A short video on my Grow Light observations

[SQWIBB]

[Milan HP]

It's a great video, no matter how "blurry" you say it is. It actually ain't.
What I miss in it is information about the light intensity under Viparspectras and LEDs or at least the input in each case. I suppose 700 might be the wattage of Vipars, what about the LEDs? Is that comparable?

Vipars are great and I really like the percentages of "colours", but yours don't add up. Is it 50/25/25%? If so, I still like that very much. I have noticed that small seedlings prefer white day light. And you say "adjusted". Do you mean, you can change the settings? Or am I completely wrong and you meant 75% out of 100 for white light, and similarly for blue and red wavelengths?
Yes, there's usually much more than meets the eye.

Milan HP

[SQWIBB]

Originally Posted by Milan HP

It's a great video, no matter how "blurry" you say it is. It actually ain't.
What I miss in it is information about the light intensity under Viparspectras and LEDs or at least the input in each case. I suppose 700 might be the wattage of Vipars, what about the LEDs? Is that comparable?

Vipars are great and I really like the percentages of "colours", but yours don't add up. Is it 50/25/25%? If so, I still like that very much. I have noticed that small seedlings prefer white day light. And you say "adjusted". Do you mean, you can change the settings? Or am I completely wrong and you meant 75% out of 100 for white light, and similarly for blue and red wavelengths?
Yes, there's usually much more than meets the eye.

Milan HP

The Viparspectra 700's are adjustable W, R, B independent of each other.
I have them set at 75%W, 25%R, 25%B.
Since I have three 700's on a relatively small table I cut back the intensity of each of the W, R, B.
They are 326 watts each (978 watts total)
Its a lot more wattage than the plants need but my goal is to have a versatile adjustable grow area as the lights can be dimmed and moved independently of each other.


Small seedlings do like white light but what I'm noticing is that although they may be very green and look healthy, there's more going on, I'm not going to research this to death like I usually do but I'm going to tweak my lights, monitor the growth, this includes the roots and stem and come up with a setting I am happy with for my Current setup.


When I compared those 2 plants in the video, the Viparspectra plant was a stocky little SOB, lol, the leaves on the 6500k were a beautiful lush green but very delicate with hardly and root mass.

[ddsack]

Thanks for sharing, very interesting to actually see the lights set up and in use. The plants, lettuce and peppers all look very good. I'm not sure what to think of the difference between the pepper plants. To me, the Vipars may be forcing those plants into a premature maturity? With the woodier looking stem and blossoms at a short size? I don't know if that's good or bad, or maybe does not make any difference when they are planted outside.

[Milan HP]

Hello SQWIBB,
sorry for that mistake of mine. If I understand right now you don't use the full power of the Viparspectras. So it's hard to know how much of the 978 Watts they actually throw at the plants. I wonder if the LED tubes are also adjustable in terms of their input and what their maximum capacity is. My impression is that the plants under them get less light than those under the Vipars.

I am asking because I have managed to grow very sturdy tomato seedlings under 3 LED bulbs, 20W each, and a 36W fluorescence tube, less than 100W in total. Yes, all of them 6500°K. I also know that the temperature is an important factor in how well they develop. Is there a difference?

Milan HP

[biscuitridge]

Can you check the actual wattage draw from the outlet, they are usually really overrated.

[Milan HP]

Originally Posted by biscuitridge

Can you check the actual wattage draw from the outlet, they are usually really overrated.

SQUIBB or me? If it's me that can be rather difficult as I haven't got the means. And I am afraid neither has SQUIBB. And in my case, even if they "guzzle" double the official wattage, it's still incomparable. I am talking about app 50 seedlings.

Milan HP

[biscuitridge]

Sorry, I meant sqwibb, usually when they say 1000 watts it's actually much lower, you can check by using an amp meter or one of those kill a watt meters.

[rhoder551]

Very informative...thank you.

[SQWIBB]

I'll never buy another one of those again, used once and it died.
It's not that important to me but the specs and reviews say that the 700's draw 326 watts full on.
The 600 watt draws 250 watts, the 900 draws 450 watts.
They're just a few examples of the name compared to the actual wattage.

Here's a quote from a reviewer at Grow Lights Depot.

"Wattage
The fixture is rated for 110V to 277V AC so, it can be used in North America or around the world. We measured the wattage draw at 320 watts from the wall and 2.7A at 120V, and around 1.4A at 240V at full intensity"