Dragon's Year (LED Bloom)

[littlefrog]

Doubt thou the power of ye olde LEDs?

I must say I'm pleased with this bloom. Three on the primary inflorescence (plus a big fat bud) and one on the side branch. Not the best picture, I had to use my cell phone because I knew if I waited until tomorrow... Well, I'll update it tomorrow and we'll see if it still has four.

Grown under LEDs.

 

[jjkOC]

Wow!!! Fantastic!

 

[Justin]

can't argue with the results...which brand of LEDs and what configuration/wattage?

 

[littlefrog]

Sunshine Systems. This particular one is growing mostly under the 300W GlowPanel 'Pro' system.

I am also a retailer for these systems, so I may be biased...

Rob

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

LOL! That's gorgeous. :drool:

 

[e-spice]

That's a beauty Rob. Great growing. I enjoyed watching some of your LED lighting videos. Nice job on those.

 

[JeanLux]

Great blooming!!!! Jean

 

[Dido]

Great bloom

 

[SlipperKing]

Nice flower quality and count! What is this cross?? LEDs must be great but I want to see your control plant. The one you kept in the closet and bloomed at the normal rate!oke:

 

[Shiva]

Nice one! These LED's certainly work well but what is the coverage of one panel? And doesn't a 300 W LED panel undermine the reason for its existence which was to provide better light to power ratio, not to mention the high costs of such system? Just wondering!

 

[Susie11]

Amazing!

 

[phrag guy]

very nice

 

[littlefrog]

Nice one! These LED's certainly work well but what is the coverage of one panel? And doesn't a 300 W LED panel undermine the reason for its existence which was to provide better light to power ratio, not to mention the high costs of such system? Just wondering!

Well... The 300W system is not one I would have purchased normally. It came as a demonstration model. I did have to pay for it, but it wasn't full price... The 300W are quite expensive, and I suspect more designed to growing crops that are more profitable. Sunshine Systems also has a 600W version, if you want to get really out of control.

If I had to estimate, I'd say that the 300W LED system would be somewhere between 600 and 1000W of HID, so there is still a substantial savings in electricity. And a fraction of the heat, although with that many LEDs crammed into a small fixture it is noticeably warm to the touch (you can touch it, don't try that with a HID bulb!). The area I'm covering with the 300W is about 5 x 8', and I've got the high light stuff right underneath it (Tolumnias mostly). The phrags are at the edge. That particular phrag was one of the farthest away.

For my money, the units I use are the 90W UFO style and the 28W panels. I've had great success with the panels blooming paphs. And tolumnia... I think for paphs and phrags either the UFOs or the panels would be sufficient, and that is a much more reasonable price point. Although still expensive. I was pricing out HID systems recently, and I noticed that assembling a good HID fixture (Metal halide, with an efficient digital ballast and a good reflector) was a lot more than I was expecting, so I'm not sure the LEDs are that unreasonable. Don't forget that you get what you pay for with the HID bulbs, and good ones aren't cheap (and need to be replaced every 18 months or so). LEDs are still pretty expensive compared to fluorescent.

Rob

 

[littlefrog]

Nice flower quality and count! What is this cross?? LEDs must be great but I want to see your control plant. The one you kept in the closet and bloomed at the normal rate!oke:

Heh... I've had this plant for many years. Most flowers I've seen at once was two. Not the best control, that was greenhouse grown. And it is really hard to account for differences in temperature, etc. I did notice the color wasn't quite as intense this time, compared to the greenhouse. I've never grown slippers well in the greenhouse. Grew them great under lights before the greenhouse, and I'm glad to be back under lights now.

Dragon's Year = Rosalie Dixler x longifolium, I think.

 

[FlowerFaerie]

Stunning!

 

[NYEric]

Dragon's Year = Rosalie Dixler x longifolium, I think.

Correct. Yay besseae hybrids!
That (300W LED system) looks like something worth looking into.

 

[Phrag-Plus]

Wow! Very nice!

 

[SlipperFan]

That is very impressive, Rob!

 

[biothanasis]

Great flowering!!!