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):
And one fly trap:
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:
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.
These plants were both light deprived, which was what I was looking for, you can see the pale green color they have:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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):
And one fly trap:
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:
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.
These plants were both light deprived, which was what I was looking for, you can see the pale green color they have:
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:
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.
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:
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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