Growing indoors with Led grow lights

[aaronsaxton]

I am sorry, but I will need to provide corrections to these claims about LEDs.

I myself have tested MH, HPS and LEDs across all available spectrums for years.

They are not anywhere near 100% efficient. And they are not 4 times more efficient than HPS/MH.

The fact of the matter is that LEDs require supplemental light. Every time an LED light is released, it claims to have resolved the "missing" spectrums and the fact is that they have not. There are more than 9 key areas of light within the range of 290nm to 720nm that must be covered to provide balanced growth. LED lights rarely provide more than 4 - and they have claimed ever since just providing 2, that they had it all worked out.

They do produce heat. They do not provide 4 times the usable light of HIDs.

I have measured the UMOL quantity within the lights and it is not a truthful statement that it provides more "useable" light than HPS/MH.

The fact is that if you use LEDs and supplement it with some other light source - i.e. HID/Natural light/Fluros, you will get great results.

Using just LEDs will eventually result in lower quality Orchids or plants as trace elements in the PAR spectrum are missing.

Hydroponic growing is not the same as Orchid growing. The fact is, within the spectrum required, LEDs currently released do not provide all that is needed, some light spectrums that are required by plants in general (9 areas) are omitted because the LEDs that produce those particular spectrums are too expensive to incorporate in the fixtures.

A 600W LED will not replace a 600W MH or HPS. The light sources produced are different. An LED will provide a LITTLE more light in required areas of basic blue and red, but the MH will provide lower UV light that is required and higher end IR that is also required (among others).

I have thoroughly used LEDs, HPS and MH. I have advised companies after testing their equipment which spectrums are missing - they will not incorporate them because of the cost.

Until LED manufacturers incorporate ALL the spectrums required, MH and HPS will provide superior results if you are going to go for full artificial light.

If you are going to go with supplemental lighting, LEDs can be a good choice - but just remember the fixtures can be so large, and need to be placed so close, that you end up blocking out the other light source that it is supposed to be supplementing.

If there is anyone who is selling these LEDs that wants to provide useful information, then for the purpose of plants we don't need to know Lumens or footcandles...we want to know UMOL - and this is one technical detail LED manufacturers like to leave out - with exception to one company in Canada that I used an LED Grow Bar from and frankly, it was fantastic (I note they used LEDs not normally used and the price they charged reflected this).

I am happy to answer any Orchid Growers questions about LEDs in the actual real world use of them, without any hype.