New To Led Lighting - Any Tips For Success?

[JBloomers123]

I'm about a week out from putting my little girls under the big lights - only this time instead of a 600watt HPS bulb i'm using my new KIND L600. I've heard the intensity can be misleading and if you don't pay attention you can burn your plants quickly.?

What else do I need to know? How far from canopy should the light be? with my 600HPS the general rule of thumb I always used was about 8-10 inches..same goes for LED or no?

Any and all feedback is appreciated - my little girls are Creamsicle OG - a cross between Clementine Kush (my absolute fav strain) and Ghost og moonshine IBL (never heard) so I want to make sure i'm firing on all cylinders for a successful grow and harvest :)

thank you!

 

[Scrogger2190]

I cant speak for kind led but I've used vipars and another knock off brand and from what I've noticed the footprint is going to go out maybe 6 inches from the fixture it's a very narrow footprint. As for light intensity I started around 12 inches and adjusted from there just watch what your leaves do. If they curl up it's too intense. If they start to lose color it's too intense. The main backbone led fixture I use is a 900w vipar but it only pulls 400ish out of the wall and I usually keep it around 14 to 16 inches in flower

 

[Larry.G]

I run an older model Timber 200W 3500K LED light, and by no means am I an expert - but I received exceptional guidance from the guys at Timber regarding adjusting their light through my first few grows.

First off, my ballast is dimmable and I found that in my setup, at my basic skill level, it works best when turned down to probably 25% from seedling through a few weeks of veg. I bump it to 50-75% once the plant is established and depending on how the grow is going. Again, this likely varies with your particular LEDs, tent size, strain, grow medium, etc., but the take-away is that providing a very intense light source puts the grow on "fast-forward," for better and for worse.

With more intensity you'll get better yield - if everything about your grow is dialed in. But you'll also see issues show up quickly and require attention faster because the plants metabolism is cranked up.

The truth is that I've never run my light at 100% intensity for extended periods, and the plants are plenty big and lush. For a hypothetical reduction in yield, I've found it to be a worthwhile trade-off: lowering intensity reduces stress on the plant and buys me more time to react to issues.

 

[JBloomers123]

Thank you! I have a separate veg room so the led is only going to be used for flowering.

 

[harvestman4]

I have different types of leds from different companies.
1st lot grow heavy dense buds thick branches and close nodes, and I mean dense.
2nd lot grow normal too light buds with very wide node separation and spindly but the resin produced is 5x the 1st lot of lights.