LED Grow light set up and thoughts.

[Gthumbz89]

Hi all,

I have heard many times on this forum that leds are no good for growing or are visually unappealling. I disagree on both accounts with modern led lights.

I have used both the alien purple leds and the white screw in par 38 bulbs with brooder clip fixtures. Both are energy efficient long lasting and focus light directly to the plants. As a matter of fact, the par 38 bulbs are so focused that although they only put out 1500 lumens it easily causes freckling or even burning on cattleyas and zygopetalums at short distances.

So far I have bloomed, cattleyas (Minis, compact and standard), phalaenopsis, oncidiums, paphs, and zygopetalums under the white par 38 bulbs.

I have noticed slight distortions in leaf structure and bulbs under these lights but nothig dramatic and nothing that affects blooming or fragragrance.


The par 38 bulbs are a mixture of 2300 kelvin -5000 kelvin and are found cheaply at amazon, 1000 bulbs.com et cetera and are a variety of brands and beam angles.

The only downside of these bulbs is that I am not a electrician and this method uses a ton of powerstrips and chords. I don't think it is dangerous to do this though because the whole setup only uses about 400 watts.