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High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:31 am
by muzika
Hi guys! Just yesterday my VFT has been so healthy that it even attracted birds other than insects into it's traps and caused the birds to pluck the red traps and shred them to pieces :lol:

So now I consider on breeding back my one last VFT indoors instead(Please don't tell me to get more I can't find any VFTs in our country and this one was just brought by my aunt when she went to US).

Now since I am living in a tropical country I can't really find any "grow lights" online or any hardware stores since light is very abundant in our country but so are birds. :D

Now my question is...

Will these types of LED work for a single 2inch flytrap?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo ... oduct/948/

If not could you explain why? As I believe white light regardless of whether it is a LED, incandescent, flourescent etc should have full spectrum since white light when diffracted causes rainbow colors.
Thanks in advance! Hope you could enlighten me here :roll:


And oh I hope I won't be required high wattage lights :( Here in our country 1kilowatt/h = $0.25USD which is also very expensive to our consuming rates here

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:05 am
by Sander
muzika wrote:Hi guys! Just yesterday my VFT has been so healthy that it even attracted birds other than insects into it's traps and caused the birds to pluck the red traps and shred them to pieces :lol:

So now I consider on breeding back my one last VFT indoors instead(Please don't tell me to get more I can't find any VFTs in our country and this one was just brought by my aunt when she went to US).

Now since I am living in a tropical country I can't really find any "grow lights" online or any hardware stores since light is very abundant in our country but so are birds. :D

Now my question is...

Will these types of LED work for a single 2inch flytrap?

http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo ... oduct/948/

If not could you explain why? As I believe white light regardless of whether it is a LED, incandescent, flourescent etc should have full spectrum since white light when diffracted causes rainbow colors.
Thanks in advance! Hope you could enlighten me here :roll:


And oh I hope I won't be required high wattage lights :( Here in our country 1kilowatt/h = $0.25USD which is also very expensive to our consuming rates here
It will prob. be enough for a few months, but it will need a more powerful light eventually (or place in a windowsill with the lamp above it).
The energy prices here are the same, and im also gonna try and use LEDS to help my plants through the winter and as for full spectrum, you are right yet you are wrong, let me explain with 2 examples:
1: 10w led, 80% of the light is green/yellow
2: 5w led, 20% of the light is green/yellow,

Guess which one would be more efficient? It's all about spectral distribution, u dont want a peak at yellow/green, but at red/blue.

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:16 am
by muzika
Hi! And thanks for the reply... I am planning on keeping it indoors until I get seeds or it could create sprouts so I don't think a few months would be sufficient.

Could you by the way explain to me how a difference in watts affect the the spectral distribution? Since as far as my knowledge goes watts is just the energy the bulb would consume and use to emit light.

And is there any table or formula I could check to know how many watts should I get? Well the link I posted said it consumes 3watts. So does that mean you recommend me getting a 5watt LED instead?

Grow lights is really not an option for me tried searching for hours now online and every local hardware & garden store in the yellow pages to no avail :p

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:43 pm
by Sander
Hey, no problem, we are here to help :)

Wattage does not affect spectral distribution, and it seems to be really hard to find spectral distribution graphs for the cheap leds, but as example a 2700k led (or warm white) has more area surface in the red part of the spectrum.

this graph will show you what i mean:
Image

And there is only one real way to test the needed strength of the lamp, with a PAR meter (photosynthetic active radiation) but it is not cheap, another method is explained here:
http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq3400.html

But you will need the light to calculate it.

Well, i made my own 5 band grow light( 420, 450, 630,660nm and white), and the plants loved it, but i still live at my dads, and energy prices are 0,22 cents (euro) per kWh, so running a 55w panel, 6 months a year for 16 hours a day, so thats 35 euros for just powering that light.

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 1:09 am
by muzika
Cool thanks! I am aware of a PAR meter but I wouldn't go that much for a plant :p

Also I love that barry calculator thingy but I don't have a camera that could reach up to F8 stop :( I guess I would have to suck it up and just do the trial and error thing.

Anyways I have made an order for this item yesterday on Ebay. Do you think this is good enough?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Blue-12-Pcs ... 0926872724

But I'm expecting it to arrive no less than 2 to 3 weeks so I guess I'll go for a 5W downlight at the moment and just replace it soon when that grow light arrives.

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:58 am
by Sander
I also have one of those, and it worked quite well for a single plant (u can have it half an inch away or so :D )

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:18 pm
by muzika
Nice! Glad that it would work :D BTW you mentioned I should put it half an inch close? But it was advertised to cover around a square meter of area... Just asking cause it's kind of contradicting to the items description :D

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:01 am
by Sander
Well, if it is for a single plant, keep it as close as possible on it without heating the plant, venus flytraps need as much light as possible (and intensity increases when lamp is closer).

It would be nice to make a "before" and like a 1 month, 3 months, 6 months pictures and share them here (since im curious, and i think others as well)

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 3:24 am
by muzika
Hi! Just want to make an update... I ended up purchasing a 9W 6500k LED bulb temporarily until the grow light I purchased arrives.

Here's the temporary LED bulb I got

http://www.bombayharbor.com/Product/524 ... 7_E14.html

Although mine stated it got 812lumens.

Would this work? I placed it 3inches above my VFT. I'ts 3 inches above because I also have a little burmannii(about half an inch diameter) on the far left corner of the pot.


Also I might get pictures of it after a month and the next succeeding months :D I don't wanna take a picture of what it is now because it's basically a VFT without the FT in it :p Or in simple terms all the traps got ripped off by the birds so it's just plain leaves.

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 6:42 am
by snapperhead51
these are what u need
http://www.szjiangjing.com/en/productshow_371.html
u can order them in any configuration u want
J

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/63975 ... lture.html

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:30 am
by muzika
Hi! And thanks! But as I have said I already ordered a grow light online but it will probably take about a month for it to arrive. So as a temporary alternative I got a white LED light(which i'll replace to my old flourescent kitchen light soon) which I will be using temporarily until the grow light I ordered arrives. I just wanna ask if it's ok because a plant which is almost dying due to attack of birds I think should not be deprived off the necessary lighting it needs in order to recover right? :)

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:47 am
by Sander
snapperhead51 wrote:these are what u need
http://www.szjiangjing.com/en/productshow_371.html
u can order them in any configuration u want
J

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/63975 ... lture.html
Do you know why they chose chlorophyll b absorption peaks instead of Chl a?

@ muzika, try to give it as much light as u can, since it will be needed to speed up the recovery :D

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 11:55 am
by muzika
Ok sort of bad news :( After a couple of hours it is under the 9W LED bulb 3inches above the plant it's one and only new sprout got burnt :( Well the leaves are ok but the trap dried up and turned black. Does this mean it is too intense? I thought some users here even use CFL that's as high as 40W without burning the plant but why does a mere 9W LED bulb manage to burn it? Should I increase the height 1 inch more?

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 12:04 pm
by Sander
Does the plant get to warm?
And u might want to try and place it like 8 inches from the plant, and put it closer an inch every week or half week.
I think the trap got burned by elevated temperatures or because it is not used to this intensity.

Re: High Intensity LED for artificial lighting?

Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:56 pm
by snapperhead51
but seriously , grow lights are just no substitute for real sun !! , personally I would be spending the $ on getting or building a small Grow house or green house out side in real sun , most will be bird resistant , even a shade cloth over a frame would be better then grow lights , the grow lights i have are for Tissue Culture mainly and seed germination in a controlled climate / temperature and length of lighting hours , other than that every thing is in natural sun
J