lighting LED lights (again)

[wordwiz]

I was surfing around looking for a site and cite that explained how to make a simple way to view the spectrum a light or the sun produces (it involves using the back side of a CD to create the effects of a prism). I was shocked when I saw the spectrum (spectra) produced by white LED bulbs. This image was taken of a white LED,

The next step is getting a couple of these bulbs (I ordered a couple of 60 LED spotlights) and testing how they work.

Mike

 

[Hinky]

Yeah, that makes sense and it's what I've said before (not in this forum) and was soundly dismissed. White light is made up of the entire spectrum so it stands to reason that white LEDs ought to be useful in growing. I'd toss in a few extra reds and royal blues, but I've always been of the opinion that the whites are beneficial.
Those goofy reefgrowers seem to agree.
Whenever I get around to building mine, I'm planning on using at least 25% white with the balance being split 75/25 Red/Blue. In the meantime I'm having too much fun with my silly stoplight experiment
Hey- maybe I'll just build an array like in the link out of blues and whites and just keep the traffic light block seperate. Hmmm...

 

[wordwiz]

Hinky,

Yeah, if one looks at the PAR range for plants, they use all the spectra from about 360 to 750, just in varying amounts or percentages. If that image is close to being correct, I'll get a lot of red and blue, plus a decent amount of violet (my CFL bulb has a decent amount of violet and I loved how it grew a tomato plant early on) plus a bit of orange yellow and green. I don't know if it will have enough power to grow mature, fruiting plants but it's worth $20 to find out. Even if it takes two of them per plant, they are less expensive per plant than a 125 watt red/blue LED panel or a 400 watt HPS light.

I love CFL bulbs for seedlings but again, from my experience I would need about 400 watts to cover six plants. That's $110 for the bulbs plus 4¢ per hour to operate them. The LEDs, even paying single bulb prices, would cost $120 but use 1.2¢ of electricity. If I have a "crop" of 128 plants that grow for four months, the energy savings costs will be significant over the course of a year.

On a side note, in another forum this guy was asking about why his tomato and pepper plants fruit and flower but not very heavily. He is using a High Output Fluro. Regardless what people tell him, the info is not valid because:
1) it's based on experience and not scientific fact that can be cited in a web page
2) it's based on using a different lighting system such as HPS or sunlight
3) just because everyone says the plants are day neutral doesn't mean anything as far as how long to leave the lights on to induce flowering.

Once I get the lights, I'll try growing a couple of plants from germination through death and see how they do!

Mike

 

[roadhouse]

Yeah, that makes sense and it's what I've said before (not in this forum) and was soundly dismissed. White light is made up of the entire spectrum so it stands to reason that white LEDs ought to be useful in growing. I'd toss in a few extra reds and royal blues, but I've always been of the opinion that the whites are beneficial.
Those goofy reefgrowers seem to agree.
Whenever I get around to building mine, I'm planning on using at least 25% white with the balance being split 75/25 Red/Blue. In the meantime I'm having too much fun with my silly stoplight experiment
Hey- maybe I'll just build an array like in the link out of blues and whites and just keep the traffic light block seperate. Hmmm...

Wow - I had no idea people actually grew mini coral reefs. That's incredible!!