Hybrid Systems = HPS + LED - Looking for feedback

[Jedthedog]

I did a search and could not really find much info so here I am.
Quick info about my situation.. Located in the southern US and it is Winter time.5 x 5 grow tent in a non heated out building using 600 - 1000 watt HID for veg depending on cycle, and 1000 watt HPS for flower.Also running a heater with a thermostat,variable speed exhaust fan with a carbon scrubber.. I have had a pretty good result with this setup many times over..
So with having everything running pretty smooth I figured it was time to change thing's up.. My idea is to step down the wattage of the HID and HPS bulbs and to add LED lights to the tent.. Thinking that my yields may increase, and would rather use electricity to power more light's than the heater during the day time,and of course the heater would still be used as needed to maintain temps.. Any feedback much appreciated ..

 

[Techhead]

Re: Hybrid Systems = HPS + LED... Looking for feedback.

Don't expect to gain more from the space you have, and don't expect better quality, but you may get both, who knows. What I do know is you will save money of your power bill, and things will run cooler so you can run into your hot summer longer. The reason I said you may not get more is because if your space is maxed out, how can you get more out of it unless your buds get bigger or something like that. That's where I'm at with my system as I just replace a 400MH/600HPS with my home made system. I believe what I was getting was the most I can expect from my space, but if I get the same output of product, for less money, and less heat I still win.
If I were you I would go for it.

 

[LEDBud]

Its a odd size to use a combination of LED and HPS , but you could add some , say 3 panels in a row length ways along one wall and offset the HPS to the other side by 1.5 ft or so.

I suspect if you did this you would see a *nice* increase in harvest size / weight.

LED panels have a smaller light footprint then HID's

 

[Jedthedog]

I purchased 3 Mars-Hydro 144 x 3 Panels.. I have plans to run 2 of these in the 5 x 5 tent with a 600 HPs once I finish with my current project.. I will keep you up to date when this happens..

 

[TH3K3YK33P3R]

I am sure you will do well. There are NO greenhouses running LED to grow tomatoes today, all HID having LED as supplemental light, so I don't see why it would not work for you. I am thinking about switching to LED, but I am afraid.
Peace

 

[Tin Palace]

Hey Mate,
Well here goes threw caution to the wind with all the cyber 5-0 out there and joined up! Lol, keen to gets ingest it and share some experiences maybe help a few others and hopefully learn a bit while I'm at it.
So here we go..
I like your way of thinking, I did initially start out trying to save power and avoid heat also and use a combo of led ufo's and large cfls but quickly realised that I was wasting my time with the products I had bought, used them for a short while veg was great however budding was fluffy and not very plentiful. Maybe if I had spent my biccies initially and purchased high quality led fixtures it may be a different story but felt safer looking into a combo of new digital hps which seem to be more widely tried and tested.
I did some googling and found the Gavita pro range. Made by horticulture industry for horticulture and using Phillips electronics which is as good as it gets they say.
The par output was kick arse and better than anything else I can get my hands on, the combination of their unique compact reflector hood and 400v 600w Phillips bulb, they say the output is equivalent if not superior to reasonable 1000w hps that most would be accustomed to. Win win I thought.

-My First grow *from seed
using just the Gavita HPS 600x 2 on light mover; 4 plants (2x dr Krippling Incredible bulk & 2x heavyweight fruit punch)
Heavy weight fruit punch averaged just 216gms per plant trimmed and dry.
Dr kripplings incredible bulk averaged a bit more but only 240gms trimmed n dry.

-Not quite what the seed bank listed the expected yield at but early days yet!

2nd Grow (from clone)

Decided to add some more light this time to cover the shadier areas a bit whilst the lights shift across the ceiling.
So Using the 2x Gavita 600 hps I added '2x 250w 2700/6400k (veg) 2x 300w 2700k'
I've created a dual hood for the cfls and run them between the 600 hps's on a ' light mover' rail.
In one corner this last grow I also hung a 130w 25000k cfl.

So now I've just finished my second grow, this time with the additional 730w of cfl's.
Result is good but can't say for sure was all due to the additional lighting, there are some other factors which I'm sure will also determine the result, like adding amino treatment, fulvic acid and multizyme.
Growth was out of control 2nd time, at week 6 I started worrying so to avoid mould I reluctantly cut a few kgs of leaf and bottoms to help air. I reckon it would have had to shock them considerably but better than loosing the lot to mould I thought.


Side by side result:
First grow was from seed and produced 900gms Vs. The clone grow with cfls produced 1640gms
Heavyweight fruit punch averaged 325gms
Dr Krippling incredible bulk averaged 440gms per plant.

So there's without a doubt a significant increase in yield, happy to crack a pound outa a couple of the Krippling plants.

For the 3rd round I was thinking of removing the cfls and using 2x 180w ufo's in their place but just wasn't sure if their wild colours would adversly affect the Gavita footprint/ light quality?

I would be very interested to hear any info or experiences to support whether LEDs of CFLs are better to use hybrid with HPS

Cheers!

 

[wilson2]

hi I use to grow 5 plants under 2 +600w hps and regularly pull 2 lb a grow, these were grown at night to reduce heat. The local elec supplier installed smart meters so I had to change the way I grow or get busted. So I installed solar panels and have been running 2* mars 900 leds during the day. Im only growing 2 plants now and allowing them to get bigger prior to inducing flowering. (local laws, more than 10plants commercial grower, 2 plants allows me 2 in veg 2 in flower with room to try other strains etc.) First 2 grows 1lb with fluffy heads they also smoked and tasted different to the same stuff grown under hps. last grow 1.5lb solid nuggets same as hps grow. I introduced a 400w hps light for 6hrs a day in the middle of the day. This current grow I intend to drop my nuke concentration and use a calcium mag suppliment. who knows I may improve my yield if not am happy with 1.5lb a grow. Next grow will be all the formentioned with a different strain. hope this helped

 

[Jedthedog]

A little update of my 5 x 5 grow. Started out with 3 144 x 3 reflector series lights. Great job during veg but lacked in flower. After 45 day,s in flower I pulled the center LED panel and installed an HPS 1000 watt air cooled hood. Good thing is I was able to put some weight on with the addition of the HPS. Long story short I do not see me giving up my HPS for LED. During the entire grow we used Cal-Mag as directed and alway,s experienced issues, add 15 - 20 days of growing time above normal growth times..