Miracle LED Grow Lights

anyone have any experience or more info about these?

http://www.heartlandamerica.com/bro...AE4B-0AF7-4188-B10F-41962D0F2112&BC=S&DL=SEH3

would 2 be enough to grow some hot peppers in the cabinet?

I'm sure they are good lights but I have a grow room in my basement and use regular old florescent utility lights on chains to make them adjustable. I bought a dozen fixture w/bulbs for about $7.00 each. One of the keys is to set the light timer to mimic the natural cycle of the sun during growing and harvest times.

subscribed - I thought it was much more expensive to grow indoors...

Don't bother the LEDs are often to intense and will burn the plants. So I've read, but that "fact" deterred me from purchasing one. I went with some CFL light bulbs, depending on the wattage you purchase you will have both light spectrum's capable of growing and flowering plants. Plus their energy efficient, so if your thinking of growing the "pepper plants" I think your thinking of growing, this means less impact on our electricity bill so as not to set off any red flags.

HIM_Tattoos said:

Don't bother the LEDs are often to intense and will burn the plants. So I've read, but that "fact" deterred me from purchasing one. I went with some CFL light bulbs, depending on the wattage you purchase you will have both light spectrum's capable of growing and flowering plants. Plus their energy efficient, so if your thinking of growing the "pepper plants" I think your thinking of growing, this means less impact on our electricity bill so as not to set off any red flags.

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CFL's light spectrum isn't that far from what a standard incandescent bulb is, from what some professional horticulturalists have told me. The standard flourescent bulbs, with the pins at the ends, however, are perfect as grow lights.

Flourescent bulbs are not that great. You want HPS (high pressure sodium) lights. These are ideal for growing indoors - way better than any flourescent bulbs. These are what real greenhouses, professional horticulturists and serious indoor growers use.

It all depends on what you are growing and what specrum range you want. Flourescents work great but you have to put them very close to the plants for maximun growing power. LED's work FANTASTIC (never heard of them burning plants though) and as NCBeernut pointed out, HPS are the best but suck alot of power.

x2 for HPS lights. My stepdad used them for 15+ years growing orchids indoors...always turned out well for him.

The issue with HPS is that they are crazy expensive (compared to fluorescents).. and IIRC they get extremely hot which makes them less safe for use in small spaces.

I use the regular old school T12 fluorescent bulbs. T5s are supposed to be better from what I heard; but, they are expensive as well.

For what people pay for brewing equipment on this site, they really aren't that expensive. You can get the whole bulb and ballast set up for about $100 - the difference it makes is well worth it. The ballasts can also be directly vented through a port if heat is really much of a concern. You only really need one HPS light though unless you are trying to do a large grow and a single one doesn't get that hot if it is in a well ventilated room. On a per lumen basis, they produce much less heat than incandescent bulbs.

You wanna grow peppers? You don't need HPS for that. A simple metal halide fixture/bulb will grow peppers just fine. Peppers dont' need red spectrum to bloom (HPS), just a short dark cycle.

but like HPS, MH is very hot, and they start at about 400watts so you'd have to install a fan and vent the heat from a closet. My setup was in a basement so I didn't have to mess with it. a 400w MH will cover about a 4' x 4' area. I had 16 pepper plants going in an aeroponic setup in february then moved them to soil after the danger of frost was gone.

when i researched my setup, i saw the LED stuff too. However every setup I saw using them, they had about 10-12 of those bulbs to cover a 4 x 4 area, which made it as expensive as my MH fixture...although it'd have been cheaper on the power consumption. They also were unproven...just a lot of marketing hype.


I also used CF bulbs for starting the seeds (in coconut coir). I hung 2-3 'daylight' CF's taht were the equivalent of 120w incandescents, from pendants over the seed starters, about 6" above the plants. as they grew i raised the lights until they were big enough to go to the aeroponic tubs in baskets with hydrolite pellets.

malkore said:

You wanna grow peppers? You don't need HPS for that. A simple metal halide fixture/bulb will grow peppers just fine. Peppers dont' need red spectrum to bloom (HPS), just a short dark cycle.

but like HPS, MH is very hot, and they start at about 400watts so you'd have to install a fan and vent the heat from a closet. My setup was in a basement so I didn't have to mess with it. a 400w MH will cover about a 4' x 4' area. I had 16 pepper plants going in an aeroponic setup in february then moved them to soil after the danger of frost was gone.

when i researched my setup, i saw the LED stuff too. However every setup I saw using them, they had about 10-12 of those bulbs to cover a 4 x 4 area, which made it as expensive as my MH fixture...although it'd have been cheaper on the power consumption. They also were unproven...just a lot of marketing hype.


I also used CF bulbs for starting the seeds (in coconut coir). I hung 2-3 'daylight' CF's taht were the equivalent of 120w incandescents, from pendants over the seed starters, about 6" above the plants. as they grew i raised the lights until they were big enough to go to the aeroponic tubs in baskets with hydrolite pellets.

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Ok, local pepper expert has to speak up now (lol). Peppers basically flower whenever the plant feels it's ready not based on sunlight. Peppers flower and grow perfectly fine with a photoperiod of 24 hours. They don't need to "sleep" like some plants do. They also don't need the red spectrum to flower but that helps alot. For vegatative growth you need the plants at certain ranges. If you are going with floro's you want 4200K, and for maximun chlorophyll activity you need a Daylight Metal Halide at 5500K.

If he's growing peppers, simple floro lights would work perfect for starting them out. But when they reach 6 inches I'd switch them out to LED's or something else for best results.

You are absolutely correct about your viewing of the LED set up (multiple sets of LED's, etc). But the fun part about those is your can use any LED's. You don't have to pick up the nice, growlight marketed ones. You can wire them up yourself for cheap (if you have soldering skills that is) or after Christmas, go out and buy a ton of discounted Christmas tree lights (LED strings).

Then get yourself some carboard or thin wood, put holes in it, mount the LED's and BOOM! You've got a grow light set up for practically next to nothing. This way you can have a little bit of the blue spectrum and a hint of red and once they start flowering like crazy, switch the LED's out with mostly REd and slightly blue and you'r set for some massive fruit production.

CFLs will grow plants indoors. Look for the security light type or highest output you can get.

Metal Halide and HPS is better and can be had for less than lights sold as grow lights too by using fixtures meant for security lighting.

As a matter of I did this and don't really advise it but it did work, metal halide lamps will work in less expensive mercury vapor ballasts. The paper work says do not do it. I'm just sayin'...