Newbie LED questions.

[HydroMan]

I was thinking about getting an led setup, but I am kind of new to LEDs... They are supposed to take up a lot less power as compared to florescent, right?

[TimeWasteing]

Hello HydroMan, I've done a little more research and basically what I've learned is:

The white leds are a bit better (like 3% more effective per watt) then florescent but the point of LEDs is the use the targeted wavelengths (red blue ect) that the plant your growing needs/prefers (making it more effective per watt used). White is the lest effective color (look up "PAR" ).

Some plants like marijuana can do well with just red/blue LEDS while others could use a 3rd-11th~ wavelength.



I've got half my grow box in red/blue (100x1w leds) and the other half with warm/cool white (100x1w leds) led's I can't really tell a difference but the lights kinda mix.

*I'm growing dwarf tomatoes and peppers in a 4x4 box not the most light depending plants.

[HydroMan]

Thanks TimeWasteing,

So if I understand you correctly, then by targeting specific wavelengths, you can get the same effect as you would with a higher wattage light that doesn't target.

Also, I was looking at this 28 watt Grow Light or this 90 watt UFO Grow Light. Now, both are targeted as you say, but one is 90 watts and the other is 28 watts.

The thing at confuses me is that the 28 watt one looks bigger than the 90 watt UFO Grow Light. Is it that the LEDs in the UFO style one are brighter? I don't know...

Thanks for your help, bro!

[TimeWasteing]

The 28watt'er uses fractional leds (less then 1 watt each) while the other uses 3w led's.

The fractional leds just have no penetration and only the top leafs will get light.
*would work with small herbs and maybe lettuces?

Most people (from what I've read) suggest 3watt LEDs b/c the better penetration. I personally use 1w led's (b/c they were cheap/easy to build) they seem to do fine on my small plants (less then 2 foot tall).