EcoRenovator - LED Grow Light

EcoRenovator (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/index.php)

- Lighting (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=11)

- - LED Grow Light (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/showthread.php?t=5134)

I started my grow lamp experiment on June 20th. This time I used Roma, Rio Grande, Brandywine, and Kale seeds (all I had left).

So, I go out of town Tuesday morning, leaving the wife back to take care of everything and come home, Friday night (June 30), to this:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...n/IMG_3146.jpg

I believe this is pretty conclusive that the grow light does in fact work, but my seed starting soil I used this past winter is total and utter garbage (column 2 in the picture). One thing I will say is my grow light does seem under powered. I believe I should be able to mount 4 more 10W (9W actual) LED COBs on it to bring up the total output to around 100W (90W actual).

Also, this picture also shows that the Jiffy All Natural Seed Starting Mix (rows 1 and 3) is the best seed starting mix out of all of them. I forgot to get a picture of the plants outside in the sun, which indicates the same thing, but I will do that tomorrow morning.

I can't wait to get these plants in the garden as soon as they grow a little bit more and harden off!

Here are a couple of top down views. The first one is plants from under the growlight. The second are sun grown plants. Note, they were started at different times, so a comparison between growlight vs. sun light is not a good one.

For the soils, from left to right:
#1 - Jiffy All Natural w/ seeds soaked for 1 hour
#2 - American Country Top Soil (original)
#3 - Jiffy All Natural
#4 - MG Nature's Care
#5 - MG Seed Starting Mix

Growlight Plants:
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...n/IMG_3147.jpg

Sun Grown:
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...n/IMG_3149.jpg

Conclusions:
1) Jiffy All Natural is the best seed starting mix out of the 4 that I tried, followed by MG Seed Starting Mix.
2) In both experiments, I soaked one entire set of seeds(column #1 for both) for 1 hour and saw little to no difference in the final results. Longer seed soaking may be a future experiment.
3) A 50W (actual) LED COB grow light, running 19 hours a day, is just barely enough power to get a small set of seedlings started.

Good idea about the color spectrum,it will really help us to control the brightness.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel888 (Post 56917)

First of all, thank you for sharing your experiment and such a brilliant review! I am currently in a search of a good led grow light, and I guess I want something lightweight, not pricey and easy to set-up. I tend to Apollo Horticulture which I found in this review https://smokeandbuzz.com/ ( very helpful btw ), all the characteristics suit me perfectly (I don't need very intense light and I don't want any heavy device). I couldn't do anything by myself like you did, I personally find it very difficult, I just decided to get a new led grow light with 2-3 years of official warranty in case something goes wrong. I also watched great deal of Youtube videos on this topic and most authors recommend new device, not used or handmade.

Yeah, those pot heads really know their technology and have really pushed the grow-light market technology development! I think it would depend on a few different circumstances if I was to agree with "not using homemade."
First, if the crops you are growing are for the upcoming garden season and you cannot weather a seed sprout failure, yes I would agree.
If you are just playing around and can handle failures, I would disagree.
If you want to learn something new or test your skills, I would disagree.

Anyways, LED COB technology has continued to develop even after my initial project. Any new LED grow light projects I will use these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Spectr...ydC01Ze8_OTyjA
They hook directly up to 110v AC, so you can literally plug them strait into the wall (obviously after you mount them to a heatsink).

LED Grow Light Version 1.1

Well I was one of those "lucky" feds who got a 35 day paid vacation and had plenty of free time to get around to upgrading my LED grow light. I added the 4 additional COBs and drivers then tidied everything up. I got the wires covered in heat shrink and the fan permanently mounted on a shroud. Also, I want to somehow cool the drivers with a little forced air because they got quite hot last year and I had a failed driver. I will probably get some cheap plastic tube from the hardware store and mount it directly above the fan and duct the airflow around the drivers.

Now the total output is approx 100W. While this might seem high I believe it will give me some flexibility on positioning the grow light that I previously didn't have.

https://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j...204_172002.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...204_171950.jpg

LED Grow Light Version 2.0 coming soon!

You can come here to find LED plant lights

Any updates Nate? I'm going to use some of these cheap COB Led for a diversion load from my solar. Since they are current driven devices, they should work fine for extra solar power.

Don't use photo bucket anymore. The blurry / watermark pics kill this great thread.

I have good luck with imgur for hosting. They seem to be the most reliable over time.