First off you're a true scientist, I've been watching every grow light vid I could in the past three days, you are the only one who answered All of my questions. P.s thanks for compiling the vids, into one session.
Really appreciate all the detail. I've learned more in the last 40 minutes than I have in days of researching various websites. What I'd love to see is a comparison between the various whites. 5k, 3.5k, etc. Thanks for sharing and please keep it up. You've got another subscriber!
I use 6000 kelvin light which looks clean white - some people call this studio light, cos it reflects all surface colors as their original color instead of manipulating the surface into having same color as the light source.. therefore, white light is what I would call full spectrum light, but for some odd reason, the industry calls red and blue light ''full spectrum''....
@G Hollis your reference said that "Color temperatures over 5000 K are called "cool colors" (bluish), while lower color temperatures (2700-3000 K) are called "warm colors" (yellowish)".
@@orion9k all white light considered as full spectrum because it contains red green and blue light. Also the colour temperature (K) is the colour we (human) see in the eyes, its doesn't contain the same wavelength as the sun.
This is the best information i got since trying to grow cannabis. I mean with so much information going around, i recently purchase flood light like LED 4000k 50w and people tend to tell a different story before i decided to grow. First it was lumens, lumens became LUX and recently diodes of the LED wont be enough but you debunked all the crap i was told in this vid and i am half way thru it only. Thanks allot this had definitely saved me some money. Each person i had shared my idea on growing keep suggesting expensive grow panels with built in fans etc, yet from the results with this vid i am convinced it is possible to grow with budget flood lights LED
Just updated I was ordered Spider Farmer Grow Light SF-1000 LED last Nov 2019 on Amazon. My Jade succulent lots improved lots strong thick stems from white light much better no more leggy/collapsed, I stopped use red/blue light make worse leggy/collapsed on my Jade succulent because lack full spectrum light. That why I founded your video about tomato grow went collapsed under red/blue light, I just shocked same my Jade succulent.
Just watched the lettuce seed starting LED vs. T5. Thanks again. I’ve learned more today from you about LEDs than in months of here snd there research.
Started to watch as I want to start some orchids under extended day light.wow, such a wonderful comprehensive presentation. lost some beauty sleep but well worth it.
Your explanations are very helpful. I like to know what I am doing. Don't have any indoor sunlight and have been very frustrated with dying plants and orchids. So now I feel I know what to do. Looked at many other videos and they just left me asking questions. For instance It's good to know that red is weeker than full spectrum but helpful for fruits and flowers.
love your vids. The first time I watched your 3 part series I didn't get all the information downpacked. So I watched them again and after I did more research it started to make more sense.
Cyrus Keeshig thanks. I know some info needs more explanation. Just kinda hard to do that without over explaining as much of this is. Some people prefer the short version so it's hard to please everyone.
Most growlamps today have a mix of all spectrum's. You have valid point about white LED (i would guess 4000 Kalvin )it is much better spectrum to veg due to stimulating hormones however the plants flower much better in red/blue (about 2500 kalvin for red light and 6500 kalvin for the blue light) and that will also stimulate a hormone like "Flower as much fruit you can before dying" type of hormone. I can explain this and its vary simple, Spring and summer time have a much brighter spectrum so that the plants have a greater chance to stretch and grow big thick stems so t can carry as much flowers and fruit it can before dying. Where the sun attends to turns red at Fall to give that boost to mature the fruits and terpenes so it will attracts animals that can eat it and spread the seeds before winter (most plants harvest sep - oct (Depending on where you live). Tomatoes produce flowers true out the summer time but gets really juice in august (Because the sun turns more "red"). Btw the Cannabinaceae Family is quite big so pretty much means you grow tomatoes like you grow cannabis. Have a good day!
It would be interesting to see if there is a difference between the grow chip you used [that use red and blue LED,s] and the ones that use blue LED,s and use a phosphor to produce the red and blue color.
Your experiment is consistent my experiment. I am using R, B and W for better PPFD and energy efficiency purposes. In our grow chamber, lighting is a major portion of my cost for indoor growing.
I do appreciate your testing of the led grow lights. Can you reply back to me regarding what is actually the best lights for using growing tomatoes and peppers indoors. I’ve been spending too much on buying grow lights just to grow my hot chili peppers and dwarf tomato plants indoors. I did watch your videos testing the growth of the tomato plants. I’ve, also watched many other videos about most everything regarding the technologies of the many different types of led grow lights ranging from expensive ones and cheap ones. I just can’t even make the right decisions of what is the right grow light to use anymore. I just kept buying many different ones try growing my plants healthy indoors. But, do t stop with your experiments because it does help us viewers as to understand more of how we can grow our plants indoors. And I for one, grow indoors due to health issues and I’d like also to continue to grow due to the seasons especially winter. I bought a spider farmer light which is very expensive but I have to return it because it was missing a control panel that should turn on the lights or something. I’m not gonna turn in and if the grow lights by plugging into electricity every time and then unplugging it to turn it off which is ridiculous. Anyways, keep up with your videos and we all can keep getting more information from your experiments that does help us gardeners whether we plant indoors or outdoors. Most of all we appreciate you for sharing with us your knowledge and experiments. Thank you
Great info, and I was really glad that you went off-topic a couple of times too as it helped us build "bridges" between subjects. Very knowledgeable indeed!
Very informative, thank you! Your passion for the topic is more than obvious - and you present your info in a easily digestible manner. You got a new sub in me :)
I think that what you are seeing is full spectrum continuing to support leaf and stem and perhaps even root growth, when in the last portion of life the plant needs to send that energy to flowers and fruit. This suggests that full spectrum may be best for the first half of a plant's life and burple for the 2nd half.
very interesting. Questions: 1) would you say red-blue light only became deficient after big canopy has developed and won't be matter for smaller plants like lettuce and herbs? 2) would adding more blue and some green LED's (instead of whole spectrum white) equally address the problem of light penetration 3) was there a possible flow in the experiment that your red-blue light had only 10 blue (responsible for plant growth) LEDs? The 2 reasons I think of not using white are: 1) they know to lose some intensity with time (due to phosphorus burning out) 2) possibly less efficient than pure RGB?
You are getting into having to tune the amount of light you would need by adding other wavelengths. And even more so, having to figure out what specific wavelength is needed. Throwing a bunch of different colors at a plant can just oversaturate the. The blue to red ratio is specific to plants. off hand I don't know for sure, but this one would favor flowering phases, but is ok for general purpose (as supplemental). The experiment is about showing what happens with the 2 main wavelengths. Yes, canopy penetration is effected by means of the red blue as seen in the video with no lower growth. Shorter plants grow well (like lettuce) under just red/blue, but the rule still applies; you get a better result with full spectrum. White light LEDs burn out all the same as any other color led. The phosphor doesn't really burn out, the LED does and the phosphor if it's not remote, can contribute to hear build up on the chip.
Big Al Its true white aren't as efficient as individual mono filled pcb lights. But the whites are easy to install, and cover the whole spectrum nicely. The intensity from them allows for a high PAR and umol which can be better than having a perfect spectrum. Green wavelength is reflected from the plants so it won't absorb it (not good for growth). Cree did a study with XML3 I think and some far red and blue monos to compare against a gavita 1000w at half the power.
enjoyed the full length versions of parts 1 &2! (haven't watched part 3 yet) I wouldn't want to see the video shortened. Would have been interesting to have collected the total weight / mass of each plant as a measure of the effectiveness of the lights in supporting plant growth. Also, @ 3:30 - 4:00. I don’t understand the penetrating the canopy comments. OK, green light penetrates the canopy best (photons absorbed the least?), but aren’t the green wavelengths of little use for photosynthesis? Also, with respect to the red vs blue canopy penetrance. Is this an efficiency of photon capture difference? Or is light scatter or something else going on? Thanks
Thank you very much! You helped me a lot understanding that White LEDs are best for plant growth and Red-Blue or purple LEDs are best for flowering and fruiting. THANKS! You earned one more like and subscriber
I really appreciate this video. I was trying to choose LED strips for supplemental light for my orchids. I'm relieved that white had better results, because if red-blue was better I would just skip the lighting. Thanks!
Hi, I'm trying to figure out what color temperature I should use for my white LED. Do you think the lesser kelvin temperature on the white LED made a difference compared to the higher kelvin white LEDs around the 5,000-6500k? I tend to hear that higher kelvin temps are "better", because it is whiter but to me they seem more blue then natural sunlight. I am choosing between a 6500k led vs a 3000k led temperature. Thanks! Both videos were really helpful for me.
I think your info is the best ! Also the tomato roots need to grow very deep to feed for growth and strength...but anyway the led info is really helpful...and better than what I've found on the tube. Thanks bunches !!
What’s your feeling on induction lighting I have are Agro max tool spectrum induction and a regular white and duction and mix it up with LEDs and I’ve had pretty good success
Its just overpriced florescent on steroids. Yeah they last, but so do LED's. Fluorescent lights dont really have a uniform spectrum either. It has peaks in certain bands. That have sort of a weak penetrating power too.
This was a very interesting video...I learned a lot! So I purchased 8 led shop lights, 4ft, 20w, 2200 lumens 6500k for my plant shelves to grow mostly herbs and greens like lettuces. In your opinion...How many lights should I put on each shelf? I currently have 3 per shelf. Not sure if I need more or less...
Good vid, like the info, just an observation, you said you wanted to start and grow them with the same light as it may impact growth, but then you did just that. Did you not throw the experiment right from the start by doing this? Good info, but a little concerned on the QAQC by starting them all under the same light source. Cheers
Diffused light just spreads out the power and you’ll have to move the light closer. Led shop light are basically that. It really has nothing to do with growth phase. Light diffusion can also reduce efficiency depending how much there is.
This video series is the most helpful I’ve seen on grow lights ! Thank you for taking the time to do this . I have over 100 succulent plants that I keep indoors . I want them fat , colorful and healthy. I use T5 fluorescent grow lights and I love them so far . Have you compared white LED to T5 ? Do LED ‘s make a real difference in the electric bill ? The only way I wanna switch to LED is if the electricity bill will be Lower and they cause better growth 😊
Growing Answers , Thanks for the reply . Did you truly see better growth with LED ? Any brands you recommend that are affordable? I’m just a hobbyist. Not looking for super expensive. I usually like to use 2ft by 1ft lights so they’ll fit my shelves . My favorite T5 light only costed me $77 😊. Looking for something under $100 . Thanks again 😊
Awesome Video! Only thing I question on the method is trying to "veg" a plant under such heavy red spectrum. From my experience, you would receive a better result under a 2/3 Blue, 1/3 Red LED mix. Heavy red spectrum is from my understanding for the flower/finishing stages of growth.
You are exactly right. However white lights can be used for the whole process. This was just showing what happens if you just use 2 wavelengths that are said to be all the plant needs. If you want to change lights during growth phases, that is just to try to control the veg/flower period and tomatoes will flower no matter what. There were no more flowers under the red/blue light than the white.
I really like this guy's videos. He's obviously knowledgeable. I think it's funny, however, how he always acts slightly annoyed. It's as if shooting these videos isn't his idea, and he's being forced to do them for community service or something.
Not necessarily. Messing with ratios to get it right is not easy. And these days it’s not really a common practice anymore. White led efficiency is starting to surpass the old school blurple light approach.
@@GrowingAnswers Have you ever tried 6500k household LEDs for growing as they are cheaper than growing lights? White growing lights seem expensive on Amazon😊
Just curious, you had mentioned in a previous upload that you would adjust the par to other light. If the LED were design for short but wide growth as you had mention regarding the cannabis influence. If you had lowered the red/blue light, would then the plant could focus on leaf matter instead of weak steam? And perhaps the actual production of usable material would be a higher yield?
The light spread is all that is effected. Neither LED has a lens for focusing so you only loose light coverage by a few inches outside the center of the light. The plants on both side are both well within the main footprint of the light no matter the height. The light housings themselves are almost as big as the area as they are touching the walls edge to edge and width wise.
Super educational. Thank you so much. I grow high light orchids under T5s and have avoided LEDs because I don’t like the purple color. I used 3000k and 6500k tubes. Is there and optimum LED temp. For growth and flowering? You mentioned in Part 1 the white light was 5500k and then had 3000k in the experiment. What would be best? I’ve never noticed if they have warm white and cool white LEDs.
Hello, so the yellow flood light that you used? Was that just a regular outdoor flight light and not something that is labeled and sold as grow light in the market ? Thank you
@@GrowingAnswers Thank you for the reply! Does that mean I can just purchase white LED tubes from any store and they should work ? I am trying to bring in my succulents for the winters.
@@GrowingAnswers I am sorry for asking so many questions, These regular LED lights? are they also considered Full/wide spectrum or are the lights labelled as full-spectrum different? thank you
Thank you once again! Exceptionally helpful and thoughtfully explained. I see you are passionate about you videos. Bravo! Maybe you could have 2 sets of videos: 1) the short "blue-red" (essential points only) series and the 2) the lengthy "white-light" (more complete) series. All the best. Keep them coming.
Thank you so much for this information! And I was hoping that the red/blue lights lost the "competition", because they are way harder to get around here.
Awesome detailed info! I watched the first one as well. Just what I need right now cause I am researching the best way to set up a 4 foot, 4 shelf grow light system.
Thanks for sharing that big knowledge and experiments i was searching and searching and reading many articles but all not help until i found your channel you are the best I subscribed
Doesn't this go against everything I've been told in the last 3 days of people saying for stronger growth 400 and 650 spectrum is essential ? Or does the stronger stems take away nutrients that would otherwise distribute to the harvest ? ? ?
Hmmm thinking... what about the kind off LED lamps musicans use, they call par lamps, its RGB , but is it normal red and blue color we can use to grow plants, or is it som speciel LEDs ther use to growlights ?? Thanks for some cool videos..
This was very rewarding, congrats on the good work mate, regarding the color temperature choice for white LEDs, lets say i pretend to grow, seed to harvest, only on withe COB leds, would it be better to use cool rich on blue light leds, or warm leaning to red spectrum leds? thanks in advance
Thanks mate, that was really fast, now diggin a little deeper, how is it that, photosythetic absortion spectrum (PAS) has a higer peak, promediating clorophyl a and b, in the blue light wave lenght and photosynthetic absortion response (PAR) has the higher peak arround the red light wavelenght, what is the explanation behind that? i can see that it is the justification for the plant "wanting" to get more red light but i cant see the correlation, hope my question makes some sense, sorry for the shitty english :D best regards!
Big words and phrasing is giving me a headache, but I think the answer to that is the dominant color of the chlorophyll pigments is green. Green absorbs more red by filtering and light in the red spectrum is highest in demand because it is mostly absorbed by the top part of the plant. Blue light peaks higher in response because its more efficiently utilized by transmitting more through the leaves and therefor is absorbed by more of the plant. That's the general answer. This is why plants need less on the blue side of the spectrum simply because they respond to it better with less than, in terms of energy vs red. I'm no scientist by any means so if you want to get down to a cellular level, I would advise to google that.
i was rather interested in part 1 because i needed info on growth with a 6500k WHITE LED floodlight. Part 2 you've changed it. I was using a 500W halogen floodlight (yellow warm light) which worked great, but used too much electricity and eventually broke under 24/7 use. The equivalent LED (according to you tube and Lumens) to that was a 100W LED floodlight. Do i look for a 100W 3500k light now, or is my current 6500k multi array LED light fine? Looking at the growth, the plant isn't stretching out anymore (there is new growth in nodes and leaves seem to be growing "bushier") - however, it does look like the growth has slowed down, whilst under a much brighter light (halogen to LED) i am confused at this point - HELP :(
I am going to start growing some salad greens over the winter. so your saying I should not really listen to all the waffle and sales retoric and buy the cheapest option?
Karla Stenger the red/blue is sold as a grow light. The white is technically not sold as a grow light, but neither are hid or Home Depot fluorescent tubes that are very commonly used for growing and work well.
So what you telling it's that drawing energy a part , HPS are way better than led ? I'm growing with a 250 watt HPS in a small tent ...my plant are growing much tall than growing them with only led light !!
had a very big difference between the 2 lights which choose doubt thinking took 8 days which to choose, thanks to this video finally decided I thank you, greetings from medellin
Great video, thank you! When I first saw the results I was in disbelief... I was thinking you had to be wrong... years ago when I was researching LED's the red/blue was "the best", but this video has gotten me to do more research and white does turn out to be better. Thanks!
hi, tomatos are a climbing vine. since you let the LED plants collapse from their own weight, this can harm the plants. long, tough stemmed woody tomato plants... I don't know man. especially since they all made 9 tomatos each... the white light did not collapse, is that a good thing? I would rather short plants instead of long spindly plants that get the same number of fruit.
What if you were to put the red-blue near a window or on the porch so it would get a bit of the other spectrums. Will that fix the problems and make the red-blue win?
+OrionA51 well i'm thinking that maybe the plant only requires a bit of the other spectrums besides red and blue, and having the plant near a window will fix all those deficiencies triggering it to grow normally. Thus, you'll get the benefit of the theoretical efficiency of emitting just red and blue -which is the spectrums best absorbed by light , without getting the negative effect of not having some variability in the spectrum so that all the plants functions are properly triggered. I hope that makes sense it's a mouthful
and I did subscribe. I will be posting aquaponics/aeroponics videos this year and will be following all of your videos because I think the info will help me be a more successful gardener. I look forward to more videos in the future.
I honestly just want to say "Thank You" for doing this Video, Sharing your science experiments & also your knowledge. I watch part 1 & 2. Awesome work man... i never knew there was a green spec. LED light. I just have a question to ask... can these works for those T5 led light bulb...? Keep up the good work man. Hope to hear your reply
I just couldn't watch it...way too much information..., it's like every time he said a word he spent 10 minutes explaining in it detail...did he ever actually say what the results were ?, I fell asleep.....
Yes, green light very important, still used 70% efficiently by plant. I think blue is 80%+ efficient. Plants only reflect 10% of green light. Ideal green light ratio is 25% of total light. Thicker leaves n stems. Penetrates deeper into the leaf as well. Carotenes absorb green light very efficiently, for plants with more carotenes. Ideal is just use full spectrum or use mostly red/blue with some supplemental full spectrum white light. Green led too inefficient as a diode.
for colour temperature of led white light; 3500k - 4000k is considered as neutral, you get fairly even light intensity of blue and red light spectrum. Above neutral you might get slightly more blue light intensity but far less red light intensity. anything below neutral you get slightly more red light intensity but far less blue light intensity.
I really liked your video. Thanks and Its nice you are doing it because you enjoy it. I have a indoor garden because I enjoy growing so much so I can relate. Thanks again. Great video
Awesome videos man! Don't skimp on all the good science! When you said," I'm not going to get to much into that." I was bummed. But then you did so thank you!! Haha
That's why the most new boards have 85% white (different types mostly 3500k, 5000k and some 7500k)and 15% of the two outer spectrums like UV and on the other side IR!
How can you compare these without giving us the info for the COB? so many variables not covered like lumens per watt, par values etc.. Good idea on this experiment but you need better controls.
Despite of the results, i think that the X factor make the plant doesnt stand rigid was caused by the sufficient water supply, those adult tomatoes needs more water to synthesize carbohydrate as the red and blue light spectrum are richer than white lighted. So i think that the bottleneck factor that make the R&B light loose are the water supply doesnt met the requirement for the exponential growth period on adult size as the R&B spectrum are richer on the R&B Led.
legalize tomatoes
Montana just legaziled it a year ago
First off you're a true scientist, I've been watching every grow light vid I could in the past three days, you are the only one who answered All of my questions.
P.s thanks for compiling the vids, into one session.
Really appreciate all the detail. I've learned more in the last 40 minutes than I have in days of researching various websites. What I'd love to see is a comparison between the various whites. 5k, 3.5k, etc. Thanks for sharing and please keep it up. You've got another subscriber!
@G Hollis actually 4k is neutral, 5k is consider as cool light
I use 6000 kelvin light which looks clean white - some people call this studio light, cos it reflects all surface colors as their original color instead of manipulating the surface into having same color as the light source.. therefore, white light is what I would call full spectrum light, but for some odd reason, the industry calls red and blue light ''full spectrum''....
@G Hollis your reference said that "Color temperatures over 5000 K are called "cool colors" (bluish), while lower color temperatures (2700-3000 K) are called "warm colors" (yellowish)".
@@orion9k all white light considered as full spectrum because it contains red green and blue light. Also the colour temperature (K) is the colour we (human) see in the eyes, its doesn't contain the same wavelength as the sun.
@@apple-on5pq what does not contain the same wave length as the sun? The suns wavelength depends on the time of the day
This is the best information i got since trying to grow cannabis. I mean with so much information going around, i recently purchase flood light like LED 4000k 50w and people tend to tell a different story before i decided to grow. First it was lumens, lumens became LUX and recently diodes of the LED wont be enough but you debunked all the crap i was told in this vid and i am half way thru it only. Thanks allot this had definitely saved me some money. Each person i had shared my idea on growing keep suggesting expensive grow panels with built in fans etc, yet from the results with this vid i am convinced it is possible to grow with budget flood lights LED
Just updated I was ordered Spider Farmer Grow Light SF-1000 LED last Nov 2019 on Amazon. My Jade succulent lots improved lots strong thick stems from white light much better no more leggy/collapsed, I stopped use red/blue light make worse leggy/collapsed on my Jade succulent because lack full spectrum light.
That why I founded your video about tomato grow went collapsed under red/blue light, I just shocked same my Jade succulent.
Thank you for doing something I've wondered about ever since the very first generation of grow LED lamps came out.
Just watched the lettuce seed starting LED vs. T5. Thanks again. I’ve learned more today from you about LEDs than in months of here snd there research.
Started to watch as I want to start some orchids under extended day light.wow, such a wonderful comprehensive presentation. lost some beauty sleep but well worth it.
Perhaps you could do something with the cheap lights from like walmart or Lowe's or those $30-$40 lights from amazon
Your explanations are very helpful. I like to know what I am doing. Don't have any indoor sunlight and have been very frustrated with dying plants and orchids. So now I feel I know what to do. Looked at many other videos and they just left me asking questions. For instance It's good to know that red is weeker than full spectrum but helpful for fruits and flowers.
love your vids. The first time I watched your 3 part series I didn't get all the information downpacked. So I watched them again and after I did more research it started to make more sense.
Cyrus Keeshig thanks. I know some info needs more explanation. Just kinda hard to do that without over explaining as much of this is. Some people prefer the short version so it's hard to please everyone.
Most growlamps today have a mix of all spectrum's. You have valid point about white LED (i would guess 4000 Kalvin )it is much better spectrum to veg due to stimulating hormones however the plants flower much better in red/blue (about 2500 kalvin for red light and 6500 kalvin for the blue light) and that will also stimulate a hormone like "Flower as much fruit you can before dying" type of hormone. I can explain this and its vary simple, Spring and summer time have a much brighter spectrum so that the plants have a greater chance to stretch and grow big thick stems so t can carry as much flowers and fruit it can before dying. Where the sun attends to turns red at Fall to give that boost to mature the fruits and terpenes so it will attracts animals that can eat it and spread the seeds before winter (most plants harvest sep - oct (Depending on where you live). Tomatoes produce flowers true out the summer time but gets really juice in august (Because the sun turns more "red"). Btw the Cannabinaceae Family is quite big so pretty much means you grow tomatoes like you grow cannabis. Have a good day!
i love it.
Thanks man!!! Lots of help from start to finish of vudeo. I appreciate the details given. Thanks. More vids please. Cheers
It would be interesting to see if there is a difference between the grow chip you used [that use red and blue LED,s] and the ones that use blue LED,s and use a phosphor to produce the red and blue color.
Hates tomatoes. But grew them. So you're obviously not showing us the plants you normally *really* grow lol.
"Tomatoes".
Pfft. Those are some dank tomatoes
no fears this idiot couldn't grow anything.
Tomatoes and weed have pretty much the same grow environment. If you grow great tomatoes you're gonna grow great weed
Thanks man very informative.
However it would have been lovely to see the results going Into the fruiting stage and even a taste testing comparison 👍
Your experiment is consistent my experiment. I am using R, B and W for better PPFD and energy efficiency purposes. In our grow chamber, lighting is a major portion of my cost for indoor growing.
thanks for sharing this experiment.I am growing under LED's for 7 years now and got the good results only under white (2700k and 5000k) lights too.
I canceled a full spectrum light order because of this! Thank you.
I do appreciate your testing of the led grow lights. Can you reply back to me regarding what is actually the best lights for using growing tomatoes and peppers indoors. I’ve been spending too much on buying grow lights just to grow my hot chili peppers and dwarf tomato plants indoors. I did watch your videos testing the growth of the tomato plants. I’ve, also watched many other videos about most everything regarding the technologies of the many different types of led grow lights ranging from expensive ones and cheap ones. I just can’t even make the right decisions of what is the right grow light to use anymore. I just kept buying many different ones try growing my plants healthy indoors. But, do t stop with your experiments because it does help us viewers as to understand more of how we can grow our plants indoors. And I for one, grow indoors due to health issues and I’d like also to continue to grow due to the seasons especially winter. I bought a spider farmer light which is very expensive but I have to return it because it was missing a control panel that should turn on the lights or something. I’m not gonna turn in and if the grow lights by plugging into electricity every time and then unplugging it to turn it off which is ridiculous. Anyways, keep up with your videos and we all can keep getting more information from your experiments that does help us gardeners whether we plant indoors or outdoors. Most of all we appreciate you for sharing with us your knowledge and experiments. Thank you
Great info, and I was really glad that you went off-topic a couple of times too as it helped us build "bridges" between subjects. Very knowledgeable indeed!
Very informative, thank you! Your passion for the topic is more than obvious - and you present your info in a easily digestible manner. You got a new sub in me :)
great info Jut wondering what deficiencies caused the pink LED tomatoes to collapse what it receiving in officiant minerals of some sort?
See my more up to date videos about that.
Interesting. Good stuff. The red/blue plant got about 20% less true wattage though, and that's a big difference. So comparison may be a little off.
Good, solid information on indoor growing! Thanks a lot! I really appreciate the amount of effort you put into making it understandable;) Cheers mate
I think that what you are seeing is full spectrum continuing to support leaf and stem and perhaps even root growth, when in the last portion of life the plant needs to send that energy to flowers and fruit. This suggests that full spectrum may be best for the first half of a plant's life and burple for the 2nd half.
My other experiments that were more Current than this don’t support that theory.
The video wasn't too long 😊 I enjoyed learning everything you had to teach. Thank you for the education 🌬🌿💙🌱🍃
I cant stop watching him he is so beautiful. And yes the experiment was helpful.
Awesome vid thanks. Roughly how high above 2 inch high seedlings would I hang a white 100w light? I like the simplicity of using these lights.
very interesting. Questions:
1) would you say red-blue light only became deficient after big canopy has developed and won't be matter for smaller plants like lettuce and herbs?
2) would adding more blue and some green LED's (instead of whole spectrum white) equally address the problem of light penetration
3) was there a possible flow in the experiment that your red-blue light had only 10 blue (responsible for plant growth) LEDs?
The 2 reasons I think of not using white are:
1) they know to lose some intensity with time (due to phosphorus burning out)
2) possibly less efficient than pure RGB?
You are getting into having to tune the amount of light you would need by adding other wavelengths. And even more so, having to figure out what specific wavelength is needed. Throwing a bunch of different colors at a plant can just oversaturate the.
The blue to red ratio is specific to plants. off hand I don't know for sure, but this one would favor flowering phases, but is ok for general purpose (as supplemental). The experiment is about showing what happens with the 2 main wavelengths. Yes, canopy penetration is effected by means of the red blue as seen in the video with no lower growth. Shorter plants grow well (like lettuce) under just red/blue, but the rule still applies; you get a better result with full spectrum.
White light LEDs burn out all the same as any other color led. The phosphor doesn't really burn out, the LED does and the phosphor if it's not remote, can contribute to hear build up on the chip.
Big Al Its true white aren't as efficient as individual mono filled pcb lights. But the whites are easy to install, and cover the whole spectrum nicely. The intensity from them allows for a high PAR and umol which can be better than having a perfect spectrum. Green wavelength is reflected from the plants so it won't absorb it (not good for growth). Cree did a study with XML3 I think and some far red and blue monos to compare against a gavita 1000w at half the power.
enjoyed the full length versions of parts 1 &2! (haven't watched part 3 yet) I wouldn't want to see the video shortened.
Would have been interesting to have collected the total weight / mass of each plant as a measure of the effectiveness of the lights in supporting plant growth.
Also, @ 3:30 - 4:00. I don’t understand the penetrating the canopy comments. OK, green light penetrates the canopy best (photons absorbed the least?), but aren’t the green wavelengths of little use for photosynthesis?
Also, with respect to the red vs blue canopy penetrance. Is this an efficiency of photon capture difference? Or is light scatter or something else going on?
Thanks
hats off for the effort u took for this video
Is the white LED same as conventional LED used in houses or it is specific for plants growth only?
Thank you very much! You helped me a lot understanding that White LEDs are best for plant growth and Red-Blue or purple LEDs are best for flowering and fruiting. THANKS! You earned one more like and subscriber
I really appreciate this video. I was trying to choose LED strips for supplemental light for my orchids. I'm relieved that white had better results, because if red-blue was better I would just skip the lighting. Thanks!
Hi, I'm trying to figure out what color temperature I should use for my white LED. Do you think the lesser kelvin temperature on the white LED made a difference compared to the higher kelvin white LEDs around the 5,000-6500k? I tend to hear that higher kelvin temps are "better", because it is whiter but to me they seem more blue then natural sunlight. I am choosing between a 6500k led vs a 3000k led temperature. Thanks! Both videos were really helpful for me.
Geoff ua-cam.com/video/kMiVYKbuE0k/v-deo.html
so can I use those LED lights used to iluminate the room when making videos or photographs as long as they are above 3000k right?
I think your info is the best ! Also the tomato roots need to grow very deep to feed for growth and strength...but anyway the led info is really helpful...and better than what I've found on the tube. Thanks bunches !!
What’s your feeling on induction lighting I have are Agro max tool spectrum induction and a regular white and duction and mix it up with LEDs and I’ve had pretty good success
Its just overpriced florescent on steroids. Yeah they last, but so do LED's. Fluorescent lights dont really have a uniform spectrum either. It has peaks in certain bands. That have sort of a weak penetrating power too.
This was a very interesting video...I learned a lot! So I purchased 8 led shop lights, 4ft, 20w, 2200 lumens 6500k for my plant shelves to grow mostly herbs and greens like lettuces. In your opinion...How many lights should I put on each shelf? I currently have 3 per shelf. Not sure if I need more or less...
RiseUpBlue should be plenty. Proximity matters more than light output. Adjust distance based on plant health.
Good vid, like the info, just an observation, you said you wanted to start and grow them with the same light as it may impact growth, but then you did just that. Did you not throw the experiment right from the start by doing this? Good info, but a little concerned on the QAQC by starting them all under the same light source. Cheers
Watch my newer series. This is outdated
So would a frosted LED light work better as a grow light vs a clear LED light? If I'm only interested in vegetative growth. thanks.
Diffused light just spreads out the power and you’ll have to move the light closer. Led shop light are basically that. It really has nothing to do with growth phase. Light diffusion can also reduce efficiency depending how much there is.
@@GrowingAnswers So I'm wondering your thoughts on this LED shoplight.... it's 6000K, and 4100lumen. www.ebay.ca/itm/264214442089
Thank you for doing the videos am learning more about grow lights
Thanx you were the most helpful out of dozens of videos keep it up!
This video series is the most helpful I’ve seen on grow lights ! Thank you for taking the time to do this . I have over 100 succulent plants that I keep indoors . I want them fat , colorful and healthy. I use T5 fluorescent grow lights and I love them so far . Have you compared white LED to T5 ? Do LED ‘s make a real difference in the electric bill ? The only way I wanna switch to LED is if the electricity bill will be Lower and they cause better growth 😊
LED has better spectrum and the good ones are far more efficient than fluorescent.
Growing Answers , Thanks for the reply . Did you truly see better growth with LED ? Any brands you recommend that are affordable? I’m just a hobbyist. Not looking for super expensive. I usually like to use 2ft by 1ft lights so they’ll fit my shelves . My favorite T5 light only costed me $77 😊. Looking for something under $100 . Thanks again 😊
Awesome Video! Only thing I question on the method is trying to "veg" a plant under such heavy red spectrum. From my experience, you would receive a better result under a 2/3 Blue, 1/3 Red LED mix. Heavy red spectrum is from my understanding for the flower/finishing stages of growth.
You are exactly right. However white lights can be used for the whole process. This was just showing what happens if you just use 2 wavelengths that are said to be all the plant needs. If you want to change lights during growth phases, that is just to try to control the veg/flower period and tomatoes will flower no matter what. There were no more flowers under the red/blue light than the white.
"it feels ridged like a tree, not weed but like a tree branch" 😂😂
Didn't he say not Woody?
I really like this guy's videos. He's obviously knowledgeable. I think it's funny, however, how he always acts slightly annoyed. It's as if shooting these videos isn't his idea, and he's being forced to do them for community service or something.
Haha yes funny veiw on that.
Great resurch though
Great info, thanks for the video
Can I mix both white and red blue LED together?
Will I get better result?
Not necessarily. Messing with ratios to get it right is not easy. And these days it’s not really a common practice anymore. White led efficiency is starting to surpass the old school blurple light approach.
@@GrowingAnswers Have you ever tried 6500k household LEDs for growing as they are cheaper than growing lights?
White growing lights seem expensive on Amazon😊
Just curious, you had mentioned in a previous upload that you would adjust the par to other light. If the LED were design for short but wide growth as you had mention regarding the cannabis influence. If you had lowered the red/blue light, would then the plant could focus on leaf matter instead of weak steam? And perhaps the actual production of usable material would be a higher yield?
The light spread is all that is effected. Neither LED has a lens for focusing so you only loose light coverage by a few inches outside the center of the light. The plants on both side are both well within the main footprint of the light no matter the height. The light housings themselves are almost as big as the area as they are touching the walls edge to edge and width wise.
Thanks for clearing that up. your project is an excellent presentation.
I thought you were going to lower the red/blues to match the PAR/lux because they were pulling different wattages?
Ryan Streckfuss part 4. Click the link.
OrionA51 thanks
Super educational. Thank you so much. I grow high light orchids under T5s and have avoided LEDs because I don’t like the purple color. I used 3000k and 6500k tubes. Is there and optimum LED temp. For growth and flowering? You mentioned in Part 1 the white light was 5500k and then had 3000k in the experiment. What would be best? I’ve never noticed if they have warm white and cool white LEDs.
pal98111 ua-cam.com/video/TpSXTRju19Q/v-deo.html
Hello, so the yellow flood light that you used? Was that just a regular outdoor flight light and not something that is labeled and sold as grow light in the market ? Thank you
Veeral Dogra yes
@@GrowingAnswers Thank you for the reply! Does that mean I can just purchase white LED tubes from any store and they should work ? I am trying to bring in my succulents for the winters.
Veeral Dogra yep
@@GrowingAnswers oh sweet. Thanks. I had no idea.
@@GrowingAnswers I am sorry for asking so many questions, These regular LED lights? are they also considered Full/wide spectrum or are the lights labelled as full-spectrum different? thank you
Thank you once again! Exceptionally helpful and thoughtfully explained. I see you are passionate about you videos. Bravo! Maybe you could have 2 sets of videos: 1) the short "blue-red" (essential points only) series and the 2) the lengthy "white-light" (more complete) series. All the best. Keep them coming.
Your welcome. Part 4 will be the short answer actually.
HI What should be the coverage area of the 50 Watt led light for lettuce growth. If you woul dbe kind enough to share
Vinit Bolinjkar about 4sf.
So can I just use red/blue for getting things started before I put them out into the garden?
Kevin Dwyer don’t bother. Just get white leds
Thank you so much for this information! And I was hoping that the red/blue lights lost the "competition", because they are way harder to get around here.
Just order on Amazon!!! I do my plants thrive!!
Awesome detailed info! I watched the first one as well. Just what I need right now cause I am researching the best way to set up a 4 foot, 4 shelf grow light system.
Thanks for sharing that big knowledge and experiments i was searching and searching and reading many articles but all not help until i found your channel you are the best I subscribed
Doesn't this go against everything I've been told in the last 3 days of people saying for stronger growth 400 and 650 spectrum is essential ? Or does the stronger stems take away nutrients that would otherwise distribute to the harvest ? ? ?
FlamingCuntLips watch my current episodes on this topic.
Are these standard off the shelf LEDs? or are they special.. to emit uv or ir?
Bartacomus Kidd nothing special. Just cheap bridgelux.
so with enough of them, any led could grow plants indoors? white LEDs?
Bartacomus Kidd of course.
Hmmm thinking... what about the kind off LED lamps musicans use, they call par lamps, its RGB , but is it normal red and blue color we can use to grow plants, or is it som speciel LEDs ther use to growlights ??
Thanks for some cool videos..
This was very rewarding, congrats on the good work mate, regarding the color temperature choice for white LEDs, lets say i pretend to grow, seed to harvest, only on withe COB leds, would it be better to use cool rich on blue light leds, or warm leaning to red spectrum leds? thanks in advance
Lucas Maldonado you could you any, but red dominant will give better yield.
Thanks mate, that was really fast, now diggin a little deeper, how is it that, photosythetic absortion spectrum (PAS) has a higer peak, promediating clorophyl a and b, in the blue light wave lenght and photosynthetic absortion response (PAR) has the higher peak arround the red light wavelenght, what is the explanation behind that? i can see that it is the justification for the plant "wanting" to get more red light but i cant see the correlation, hope my question makes some sense, sorry for the shitty english :D best regards!
Big words and phrasing is giving me a headache, but I think the answer to that is the dominant color of the chlorophyll pigments is green. Green absorbs more red by filtering and light in the red spectrum is highest in demand because it is mostly absorbed by the top part of the plant. Blue light peaks higher in response because its more efficiently utilized by transmitting more through the leaves and therefor is absorbed by more of the plant. That's the general answer. This is why plants need less on the blue side of the spectrum simply because they respond to it better with less than, in terms of energy vs red. I'm no scientist by any means so if you want to get down to a cellular level, I would advise to google that.
it makes sense, thanks man really appreciate it
i was rather interested in part 1 because i needed info on growth with a 6500k WHITE LED floodlight. Part 2 you've changed it. I was using a 500W halogen floodlight (yellow warm light) which worked great, but used too much electricity and eventually broke under 24/7 use. The equivalent LED (according to you tube and Lumens) to that was a 100W LED floodlight. Do i look for a 100W 3500k light now, or is my current 6500k multi array LED light fine? Looking at the growth, the plant isn't stretching out anymore (there is new growth in nodes and leaves seem to be growing "bushier") - however, it does look like the growth has slowed down, whilst under a much brighter light (halogen to LED) i am confused at this point - HELP :(
Vitesh Rampaul well first problem is using a halogen for growing.
@@GrowingAnswers Hi. As I've mentioned . . . . I changed to LED. My question is, do I stick with the 6500k 100W or change to a warmer 3500K
Vitesh Rampaul 3500
I am going to start growing some salad greens over the winter. so your saying I should not really listen to all the waffle and sales retoric and buy the cheapest option?
TheJunkyardgenius cheap works. Salad greens you can grow with almost any kind of light.
Ive been growing all my plants using just 5 bucks 6500k 90cm T5 led tube x4, and they grew well on cucumber, okra, cilli, tomatoes, vegetables
Hello , can you tell me how many umol you have under the lights ? The results of par metter :)
I will be making another video for that. I am unable to do so at this time.
+OrionA51 Thank you very much :)
ua-cam.com/video/RuhiFe3WcQ0/v-deo.html
i learned a lot from your video, including part 1. thank you :)
What amount of kelvin would you suggest?
So I want to be sure if I understood this right. The red & blue light that you used is not the same kind of light that's usually called "for growth"?
Karla Stenger the red/blue is sold as a grow light. The white is technically not sold as a grow light, but neither are hid or Home Depot fluorescent tubes that are very commonly used for growing and work well.
oh ok, thank you very much, the experiment was very interesting to see!
Great video. It doesn't matter what method you use, you want nutrient dense (high brix) food. I brix test everything.
So what you telling it's that drawing energy a part , HPS are way better than led ?
I'm growing with a 250 watt HPS in a small tent ...my plant are growing much tall than growing them with only led light !!
had a very big difference between the 2 lights which choose doubt thinking took 8 days which to choose, thanks to this video finally decided I thank you, greetings from medellin
Great video, thank you! When I first saw the results I was in disbelief... I was thinking you had to be wrong... years ago when I was researching LED's the red/blue was "the best", but this video has gotten me to do more research and white does turn out to be better. Thanks!
What white? He tested yellow (basically red if your paying attention.)
hi, tomatos are a climbing vine.
since you let the LED plants collapse from their own weight, this can harm the plants. long, tough stemmed woody tomato plants... I don't know man. especially since they all made 9 tomatos each... the white light did not collapse, is that a good thing? I would rather short plants instead of long spindly plants that get the same number of fruit.
dam how am I watching this again 9 months later. fell down the well again.
Keep up the experiments! Interesting stuff. To see the differences between the lights
Thanks for the videos would it be better for me to add a small number of white leds so it the leaves can convert it into heat
What if you were to put the red-blue near a window or on the porch so it would get a bit of the other spectrums. Will that fix the problems and make the red-blue win?
Sure, but I dont see why you still want to use the red/blue light.
+OrionA51 well i'm thinking that maybe the plant only requires a bit of the other spectrums besides red and blue, and having the plant near a window will fix all those deficiencies triggering it to grow normally. Thus, you'll get the benefit of the theoretical efficiency of emitting just red and blue -which is the spectrums best absorbed by light , without getting the negative effect of not having some variability in the spectrum so that all the plants functions are properly triggered.
I hope that makes sense it's a mouthful
+Victor Probably yes I understand. However, that's a completely different experiment to answer a different question. Thanks!
that's what i was thinking as well...
and I did subscribe. I will be posting aquaponics/aeroponics videos this year and will be following all of your videos because I think the info will help me be a more successful gardener. I look forward to more videos in the future.
Sir great job a lot of knowledge and comparisons lot of questions answered. Thanks you. Keep it up 👍
Thank you so much. You are spending your time to show something to us
I honestly just want to say "Thank You" for doing this Video, Sharing your science experiments & also your knowledge. I watch part 1 & 2. Awesome work man... i never knew there was a green spec. LED light. I just have a question to ask... can these works for those T5 led light bulb...? Keep up the good work man. Hope to hear your reply
Alexander Louis t5 led do work well
I just watched this and some of your other light videos. Thanks for this info!
Great job! I found it interesting and will be using your info. I used the LE lights last year and they did very well.
You are so long winded! lol but your videos are awesome! You turned my living room in to a classroom. Thanks for the knowledge!
I just couldn't watch it...way too much information..., it's like every time he said a word he spent 10 minutes explaining in it detail...did he ever actually say what the results were ?, I fell asleep.....
Yes, green light very important, still used 70% efficiently by plant. I think blue is 80%+ efficient. Plants only reflect 10% of green light. Ideal green light ratio is 25% of total light. Thicker leaves n stems. Penetrates deeper into the leaf as well. Carotenes absorb green light very efficiently, for plants with more carotenes.
Ideal is just use full spectrum or use mostly red/blue with some supplemental full spectrum white light. Green led too inefficient as a diode.
for colour temperature of led white light; 3500k - 4000k is considered as neutral, you get fairly even light intensity of blue and red light spectrum. Above neutral you might get slightly more blue light intensity but far less red light intensity. anything below neutral you get slightly more red light intensity but far less blue light intensity.
tv apple yes
Thanks for the great information. You’re an amazing teacher. Very helpful to me. 👍
Just found your channel, great videos thank you!
I really liked your video. Thanks and Its nice you are doing it because you enjoy it. I have a indoor garden because I enjoy growing so much so I can relate. Thanks again. Great video
When we used the white light and when we used the blue and red lights?
Is COB LED with phosphor coat better than COB with red blue??
Seeing that there is no way to make an LED white without phosphor, in this situation, of course.
díky
Awesome videos man! Don't skimp on all the good science! When you said," I'm not going to get to much into that." I was bummed. But then you did so thank you!! Haha
what would happen if you combine all 2 lights type under the same plant ?
Don Johnson check out my newer videos
That's why the most new boards have 85% white (different types mostly 3500k, 5000k and some 7500k)and 15% of the two outer spectrums like UV and on the other side IR!
So white light is full spectrum?
How can you compare these without giving us the info for the COB? so many variables not covered like lumens per watt, par values etc.. Good idea on this experiment but you need better controls.
Despite of the results, i think that the X factor make the plant doesnt stand rigid was caused by the sufficient water supply, those adult tomatoes needs more water to synthesize carbohydrate as the red and blue light spectrum are richer than white lighted. So i think that the bottleneck factor that make the R&B light loose are the water supply doesnt met the requirement for the exponential growth period on adult size as the R&B spectrum are richer on the R&B Led.
I still like this grow series : )
So, a warm white LED grow light is better than a red and blue LED grow light ?
ok
Thanks! I learned a lot from both vidioes. ♥