DIY LED plant lights

[tlintx]

Yeah, I know that feeling, could ALWAYS use just one more shelf of lights. Should have specified, I'm at about 40 watts total for the 12" x 18" area. Completely non-tailored, plain old white daylight (5000K) bulbs. I'm thinking my seedlings aren't as robust as those I've seen under some of the T8 shoplight setups, but they're definitely a heck of a lot sturdier than I've achieved in the past in windows.

How would you say the cool white are performing versus the tailored wavelength ones? Any preference there?

[svalli]

I noticed last year that the plants under my red-blue lights did not grow as fast as the ones under white LEDs. The colored lights are in my opinion good for plants sown early or for overwintering, because blue inhibits fast growth. These woodland tobacco plants were same size when the one on the left was put under 4500K 10W LED flood lamp, the one on right was put under the self made 6W red-blue LED light. They were planted in same soil and kept in same room except the light color was different. After two weeks there was a big difference in growth.

[tlintx]

Thank you for the picture, very interesting and very helpful! It's hard to find information in the seedling to a few indoor plants range, all the information seems to be "HPS vs UFO" or something.

[Elagrow]

I have tested several different LED's over the last couple years, right now I am running a old favorite with some heirlooms under it, as well as a couple newer ones. all 3 setups seem to be doing great right now. I have 3 Roma tomatoes under a California lightworks solarflare220 doing very good, we have pulled some very tasty tomatoes off it. We also have a Ebb&flow with lettuce under a unknown brand (supplier in China wanted us to test their LED light) and the lettuce is doing great, but I want to run a test on something abit more demanding next time. With that being said, the cheapest light in there is about $525, but so far they all work excellent.

How is your home made LED working at this point? and do you know what the PAR is for it?

[svalli]

All of my self-made cool white and red/blue/white light fixtures have been performing well for my need, which is growing seedlings and transplants. Petunias have already started blooming indoors and some of the pepper plants have set fruit, even that has not been my intention.

I have no idea of the PAR value, since I have no way of measuring it and the sellers did not list that for the LEDs, which were really low cost compared to any real grow-lights. PAR value and correct spectrum is not really an issue for me, since I have not invested a lot to my lights. If I were paying big bucks (or euros) for real grow-lights, I would be more sensitive about the quality of the light. Cost of the my latest build is about $30 for two 8"x12" 30W panels made with the cool white LED strip and one12V power supply to feed two panels.

My setup is not really any high tech and looks quite messy, but the plants will be soon moved to greenhouse, so the light fixtures will not be needed until next year and wire racks holding some of the plants can be moved to the greenhouse.

Sari

[Elagrow]

impressive. That is a nice setup. There is no need to go all out on fancy equipment.

Why not run that room all year? something like leaf lettuce would grow great in that setup, and you can keep it rolling all year, always affording yourself fresh salad greens. They dont need as much light as the more demanding plants like tomatoes or peppers, they also use very little water.