I’ve recently put together a diy led light using 9x “BXEB-L0560Z-35E2000-C-B3”
strips mounted onto a aluminum frame I made and driven by a hlg-185h-c1050a. The lights footprint is 18 inches deep and 24 inch wide. It turned out great, It’s bright as fuck and I know that doesn’t mean anything to plants but just comparing it to other lights it’s pretty damn bright. It runs cool even with the driver turned all the way up which according to my killawatt is 220W. The problem is I’m having a horrible time trying to actually grow with it. I’m not a huge experienced grower like a lot of folks here but I have a few under my belt with pretty good success. This is my first time growing with LED! My past grows have used HPS and I did very well with it but damn it’s hot as fuck and I live in a state where it’s fucking hot as hell in the summertime so I figured a led would help in the summertime. I’ve never tried this led before and just got it together this winter and decided to try it. I’m not sure if it’s too cool to use in the winter or not and I’ll touch more on that latter …if temps are playing a issue in my failure …but I’m actually have to use a space heater in the room right not to try and keep the room around 80F. I’m wondering if just using hps might be a better option for winter since it put off a lot of heat as a by product…I’m assuming running a space heater is negating my power conservations of the leds. Anyways…I digress…I’m just having a very frustrating time trying to grow with this led lighting. My plants just don’t seem to respond and look tired and sick and eventually the leafs tips start to turn brown and that works its way up to eventually turn the whole leaf brown and crunchy. I’ve raised the leds, brought them down closer …turned up the watts and turned them down. Sometimes the plants seem like they are starting to respond as in they start to raise their leafs up like they do under the hps instead of droop down. But, a few days will go by and not much growth at all and then I see what looks like nutrient deficiency but it’s not. I’m using the same stuff , dynagro, that I’ve used in dwc and hempy before. I even bought some ph perfect nutes just to make sure and to help take ph out of the question even though my meter says it’s fine. What’s so frustrating is I can take the plants right from under the leds and put them under my hps at the same wattage and within 24hrs the difference is big. The plants start to respond as in the leaves are perky and the plant seems to get more color to it and there’s some little growth. Nothing else changes except just simply moving them from under the leds to the hps. My research so far seems like it might be a heat issue or lack of heat in the case. Since the hps puts off IR it really has that penetrating heat whereas the leds are just warm, I mean you can feel the penetrating heat of the hps with your hand vs the leds just feeling warm. The room with the leds running only is about 70F @ 18% humidity and about 75F at the canopy. I’ve tried lowering the leds and turning them up a little to get the canopy more in the 80’s because with the hps at the same distances put the canopy at about 86/88F. The leds brought down too close or too high to try and get the temps in the 80’s seems to be causing what I’m experiencing for the first time as light burn so …I’ve found again in my research that keeping leds about 12 inches to 18 inches away from the canopy is best. I’ve moved the leds up to 12 inches at it’s running at 180W —to about 220W in my testing. I also brought in a space heater and am now heating the rom up to about 78-80F and also I’ve deployed a humidifier to get the humidity up to about 40-50% This has seemed to help but still the plants just look so stuck and eventually they start to have the brown spots appear on the leaves again…back under the hps and a few days they are exploding again. I’m so frustrated … anybody experienced this? There’s a ton of guys using the same led strips I am and the same drivers and having awesome success. I just have a hard time understanding this.
12" is plenty of distance. I often have my LED’s within 6" of the tallest branches. I would go no more than 12" away and maybe a bit closer.
Is your driver inside the tent or outside? If it is outside, then move it inside. That will add a good bit of heat to the room all by itself.
Other than that, my best guess is low humidity combined with low heat is your main issue.
On the other hand, browning tips sounds like over feeding to me. What EC are you running at?
EDIT: You mentioned the light is 18" x 24" - how big is the grow space you are trying to light up?
Right now they are in a wire shelf wrapped with panda film and it’s a 48x24x62 inch area but the plants placed in cups are right under that light so it shouldn’t be a lack of light. I plan on building a 36x24x52 cab out of wood this summer this was just an attempt to hold me over. The driver is inside but the front of the makeshift cab doesn’t really have a very good door to close it up so I’d say it’s kinda a open room situation but it’s generally about 3 or 4 degrees hotter than the room. I’m hearing leds plants like it hotter and have been recommended to run a space heater in the room and get it to about 80F. If this is try then I might as well just run hps in the winter since heat is a byproduct and I wont have to waste money on a space heater. I have a ppm meter. The tap water I’ve always used starts off at 200ppm then I add about 1/4 strength dyna gro foliage pro until they get about five or six nodes and then I switch to half strength. Generally my ppm says about 600 after mixing it with tap. I’m also being told you have to add cal/mag for led grows. I need to work on researching that. The odd thing is everything I’m doing I’ve done several times before …it’s just the light that’s changed. well the light and the room temp.
I don’t know about your led issue but I’m in Texas and do know about heat. Last summer was my worst grow. I’m putting some AC in the shed this spring. If that doesn’t help, I’ll just have to shutdown in July, August and September. LEDs are so expensive. I feel for you. In the winter the hps lights keep temps almost perfect. I love my HPS!
We’re pretty close, I’m right on the Texas line. The whole reason I built the led was to grow in the summer months you just mentioned otherwise I have to shutdown cause I can’t run th fucking AC all day. I’ve not grown with the led in the summer yet as I just got it together this winter but so far It’s looking like it might not be a option for me in the winter if I have to run a space heater. I’m going to move to a cab so hopefully that may help but I might run hps in the winter.
That will help. I flower in 4X4 tents. I vent my cool tubes indoors and it keeps the shed warm also. Good luck. I’m gonna hang around and see how it goes for you. Thanx brother!
There are many folks on here that can help you with the LED issue. Unfortunately I’m not one of them. Jah!
I tried to Google that, I found it’s a Bridgelux EB Series™ Gen 2 strip.
Looked thru Bridgelux’s catalog, I found this that might explain your issues.
The EB series looks to be the wrong choice, highlighted in blue.
In green I highlighted the 3 series, bridgelux chips they themself say are good for horticulture.
That been said, I am growing under 1.2$ china strips from Ebay. First test I got about the same GPW as I get with HPS, and they are no name pingpong chips.
You can take a look at my thread: The LED hack shack and other tall tales
But from what your telling, they are peaking up when they go under your other light and the other factors stay the same more or less.
Id say it’s fairly easy to conclude that it’s your light, even tho I would like to say it’s not.
$1.20?? Am I reading that right?
Yes - well just went to get you the link and he have raised his price.
They are now 1.3$ per strip
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10PCS-50cm-5630-Led-Hard-Rigid-Strip-Double-Row-White-Warm-White-72led-DC-12V/371943653760?hash=item569991c180:m:mk2lVzVHVqF-dM9Sng9fqRA:rk:2:pf:0
These are not great, but I have been able to veg and flower under them.
It’s not like HID lights, growth seems slower. But it’s also a bit cheaper, and I don’t have any heat issues.
On a low budget, getting towards better equipment down the road. They will work, but im fairly sure you will be better off with Samsung LM561 chips, and pay the extra for them as soon as the budget is there for it.
You can see all the results and details of my experiments, if you follow the link to my therad posted above!
18% RH Is just a bit low. 
Thanks for the link. I’ve read through a bunch of your thread but didn’t catch the price. Great deal!
Hmm. Well the strips you have I am thinking would be a whole lot less intense than the HPS. They are 2k lumens so even with 9 thats only 18K. Which is probably fine for veg but flowering may benefit from more. I have a similar size tent and am running 65K lumens with no crispy plants happening and it’s a hot AF in my part of the world.
The spectrum of this light is just a little light on the reds so this combined with only 18K lumens in a tent the size you have may not result in a big final yield.
None of this should be resulting in the issues you are currently having. I suspect that something else is going on?
I just ordered myself a £3.49 50W COB to get used to LED, at least for veg, which is why this thread caught my eye.
Did a quick search and you can get the 50cm 5630 strips for £1.28 here in the UK.
All right, I haven’t tried out COB’s yet.
I have some Strip COB’s I wanna test, once my closets are done and I have the space for it.
50 cm x 6mm 12V
They might hold longer, then the hacked strips.
I have lost a bunch of chips on the DIY strips, both on the 700 mA and 1400 mA rig. Most on the 1400 mA rig, but again others are doing fine. I suspect it might be my soldering, that is the cause of the failed chips.
The COB Strips, I don’t need to mod or anything. And they where also cheap on Ebay, haven’t looked if they are sold in EU or not. I just buy stuff late at night, surfing chinese vendors and buy stuff I think I can use or have fun breaking.