LED Lights for germination

[Stoogle]

Hello,

Have been using T5 flouresent tubes with good results for germination although looking to set up another area. Have found these on amazon which are much cheaper, has anyone had experience or got any thoughts to share? Thinking to get a mains adaptor and then rest on propagator lids.

Thanks,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OUBO-Light-Flu ... B00AE47KNM

[AnTTun]

Basically any light is good for most of the seeds. But that number goes down when seedlings appear, some of them will do fine with low(er) light levels, some will do fine with white part of the spectrum only.. but some won't, especially as they grow bigger / older. That's harder part. And more expensive. Decent grow lamp for amateurs is about 100.. euros, pounds, dollars.

Anyway, to go back to your question I'd suggest that you get familiar with different kinds of LEDs before making any purchase. I didn't do that so I've replaced my LED lights twice. In the end I got myself semi-pro LED grow lamp

Maybe you should start here first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyPb-8tw0Bg

P.S. Christer Johansson is our artificial light guru, I'm just a modest (and not so good) student

[Stoogle]

Thanks for the info, have done a bit of research on lumens, kelvin and watt values. Am wondering whether there is anything I am missing? Thinking to use the lights for germination and first 1-2years.

What is the semi pro light you ended up getting? Do you use this for your full grown plants, would be interested in having a look if you have a link or photo of your setup?

[Bosenoge]

LED lights for growing usually dont advertise lumens, instead they use PAR values, that should be your first filter in finding quality lights. I found some good info here: https://ledbypassion.com/ . Search for sites that deal with growing illegal stuff-they have the most experience
Anyway, since a month ago I am a proud owner of Sanlight LED-s: https://www.sanlight.com/en/luminaires/ ... ex-series/. First experiences - my 2x 20W LEDS look brighter then 2x 24W T5 lights, and they illuminate twice as much space for a bit smaller wattage. The downside is that they are much more expensive and dont emit heat so the bill for bottom heat would be somewhat higher. I hope I will compensate that with longer durability and smaller electrical bill.
Here is my setup - on the left side are LED lights, and the ones on the right are T5. As you see, I dont use it for germinating, I grow seedlings 6-12 months old, but I think it would be the same thing, just a matter of adjusting the distance of light.

[AnTTun]

As Bosenoge said, look for websites that sell equipment for (il)legal stuff growers, there is a plenty of them online.

Here is the link for my supplier:
https://biljneledlampe.com/kategorija/l ... arspectra/
Croatian only, sorry, but V300 costs around 90 pounds. Just so you get an idea about prices.

You should take distance between lamp and plants into consideration due to heat and area that lamp can cover. I have 40 cms distance and V300 can't cover 80x80 cms area. Also, most of such lamps have fans at the back side so you have to hang it. And most of the fans are LOUD

If you want / can afford top quality: Black Dog brand is considered as professional equipment.

Have fun

[iann]

Don't overthink it, and similarly don't overpay for it. Germination is very easy, any light and the right temperature regime will do it. Growing on cacti for a few months or a year isn't hard, more or less any light in sufficient quantities will do you fine. Growing to adult or flowering size under artificial lights starts to need some thought, and possibly some fancier equipment. Many non-cactus succulents will need more light from a younger age, although you can still start them under almost anything. Watch for etiolation to know when you need to move them on. You're more likely to send cactus seedlings pink even under artificial light, especially in the first few weeks after germination.

The light you linked will be fine for starting out, depending on the temperatures you can keep in the propagator. Should be OK for two or three square feet of growing area, depending on the species and how long you want to keep them there. Might be better if you can find one without a translucent cover, or just remove the one that's on there. LEDs are good at putting much of their light on a defined area, shame to deliberately spread it out all over the room.

[Stoogle]

Thank you both, useful reading and good to know that there is plenty more to learn! This blog summarises things quite nicely if people wish to learn more about this, is also written by a lithops fanatic so should be relevant to cacti all being well https://willylithops.blogspot.com/p/grow-lights.html

[Stoogle]

Thanks Ian, this is useful - think as you say the seedlings will not be too picky to start out so will give the budget option ago. Talking to one of the 'horticultural' lighting shops yesterday they said that the light spectrum wasnt so important to begin with.

This video compared white vs blue and red lights when growing letuce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J3wuwsUiCM . It appears that there is lots of science behind this!

[peter831shaw]

First experiences - my 2x 20W LEDS look brighter then 2x 24W T5 lights, and they illuminate twice as much space for a bit smaller wattage.

we are running an experiment for a commercial LED light manufacturer in a greenhouse at work. They are using their "pink" and a new "white" light to see if there is any difference on lettuce growth. People like white because its easier on your eyes and the plant color is normal.

My point here is this, we are also growing poinsettias which are short day crop and any light contamination could cause them to stop flowering.

I was very concerned about the brightness of the white compared to the pink. So I used my Apooge quantum light meter to measure for light intensity. They were exactly the same intensity.

Why, green is in white light and our eyes are very sensitive to green.


Peter

[Stoogle]

can you measure the spectrum of the white light, curious as to whether there are different types of whie LED light or whether this would be the prodominately blue light that would come from the budget LED tubes? Also, what sort of lighting are you using for starting the plants out? Imagine that the poinsettia would require different lighting for flowering to the initial stages?