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Datil pepper grow in DWC Hydro Under LED

Thanks for that, yes I have heaps of questions. I am looking at doing a layered grow so to speak. I would have a box but on 3 sides I would likely have small shelves elevated above the taller central plants. In those elevated areas I would likely do lettuce, basil, cilantro and tomatoes (and let them hang down) and in the center would be my chillis. Yes, the area would be around 3x3, maybe a touch larger but not much. Do you think I could cover it like this and do you think I would have enough light for everything else? I would hope to put about 6 chillies in the middle. I am just trying to maximize space usage to get some stuff I can eat and not just grow 1 or 2 plants. I need to keep the energy usage down so I am looking at LED or Fluoro and I am wondering which would be my best bet or bang for buck. I need to be able to take chillies and tomatoes through flower and fruit stages. The outdoor growing conditions where I live are not very good so I can not count on sun and warmth.
Suggestions as to what will be the best? I am not really keen on HID or the other hot lamps and want to try to do this with LED or Fluoro. Is it possible and how?
 
Bloody awesome lookin set up mate. its the first ive seen LED grow lights, has been a while since ive dabbled in hydro but you have sparked my interst again, Cheers mate
 
Growler said:
Bloody awesome lookin set up mate. its the first ive seen LED grow lights, has been a while since ive dabbled in hydro but you have sparked my interst again, Cheers mate
Click to expand...

Thomas, get back to dabblin in hydro again then mate!
There are some guys here building their own LED rigs too, (on the cheap) and they look pretty impressive.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Regards, Chris

samba_axe said:
Thanks for that, yes I have heaps of questions. I am looking at doing a layered grow so to speak. I would have a box but on 3 sides I would likely have small shelves elevated above the taller central plants. In those elevated areas I would likely do lettuce, basil, cilantro and tomatoes (and let them hang down) and in the center would be my chillis. Yes, the area would be around 3x3, maybe a touch larger but not much. Do you think I could cover it like this and do you think I would have enough light for everything else? I would hope to put about 6 chillies in the middle. I am just trying to maximize space usage to get some stuff I can eat and not just grow 1 or 2 plants. I need to keep the energy usage down so I am looking at LED or Fluoro and I am wondering which would be my best bet or bang for buck. I need to be able to take chillies and tomatoes through flower and fruit stages. The outdoor growing conditions where I live are not very good so I can not count on sun and warmth.
Suggestions as to what will be the best? I am not really keen on HID or the other hot lamps and want to try to do this with LED or Fluoro. Is it possible and how?
Click to expand...

When i was recently faced with the choice of building an 8x8 or a 10x12 greenhouse, I reached out to one of my many mentors. "If you can afford (and have the space) go bigger". I did, and I still don't have enough room for everything I want to feed our family of 3. We also have a decent size outdoor garden. The upside is I trade my excess produce at the pub for my tab.

Sounds like your space may be limited. A 3x3 tent with the lumigrow es165 will do well. Most T-5 fluorescent lamps are either 2 fit long or 4 feet long. They work well for growing as well. However, the amount of produce on your list above is likely to challenge your garden space. The pictures in this grow (above) are 3 pepper plants in a 3x4 area. You can likely squeeze out some space by "shelving" some of your crop, but you are ultimately limited by the overall size of your garden.

-Chris
 
Holy batshit fatman, that light is like 1400 ducats. What are the _real_ specs of that light. For that, I'd think the dials should go to "11"...

You get what you pay for though. Good Cree LEDs aint cheap, then the custom controllers, etc. Why do I always pick expensive hobbies.../sigh.

how does this compare to the xtremeled?

My other question is how does the fruit taste grown under this kind of light. Does the heat get killed? DWC would also affect this so its hard to compare without a lot of experiments.
 
megahurts said:
Holy batshit fatman, that light is like 1400 ducats. What are the _real_ specs of that light. For that, I'd think the dials should go to "11"...

You get what you pay for though. Good Cree LEDs aint cheap, then the custom controllers, etc. Why do I always pick expensive hobbies.../sigh.

how does this compare to the xtremeled?

My other question is how does the fruit taste grown under this kind of light. Does the heat get killed? DWC would also affect this so its hard to compare without a lot of experiments.
Click to expand...

Jeremy, The specs for this lamp are on our web site (too much to list here). With 2 dials that go to 10, thats kinda like going to 20. Compares well to 600 watt HID, except no heat, no extra fans, no ducts, and half the energy consumption. Far superior lamp compared to the xtreme and made in usa. I will let you know the heat factor of peppers after harvest. Cheers, Chris

Guillo1 said:
how are the DWC plants coming along?
Click to expand...
Grow is going well, pictures soon.
 
This is the information people should be viewing about this lamp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAw13w9eFxY&feature=related

This video has a par and wavelength comparison showing that the light actually produces way, way more than a 600w HPS/MH.

That lamp is amazing for the personal/hobbyist. Commercial applications of this would be prohibitively expensive. Whats the warranty?

MHz

BTW, why is your price the lowest compared to lumigrow.com or anywhere else?

This answers my questions lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyjVzBNlEKQ&feature=endscreen&NR=1

5 year warranty, and 5w LEDs wow. You get what you pay for. I think I will get one.
 
Some updates for those of you following...


Thick foliage and fat stems at week 16. Had to upgrade the 3.5 gallon to a 5 gallon. Roots now fill the 5 gallon about 2/3rds. Lots of flowers, lots of pollen, some pods starting to form.


dwc+under+led+027.jpg



Week 16 in the 5 gallon Alpha Hydro DWC system under Lumigro LED.

dwc+under+led+040.jpg


Had to change the layout of the garden a bit to accommodate germination (coming to a glog near you) of approx 30 variety of starts from hot pepper members.
Thanks again for all of the generous trades and sasbe's folks.
The picture above is actually the two plants started in the 3.5 gallon 6inch bucket basket, in expanded clay, upgraded to 5 gallon reservoir. The plant is approx 3 ft tall and 4 ft wide. More updates soon!
 
it's been over a month since your last post, can you give us an update. Do you have pods now? If you do what did you do to stop the flower dropping? What are you using for nutes and what levels? Just want to get all the info from someone who is having success with DWC and LEDs.
 
Ran out of time and space a great deal faster than anticipated and had some bumps along the way.

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Lots of flowers, but flower drop and minimal pods. Frustrating to say the least considering the overall health of the plant. Hand pollination has resulted in minimal results. This plant has grown to be about 3 ft tall and 4 ft wide. Had to make room for the newbies....

indoorstarts2012001.jpg


Gambling on an early move to the greenhouse, switching nutes, and hoping for some help from the ants and bees with pollination.

indoorstarts2012008.jpg


indoorstarts2012017.jpg


Had to give it a haircut to get it through the doorways... More details soon, (and hopefully more fruitful results) to report.
 
sux about the flower drop man but still im impressed by the node spacing and how much the LEDs penetrate the bush. I'd probably give LEDs a crack just too expensive for me atm. Let us know how things pan out.
 
Did you ever figure out what was causing the leaf curl on your Datil? I am growing Datil and Sweet Datil under LumiGrow ES330 and my hot Datil has leaf curl exactly like yours while the sweet one does not have any problems. The hot one has given me a few very hot peppers but it really has not hit a stride yet while the sweet one is pumping out peppers like mad. I am hoping the hot one kicks it in soon.
 
Hey Pat.. Overall that 330 seemed to deliver... The leaf curl, I believe, had to do with the proximity of the lamp to the plant, typical curling from too much of a good thing. During that period, the plant was growing at a tremendous pace, leading to a furling and unfurling pattern at times.
When the plant was moved outdoors, the plant stretched and began to aggressively flower and fruit. Significantly less curl, but still present.

alphahydrodwcstretch.jpg


datilsripening.jpg


AlphaHydroDatilPartialHarvestDWC.jpg
 
AlphaHydroponics said:
Lumigrow makes the es165 for an area of 3x3
For an area of 4x4 the es 330 is what I would go with.
You can read all of the spec's on our website (link on our profile page).
Let me know if you are interested in ordering or have any questions.
Click to expand...

The es 330 looks super, and I'm sure it's an excellent light with many benefits over HID's and fluorescents. My issue with LED's always comes back to price. For the price of the single ES 330 unit, you could buy two 1000-watt HIDs plus fans, ducting, several months of electricity and cover a much, much larger growing area. Am I right on that?

I'm definitely sold on LED's as a more efficient light source, but at the present time they just seem too damn expensive. However I'd REALLY like to buy one, as I'm obsessed with horticultural technology and they just seem so damn cool. So what are the selling points that would push me past the sticker shock?
 
WOW, that looks like a Christmas tree. I have thought that my leaf curl was related to some sort of fungus or something of the nature. The plant seems to grow but always has curly leaves even from when it was young. Many other peppers I have that have been grown and potted in the same way and treated to the same light and feeding/watering, do not have the leaf curling so it is beyond me.

LeRoy, you may want to consider the fact that LumiGrow lights are designed to last 50,000 hours before they even start to degrade and they have a 5 year warranty. Those are big positives. They also use a LOT less energy than the setup you described and that is a savings. If you want to look short term, sure the HID package sounds good but if you look more long term, I think the LEDs win out. Also, the newest LumiGrow lights are even more powerful and efficient from what I have seen.
 
samba_axe said:
If you want to look short term, sure the HID package sounds good but if you look more long term, I think the LEDs win out. Also, the newest LumiGrow lights are even more powerful and efficient from what I have seen.
Click to expand...

That brings up a couple of issues. First, at what price point and over what period of time do LED's win out? My fear is that they just haven't yet reached the tipping point (although they could soon). Second, retail LED fixtures are continuing to improve at a fairly rapid pace. If I dropped $1500 on a light fixture thinking it would save money over the long run (say five years or more), I'd be pissed if two years later a significantly improved unit could be purchased for the same price.

Again, I'm not down on LED's at all. If price were not an issue I can't see using anything else. My comments have more to do with convincing myself to go head and make a purchase than to turn anyone off them.
 
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