Led lamp test! 1 week!

[Fatalii]

HPS gives much more spindly growth compared to UFO, I got better results on Bonchi's even with when compared 90w UFO and 600W HPS!

Not growing with HPS next winter...

Produces only very very little heat compared to any HPS!

[Trizza]

Lurker here! Nice pictures

Has anyone else tried out LED lighting yet? I want to grow some chillis in small pots indoors over the coming winter, and was thinking about building individual lights for each pot, so they can live like normal house plants but maybe still produce flowers and fruit. Any thoughts on how much wattage you need to get a single small chilli plant to fruit? Like just one of your bonchis for example fatalii?

[Fatalii]

A little hard to estimate, but if you can make 7-8 bonchis fruit with 90w LED, I'd take a wild guess and say that 40w LED would be enough for a single plant to fruit.

It all depends how well do you want it to fruit.

Then again, some vars do need PLENTY of light to produce pods and some, like Ulupica large can produce pods with much, much less light.

[Trizza]

Sounds fairly reasonable - supposedly AeroGardens will grow a couple of chili plants and they use about 60W of CFL power in operation. Assuming somewhere around double the efficiency (which sounds typical) then that puts it around 30W of LED power.

How large is Ulupica large, in fact? I assumed it was actually fairly large from the name, but I saw a picture on your site the other day of a tiny pod from it...

[Fatalii]

I wouldn't call it tiny compared to other C. cardenasiis and eximiums.

You can see Ulupica, Large on the middle of this picture here, and below that is a eximium pod.
Typical C. cardenasiis are about that size too.

[Trizza]

Very cool - might be a good one to experiment on, will see how I fare with the first batch I ordered from you the other day

[Fatalii]

Ulupica Large is a very unique wild chile as it's very useful too!

The taste is one of a kind, I never get bored with it.

And the heat level... these little balls of fire really have the kick!

Best of all, it's one of the easiest plant to grow!

[Trizza]

My seeds arrived yesterday, thanks! I'll be exercising my green thumb tonight - lets hope it doesn't turn brown

I'm thinking of trying my experiment actually with white LEDs instead of blue/red. Whites are blue LEDs with a phosphor so it generates a spectrum including green & red. Warm white LEDs produce quite a lot in the red spectrum as well as a big spike in blue. Obviously I'll be wasting some power emitting green light, but I think the white lights will be much nicer to have in the living room - I'll just throw a few more watts at it. I can always add coloured ones later if I'm lacking. I'll start a new thread with pictures when I get up and running.

What do you think of 60W of white LED power (primarily spike in blue, with a spectrum across to red from there) for the seedling stage?

Your chili chocolate kicks ass by the way I know something is properly hot when I start to hiccough (hikka)!

[Fatalii]

About the spectrum of the LEDs... you need to see how the plants like it... for both, growing and producing fruit,
That's the only method that shows you how it actually works!

Well... I think chile chocolate should be HOT... and it really is too!

[zaxxon]

What do you think of 60W of white LED power (primarily spike in blue, with a spectrum across to red from there) for the seedling stage?

Hi Trizza, nice to have a fellow LED DIY guy on the forum I'm currently building a setup that has been tested mostly on krhm, other plants, but I'm quite positive I'll get good results with chilis too. I'm posting my progress on the finnish side of the forum. I'll propably duplicate it here when I have more time. Meanwhile: http://chilifoorumi.fi/index.php?topic=6318.0

[Trizza]

Hey, I've been looking at your thread a bit - my Finnish skills are quite limited but its looking good I'll be ordering my LEDs early this week, hopefully I'll have something basic rigged up soon. I started a thread about my progress in the "Show us your garden" section, I'll be adding my details there I think. Where did you order your LEDs?

[Fatalii]

I got mine from http://www.viherpeukku.com

When ordering LEDs. Make sure they are NOT spot leds but ground LEDs with more wide angle.
Otherwise they will lit up the area just directly below.

There are plenty of spot LEDs left to be sold and many LED companies want to get rid of them first....

[zaxxon]

Hey, I've been looking at your thread a bit - my Finnish skills are quite limited but its looking good I'll be ordering my LEDs early this week, hopefully I'll have something basic rigged up soon. I started a thread about my progress in the "Show us your garden" section, I'll be adding my details there I think. Where did you order your LEDs?

I got mine from a contact of mine who has access to very good bins at reasonable prices. The reds are Osram Gold Dragons and the blues and whites are Osram GD Plus. They're easy to solder and quite efficient.

[zaxxon]

I got mine from http://www.viherpeukku.com

When ordering LEDs. Make sure they are NOT spot leds but ground LEDs with more wide angle.
Otherwise they will lit up the area just directly below.

There are plenty of spot LEDs left to be sold and many LED companies want to get rid of them first....

Spot LEDs are utmost crap. And I wouldn't trust any company, that doesn't disclose the LED models or specs or bins they are using. The sites of LED grow lights manufacturers are full of BS (or marketing BS based on ignorance or exaggeration). You can have efficiencies as low as 10% on the lower bins. (out of 1W put in 0.1W light comes out). I know Fatalii has had good results with the lamp from viherpeukku.com, but I'd be more than happy to run it against my DIY lamp to see how it compares

[cdamarco]

Can anyone tell me if a 14 watt red/blue led is sufficient to grow bhut jolokia?

[Fatalii]

Sounds like a little low side on with the power... perhaps for some growth but not enough for flowering and fruiting.

[AlexChupetinho]

Can anyone tell me if a 14 watt red/blue led is sufficient to grow bhut jolokia?

Look what another guy experienced with the LED panels. He didn't try them for chiles, but I don't think it makes any difference. The 14 W panels seem to be crap!

http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/88781-led-panel-grow-low-ryder.html

[Fatalii]

Yeah, if it works like that with growth.... there won't be too much pods (or bud?!?) either.

Also, good to keep in mind that manufacturers want to get rid of the cheap "spot leds" which have a very lousy angle of light.
If you find an cheap LED lamp, you can guess which kind of LEDs they have...

I say, don't go under 100w if you want some efficient growth or any flowering at all.

[cdamarco]

So a 90 watt ufo led should be adequate then, do you suggest the red blue dual band or some kind of tri band?

[Fatalii]

Well I got experience only about this one:


So it's hard to tell..