G
Guest
IR may well be the missing link. More work needs to be done to research the parts of the spectrum that cannabis requires during flowering, we know cholorophyll requires red and blue wavelengths, but I think it's much more complex than that when it comes to the requirements of a flowering cannabis plant.
LED technology is moving very, very fast, within a year or two affordable 20w LEDs will be common. The 5mm LEDs that dav zap's lights use are old technology, the high power LEDs being developed by companies like CREE, Seoul Semiconductor, Prolight, Edisn Opto, LumiLEDs, TruOpto, LEDengin etc. are far more efficient than the 5mm/8mm/10mm plastic cased LEDs we are familiar with, and in the next couple of years, we will see very effective, very efficient LED lights available.
The Procyon is a good start, but it uses 56 CREE XR LEDs to produce 100w, which is only 1.6W per LED, and I think red CREEs run like that will only produce about 70 lumens each. A red Luxeon III Star produces 140 lumens at 1000mA current, 3v. I'm running my Luxeons at 1400mA, 3.4v, so they should be producing about 200 lumens each, consuming almost 5W of power each. That is a lot more efficient than the Procyon, and I'm sure in a year or two, much better LEDs will be available.
Some details of my light array:
4 power circuits
Circuit 1 - 1400mA, 30v, 7 x Luxeon III Star red, 2 x Luxeon K2 blue - 3.334v each, 42W power consumption, each LED draws 4.667W
Circuit 2 - 1400mA, 30v, 7 x Luxeon III Star red, 2 x Luxeon K2 blue - 3.334v each, 42W power consumption, each LED draws 4.667W
Circuit 3 - 350mA, 12v, 6 x Edison Opto 0.5w Infrared - 2v each, 4.2W power consumption, each LED draws 0.7W
Circuit 4 - 350mA, 12v, 4x Prolight 1W Ultraviolet - 3v each, 4.2W power consumption, each LED draws 1.05W
That works out as 65.3W red, 9.4W blue, 4.2W IR, 4.2W UV, a total of 83W. I figure this is ideal for experimenting and working out how to grow with LEDs. If this setup works well, I will expand it with a third 1400mA 42W circuit to take it upto 125W.
I'm keen to know what other parts of the spectrum are needed by the flowering cannabis plant. I'm a bit worried that the UV LEDs I'm using are 390-410nm, which is UV-A and the plants will need 290nm UV-B. I've also noticed that some of the new LED growlights coming on the market that use hundred of 5mm LEDs are including a small number of green LEDs, so I'm wondering if I should include 3 or 4 1W green LEDs in my light setup?
LED technology is moving very, very fast, within a year or two affordable 20w LEDs will be common. The 5mm LEDs that dav zap's lights use are old technology, the high power LEDs being developed by companies like CREE, Seoul Semiconductor, Prolight, Edisn Opto, LumiLEDs, TruOpto, LEDengin etc. are far more efficient than the 5mm/8mm/10mm plastic cased LEDs we are familiar with, and in the next couple of years, we will see very effective, very efficient LED lights available.
The Procyon is a good start, but it uses 56 CREE XR LEDs to produce 100w, which is only 1.6W per LED, and I think red CREEs run like that will only produce about 70 lumens each. A red Luxeon III Star produces 140 lumens at 1000mA current, 3v. I'm running my Luxeons at 1400mA, 3.4v, so they should be producing about 200 lumens each, consuming almost 5W of power each. That is a lot more efficient than the Procyon, and I'm sure in a year or two, much better LEDs will be available.
Some details of my light array:
4 power circuits
Circuit 1 - 1400mA, 30v, 7 x Luxeon III Star red, 2 x Luxeon K2 blue - 3.334v each, 42W power consumption, each LED draws 4.667W
Circuit 2 - 1400mA, 30v, 7 x Luxeon III Star red, 2 x Luxeon K2 blue - 3.334v each, 42W power consumption, each LED draws 4.667W
Circuit 3 - 350mA, 12v, 6 x Edison Opto 0.5w Infrared - 2v each, 4.2W power consumption, each LED draws 0.7W
Circuit 4 - 350mA, 12v, 4x Prolight 1W Ultraviolet - 3v each, 4.2W power consumption, each LED draws 1.05W
That works out as 65.3W red, 9.4W blue, 4.2W IR, 4.2W UV, a total of 83W. I figure this is ideal for experimenting and working out how to grow with LEDs. If this setup works well, I will expand it with a third 1400mA 42W circuit to take it upto 125W.
I'm keen to know what other parts of the spectrum are needed by the flowering cannabis plant. I'm a bit worried that the UV LEDs I'm using are 390-410nm, which is UV-A and the plants will need 290nm UV-B. I've also noticed that some of the new LED growlights coming on the market that use hundred of 5mm LEDs are including a small number of green LEDs, so I'm wondering if I should include 3 or 4 1W green LEDs in my light setup?
