WoW!
These cost mucho dinero. I wonder how long it will be until they start to fall in price?
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yep, thanks
WoW!
These cost mucho dinero. I wonder how long it will be until they start to fall in price?
Yeah, pretty steep. If what they say about bulb life and energy usage is true though, then they are probably a good value. But that's a big IF.
i am a bit of an artist and know something about electronics. when i first started collecting orchids, i was excited about making led arrays (2 red, 2 blue, 2 green, 1 ir and 1 uv, to achieve a balanced spectrum). then i realized, to get around 1100 foot candles (for a phal) you would 3 to 5 hundred 5mm ultrabright leds. ultrabrights range from 50 cents to $2.50 EACH. that kinda killed my interest...
now i am all about designing hardwood orchid pots
Im very short on windows at home so wanted a little more room. My curiosity got me and i picked up a the LED array I mounted it on a shelf on which I popped a humidity tray. I also added a 20 watt florescent which supplements the light and gets rid of the red glare from the LED's. I have some phal species (equestris, schillerina, mini mark, mariae, bellina, celebensis and hieroglyphica) as well as some macodes growing on it . The plants seem to be doing well. and the equestris recently put up a small spike which seems promising. They are pretty expensive so i just picked up the one to test. The jury is still out(they are pretty expensive) but if anyone is interested I'll post an update in a few months. Im curious to hear if anyone else has some info.
Last edited by randy98745; February 14th, 2007 at 06:38 AM.
I've been intensely interested in LED lighting for some time now but have not yet taken the plunge. I think there are still some issues with the durability/longevity of the bulbs in some of the brands of fixtures currently on the market. Also the wavelengths provided are tuned very precisely to supposedly match the spectrum a plant needs to grow and bloom, but I think the developers of horticultural LED lighting need to do a little more tuning and perhaps also add a slightly greater spread of both blue and red wavelengths to their outputs. It seems to me that the current wavelengths in nanometers which are being offered are not the most ideal photosynthetically-responsive red and blue wavelengths. My understanding is that plants respond best to 430nm on the blue end of the spectrum and best to 662nm on the red end of the spectrum. Current LED lamps being offered are off by about 30nm for both the red and the blue. I may be missing something here, or it could be that this is a problem that no one is talking about. Does anyone here at OrchidTalk know more about this than I do?
LED lamps are not supposed to need to be as bright or as intense as traditional artificial lighting sources because they are supposedly more specifically tuned to what a plant can use with a lot less wasted unuseable light. Some brands of fixtures currently on the market, however, I have heard are so weak that they lack the power to effectively penetrate more than an inch or two into your growing area. Some brands are much more effective and bright than others. None of the vendors want to publish how bright their lamps really are in lumens. They just want to give you technobabble about how it does not matter. I think to at least some degree that it does matter.
There is a rather interesting website currently out there where a fellow is doing a lot of homebased unscientific experiments with plant growth and LED lighting. He has provided quite a lot of useful information on his website, and while he certainly is not providing answers to all of my questions about LED lighting at this time, he gives a very useful and informative point of reference for any of you who might be interested in growing wit LED lamps. I will be happy to provide the weblink to you if you wish to send me a private message.
To the administrators: I believe I have enabled my account here in such a way that members can send me private messages, but if not, please let me know how to do so...or if it would be acceptable for me to post the link I have referenced in this thead, I would be happy to do it. I am a little unsure about how the rules of this forum would apply to this specific situation.
Thanks for the information. Once you have made 5 posts you should be able to send and receive PMs.
But you will have to visit your user CP and enable the PM system.
Our linking rules are fairly specific. You can check out an excerpt from the linking rules here. Or go here and read all of the rules. If the website doesn't violate these conditions, it would be fine; otherwise, you are free to PM it to those that request it from you in a private message. You are also welcome to PM it to me at any time before posting to verify the link if you are unsure.Originally Posted by Neorchidist
Cheers,
BD