LED Grow Lights - horseshit or no horseshit?
by Dave
(IGLOO#7 North Pole --Lethbridge,Alberta,Canada.)
I am attempting to sort out the LED grow light question. With so much info on the web, it's hard to decide. What do you think of LED's? I have come across a few sites that appear to use sound science behind their lights. Price differences are astounding, with everyone bragging they have the best. I want to try growing poppies and some garden veggies indoors, but it would be nice to be able to make a prudent decision. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! PS- YOUR SITE IS EXCELLENT. Thanks.
Answer: Dave- I know an awful lot of indoor gardeners, and if these LED grow lights worked as well as they claim, I would expect to know at least one person using them. Unfortunately, I do not. I have done a bit of research into them myself, and have even considered buying one just to test them for myself. In theory, having a multiple-point light source scientifically designed to deliver the exact light color spectrum needed by plants to grow....it all sounds great. Especially when you consider the claims that the lights produce very little heat, last almost forever, and cost much less to run.
But I am a man who likes to see the results, and so far I have only seen a bunch of claims. The research I have done may have uncovered the Achilles heal to the LED grow lights....poor penetration. Many of the forum posts I have come across, written by gardeners who claim to be using LED lights, indicate that the light produced is only effective within about 24 inches of the light. The actual effective distance of the light will vary, depending on the type of plants you are growing, their light requirements, and your use of reflective material to use the light efficiently as possible.
So, I think it is a split decision. The lights certainly do last for a very long time without the need for replacement. They also use less electricity than HID lights, and produce very little heat in confined spaces. On the other hand, the initial cost for the lights can be expensive, and you have to resign yourself to growing shorter plants in most circumstances. You will have to weigh the pluses and minuses and make this call for yourself, Dave.
When in doubt, I always prefer a 600 watt HPS grow light! You can find cheap ones....and also check out my grow light selector page for some other considerations when choosing your light. I hope this was some help, and Happy Growing!
Comments for LED Grow Lights - horseshit or no horseshit?
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AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
