
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