300 watt LED full spectrum lighting system

[moniluhum]

Purchased the above to experiment more with LED lighting. Have 13w single LED lights which I have used on pals and they seem to be doing well. With such high wattage what distance should there be from the plants. Does anyone have a similar system?

[ksriramkumar]

not sure on this.

[Dorsetman]

I have been using a similar system on my cattleyas - actually mine is a 185watt system designed by Phillips, the Dutch electronic company, although not made by them - this has replaced several 400 watt metal ballast lamps on a light track, ( and reduced my electricity cost a large amount ).
The normal reason for putting lamps high was that as well as light (good) they produce heat (bad). Since LEDs produce no heat at all ( well only a very tiny amount) I have the LEDs low enough to just miss hitting the top of the plants.
I intend to get more , but the Company who made mine have gone bust, and I have not yet found an alternative ( in UK).

---------- Post Merged at 01:49 PM ----------

I have been using a similar system on my cattleyas - actually mine is a 185watt system designed by Phillips, the Dutch electronic company, although not made by them - this has replaced several 400 watt metal ballast lamps on a light track, ( and reduced my electricity cost a large amount ).
The normal reason for putting lamps high was that as well as light (good) they produce heat (bad). Since LEDs produce no heat at all ( well only a very tiny amount) I have the LEDs low enough to just miss hitting the top of the plants.
I intend to get more , but the Company who made mine have gone bust, and I have not yet found an alternative ( in UK).

---------- Post Merged at 01:53 PM ----------

I should have said that my 185 watt is made up of one infra-red LED, several red ones, a number of blue ones, and the rest white ; the proportion of each is carefully calculated ( that's where the design comes in). Phillips work - which you can find on the web, has shown that plants need light at one wavelength - hence colour - to produce sugars, another wavelength for other compounds needed by the plant, and a third for yet more.... thinking that the plant only produces sugars is an oversimplification. It is all fascinating stuff, and the lighting trade is not able to offer much help ( in UK at least) - but the info is there, if you go and look for it.

[Dorsetman]

I thought the pics would be useful. Self-explanatory ? The light is on a track - moves back and forth. Some plants are in S/H - in blue trays , the others not ( yet). The lighting unit is about one foot square.
This is supplementary lighting . The natural daylight is good enough for most things in most of the greenhouse, but this is the darkest corner, and cattleyas need more than most orchids.
I used to worry about trying to use lights in the winter but not in the summer, and what should I do ? Run for 12 hours a day from October to March and then switch off ? Or try to adjust the timer every month to go from say 12 hours in December to 5 in May before switching off until August, and so on. Now - because the running costs are so low, I have them on for 8 hours a day all the year except May-July. If anyone has any better ideas, just shout please, but btw, conventional photo-electric cells are no use , in the same way as a conventional photometer/light meter is no use , when you move away from full spectrum to selected wavelengths. There is appropriate kit, but it measures energy at specific nano-wavelengths - way over my head and way out of my budget !.
I have just remembered what one of the wavelengths is for - it is the peak for production of atp - which is the powerhouse of the plant in growth ( adeno-tri-phosphate, from memory ). And how interesting- to anyone biology-minded (me) - its the same stuff as used in our bodies for the same purpose....

[catttan]

I don't need artificial lighting but thanks for the very enlightening info.

[moniluhum]

I noticed the lights are very close to the plants. Mine is 300watts and I have them about 16 inches from the tallest leaf. It is set in one position. Do not have plants in the middle for fear it might be to strong.