LED Grow light set up and thoughts.
 

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.

:bump:

Off topic, but that's a really pretty Zygo!

A lot of the negative feedback on leds here was back when leds were still relatively new for growing plants, and so expensive and often not well suited for plant growth. Luckily leds have continued to evolve (and dropped in price) and are now a great option for lighting, as your post shows! Your plants do look happy under those lights.

Nice set up with all those bulbs. I've been using so called "power compact" CFL fixtures (long U shaped bulbs) for several years, but I've run out of suppliers for replacement bulbs as this type of light is not so popular anymore. Thinking of switching to leds, but not sure if I'll get strips, arrays, or individual bulbs like you have.

I've used screw in PAR38s and they will absolutely grow anything you can get them close enough to. And ime they are the best lighting for inducing stress coloration in succulents, cps, and other plants where foliage is the main attraction. But I had a Sicilian grandmother, so I've seen more than my share of bowls of spaghetti. I certainly don't want to see one every time I look at my plants! Standard 36" wire shelving, one 67W strip for the second shelf two for the third. Total power consumption is 201W. The whole works sits in front of a south facing window which makes the top shelf excellent for plants which like bright condition but no direct sun. The windowsill holds a few vase culture Vanda which benefit from what would otherwise be wasted light scatter.

Standard 48" x 24" heavy duty shelving unit from HD, Lowe's, etc on a diet. I only used the parts I needed to hold what I want and to provide the structural support to do so. I added the conduit frame on top to hold the lights at the proper height. Lighting is 2 x 120 W Taotronics reef panels. I flowered my 3' tall Cymbidium Little Black Sambo under this exact set up last year in the old house. In that location it received absolutely no direct sunlight. Here the unit sits in front of a south facing window. This setup is still a bit rough since I just needed to get it up and running quickly. I'll be adding light to the lower section this week and will finalize all the wiring then.

Thank you! It is still blooming now. I forgot to mention that the leds bleached out a bloom on that plant from being too close.... I burned a leaf on it too.

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Nice setup Subrosa! I need to try out the strip Leds I have been tempted to redo my setup to include those in the middle.

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Camille, I think the CFL's are still cheaper to buy, but they dont direct all the available light where you want it and burn out faster.

Plus the leds are hard to measure with light meters/ predict how plants will respone to them.

What led strips are these? One of my orchid related projects is to build a small orchidarium to keep mounted minis. Strips seem the way to go, but I'm been checking terrarium supply sites and their led strips are meant for reptiles and not plant growth. Not sure to find yours here, but if I can find the specs I can look for something similar.

Camille, if you can stip wires, Samsung Q-series or F-series is very good. around 200lm/W. Here I'm using a bit older H-series:
Samsung Linear LED module H-series Gen. 3

If your electricity isn't cheap, it is best to avoid the cut-to-length style LED tapes.

I have these guys they came out with a red and blue combo and thats what I have Blue Spectrum Dual 2ft LED Grow Light - Feit Electric