HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator vs. Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45 - Log

ASFx · Apr 19, 2011

Feb 26th: - Week 3

Foliar sprayed with diluted kelp and continued to water with dechlorinated water. No fertilizer needed yet.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

March 5th: - Week 4

Began adding ¼ diluted organic fertilizer. Will slowly increase dosage with each watering.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

March 12th: - Week 5

Fertilized again with the General organics fertilizer, this time at ½ dosage. At first it might look like they’ve been over-watered due to the “leaf claw”, but that has always been the growth habit of this specific dwarf tomato variety in my experience. As the plant gets larger, it usually flattens back out as it begins to flower.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

ASFx · Apr 19, 2011

March 19th: - Week 6

The HydroGrow LED tomato is starting to grow thicker stems and denser foliage compared to the GlowPanel 45. The GlowPanel 45 is stretching a bit more. This week I installed my Growonix RO filter so was able to fertilize with a 50% higher concentration than i’d normally be able to at this stage. Even with 50% more nutes, the PPM is still lower than it was before, since the base PPM of my faucet water was 470ppm. My RO water comes out at about 10ppm.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

March 26th: - Week 7

The HydroGrow plant now has two groups of flowers showing, with at least 10 buds. The GlowPanel also has some flowers showing, although it’s only a single group, with about 5 buds. The HydroGrow plant is also growing with a slightly more bushy habit, while the GlowPanel plant is growing wider.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

April 2nd: - Week 8

Very close battle now. Both plants are nearly identical, with roughly the same number of flowers. We will have to see how many tomatoes set on each plant in the coming weeks.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

ASFx · Apr 19, 2011

April 9th: - Week 9

The HydroGrow plant is in the lead with 5 tomatoes so far. The GlowPanel 45 plant has 1 tomato. Both plants have a nice bundle of flowers at the top which should produce a lot more tomatoes in the next couple weeks. I have noticed a few blossoms dropping off each plant, but nothing to be worried about yet. I’ve also switched from the “Grow” bottle of nutrients to the “bloom” bottle. Also adjusted the amount per gallon according to the dosage chart provided by the General Organics website.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

April 16th: - Week 10

Both plants seem to be doing well so far. The HydroGrow LED plant has six large tomatoes and five smaller tomatoes which have recently set in the trusses toward the top. The GlowPanel 45 plant has six large tomatoes and 3 more small ones at the top. The larger tomatoes on the GlowPanel plant are still slightly smaller than the ones on the HydroGrow plant though. I’m also still seeing a bit of blossom drop on the GlowPanel plant.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

JoeyK · Apr 19, 2011

Dude I salute you, I am so glad you did this test PLEASE PLEASE keep us updated. VERY VERY INTERESTING, sorry bout the yelling red wine make me loud.

PepperJam · Apr 19, 2011

Very interesting, can you do this test for peppers?

dvg · Apr 19, 2011

I've been excited about LEDs for growing for the last few years.

They appear to be a promising alternative to the watt sucking HID fixtures.

But it seems the cash crop growers aren't using them.

Each time i enquire at my favorite hydroponics shop, they tell me that the technology isn't quite there yet for effective deep canopy penetration.

Tranlation: the LEDS don't have enough intensity of light to penetrate deep enough past a taller plant's upper leaves to effectively provide adequate light to the plant's lower leaves.

These lights are probably still good enough for smaller seedlings, or plants that stay small or grow in width rather than height.

Though the technology keeps improving and component prices continue to drop, it won't be until the larger wattage LEDs start to come onto the market, that these lights will really begin to close the gap in grow performance with the HID bulbs.

And scientists are working with up to 100w LEDs or even larger now...

I can't even imagine how blindingly bright a single 100 watt LED 'bulb' would be... :onfire:

dvg

ASFx · May 2, 2011

April 30th: - Week 12

The results are pretty interesting so far. The GlowPanel plant is a more "full" plant with more leaves, but at the cost of the fruit. It only has half the amount of tomatoes that the HydrowGrow plant has. The tomatoes are now starting to ripen on the HydroGrow LED plant. All the tomatoes on the GlowPanel plant are still green.

Total tomato count:

HydroGrow: 14 Full Size
GlowPanel: 7 Full Size + 2 tiny new ones

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

muskymojo · May 2, 2011

Cool experiment, but with only one plant each, it doesn't really prove much. You could grow 20 under each light and would get various sized plants and fruit set under each light, but it would give you a better idea. For instance, I have 16 Bhuts growing under the same light, the same cups, soil, seed stock, ferts, and most are nice bushy green plants while a few are stunted and look like I started them a month later and some inbetween.

Looking good though! The LEDs definitely work!

ASFx · May 8, 2011

May 7th: - Week 13

Got a lot of action this week. The HydroGrow plant is still ahead with nearly double the amount of tomatoes compared to the GlowPanel plant. We also have more ripe tomatoes. Both plants are still being given the "bloom" series of General Organics nutrients. Nothing else to report today. The ripe tomatoes may start to fall off of the HydroGrow plant soon, but i'll leave them on the plant for as long as possible so we can continue to get good full photos of everything.

Total tomato count:

HydroGrow: 16 Tomatoes Total - 6 Red/Ripe
GlowPanel: 9 Tomatoes Total - 1 Red/Ripe - 3 Orange

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

Omri · May 8, 2011

It's about to fall!

ASFx · May 8, 2011

Omri said:
It's about to fall!

Yup they are both getting top heavy. I didn't think i'd have to stake them since they're supposed to be such small plants. I have a fan on them right now, but if I had a fan on them when they were younger it probably would have kept the stems stronger.

Omri · May 8, 2011

They look quite hardened though. how's the airflow?

ASFx · May 8, 2011

Omri said:
They look quite hardened though. how's the airflow?

Air flow is very good. I have an oscillating fan on them, and there's also a ceiling fan in the room which is always on. The room is also receiving central air conditioning. The humidity here is pretty horrible at 20%, but it hasn't seemed to effect the plant negatively from what I can tell.

ASFx · May 22, 2011

May 21th: - Week 15

Pretty sure this will be the last update on this test. Since the last update, i'd just been waiting for everything to get mostly ripe. It looks like the plants are just about done now. In the test, the panel from HydroGrow LED yielded double the amount of ripe tomatoes compared to the Glow Panel 45. On the photo of the HydroGrow plant, you can see 1 tomato did fall off but i didnt notice it because it was hidden under a leaf, and it started getting over ripe. I ate it anyway though, and it was super tasty. I really like the sweetness in these tomatoes, and I think the general organics nutrients helped a lot with that nice taste.

Total tomato count:

HydroGrow: 16 Tomatoes Total - 14 Red/Ripe
GlowPanel: 9 Tomatoes Total - 7 Red/Ripe

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:

Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:

JoeyK · May 22, 2011

Man juicy cricket balls