FlyTrapCare Forums

goldslinger wrote:I'm working on a 12 Week update on the Sunshine Systems Glow Panel 45 LED lighting system

I'm very interested in this too, Gary. I recently ordered 3 Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45s too, but haven't had them long enough to judge any results yet, especially in comparison to the much more expensive LED Grow-Master lights.

Just a few days ago I ordered 3 more GlowPanel 45s for a second rack, so it will be very interesting to compare comments and results between your experience and my own, and I will be able to provide a comparison after some evaluation time of the relative differences (if any) of plants grown under both the LED Grow-Master lights and the Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45 lights.

I'm very happy with the LED growlights so far, and appreciate some of their advantages. But they certainly are expensive. The Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45s though are at least not too expensive for the amount of coverage they give (I use 3 GlowPanel 45s per four-foot rack, with 4 standard "1020" nursery trays under them (so named because they are 10 inches wide and 20 inches long), for a total of 800 square inches or 128 small 2.25" square pots of Venus Flytraps and other plants.

For this amount of shelf space (4 feet by 20 inches), the LED lights to cover that area are, in comparison--

LED Grow-Master LGM 540: 6 LED light arrays, each costing $250.00, for a total of $1,500.00 per shelf
Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45: 3 LED light arrays, each costing $150.00, for a total of $450.00 per shelf

I too am somewhat worried or concerned about the longevity and cheapness of the LEDs in the cheaper Sunshine Systems units. Only time will tell regarding that.

I'm excited about your experiment and experiences as well as my own with LED grow lights, and hopefully our experiences and reports can help others decide what they may or may not want to do with regard to artificial plant lighting.

Steve,

I don't think You wasted Your Money ordering them. I am going to start out with some pics and get that out of the way.

15 inches from the Sunshine Systems Glow Panel 45 system, quantity 3, for over 12 Weeks.


Fused Tooth


Big Jaws


Pink Venus


Red Pirahna


B-52


Bristletoogh


Ping Moranensis



Drosera Capensis

Wow, they look great Gary! Do you happen to have any "before" photos? I'd like to see how well the plants have grown since being under the lights and that's hard to determine without any "before" photos. Though I have to say that they look amazingly healthy and robust right now, so they surely haven't suffered being under the LEDs.

Matt,

I totally agree, and I did, but lost them through an accidental cleaning of My memory stick while up in Nebraska two Days ago. I was trying to make room for Halloween pics; well, it's a long story.

Anyway, these pics Were taken Today, so about 13 Weeks. They were never moved. My write up is next, for what it's worth.

Gary

Wow, Gary, those plants don't just look good, they look great!

This inspires me to do an experiment. I just received a bunch of TC babies of Drosera spatulata "Ruby Slippers" from Matt, enough to fill one standard 1020 nursery tray (10" x 20") which holds 32 small pots. I'm going to take half of those pots and grow them under the GlowPanel 45s, and the other half will grow under my much more expensive (but not necessarily better) LED growlights, the Grow-Master LGM 540s.

The GlowPanels seem to put out more light per square foot of illuminated area than do the LGM 540s, so I'm expecting the Drosera to grow better under the GlowPanel LEDS. But the LGM 540s do have a wider range of specific frequencies they produce (the GlowPanels produce only a single frequency of red and another of blue), and that might give them the edge.

I'll bet you have just given Sunshine Systems a new customer or two.

I was able to find the Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45 on Amazon.com. There are a lot of positive reviews of the product on Amazon in case you are interested in reading them. I'm going to order one myself for some VFT's that I'm growing in a terraraium.

On the Sunshine Systems Glow Panel 45, I had the plants under a photoperiod of 16 hours. The plants shown below were, and still are, approximately 15 inches under them.

I am going straight for the conclusion.

This particular LED system, I feel, are worth the Money. I have 3 in a row on a wire bakers shelf shown here. I used the 's' hooks that came with the unit, so was easy to rig. My lights don't 'daisy chain,' but I guess the Ones You buy now, You can plug them into each other for fewer outlet connections.

Plants (pictured in the previous post above) were grown at 15 to 17 inches under these, exhibited dense, rosetted growth with outstanding coloration and very good rate of growth.

The B-52 and Low Giant are paler from their growth spurts experienced recently. The Drosera kept sending up flowers like Droseras do as usual.
A ping sent up a flower, too. All plants pictured in above post were 1/2 to 2/3 of the size as they were when pic taken (11/22/10). I wish I had My before Pics.

Water consumption was vastly reduced.

LED'S are very gentle on Your plants. I don't want anyone to take this to heart and do at Your own risk, but My Hardening of VFT'S fresh out of vitro demonstrated that they didn't need the usual humidity dome hardening if the humidity levels in the room is over 40% under the LED lights. They were misted twice daily, however, but the misting was ceased on Day 4. I think this can be attributed to the lack of heat and U.V. rays that are generated by flourescent tubes. This can also be attributed by the 'free ranging' of the freshly de-flasked plants in a 1020 tray, which helps with immediate ambient humidity levels. Even with that, they would have been toast under the flourescents without a 2 week hardening period, so I find this interesting. They were several inches lower than the potted plants pictured, but didn't show spindley growth other than the usual 'confusion' period of growth.
On another attempt to NOT dome the out of vitro VFT'S turned out not as good with some drying, with the room humidity below 40%.
I didn't lose any, though.

Root growth after 6 Weeks out of vitro was very extensive and bushy.










Here are the PROS:

Lightweight fixtures; hardly weigh anything.
Uses less electricity than I was using with flourescents.
Generates virtually no heat.
nearly all energy output is used for the proper spectrum, so few watts wasted.
Focused lenses for less light dispersion; do not need a reflector.
Does not emit U.V. and Infrared Rays like other systems do.
I did not experience any 'burn' on the edges of leaves; trap teeth, etc. They all look fresh as lettuce.
Plants seem less stressed.
Plants appear to grow as fast with good coloration.
I used noticeably less water.
They are not breakable.
Are very long lasting.
Can be 'Daisy Chained' Together, so only 1 outlet per 4 units.
Can be used in high humidity (but not outdoors).
A dimmer (different Vendor) circuit can be added to all LED systems if wanted.
Won't loose intensity over time.

CONS:

Initial expense; (although these aren't that bad compared to some).
No module replacement on lamps; will have to replace whole unit at some point years down the road, hopefully.
This is the only con for Me in particular. I wish they were about 2 inches larger so the light would reach to the outer edges of the 1020 flats a little better, but I didn't notice any 'reaching' from the plants in that vicinity.

tc3driver wrote:DAMN STEVE.... that is like 3G worth of lights

Yes, I know. And I bought a third shelf's worth of LED-Grow-Master LGM 540 bars (6 bars) for that rack, bringing the total spent on lights for 3 four-foot shelves to $4,500.00! That's when I decided to follow Gary's (goldslinger's) lead and try some of the much cheaper Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45 LED lights. Like Gary, I'm using 3 GlowPanel 45s per four-foot shelf (compared to 6 LGM 540 bars), at a total cost per shelf of GlowPanels of about $450.00 (compared to the LGM 540 cost per four-foot shelf of $1,500.00)

The Venus Flytraps and other plants under the original LGM 540s have grown very well, so I'm hopeful that the plants will grow equally or about as well under the GlowPanel 45s. They may even grow better under the GlowPanels; time will tell, and Gary's results so far are impressive.

DTDream18 wrote:I was able to find the Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45 on Amazon.com.

Some of the GlowPanels sold at Amazon.com at this time (November, 2010), while cheaper than the ones at Sunshine-Systems.com, are the older model of GlowPanel 45 without the on/off switch, detachable cord and "pass-through power" that allows one to chain the GlowPanels together instead of attaching each and every one separately to an extension cord or power strip. The price is good for the older models however, about $114.00 in some cases, compared to $149.00 for the new model GlowPanel 45 at Sunshine Systems.

goldslinger wrote:No module replacement on lamps; will have to replace whole unit at some point years down the road, hopefully. This is the only con for Me in particular. I wish they were about 2 inches larger so the light would reach to the outer edges of the 1020 flats a little better, but I didn't notice any 'reaching' from the plants in that vicinity.

These are my main two concerns so far also, the fact that if just one or several of the LEDs stop working, one can't just buy a plug-in replacement, although maybe one could get some identical new ones and solder them in.

As you noted, the cone of light of the LEDs (in my case, on both the GlowPanels and the LGM 540s) is very intense but narrow, so for enough light to reach the edges of my packed 1020 trays (10"x20") I had to move the lights higher than yours; there is about 21 inches between the soil level and the bottom of the LEDs. I'm hoping this will not make too much difference. With my LGM 540 6-bar arrays, I can have the lights only 15 inches from the growing-medium surface with more or less complete coverage, which means 3 shelves per "baker's shelf" rack of the LGM 540s versus only 2 shelves per rack of the GlowPanel 45s, more widely spaced vertically.

Thanks for the report, photos and continuing journal of your growing experiences with the GlowPanel LED lights, Gary. I'll also try to post photos and notes about my progress with them and in comparison to the LGM 540 bars over the next year or two.

Rack and Shelf System
For those who might be interested, the easily assembled and disassembled, heavy-duty rack system that Matt and I use, and from the photos it looks like Gary might use the same or similar one also, can be seen and is described at the following URL:
Trinity brand 5-tier NSF Outdoor Storage Rack: http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... d=11505870
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Steve_D wrote:Thanks for the report, photos and continuing journal of your growing experiences with the GlowPanel LED lights, Gary. I'll also try to post photos and notes about my progress with them and in comparison to the LGM 540 bars over the next year or two.

Yea, will do. We all can compare notes.

Steve_D wrote:s you noted, the cone of light of the LEDs (in my case, on both the GlowPanels and the LGM 540s) is very intense but narrow, so for enough light to reach the edges of my packed 1020 trays (10"x20") I had to move the lights higher than yours; there is about 21 inches between the soil level and the bottom of the LEDs. I'm hoping this will not make too much difference.

My hardening trays (1020) were definately lower than the potted ones; I would say about 20 inches or so at soil level. The edge light levels drop off quickly as You raise the shelf. The VFT'S I had on them did good for the 7 Weeks I had them on there, then I sold the trays to a nursery and had to dig them all up. That's when I discovered the very good, bushy root system on them. It kind of surprised Me. I think You will be alright, but can't be sure.

Collectors would just simply put Their Potted pings or something that doesn't need as much light on the edges, but I do the trays as You do.

Can't wait to hear your results in a few Weeks! A comparison of two systems vastly different in price is just what is needed.

Gary

Just thought I'd pipe up to say thanks very much for posting all these experiences you guys are having! I'm learning a lot and it's awesome to just follow what you guys are doing, the energy and enthusiasm you're putting into your plants is amazing

I hope to have my own setup one day in the future and all this you're posting will be invaluable

thanks for the topic !

Great interesting writeups by all.

IrishDragon wrote:Know any euro companies that sell similar products? I am new to Europe, fresh from the states. I couldn't even begin to think of where to look here.

http://www.growlightsled.co.uk/90w-ufo- ... -p-42.html

(i am Colin Curless in the reviews at bottom of page)

I have one of these which are good lights and cover a good area, only downside for me personally was that i found because it was mounted in my lounge to enhance the light from my window, the reddy/blue colour was much brighter and awkward on the eyes than i thought it would be.(short days)
If using it in a seperate room im sure it would perform great.

I may still use it in the main growing season (long days) as when there is light from the window in any degree you dont notice the colour.

I still reckon if you are viewing your plants frequently/and in same room as you live most, fluorescent for the eyes is better, even if not as optimal as the red/blue colour LED for the growth of the plants, or cheaper.