Is this kind of reflector useless for growing, why?

[luiz9733]

Hi there, I was wondering if this kind of reflector is useless for growing one or two plants, and why? I'm actually using one of this and getting awful results when comes to growth rate of my plants. Although the plants look absolutely healthy they end up very short and small, like real bonsais!

Thank you.

 

[growsince79]

It looks kike a good light for seedlings. 6500k is too much blue for flower imo.

 

[luiz9733]

It looks kike a good light for seedlings. 6500k is too much blue for flower imo.

Well, I thought the exactly same thing... plus if I did not have enough light I imagined the plant would be lengthy and not REALLY short like it is. I'm trying to figure what is going on since I friend of mine run things using same soil and same nutes but with completely different results, the only real difference is the light setup, he has a quantum board while I have this LED reflector. Trying to narrow down to either lights or genetics. First thing that came to my mind is the light setup, I never see people using these hardware store reflectors.

 

[growsince79]

Well, I thought the exactly same thing... plus if I did not have enough light I imagined the plant would be lengthy and not REALLY short like it is. I'm trying to figure what is going on since I friend of mine run things using same soil and same nutes but with completely different results, the only real difference is the light setup, he has a quantum board while I have this LED reflector. Trying to narrow down to either lights or genetics. First thing that came to my mind is the light setup, I never see people using these hardware store reflectors.

The quantum boards are twice as bright and they use better diodes made for growing. 100w hlg can make a 6oz plant.

 

[luiz9733]

I understand, but I really thought these LEDs reflectors would be completely useless for growing, this would explain such awful results I’m getting when compared to my friend’s. I’m changing to a quantum board as well and hopefully this will help a little. Thank you.

 

[luiz9733]

Installed the quantum board today and could not believe how different the light color temperature really is when compared to what I had installed before... my old reflector is a very bluesh white while the quantum board is a very warm yellow light. I want to believe my plants turned out like bonsais because of that, but wont know for sure until I start things over after I'm finished with what I have going on right now. It is really hard to believe that color temperature can have such impact on growth, time will tell.

 

[luiz9733]

For the record, only 10 days after replacing the LED reflector for the quantum board the results became obvious, somehow the blue spectrum was keeping my plants from growing as it should and also giving it a very dark green color much like nitrogen toxicity.

Bellow a comparison after 10 days of my first run with the reflector and more recently a second try 10 days run with a quantum board, same soil same stains... the only difference are the lights. Unless you are trying to grow bonsais stay away from these Home Depot cool white light reflectors.

On the Left: A 10 days old plant kept under cool white light reflector | On the right: A 10 days old plant kept under full spectrum quantum board.

Although the plant on the left never grew as aspected I'm not absolutely disappointed with the final result, I'm about to harvest my "bonsai" and it although the plant is extremely bushy it looks pretty nice: