lighting Growing under T5 LED lights

[NitePagan]

I am growing under T5 LED lights. I am using full spectrum and red LEDs. The leaves have become very large, I suspect the light is not intense enough, but the plants seem to be doing ok. The pepper plant on the left front just came in from the outside. The other 2 peppers have been grown under the T5 LED lights. The grow rack is home grown. I use foam core boards to reflect the light back to the plants. The far left plant is a basil.

 

[MNXR250R]

I've seen the huge leaves myself. I was growing under cheapo  x4 12W LEDs (Tautronics (sp)).  Anyway I had cucumber leaves that were 8 inches long and 6 inches wide.  The color was a very very dark green to boot.
 
I don't think that it was a lack of light for me, and I suspect not for you too.  The plant needs light to grow so I figure that yours and my plants grew plenty !!!!  So they had light.  I don't see any significant evidence of stretching in your plants either.
 
I think it's simply the quality of the light and spectrum that comes from LED's. Limited RED or BLUE (don't recall which) makes the plants grow like this.
 
Happy growing.
 
Jeff

 

[NitePagan]

Thanks for the info, I have recently added full spectrum T5 LEDs to my T5 fixture. The one pepper plant that had been outside had large leaves though a bit smaller than the plants under the T5 LED lights. The leaves were not as dark colored as the ones grown under the LEDs. Blue light tends to elongate the plant. Red tends to compact the plant. I am going to take a 24" 4 tube T5 fixture with LED tubes to the local grow store, they said they would do par reading for me. Will reports results. I am trying to mimic the the sun as closely as I can using T5 LEDs.
 
I obtained my T5 LEDs from growlights.ca.

 

[NitePagan]

More info, I took my 24" x 4 T5 LED tube fixture to the local store. I had 2 red and 2 blue LED tubes installed in the fixture, the par reading was around 400. I replaced the 2 blue LED tubes with 2 full spectrum LEDs and the reading went very close to 600. I feel that would be good for growing weed. I am also toying with the idea of the fixture having 4 full spectrum LEDs, that would boost the par well over the 600 threshold. So, lowcost T5 LEDs can work in place of the more expensive solutions. The advantage of T5 LED tubes is that they use 25% less wattage for reduced electric costs.  Should be a saving of 11.6 K Watt hours per month, based on a daily used of 16 hours per day for 30 days for a 4 tube 24" T5 fixture. The tubes should last 50,000 hours, replacement costs. 16 hours per day X 365 days = 8.5 years before replace should occur. The tubes I am using are a direct replacement for the T5 HO florescent grow lights in any T5 fixture. My analysis is based on a 4 tube 24" T5 fixture.

 

[MNXR250R]

Nite, from what I read the LED's do consume less power to make the light you need to grow plants. However, are the LED lights balanced enough (spectrum) to grow quality foods (or smoke). I don't know ??
 
A lot of the testimonials that I read or watch (YouTube) these days are base on growing weed. I'm sure that the LED manufacturers see this trend and are making their LED's to match the market demand (Weed!!!). I would !
 
For me, I've tried the low cost 12 and 24 Watt lamps (several of them over a plant), and have grown plants the "just don't look right". I've been playing with a VIPARSPECTRA PAR700 LED fixture as well. I don't have any opinions on this lamp yet, but I can say that I haven't seen the strange looking leaves that I had seen with the low cost 12 and 24W LED's. That's only my opinion. I don't have any evidence to support this view. I do believe that LED's are the future. No doubt about that.
 
But for now, I'll stick with what I know... currently I'm using a 315W LEC fixture, and of course the VIPARSPECTRA PAR700.
 
One thing that I have noticed, and again I don't have any solid evidence, but for me, being able to remove the ballast of the 315W fixture from my tent greatly reduces the heat input to the tent. My VIPARSPECTRA power supply is part of the fixture, so all that extra heat goes into my tent.  Just saying......
 
Anyway, good luck to ya !!  With Peppers and whatever else you grow..... ( Mmmm, that's the ticket !!)
 
Happy Growing,
 
Jeff
 
 

 

[NitePagan]

Maine is a legal recreational marijuana state, so is Massachusetts, we are the only ones on the east coast that are recreational legal. Retails are not set up yet for either state, retail should start during or after February 2018. So how can anyone obtain any weed in any form if sales are not allowed in either state, unless you are getting it from the black market or from a medical marijuana patient. I am waiting for sales to start so I can get plants/seeds/clones to grow outside and under lights.
 
Now the T5 LEDs, they seem to be doing a good job, I like the fact that there is very low amount of heat with the LEDs and also inexpensive to run. Looks like I am going to order some more full spectrum LED tubes to replace the blue tubes. Actually, I think I could run on all full spectrum tubes. Might be too strong for the plants. The following attachment is for the Full Spectrum T5 LED.
View attachment T5LEDBF.pdf
 

 

[Ares Schizas]

More info, I took my 24" x 4 T5 LED tube fixture to the local store. I had 2 red and 2 blue LED tubes installed in the fixture, the par reading was around 400. I replaced the 2 blue LED tubes with 2 full spectrum LEDs and the reading went very close to 600. I feel that would be good for growing weed. I am also toying with the idea of the fixture having 4 full spectrum LEDs, that would boost the par well over the 600 threshold. So, lowcost T5 LEDs can work in place of the more expensive solutions. The advantage of T5 LED tubes is that they use 25% less wattage for reduced electric costs.  Should be a saving of 11.6 K Watt hours per month, based on a daily used of 16 hours per day for 30 days for a 4 tube 24" T5 fixture. The tubes should last 50,000 hours, replacement costs. 16 hours per day X 365 days = 8.5 years before replace should occur. The tubes I am using are a direct replacement for the T5 HO florescent grow lights in any T5 fixture. My analysis is based on a 4 tube 24" T5 fixture.

 
But they don't give you a 8,5 year warranty, do they?

If you have, let's say, a three year warranty, it would be logical to calculate costs for only the three years of warranty. { [(365 x 3) x16] x Cost Per Hour } That's 17.520 hours within the warranty period.

To my experience some LEDs will break within the warranty period while others will last for years more. Also, the cheaper the bulbs the less will they last.
 

 

[NitePagan]

 
But they don't give you a 8,5 year warranty, do they?

If you have, let's say, a three year warranty, it would be logical to calculate costs for only the three years of warranty. { [(365 x 3) x16] x Cost Per Hour } That's 17.520 hours within the warranty period.

To my experience some LEDs will break within the warranty period while others will last for years more. Also, the cheaper the bulbs the less will they last.
 

The T5 LED tubes are rated at 50,000 hours. I am not aware of any specific warranty. If a tube burns out, Just replace that one tube and continue as before. If one tube stopped working, the other tubes in the fixture will continue working. It works like a florescent light fixture, just replace the bad tube with a good tube.

 

[Ares Schizas]

The T5 LED tubes are rated at 50,000 hours. I am not aware of any specific warranty. If a tube burns out, Just replace that one tube and continue as before. If one tube stopped working, the other tubes in the fixture will continue working. It works like a florescent light fixture, just replace the bad tube with a good tube.

 
They must be very cheap there Here they cost like €10-20 so "just replacing" them may not be a viable option (€20 here is a good daily salary).

This quarter of the year I had a E17 LED bulb burned three times (normal living room use). Thankfully, it was within warranty and it was replaced with a brand new bulb each time. If it was a T5 without any specific warranty, it would be a damage of €30-60. This is why I am skeptical about LEDs but on the other hand Fluorescents "burn their horns off" on electricity.

[coma = decimal mark]

Fluorescent 54W: 365 x 16= 5840 | 5840 x 54= 315360 | 315360 / 1000= 315,36 | 315,36 x 0,3 = €94,608 /per year

LED 12W: 365 x 16= 5840 | 5840 x 12=70080 | 70080 / 1000= 70,08 | 70,08 x 0,3 = €21,024 /per year
 
Plus Cost Of Original Bulbs:

4x Fluorecent 54W = 4 x 3 = €12 | 12 + 94,608= €106,608

4x LED 12W = 4 x €10 = €40 | 40 + 21,024= €61,024
 
If 4 Bulbs Need Replacement:

4x Fluorescent 54W  | 12 + 106,608= €118,608

4x LED 12W  | 40 + 61,024= €101,024


So the more LEDs you burn, the closer you get to Fluorescent in total costs.

Now, if you can find LEDs of acceptable quality at a low price, that come with some kind of warranty that the seller will back, then it is going to be worth the investment (assuming that you will make the most out of them during the warranty period ).

However, depending on where you live, LEDs might not be available on demand and you might have to use Fluorecents until replacements arrive (like me )—so you better stock up one or two spares. Which of course increases the initial cost.