NLITE HORTICULTURAL GROW LIGHTS @ Spiritgarden.co.uk

[Bushpig]

Hey all,

I have just started offering a range of horticultural grow lights, and they are indeed excellent!  Currently growing some cacti, kratom seedlings and caapi under a 125w I have setup and one of my caapi that through neglect had become a twig has resprouted within a week and has some small leaves coming through, my kratom seedlings also in neglect have come on leeps and bounds..they were only tiny seedlings but now they have the red veins appearingg and are shooting onwards and upwards!  Over the coming months I will post some images of my grow setup but for now....

Please check out ( for full and comprehensive details):

http://www.spiritgarden.co.uk/cart/index.pl/catid_17


And please feel free to enquire if you have any questions!

Boooooooooshpig

[Avery L. Breath]

Interesting lights booshpig.  

Whats this about lumens not mattering to plants?  I pick up on the spectra plants like business, but I thought lumens were an important measurement.

[laughingwillow]

I'm guessing the more lumens, the greater the vertical reach of the light.

lw

[Bushpig]

Lumens are used by lots of people to measure the lighting capabilities but the point is that lumens measure green/white light!  Plants as we all know are green, this means they reflect this light ( or alot of it ) the green part of the light wave is not the most important part of light for the plants ( the least infact )..its the brightest to us though.  So lumens are measuring the wrong thing.  Plants need some blue light for vegative growth and production of oils, they need red parts of the spectrum for getting into their flowering reproductive stage.  So essentially the use of lumens is misleading as it measures the wrong type of light, just because it appears bright to us does not mean it does the plant any better  I believe the write up on the site goes into this more.  

Booooooosh

[laughingwillow]

It did get into that topic in the info, but that doesn't mean I believe it to be true.

There is little comparison between a grow conducted under floros and MH/HPS, imo. The floro grow will be stretchy and the best growth will occur on the top few inches while flowers/fruit a foot below the canopy level suffer from inadequate lighting, greatly decreasing final yield potential.

The proof is in the puding, imo; lumens do make a difference.

lw

[Bushpig]

MH/HPS give out a great intensity of light, but often at huge cost, for both your electricity bill, the planet, asnd even the drying of upper buds (of allsorts of plants ) due to what are essentiually harmful infrared.  True you cannot compare easily, especially watt for watt but it all comes down to how much of all that power is actually being used? These PURPLES are efficient.  The only way I can think of a lumen being useful is that maybe a high lumen rating will reflect high ratings in the other part of the spectrum but this is not a logical consistancy rather a  hopeful inference.  Lumens meansure light that is not needed!

[laughingwillow]

LOL You are really stretching now, imo, boosh.

Around 50 watts per square foot works just fine with HPS. (And electricity is still sold by the watt. At least around here.)

The purples may be efficient when compared to other floros, but the effective range of floros is too limited to be really efficient. At least when compared to results when using MH/HPS.

As far as burning tops..... that risk is a small price to pay for the ability to produce rock hard fruit. (And, btw, its a problem that's easy enough to prevent.) Maintaining the proper distance from a light source is no big deal.

I've run both floros and HPS/MH for years and there is no comparison in end products, imo.

lw

[Bushpig]

you've never used a PURple flouro then  I dont see that im stretching...MPS and MH give out very intense light but its not a good spectrum, its inefficient, its hot and you need more watts to do the job.  


Boooooshpig

[RifeHeretic]

Do not some plants need the warmth?

[laughingwillow]

Again, I disagree about needing more watts with MH or HPS. 50 watts per square foot is the max I run during fruiting. And 35 watts/sqft is all that is needed for great vegetative growth using MH.

Dutch studies have shown that 400 watt and 600 watt MH/HPS are the most cost efficient/effective bulbs for horticultural pursuits.

lw

[Bushpig]

Hi LW

Well ( and i mean this with much respect sir ) I think you are about 10 years behind on lighting technology.  Dutch and many many european commercial growers and horticulturists are using these now.  You may possibly be referring to old old school warm white HALOPHOSPHATE tubes ? .... not modern triphospoer with correct spectrum like the PURples.  I have some nice pics but not suitable for this forum, i will however be recording progress with my lights on various entheogens and doing a photo report over the coming months,


Rifeheretic: Plants need 'some' warmth, provided through standard convection and conduction..

IR radiation is NOT warmth, though its action when absorbed will generate heat, also IR causes:

1) stretching ... it is called ETOILIATION +
2) it is NOT needed !!! it is not used, thus it is pointless generating it

Booooshpig

[Bushpig]

Lets start from the beginning...as this thread is getting a lil unstructured.  I shall beging by telling you what I know and please raise questions I will try my bebst to answer them a bit better, firstly lets talk about 'lumens' (luminous flux )

Lumens measure light of all wavelengths in the visible spectrum.  What this means is that it measures light visible to the human eye.  

We know that plant use the blue and red parts of the spectrum more efficiently (see photosynthetic action spectrum as published everywhere). These parts of the spectrum are MUCH less visible to the humen eye

Therefore it is sensible and logical to use lights that makie use of the plant spectrum.


(next installment after ive done my shopping! )

[RifeHeretic]

Can you PM me the pics that aren't suitable for the forums? I'd like to see these guys in action.

[laughingwillow]

Here's your chance to sell me, boosh: How many grams/watt can one expect with your floros? (A gram/watt is fairly easy to obtain with MH/MPS)

lw

[Bushpig]

Hi LW,

I dont think its that simple however here is a strictly nlite fluorescent only example:

10 x 200w (2000w) nlite PURple red lamps produced same yield as crop did with 3 x 600w (1800w) HPS, but the grower reported that although quantity/yield was fractionally down, the QUALITY was up massively, because there is so little heat, all of the "qualitative" characteristics of the plant tops are not "evaporated" by IR heat. this is especially relevant during the flowering stage when plant surfaces in the flower region are particularly photoponically sensitive and vulnerable to humidity and over-heating problems.

The reason I think your way of measuring the gram/watt is not quite right is because:

What plant, what specturm, what distance, what coverage, what diffusion, what eveness, what temp, what CO2 versus o2 transpiration rate, WHICH HPS, what type of HPS ballast, what refelctor, what nutes, how much water?

It is a meaningless comparison in the context you put it, ..and what watts do you mean..useful ones or non useful, how many are wasted in ballast?

Boooooshpig