LED Questions

C

chili-fan

Hi there,
 
I have some questions about LEDs to use for chiles.
I want to build my own LED Panels for growing peppers,
I thought about using High Power LEDs.
 
1. How many Watt should one led have??? I saw 1W LEDs have only about 30 lumens, I think thats to low?! LEDs having more watt each, have more lumens.
 
2. What spectrum should these LEDs have??? I heared peppers need blue and red spectrum, but what nanometers (nm) or color should they have?!
 
3. Peppers need blue (430nm-480nm)?! and red (615nm-670nm)?! Should I use EVERY spectrum like: 430, 435, 440, 445 and so on?! OR are 430, 440, 450, and so on enough?! Or do I only need less of these spectrums?!
 
4. How many LEDs do I need for one sqaure meter (m²)?! (I wanna grow them for about 4-5 months indoor,s till I'm gonna put them in the end of spring outside)??
 
5. Do peppers need MORE blue OR MORE red to grow tall and big?!
 
6. Is there something else I should focus at (Is there something else important)??!
 
Thanks
 
 
Greetz
 
chili-fan
 
1. 1w are too small imo, i like 3w or 5w emitters.
 
2 3 5. you need about a 5 red : 1 blue ratio. If you look at the peaks on below image you can see 660(deep red), 620(red) for reds will give you good coverage. around 440(royal blue) is good for blue. Also including a couple white leds in there somewhere may be good for the rest of the PAR response.. (personally i'm testing 2 red : 1 white)
 
vAWHETu.jpg

 
4. i find about 100w for one sq meter. (for seedling starting, not mature plants).
 
6. wavelengths are very important step yes you should think about this a while before buying, make sure the lights stay cool enough you don't need dedicated cooling fans, look at the available drivers for the LEDs you like, they only make so many different models so you have to design the circuit to fit one of them.
 
1w LEDs work fine in my experience. 

Lots of 660nm, 630nm, blue, royal blue. Some whites (cool and warm).
I also put in a few UV and far red (730nm) ones. 
 
Are the white LED's absolutly [SIZE=11pt]necessary[/SIZE]? I ordered up some LED's for my array and didn't realize
I needed the white spectrum as well. Also what would be the ratio for the white LED's?
 
Thanks!
 
BurkeasaurusRex said:
Are the white LED's absolutly [SIZE=11pt]necessary[/SIZE]? I ordered up some LED's for my array and didn't realize
I needed the white spectrum as well. Also what would be the ratio for the white LED's?
 
Thanks!
Click to expand...
white = everything , it's not required..
 
for almost any light source,try looking at a cd that reflects the light.
you'll see a rainbow with thicker and thinner bands of colors.
A prism of sorts.
 
Shows what your lights put out in general +/-.
 
I love my LEDS.
 To much stuff is crap posted by people who either never used them or didn;t use them properly for their grow.
 
Can't use a candle to light a large room...
Using improper lighting for your grow doesn't work either.
 
I have great success using 1 watt LEDS...
 
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