Led lighting

When I first heard about LED lights many years ago, I had heard many things but nothing concusive. No one could actually say to me "Yes..I have grown and smoked LED grown cannabis". As far as I was concerned, the only two main forms of lighting came as CFL or HPS. The rest was up to the grower, genetics, their set up and plenty of other variables that nature throws our way.

When I first heard about LED lights many years ago, I had heard many things but nothing concusive. No one could actually say to me "Yes..I have grown and smoked LED grown cannabis". As far as I was concerned, the only two main forms of lighting came as CFL or HPS. The rest was up to the grower, genetics, their set up and plenty of other variables that nature throws our way.

So when I got given the chance to test the Budmaster II 450XG model, I was more than happy to step up and put it through it’s paces. To explain some of the science behind the 450XG, it is a model that uses approx 300w after total energy consumption ( not 450w ) and uses 3w epiled diodes with 90 degree lenses. Also built in fans that do a good job of keeping everything shiny cool.

Each LED puts out between 2.4w – 2.6w and consumes between 1.6w – 1.8w to do that job. This is the same for all 3w LED as there is no true 3w, as there is no true 5w at the moment.

Right off the bat, after recieving this in the post in Amsterdam, I was super impressed by the weight and ratio of the light and how it is just a one part light. What I mean is I didn’t need to go and purchase a reflector, light bulbs, ballast or digital ballast and also the heat issue most HPS growers live with, didn’t seem to be present as no excess heat was being produced from a bulb or ballast. Also the great little thing about these and I imagine all LED lighting is the modularity factor. I have the option once I have plugged the light on to dip between 3,6 or 9 lights at the touch of a switch. Which I thought was very handy and saved the need for a digital ballast. So I was impressed by the way of the LED lights and they almost brought me back to my CFL days where I had some excellent results personally.

I decided to make the test run as neutral as possible so decided to replicate the ‘bedroom grower’ by buying a budget small tent, one pack of regular seeds of Bubblegum and shall be using worm hummus, perlite, microbes and water. I wanted to see how replicating the sun with the different diodes payed off without slamming the girls with nutes. So in total the tent, worm hummus and seeds cost around £100. So I was set and now with the light plugged in and hung 2 ft away from the girls..I was ready to grow.

I was very curious about the PAR ( Photosynthetically Active Radiation ) that I was hearing LED provide and if the science is right, then this model of LED from 1ft away produces 2200 µmoles whilst a 600w produces 1800 µmoles.

So for something that uses half the wattage and produces more PAR from the same distance had me excited to see results, to say the least!

From seedlings the first thing I noticed is how the plants choose to throw out pinks and purples and a cluster of trichomes. In response to the small amount of  UV and other colors.

With the three white diodes at different ends of the temperature scale, HPS and halides are mimicked and a small amount of all visible colors in the available light spectrum are produced, which helps to hit all those lower chlorophyll absorption peaks and therefore gives much more natural light to the plant.

It seems the plants are responding to the bird and bee nature effect, by putting colors and hues out to encourage nature to do its bit early on and throughout the grow. The plants grew super happy and I noticed a lot of angled leaves reaching for more light. One thing I did experience was the plant chooses to take calcium and magnesium differently and will show a deficiency very quickly.

This was mainly because of how close I have chosen to have the light. Ideally for the best effective coverage the light is best in the top of the tent all the way through. With seedlings and cuttings you can veg under half the light with it still in the top of tent for best results and no cal mag bleahing.

That being said the root growth was as good if not better than using HPS in my opinion but the leaves grow much lighter and more waxy. Not heavy and overshading leaves but light wavy leaves that seem to reach out more. This showed me how the plants despite being fed only water were producing more wax on its leaves than a HPS to help it retain more moisture through the leaves, also the plants seems much more twiggy and outdoor like which seemed to allow better air flow throughout the canopy. During veg these lights are amazing. The LED produces very twiggy tough plants that I have had from my past experience with other lighting. The plants had never seemed so happy and were feeding at a faster rate than normal. During veg I noticed that there are a lot more trichomes on the leaf and around stems as a way of getting itself ready for the intense UV it will need to produce the greasy, dense nugs I had been reading and hearing all about.

The stalks are always nice and thick and hard, twiggy I would say. This is because the light is hitting all the chlorophyll absorbtion peaks just right and controlling the profile of the plant with the small amount of blues and blue whites, while using the reds to maximize photosynthesis and therefore energy production.There is actually little UV light but growers have always reported to have rock hard buds. Personally I do not believe in large amounts of UV after researching UV inclusive spectrums.

So I flipped the girls after three weeks and over the flowering time, I was also curious to see if in fact the plants finish quicker than under HPS lighting. So therefore spend their energy in the last extra week swelling and spitting trichomes out.

The plants grew fast and vigorously and kept on growing at 45 degree angles, filling out with new growth every few days. I must say considering they were only given warm water, WOW! These plants were really thriving and responding well to the light, feed and fresh air available. The plants seemed to fill out a lot quicker and started to almost look picture perfect even at week 4. The rate of growth between week 3 to week 6 is staggering and the girls are starting to really fill out and take shape nicely. Towards week 6 my buds started to fall over with weight and some even snapped. As much as this sucked and I was forced to remove the snapped buds, I also thought on one hand, if the buds are falling over and even snapping, then this is a sign of things to come! The buds were thick and sticky and the smell had a real kick. It seemed more of a Skunk smell was more prevalent but similar to an outdoor grown Skunk. The buds began to grow from everywhere that the light penetrated and I mean everywhere. The LED lights produced nothing but nugs. There was no popcorn and awesome bubble trim. Come to harvest time and the plants are budded from head to toe and every brown hair had a thick calyx developed. The buds swelled a lot and each plant I pull out is totally horizontal due to the weight of the buds!

One thing Budmaster have focused on is having effective coverage and penetration. They had their own precision lens made (not a generic house light lens like many use ) and the results were amazing. There was never a dead leaf at the bottom of any plant and the penetration is spot on. This then means that every part of the plant is devoted to making more energy. Budmaster  like to think if a leaf is like a solar panel and the more you have, the more energy you generate for your plant but all the leaves underneath still need light also or they start to take energy from the plant when it dies. So now the dead foilage on the bottom no longer needs to be cut off but is a valuable part of the harvest.

Conclusion:
To break it down to anyone who has limited space, is concerned about surveillance in the sky and a growing electric bill, who cannot make continuous trips to the local grow shop, doesn’t have a digital ballast or suffers from unwanted heat issues...INVEST IN LED!