re: GrowLEDHydro 300W LED vs. 400W HID Demonstration
And one final thing, i think you mentioned it briefly before, but i had wondered about the density of the buds themselves, one of the regular complaints about earlier LED lights was "fluff buds", so im just wondering if the buds have a different texture/density to them at this stage?
Hope you don't mind my chiming in, but I think the new generation LEDs from the handful of reputable vendors, for the most part, are pretty solid technology.
After following the journals of pioneers like SettingSun, Irish, Munki, and others, it is easy to see LEDs do work, they have to be high quality lamps though. By this point any LED light vendor wanting to stay in business has put some resources into R & D and testing and has to be able to provide lights that efficiently fit peoples needs. There is still a slew of poorly crafted LED lights everywhere on the market, but with a little research, the good ones are easy to spot.
I concluded a small first grow (with a fraction of the knowledge or experience of the aforementioned agronomists). Beyond all my attempts to kill the plants, the lights did their job and the buds were of decent size, dense, trichome covered, and smelling great.
There are many variables that play into growth and development, but as far as LEDs, the key I think (beyond not using poorly made ones), is to find the proper range and keep the light focused on a concentrated area (lamps closer to the canopy) verses going for a larger footprint, especially during flowering.
If this grow finishes out even close, it moves us in the direction that soon we will no longer be questioning the equivalency of LED to HID, it will just come down to which solution is the best fit to one's needs.