Just wanted to thank you for the recommendation! In a sea of grow lights, I didn't want to buy the wrong one. I purchased the larger Vipar Spectra P2000 and just love it! Your code worked like a charm for a discount. Purchased on Amazon, it was very well packaged, easy to set up, with quality ratchets. Love the dimmer it looks like such a quality fixture.
I actually enclosed a south facing screened in porch with 6 mil plastic and created a greenhouse. I added a grow light to help with solar nutrient. So far the peppers are going crazy! I have a small milk house heater keeping it warm. Thanks for the info.
The guideline I usually follow for indoor fruiting of peppers is: if people grow cannabis with it, it will fruit my peppers/tomatoes. Seems to be fairly accurate. I saw someone mentioning the Mars Hydro lights, the TSL2000s work great for an average 6' folding table of seedling trays. With the adjustable drivers, they'll easily support your plants to 12", which is usually about transplant time for me. Having a short season, sometimes my super hots need started in JAN...
I always had good luck with peppers indoors with the exact same set up I use for MJ. I even have the nutrients needed down to a fine art and get great yields. I hope you had luck with yours. Right now I am trying an experiment with one tent. I am growing a Carolina Reaper, a chocolate ghost, An orange Habanero and a Trinidad Scorpion pepper using the Kratky Method. I think it should work out even better than soil did for me if I get it right.
That guideline seems to work great for sun-loving indoor plants in general. My oncidium orchid, aloe, and cacti are so much happier with the MJ lights. I am too, but that was an unexpected bonus.
The best channel around that really helps with pepper 🌶 I have growing 2 types on our weather. it's very tricky, but the info's I got from this channel was helpful
I don't know if this video has made me smarter or if it has confused me. I'll watch it again tomorrow and maybe take notes...thanks for the info, you've been a tremendous help
I've been using a few TS 1000 lights by MarsHydro for a year and a half with great results. I've got 13 pepper plants in a 4x4 tent under them and they do well.
I've loved my Mars Hydro lights so far the last few seasons. They allow me to fruit peppers and tomatoes over the winter for additional seeds (and tasty fruit) if I need them, and I can dial them back when it's seed start time.
@@sstimac oh ok. Because I saw some 4x4 area models online for like $900. I never bought one. I was turned away by that price. Thought maybe the lights were priced high because of inflation. Anyway. Thank you for sharing.
I bought a viparspectra p2000 and its awesome!!! Highly recommend viparspectra lights. I bought it because we had such a cold and wet spring last year and I had to keep my 20+ pepper plant starts inside in 1 gal pots so I got it to hang over until I could get them outside and I wouldn't buy anything else. I'm currently starting my onions, lettuces, spinach and dwarf tomatoes to grow inside and I ll use my viparspectra light when they get big enough
@kaleb_marti2240 I just have the 1 as my shelf lights are sunblasters but I love the Viparspectra, used it for two seasons now and would highly recommend 👌
I use Mars Hydro for my lettuce, kale, chard, Tatsoi, Bok Choi, etc. For peppers, I ordered Spider Farmer lights. New to growing peppers. Fingers crossed.
This was so helpful. I recently bought a grow tent and grow light and couldn’t find anyone talking about what percentages to use! Very helpful, thank you!
You can also combine lights to customize what you need. I made my own daylight lamp with 3 LED headlight bulbs mounted under an aluminum track (I only had to buy a transformer and 3 H4 plugs). It's 6,500K for color and a combined 25,000 Lumens for brightness (imagine 3 off-road headlights in a 2x4 area). Then I added two skinny, cheap full spectrums on each side to give a warmer hue for true sun color. It's just like a sunny summer day in there. I have it set to 18 on/6 off.
@@thombaz Yes, but in artificial lighting, it will always be bluer. So to mimic the warmer color that you actually get in nature, you need to add a yellow-orange tint to mimic our yellow dwarf sun. I added the warmer color to aid in fruiting.
They sell wifi outlets for 4 for 20.00 at Costco. Really easy to set up and more diversity than those mechanical ones. Just my 2c. Thanks for your videos. Love em.
I'm thinking of buying a LED grow light for the coming pepper season, and this video had a lot of useful information Thank you very much 👍 Cheers from Denmark
Blue is one of the colors plants really like for photosynthesis, and red is the other (ironically, they look green because they do not generally absorb green light). Conveniently, the most efficient LEDs are Blue and in Red-Orange to Red. White LEDs are really blue LEDs with a phosphor to fill in other visible colors in the color spectrum, different phosphors giving you very different-looking light and color temperature. Fluorescents are inherently less efficient than LEDs because they natively produce highly energetic ultraviolet light (which takes more energy) and then convert it to (less energetic) visible light through multiple phosphors. The ultraviolet light is also harmful in a number of ways but plants are accustomed to dealing with it as it occurs in sunlight.
You're right, plants do use get some benefit from green light, but green leaves reflect most of it and it is not efficient for photosynthesis; and not as efficient to produce in an LED as blue or red-orange. I do like the overall growing light to look "white" for the reason Calvin points out -- so you can really see the plants well while the grow lights are on -- and that requires some green too, usually made from blue by a phosphor. Green LEDs do exist, but they are not very efficient and are not often used in grow lights.
I'd recommend to also have a tool to measure the actual power, since the specs most of these "ghost brands" give at amazon can be confusing. Some show the actual wattage, some the wattage of a tungsten bulb that would produce same amount of light.
If you look into their description they always show you the power consumption under power consumed or power consumption and I'm talking about the ones that try to mislead
I used led strips from salvaged tv's. They are all a cool blue light so I could do with some red or warm white as well. Each led is in the 1-2 watt range. A 40 inch tv has about 60 watts of leds
@@PepperGeek the strips are screwed onto underside of wooden laminate floorboards that I had spare and used as shelves in my cupboard under stairs. I power the strips with 24v but different tv's have strips with more or less leds on them so need different voltages.
Awesome video Pepper Geek! I’m keeping a tomato plant inside for the winter to see if I can keep it or not. Literally just bought a cheap round aluminum light fixture with clamp for $13, and then a pack of 2 100-watt LED bulb at 5000k and 1500 Lumens about 8 hours ago. A window with decent sun isn’t doing enough for the tomato plant so I though I would add something for that one plant for the winter. All my over wintered peppers along with 60 new seedlings, all in energy drink cans lol, are in my shed, which has been insulated and heat source added as I’m in zone 5a, are under 3 long led grow lights. Wanting to add another light so this is great!
@@tmorrison5965 I gave up on the tomato plant. It became too tall and the main stem was weak. It probably didnt have enough light. But the peppers grew amazing. I didn't get any pepper off them over the winter other than a hand full but I was only using white light, nothing specific for fruiting. I also never potted up all winter so they stayed small. But come spring, I planted them all and had a crazy amount of peppers. Most my cayenne pepper plants grew about 3 feet tall. My fresnos were only about 2 feet tall but I got several peppers almost the same size as my bell peppers. I got probably 1000 peppers off the plants in our short growing season. Winter came fast up here in Montana so I cut the pepper plants at the base of the main stem and hug them upside down in my garage. I now have about 2000 plus peppers ripening from 40 plants. This year, I upgraded my lights to Sun System Sun Blaze T5HO 48s with LED lights and things are growing fast. Soon i'll swap to different spectrum lights for flowering and fruiting. I am growing peppers, peas, beans, carrots, herbs, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and more this year in the same shed. The peas are growing fast so i'm hoping to have some to eat in a month or so!!
Great video. I use 4 foot 5000 lumen 6500k daylight led shop lights by Hyper Tough from Walmart for only $20. I put two side by side each other. My vegetable plants go from seedlings to flowering and fruiting under them.
@@alexandervarga8090 Also same, but mine are 5000 lumen, 5000K. I've been wondering if my plants are too close to it, about 1-2 inches. They have leaf curl, so it's either the lights or I'm not watering correctly, the top of the soil gets very crusty fast.
I own two HLG 300L R-spec for an indoor tent, highly recommend them. If you're looking to do indoor grows, these are some of the best, and your peppers will love you. They stay very cool, their PPFD rating is great, and their coverage is true. They also offer the 300L B-spec, that eliminates the red spectrum completely. which means they're fantastic for vegging.
A not exactly lighting-related suggestion -- I put my heat mat when starting pepper seeds on the same timer I later use for lighting. I have found seeds germinate at least as fast, maybe faster, when the heat mat is on a timer than just always on. Interested to hear whether others can corroborate this observation.
I use about 14 on, 10 off, because that is what I use for the lights. Before germination you could theoretically do something different, but 14/10 is probably about ideal for the heating pad anyway.
For best results use a thermostatically controlled mat. If you don't/can't get one, focus on lights off to maintain minimum night temperatures. (basic timer on x minutes, off x minutes)
@@patrey6797 I don't have that kind of mat, but do monitor temperature and humidity using one of my several Ambient Weather sensors and I find the temperature is quite consistently around 83-86F whenever it is on. When it is on a timer the "simulated nighttime" temperature is around 70F. This last batch I used a tall humidity dome for a whole week, plus I ran the heat mat full time. Germination seemed to be about a day faster, but I got 5 cases of Helmet Head which I had not had in over 2 years, so I am going to do experiments to pin down which change caused them. Also, the seed starting soil got REALLY wet under the humidity dome.
This may sound silly, but having ultra bright lights for your plant setup in living spaces is amazing for Seasonal Affective Disorder. Having a lot of bright light for hours is so much less restrictive and irritating than sitting with a therapy lamp in front of your face for 30 min.
Man, I really love your channel and videos! So informative. You inspired me to grow Peppers and I also started my own Hot Sauce business in Hawaii. Thanks for the inspiration. 🤙🤙🤙 from Hawaii
Your plants will get pretty large indoors in those 12 weeks, so you could, but make sure you have the space! You could start around Feb 15th and get the plants out mid-April
So I have 3 chili varieties (Jalapeno, Habanero and Bhut Jolokia) that I pruned down to just a few forks in September because they were starting to enter their dormancy, stuck them near a window with indirect light and only give them about a half cup of water every couple of weeks just to make sure they don't die....While the Habanero and Ghost seem happily asleep that jalapeno, in the last few weeks, has been trying to sprout leaves.... I keep pinching them off every few days but it seems like it wants to grow. It was dormant for a good 2 months but I'm wondering if I should just let it wake up and get back to work? I am an indoor grower so I have the tent and lights and all that jazz ready to go, I just wasn't expecting it to be dormant for such a short period of time. What do you guys think?
Ive had my Red Ghost for three years (this will be the fourth winter it will see and hopefully survive). I keep it outside in warm months and for winter I put it in the master bathroom tub. Oddly enough, about the time it appears to go dormant it continues to grow new leaves (very sparse, but there none the less) and this past winter it flowered and had a few peppers. So...I would say...let it do what it wants.
Your video on overwintering peppers inspired me to try that process this winter. However, the only window I have for them is North facing and gets no direct sunlight. Will the ambient light be enough for them to make it through the winter or will I need to get one of these lights to supplement? Also, if I’m just trying to keep them alive but dormant and I do need a supplemental light for them, do I need a grow tent for them as well or not? Thank you for all the amazing videos and can’t wait to see your crop this summer!
It should be enough light for just overwintering. If you just want to keep them dormant, no need to buy anything additional. The leaves that _do_ grow may be pale and the stems may grow long and leggy, but once they get back outside they should rebound
There's some stuff you kinda glossed over, or weren't technically correct about. Quantum board is a term that was trademarked by Horticulture lighting group, then Chinese manufacturers latched onto it after the term was popularized. Lenses are absolute garbage for growing, because the photon has to refract twice before hitting your canopy. Lenses are really only good for human lighting purposes, not plants. The hottest part of a LED light is typically the driver, especially on fixtures that have a spread out array of discreet diodes attached to an aluminum heatsink. If you're comfortable sourcing some parts and aluminum angle you can make your own lights for a fraction of the cost. Many manufacturers offer components to build your own. Or alternatively you could rewire them and extend the cord from your driver to the light and eliminate that heat from your grow environment completely, if that is an issue for you. LEDs run so cool compared to traditional indoor lighting solutions that its not really an issue. Maybe you cover it and I just haven't gotten to it yet, but another important consideration when dialing in your grow, especially if switching from HPS to LED, is taking your measurements for VPD at the leaf surface.
Thank you for this video!A long time i look for this .the led lamps are available here in germany , that´s fine! So i try next season!So long , greetings from Leipzig Germany!
In Europe (including the UK) finding anything but LED lights is very unlikely but thank you so much for the video... sorted out my birthday and Christmas requests! :D
@@bazan0448 High pressure sodium lamps aren't hard to find if you really want them, but nobody uses them. LEDs use so much less power for the same light output, you'll have saved the price difference in your power bill pretty quickly with the fairly high electricity prices here, and LEDs have other advantages like producing less heat (so you don't need to worry about cooking your plants from the waste heat of the lights as much).
If one would grow chilies under grow light the entire year, what would fruit production look like? Would it be several harvests with some regularity? Just one harvest a year? Continuous production once the plant matures?
Once fruits start to form, you can get continued harvests. Some plants will produce ripe peppers randomly, while other varieties like to produce flushes of many ripe fruits at a time
All my lights are each 4' long and run on 40W, 5000LM / 5000K. I pay $12.90 per bulb an can connect 5 together. Everyone that sees my plants say they look great. Any input from anyone would be great.
Recommendations for bar lights above plant tables? Or is it better to use a few of these instead? I am wintering pepper plants for the first time. Thank you :)
Our spider farmer sf600 is a great led with a rectangular shape. We don’t currently have any proper bar lights but I know there are many on the market. I’d say shop by brand and look for the coverage area you’re after
I'm trying Valoya Clone Led18 to overwinter scotch bonnet, datil, giant marconi, corno di toro, and Jimmy Nardello peppers. I also plan to use the Led18 lights for starting seeds in 2024. I tried the GooingTop clip LEDs last year. They worked well for $20 LEDs from Amazon, but the mounting clips are not ideal for my metro shelving.
I am using HLG 100 v2 4000k lights. I bought these because I read that HLGs are superior to all others, though I have no way to verify this since I haven't had a chance to compare! They seem to work well - the one thing I notice, though, is that the fruits I get on my indoor plants are much smaller those I get on my outdoor plants. Any idea what would cause this, and if there is anything I can do to increase the size of the fruits?
My goal is to grow peppers on a pallet rack with shelves being about 3.5ft apart. Do you think using rows of t5 led shop lights would work in this application?
I recommend looking into light metering different light sources. Instead of buying an actual light measuring device, I downloaded an app on my phone....it seems alright, but I'm honestly ignorant. I found little LED's are just not worth it when comparing the 4-flexible-arm variety and bulb varieties vs. a dim-able ....100W maybe minimum. Again, this is just going off numbers I measured off my phone, and comparing the energy consumption of all the different light sources.
I cut my peppers back and moved them inside under a glow light. They've been inside about a month and only watered once. Is it normal for them to grow leaves? I shortened the grow light time by an hour, just not sure if they should be doing this.
I bought an LED a few years back it was only 90W but the 3 fans were So Loud I stopped using it. Are any of these newer ones quiet or is noise just a part of having LED's that need cooling
There's some new 1s that cost a bunch but r totally silent n cool. I thought I could cheap out and get 1 off brand but ended up having to blow a fan on it cause it gets way 2 hot to the touch. Lesson learned. Don't be cheap with equipment that you want to be using all the time.
Is it worth it to hang a light light panel such as a maxisun MF2000 on the ceiling thus between 3-4 distance? my goal is to supplement a bit light from the window light to several indoor plants, such as canna or taro or birds of paradise that are a little sad durin winter time. Or am I just wasting money and time? thank you
Yes but no. Needs to be from 5500k to 6500k I believe. Give or take a few thousand. Cfl bulbs daylight will work on the cheap cheap. But they need to be close to the leaves
2022 will be my first year starting seedlings indoors. The room I'll be using is a spare bedroom (its actually the brightest lit room in the house) and I need approximately 8ft × 8ft of grow light coverage. I'll only be using this to start seedlings before moving them outside. How would you recommend lighting this much space at a reasonable cost? I want a quality setup, but I'm not trying to spend 500 bucks on LED panels either, ya know?
I have some ring of fire sprouts that are my second set after the first died- its late in the season so im thinking that mars led unit will run 3-4 peppers in a bedroom that also will get sun but wont be outside for the winters (we get to low teens)
I wouldn't worry to much about lighting for seedlings. Just be sure to have fans. If there's no airflow, their stalks will be weak. You can use those under the counter lights from Walmart if you have to. I think they run about $10 last time I bought one. But it's been a while.
Also...you will not want to take them directly out into the sun permanently if you've started them inside or in a green house. You have to acclimate them to be able to handle the sunlight. Introduce the sun gradually, and increase the amount of time every so often.
Spritsing? Haha so funny that word made it to the states. Yeah it's what u do with a spray bottle but it's also what a male cat in heat does or.. yknow.. a lil cim or sth. It means spraying, it's german but we use it in dutch as well. Thanks for introducing me to ViparSpectra
the dim knob decrease the current mA, the voltage stay nearly the same, what the leds need for working. multiply the current mA by the voltage to get the actual power use. So yes it will decrease the power consumption
For seedlings, usually between 14-16 hours on. Also, the lights should be dimmed or positioned further from the plants early on (unless your light is less powerful, say 20-30W)
Can you use one of the "deformable" bulbs Amazon sells? They're 6000 lumens and 6500 K (they vary). I only need it to start seeds. I'm pretty sure I saw a video by Gary Pilarchik recommending them.
I think so, we have one of those types of lights. They are meant for use in garages, but work for seed starting. The coverage area may be a bit less uniform due to the design, but they are a pretty cheap entry point!
I need a grow light for just one canna plant that is about 3 ft tall, ifs already in flower and just need to finish it off indoors, what’s the cheapest light I can get for the plant so she can finish her cycle?
Yeah, those blurple lights are hard to view with the eye, but I will tell you I grown some awesome plants under them and while I no longer use them, they are given a bad rap
The Mars Hydro TS-1000 Uses 150 Watts of True Power. I'm a sponsored Grow light Tester for Mars Hydro. I'm currently reviewing the 2023 Model of the TS-1000 From Mars Hydro
There are budget lights that can cover that area for a decent price like this > amzn.to/30JjdzD (#ad), but I might worry about reliability. In the US, you can get 2 ViparSpectra 4x2' units for around $260 right now here > amzn.to/32dHDkS (#ad)
ViparSpectra uses the older Samsung LM301B diodes where SF or MH use the LM301H EVO. So that's two generation older leds even for a brand new product (2023 upgraded) With good reason probably: The newest SF2000 H-EVO does have but 490 LEDs where the older SF2000 LM301B has 606 LEDs or diodes. The older ones with more LEDs are run at a lower wattage per diode for the same lumen output. So yeah, the older stuff seems to be more efficient. They're going against "evolution" lol.
@@nymeriagloves3957 they cost nothing to run, Led lights are all The same. Why pay more for a gimmick? I grow all my plants the same way. Been gardening longer then pepper geek has been alive. Don’t get me wrong I love what they do, but they get paid to push a product.
Someone needs to make a led with a rechargeable battery pack and a solar panel for charging for indoor lightning. With the current economy indoor cultivators need to cut electric cost as much as possible to be profitable!! I run 1 4ft x 4ft tent with a luxx 645 led pro and my average monthly bill is around $400.00. That eats a majority of my profits!!!
Thanks for the info. I wonder if anyone at the corporate office reads what we post? I think they have words the computer recognizes as something they think is inappropriate . But content no. Oh well I hope you get credit for this. Merry Christmas to all. Remember Linus Van Pelt Christmas 1965
Okay, I went to order the first light you mention in your article, and your discount doesnt work on the company site... so I bought through Amazon, which offers the lite for a lot less. I paid $185 for 3 lights instead of over $200. So, how far do I put this from the seeds?
Hello my friend, I hope you will accompany me as a friend who needs help. I am writing with a program because English is not very good. I hope you have given me bad advice and counsel about the plant growth lamp. Of course, I know the efficiency is somewhat windy. I know that the full spectrum plant growth lamp or purple cover has all the color spectrum that the plant needs, but I want you to help me prepare a plant growth panel for marijuana. Three hundred and fifty is good for me. I wanted you to help me decide what kind of LED to get, which is suitable, and the type of color combination that will be installed on the panel. How to place it and the number of colors it needs. And I want to make the cooling device and the panel and everything I need by hand because I do not have access and it is a crime in my country. I hope you can help me. Thank you very much for providing a growth panel for marijuana. It has a suitable and excellent use for the plant so that I can be suitable for the period that I am by the plant. I can get a little more or less the necessary color for the plant, I am really thankful and I will never forget your kindness.
Everyone uses timers I don't get it. Why are you doing that? It's 2021 lets step into the current decade. Don't buy timer switches. Buy a smart plug. Way more flexible and about the same price. At least in my opinion, that's what I use. And I can turn it on and off on demand with my phone and setup a schedule from my phone so it goes on for 16 hours.
Got the timers lying around, and I don't really adjust how much time I keep it on often enough. They're also really simple so the power draw is incredibly low. Unless you're adjusting more than monthly (which is still more than I do), why would you need a smart one?
2022 will be the first year that I start seedlings indoors. So this info was very helpful. Thanks!
Sounds great!
Very nice.
I suggest a digital timer so when there is a power interruption they stay on cycle when power returns.
Just wanted to thank you for the recommendation! In a sea of grow lights, I didn't want to buy the wrong one. I purchased the larger Vipar Spectra P2000 and just love it! Your code worked like a charm for a discount. Purchased on Amazon, it was very well packaged, easy to set up, with quality ratchets. Love the dimmer it looks like such a quality fixture.
what a cool guy
I actually enclosed a south facing screened in porch with 6 mil plastic and created a greenhouse. I added a grow light to help with solar nutrient. So far the peppers are going crazy! I have a small milk house heater keeping it warm. Thanks for the info.
Awesome, that sounds like a fun project.
@@PepperGeek th-cam.com/video/vUt3KSmSZfU/w-d-xo.html this is the small greenhouse and a few peppers. Madison, SD for climate reference.
The guideline I usually follow for indoor fruiting of peppers is: if people grow cannabis with it, it will fruit my peppers/tomatoes. Seems to be fairly accurate. I saw someone mentioning the Mars Hydro lights, the TSL2000s work great for an average 6' folding table of seedling trays. With the adjustable drivers, they'll easily support your plants to 12", which is usually about transplant time for me. Having a short season, sometimes my super hots need started in JAN...
I always had good luck with peppers indoors with the exact same set up I use for MJ. I even have the nutrients needed down to a fine art and get great yields. I hope you had luck with yours. Right now I am trying an experiment with one tent. I am growing a Carolina Reaper, a chocolate ghost, An orange Habanero and a Trinidad Scorpion pepper using the Kratky Method. I think it should work out even better than soil did for me if I get it right.
That guideline seems to work great for sun-loving indoor plants in general.
My oncidium orchid, aloe, and cacti are so much happier with the MJ lights. I am too, but that was an unexpected bonus.
I've been using a 150w 3500k led flood light from the hardware store, cost like 50usd, cheap to run and grows plants like a champ.
To quote that tired internet ad: The people that charge 2k per grow light hate this guy. 😂
I suspected as much. I'm considering making a matrix of GU10 warm white LED bulbs with a few deep red ones interspersed amongst them.
The best channel around that really helps with pepper 🌶 I have growing 2 types on our weather. it's very tricky, but the info's I got from this channel was helpful
I don't know if this video has made me smarter or if it has confused me. I'll watch it again tomorrow and maybe take notes...thanks for the info, you've been a tremendous help
Loving my Viparspectra p2000. Cheap and it has great reviews from every community I've seen. I'm using it in a 2x4x5 tent.
Can confirm Vipars quality. And Maxsisun is a comparable knockoff.
I've been using a few TS 1000 lights by MarsHydro for a year and a half with great results. I've got 13 pepper plants in a 4x4 tent under them and they do well.
I've loved my Mars Hydro lights so far the last few seasons. They allow me to fruit peppers and tomatoes over the winter for additional seeds (and tasty fruit) if I need them, and I can dial them back when it's seed start time.
How much did your marshydro cost back then?
@@8arrows About what they cost now on Ebay, $110. The price went up during COVID, but went back down.
@@sstimac oh ok. Because I saw some 4x4 area models online for like $900. I never bought one. I was turned away by that price. Thought maybe the lights were priced high because of inflation. Anyway. Thank you for sharing.
less than 2 ppf tho
I bought a viparspectra p2000 and its awesome!!! Highly recommend viparspectra lights. I bought it because we had such a cold and wet spring last year and I had to keep my 20+ pepper plant starts inside in 1 gal pots so I got it to hang over until I could get them outside and I wouldn't buy anything else. I'm currently starting my onions, lettuces, spinach and dwarf tomatoes to grow inside and I ll use my viparspectra light when they get big enough
looking at these. How are they 8 months later
@kaleb_marti2240 I just have the 1 as my shelf lights are sunblasters but I love the Viparspectra, used it for two seasons now and would highly recommend 👌
So I don't have a backyard or patio. I need to flower and fruit indoors. Is this vipaspectra worth while season grow from flower to fruit at least?
Pepper Geek! Fantastic breakdown Calvin! Very clear and thorough. Thank you! 🌶
Thanks for watching and the kind words ☺️
I use Mars Hydro for my lettuce, kale, chard, Tatsoi, Bok Choi, etc.
For peppers, I ordered Spider Farmer lights. New to growing peppers. Fingers crossed.
How has your experience been with the Spider Farmer light?
@@ericnorwood65 fantastic
This was so helpful. I recently bought a grow tent and grow light and couldn’t find anyone talking about what percentages to use! Very helpful, thank you!
I highly recommend Telos leds to anyone in the UK and Europe. They're made in the UK and are extremely high quality
You can also combine lights to customize what you need. I made my own daylight lamp with 3 LED headlight bulbs mounted under an aluminum track (I only had to buy a transformer and 3 H4 plugs). It's 6,500K for color and a combined 25,000 Lumens for brightness (imagine 3 off-road headlights in a 2x4 area). Then I added two skinny, cheap full spectrums on each side to give a warmer hue for true sun color. It's just like a sunny summer day in there. I have it set to 18 on/6 off.
True sun color is not warmer. Sun color temperature is 5,000- 10,000K
@@thombaz Yes, but in artificial lighting, it will always be bluer. So to mimic the warmer color that you actually get in nature, you need to add a yellow-orange tint to mimic our yellow dwarf sun. I added the warmer color to aid in fruiting.
They sell wifi outlets for 4 for 20.00 at Costco. Really easy to set up and more diversity than those mechanical ones. Just my 2c. Thanks for your videos. Love em.
I'm thinking of buying a LED grow light for the coming pepper season, and this video had a lot of useful information
Thank you very much 👍
Cheers from Denmark
Glad to be helpful, cheers!
Blue is one of the colors plants really like for photosynthesis, and red is the other (ironically, they look green because they do not generally absorb green light). Conveniently, the most efficient LEDs are Blue and in Red-Orange to Red. White LEDs are really blue LEDs with a phosphor to fill in other visible colors in the color spectrum, different phosphors giving you very different-looking light and color temperature.
Fluorescents are inherently less efficient than LEDs because they natively produce highly energetic ultraviolet light (which takes more energy) and then convert it to (less energetic) visible light through multiple phosphors. The ultraviolet light is also harmful in a number of ways but plants are accustomed to dealing with it as it occurs in sunlight.
Plants do use green light jus look at a spectrum chart on any led. Also green light penetrates further into the canopy than most other colours
You're right, plants do use get some benefit from green light, but green leaves reflect most of it and it is not efficient for photosynthesis; and not as efficient to produce in an LED as blue or red-orange. I do like the overall growing light to look "white" for the reason Calvin points out -- so you can really see the plants well while the grow lights are on -- and that requires some green too, usually made from blue by a phosphor. Green LEDs do exist, but they are not very efficient and are not often used in grow lights.
I think I have that exact ViparSpectra xs1500. I used it to grow.. something else. Worked well though and now will be used for some peppers!
I'd recommend to also have a tool to measure the actual power, since the specs most of these "ghost brands" give at amazon can be confusing. Some show the actual wattage, some the wattage of a tungsten bulb that would produce same amount of light.
If you look into their description they always show you the power consumption under power consumed or power consumption and I'm talking about the ones that try to mislead
HLG is amazing regardless of what you're growing 😉
I have found a smart plug works well as you can adjust timing and if you're lucky, power. They're cheap, but if your WiFi isn't great, it can drop out
I have set 2 on and 2 off times 5 minutes apart, if the first on doesnt work the 2nd does the job.
I used led strips from salvaged tv's. They are all a cool blue light so I could do with some red or warm white as well. Each led is in the 1-2 watt range. A 40 inch tv has about 60 watts of leds
Would love to see what that looks like
@@PepperGeek the strips are screwed onto underside of wooden laminate floorboards that I had spare and used as shelves in my cupboard under stairs. I power the strips with 24v but different tv's have strips with more or less leds on them so need different voltages.
Awesome video Pepper Geek!
I’m keeping a tomato plant inside for the winter to see if I can keep it or not. Literally just bought a cheap round aluminum light fixture with clamp for $13, and then a pack of 2 100-watt LED bulb at 5000k and 1500 Lumens about 8 hours ago. A window with decent sun isn’t doing enough for the tomato plant so I though I would add something for that one plant for the winter.
All my over wintered peppers along with 60 new seedlings, all in energy drink cans lol, are in my shed, which has been insulated and heat source added as I’m in zone 5a, are under 3 long led grow lights.
Wanting to add another light so this is great!
what were your results?
@@tmorrison5965 I gave up on the tomato plant. It became too tall and the main stem was weak. It probably didnt have enough light. But the peppers grew amazing. I didn't get any pepper off them over the winter other than a hand full but I was only using white light, nothing specific for fruiting. I also never potted up all winter so they stayed small. But come spring, I planted them all and had a crazy amount of peppers. Most my cayenne pepper plants grew about 3 feet tall. My fresnos were only about 2 feet tall but I got several peppers almost the same size as my bell peppers. I got probably 1000 peppers off the plants in our short growing season. Winter came fast up here in Montana so I cut the pepper plants at the base of the main stem and hug them upside down in my garage. I now have about 2000 plus peppers ripening from 40 plants.
This year, I upgraded my lights to Sun System Sun Blaze T5HO 48s with LED lights and things are growing fast. Soon i'll swap to different spectrum lights for flowering and fruiting. I am growing peppers, peas, beans, carrots, herbs, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce and more this year in the same shed. The peas are growing fast so i'm hoping to have some to eat in a month or so!!
Great video. I use 4 foot 5000 lumen 6500k daylight led shop lights by Hyper Tough from Walmart for only $20. I put two side by side each other. My vegetable plants go from seedlings to flowering and fruiting under them.
I have the same but 5500 lumen. How far from the seedlings are yours?? I started with mine 5 inches off and got light burn
@@alexandervarga8090 Also same, but mine are 5000 lumen, 5000K. I've been wondering if my plants are too close to it, about 1-2 inches. They have leaf curl, so it's either the lights or I'm not watering correctly, the top of the soil gets very crusty fast.
@@YACABE Hey, so i raised my lights to 20 inches and dont see any more light burning. In case this might help you
I own two HLG 300L R-spec for an indoor tent, highly recommend them. If you're looking to do indoor grows, these are some of the best, and your peppers will love you. They stay very cool, their PPFD rating is great, and their coverage is true. They also offer the 300L B-spec, that eliminates the red spectrum completely. which means they're fantastic for vegging.
A not exactly lighting-related suggestion -- I put my heat mat when starting pepper seeds on the same timer I later use for lighting. I have found seeds germinate at least as fast, maybe faster, when the heat mat is on a timer than just always on. Interested to hear whether others can corroborate this observation.
What kind of on/off schedule do you use?
I use about 14 on, 10 off, because that is what I use for the lights. Before germination you could theoretically do something different, but 14/10 is probably about ideal for the heating pad anyway.
For best results use a thermostatically controlled mat. If you don't/can't get one, focus on lights off to maintain minimum night temperatures. (basic timer on x minutes, off x minutes)
@@patrey6797 I don't have that kind of mat, but do monitor temperature and humidity using one of my several Ambient Weather sensors and I find the temperature is quite consistently around 83-86F whenever it is on. When it is on a timer the "simulated nighttime" temperature is around 70F.
This last batch I used a tall humidity dome for a whole week, plus I ran the heat mat full time. Germination seemed to be about a day faster, but I got 5 cases of Helmet Head which I had not had in over 2 years, so I am going to do experiments to pin down which change caused them. Also, the seed starting soil got REALLY wet under the humidity dome.
This may sound silly, but having ultra bright lights for your plant setup in living spaces is amazing for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Having a lot of bright light for hours is so much less restrictive and irritating than sitting with a therapy lamp in front of your face for 30 min.
Man, I really love your channel and videos! So informative. You inspired me to grow Peppers and I also started my own Hot Sauce business in Hawaii. Thanks for the inspiration. 🤙🤙🤙 from Hawaii
How early should I start my pepper seeds in zone 9? I was thinking Jan 1st with a last frost end of March that would be about 12 weeks. Thoughts?
Your plants will get pretty large indoors in those 12 weeks, so you could, but make sure you have the space! You could start around Feb 15th and get the plants out mid-April
So I have 3 chili varieties (Jalapeno, Habanero and Bhut Jolokia) that I pruned down to just a few forks in September because they were starting to enter their dormancy, stuck them near a window with indirect light and only give them about a half cup of water every couple of weeks just to make sure they don't die....While the Habanero and Ghost seem happily asleep that jalapeno, in the last few weeks, has been trying to sprout leaves.... I keep pinching them off every few days but it seems like it wants to grow. It was dormant for a good 2 months but I'm wondering if I should just let it wake up and get back to work? I am an indoor grower so I have the tent and lights and all that jazz ready to go, I just wasn't expecting it to be dormant for such a short period of time.
What do you guys think?
Ive had my Red Ghost for three years (this will be the fourth winter it will see and hopefully survive). I keep it outside in warm months and for winter I put it in the master bathroom tub. Oddly enough, about the time it appears to go dormant it continues to grow new leaves (very sparse, but there none the less) and this past winter it flowered and had a few peppers.
So...I would say...let it do what it wants.
Your video on overwintering peppers inspired me to try that process this winter. However, the only window I have for them is North facing and gets no direct sunlight. Will the ambient light be enough for them to make it through the winter or will I need to get one of these lights to supplement? Also, if I’m just trying to keep them alive but dormant and I do need a supplemental light for them, do I need a grow tent for them as well or not? Thank you for all the amazing videos and can’t wait to see your crop this summer!
It should be enough light for just overwintering. If you just want to keep them dormant, no need to buy anything additional. The leaves that _do_ grow may be pale and the stems may grow long and leggy, but once they get back outside they should rebound
Thx bro very helpful I’ve been doing some searching around and this vid gave me good direction! ❤️💯🔥
Glad we could help!
the lensing is for light focus.
the bare LED shine 120 degree angle
I’m a big fan of the viparspectra lights. I have two 1500 series and a 1000 series in my 5x5 tent. So far doing great for over a year.
There's some stuff you kinda glossed over, or weren't technically correct about.
Quantum board is a term that was trademarked by Horticulture lighting group, then Chinese manufacturers latched onto it after the term was popularized.
Lenses are absolute garbage for growing, because the photon has to refract twice before hitting your canopy. Lenses are really only good for human lighting purposes, not plants.
The hottest part of a LED light is typically the driver, especially on fixtures that have a spread out array of discreet diodes attached to an aluminum heatsink. If you're comfortable sourcing some parts and aluminum angle you can make your own lights for a fraction of the cost. Many manufacturers offer components to build your own. Or alternatively you could rewire them and extend the cord from your driver to the light and eliminate that heat from your grow environment completely, if that is an issue for you. LEDs run so cool compared to traditional indoor lighting solutions that its not really an issue.
Maybe you cover it and I just haven't gotten to it yet, but another important consideration when dialing in your grow, especially if switching from HPS to LED, is taking your measurements for VPD at the leaf surface.
Thank you for this video!A long time i look for this .the led lamps are available here in germany , that´s fine! So i try next season!So long , greetings from Leipzig Germany!
In Europe (including the UK) finding anything but LED lights is very unlikely but thank you so much for the video... sorted out my birthday and Christmas requests! :D
Why is it rare to find?
@@bazan0448 High pressure sodium lamps aren't hard to find if you really want them, but nobody uses them. LEDs use so much less power for the same light output, you'll have saved the price difference in your power bill pretty quickly with the fairly high electricity prices here, and LEDs have other advantages like producing less heat (so you don't need to worry about cooking your plants from the waste heat of the lights as much).
@@ska042
Thank you
HLG 650 R Diablo in my main grow room. Lux LED strips for germination and cloning.
Very helpful and timely. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
If one would grow chilies under grow light the entire year, what would fruit production look like? Would it be several harvests with some regularity? Just one harvest a year? Continuous production once the plant matures?
Once fruits start to form, you can get continued harvests. Some plants will produce ripe peppers randomly, while other varieties like to produce flushes of many ripe fruits at a time
@@PepperGeek Hm... Sounds like a topic for a video, doesn't it?
@@PepperGeek yea pepper geek. That does sound like an interesting experiment. If only we had someone to make said video….
So if I have a pepper fruiting itll just keep going under one of these grow lights indoors? No sun required?
Finally a NON weed grow light video
All my lights are each 4' long and run on 40W, 5000LM / 5000K. I pay $12.90 per bulb an can connect 5 together. Everyone that sees my plants say they look great. Any input from anyone would be great.
Recommendations for bar lights above plant tables? Or is it better to use a few of these instead? I am wintering pepper plants for the first time. Thank you :)
Our spider farmer sf600 is a great led with a rectangular shape. We don’t currently have any proper bar lights but I know there are many on the market. I’d say shop by brand and look for the coverage area you’re after
I'm trying Valoya Clone Led18 to overwinter scotch bonnet, datil, giant marconi, corno di toro, and Jimmy Nardello peppers. I also plan to use the Led18 lights for starting seeds in 2024. I tried the GooingTop clip LEDs last year. They worked well for $20 LEDs from Amazon, but the mounting clips are not ideal for my metro shelving.
I am using HLG 100 v2 4000k lights. I bought these because I read that HLGs are superior to all others, though I have no way to verify this since I haven't had a chance to compare! They seem to work well - the one thing I notice, though, is that the fruits I get on my indoor plants are much smaller those I get on my outdoor plants. Any idea what would cause this, and if there is anything I can do to increase the size of the fruits?
The container size can make fruit smaller maybe. Also try putting your lights closer to the plants. Slowly to avoid damage
My goal is to grow peppers on a pallet rack with shelves being about 3.5ft apart. Do you think using rows of t5 led shop lights would work in this application?
Do you have a video on growing tents? I live in a cold climate, my peppers are indoors.
I recommend looking into light metering different light sources. Instead of buying an actual light measuring device, I downloaded an app on my phone....it seems alright, but I'm honestly ignorant. I found little LED's are just not worth it when comparing the 4-flexible-arm variety and bulb varieties vs. a dim-able ....100W maybe minimum. Again, this is just going off numbers I measured off my phone, and comparing the energy consumption of all the different light sources.
I cut my peppers back and moved them inside under a glow light. They've been inside about a month and only watered once. Is it normal for them to grow leaves? I shortened the grow light time by an hour, just not sure if they should be doing this.
Yes if it’s warm enough they will try to grow leaves. Ideally the temp is around 50-60°F which will slow growth considerably
@@PepperGeek pull the leaves?
You can feed the plant and let it grow leaves and fruit indoors if you want
@@MiguelY22 I don't have the room to do that.
what you say is very helpful , we also have the led quantum board light , can you have a try ?
I bought an LED a few years back it was only 90W but the 3 fans were So Loud I stopped using it.
Are any of these newer ones quiet or is noise just a part of having LED's that need cooling
There's some new 1s that cost a bunch but r totally silent n cool. I thought I could cheap out and get 1 off brand but ended up having to blow a fan on it cause it gets way 2 hot to the touch. Lesson learned. Don't be cheap with equipment that you want to be using all the time.
Is it worth it to hang a light light panel such as a maxisun MF2000 on the ceiling thus between 3-4 distance? my goal is to supplement a bit light from the window light to several indoor plants, such as canna or taro or birds of paradise that are a little sad durin winter time. Or am I just wasting money and time? thank you
can any light be used as a growlight?
Yes but no. Needs to be from 5500k to 6500k I believe. Give or take a few thousand. Cfl bulbs daylight will work on the cheap cheap. But they need to be close to the leaves
2022 will be my first year starting seedlings indoors. The room I'll be using is a spare bedroom (its actually the brightest lit room in the house) and I need approximately 8ft × 8ft of grow light coverage. I'll only be using this to start seedlings before moving them outside. How would you recommend lighting this much space at a reasonable cost? I want a quality setup, but I'm not trying to spend 500 bucks on LED panels either, ya know?
I have some ring of fire sprouts that are my second set after the first died- its late in the season so im thinking that mars led unit will run 3-4 peppers in a bedroom that also will get sun but wont be outside for the winters (we get to low teens)
I wouldn't worry to much about lighting for seedlings. Just be sure to have fans. If there's no airflow, their stalks will be weak.
You can use those under the counter lights from Walmart if you have to. I think they run about $10 last time I bought one. But it's been a while.
Also...you will not want to take them directly out into the sun permanently if you've started them inside or in a green house. You have to acclimate them to be able to handle the sunlight. Introduce the sun gradually, and increase the amount of time every so often.
Spritsing? Haha so funny that word made it to the states.
Yeah it's what u do with a spray bottle but it's also what a male cat in heat does or.. yknow.. a lil cim or sth.
It means spraying, it's german but we use it in dutch as well.
Thanks for introducing me to ViparSpectra
Question,
A 50 watt LED light reduced to 50% will still consume 50 Watts, or will it consume 25?
the dim knob decrease the current mA, the voltage stay nearly the same, what the leds need for working. multiply the current mA by the voltage to get the actual power use. So yes it will decrease the power consumption
Nope, if u lower the knob the power goes down as well. There's videos on this. I thought the same.
Anything else wouldn't make sense, when the leds uses less power, where should the power go to
Hey pepper geek, I want to do a full run indoors, my seedlings are 2 weeks old which light cycle should I use in a grow tent? Cheers
For seedlings, usually between 14-16 hours on. Also, the lights should be dimmed or positioned further from the plants early on (unless your light is less powerful, say 20-30W)
@@PepperGeek thanks for the answer, the lowest setting is about 80 watts, so im gonna keep it a littler higher than usual :)
Can you use one of the "deformable" bulbs Amazon sells? They're 6000 lumens and 6500 K (they vary). I only need it to start seeds. I'm pretty sure I saw a video by Gary Pilarchik recommending them.
I think so, we have one of those types of lights. They are meant for use in garages, but work for seed starting. The coverage area may be a bit less uniform due to the design, but they are a pretty cheap entry point!
@@PepperGeek Thanks so much for the reply. I also have one in the garage and they are very bright!
I need a grow light for just one canna plant that is about 3 ft tall, ifs already in flower and just need to finish it off indoors, what’s the cheapest light I can get for the plant so she can finish her cycle?
Do you have any info or videos about the little mason jars growing seedlings @12:56, also towards the intro. Thx.
Thanks Pepper Geeks… picked up one last time I saw you had a “special code.” Loving the light!
Awesome!! Glad it is working for you ☺️👍
Yeah, those blurple lights are hard to view with the eye, but I will tell you I grown some awesome plants under them and while I no longer use them, they are given a bad rap
The Mars Hydro TS-1000 Uses 150 Watts of True Power. I'm a sponsored Grow light Tester for Mars Hydro. I'm currently reviewing the 2023 Model of the TS-1000 From Mars Hydro
Another great light is the Sayhon SH2000
What would be the best line for a 4x4 tent
There are budget lights that can cover that area for a decent price like this > amzn.to/30JjdzD (#ad), but I might worry about reliability. In the US, you can get 2 ViparSpectra 4x2' units for around $260 right now here > amzn.to/32dHDkS (#ad)
Sanlight has the best LED-Growlights worldwide.
Unfortunately, Sanlight dont deliver to the US/Canada.
Only Europe.
The aluminium plating is the heatsink
I hoped to see more information about blurple lights. They are the cheapest.
ViparSpectra uses the older Samsung LM301B diodes where SF or MH use the LM301H EVO.
So that's two generation older leds even for a brand new product (2023 upgraded)
With good reason probably: The newest SF2000 H-EVO does have but 490 LEDs where the older SF2000 LM301B has 606 LEDs or diodes.
The older ones with more LEDs are run at a lower wattage per diode for the same lumen output.
So yeah, the older stuff seems to be more efficient. They're going against "evolution" lol.
I am needing something to help my plants to over winter, ALL this lighting stuff has me confused
migrow aray. nuff said.
What about Lumens and Kelvin??
Looking to try to grow some peppers and dwarf tomatoes indoors, been looking at the viparspectra P2000. Anyone have any experience with it ?
What size is your grow space
@@justinomar9210 I don't have a huge area, I would probably have a area that is about 4 feet by 2 feet
Buy it. Light is good.
Anyone tried barrina lights for growing?
I Choose 600W High Pressure Sodium which will out perform of the lights in this video easily.
Veg with a 1000w DE CMH then tell me everything after 700 ppfd is useless.
Uhh for pot the general consensus is one watt, one gram.
Menards 5k lumens led shop light is all I use. $24.99 Ea.
They work good enough?
shop lights work, but lifetime cost of use evens out from efficiency difference, so id rather have a nicer light with dimmer, better spectrum ect.
@@nymeriagloves3957 they cost nothing to run, Led lights are all
The same. Why pay more for a gimmick? I grow all my plants the same way. Been gardening longer then pepper geek has been alive.
Don’t get me wrong I love what they do, but they get paid to push a product.
must be trolling. saying electric is free and all led's have same efficiency, followed by i have the most experience lol
@@nymeriagloves3957 not trolling one bit, just being realistic
The life of an LED chip means nothing if the electronics that drive it junk out, which is usually the case.
👍👍
ben threw them all i use t5
Someone needs to make a led with a rechargeable battery pack and a solar panel for charging for indoor lightning. With the current economy indoor cultivators need to cut electric cost as much as possible to be profitable!! I run 1 4ft x 4ft tent with a luxx 645 led pro and my average monthly bill is around $400.00. That eats a majority of my profits!!!
Thanks for the info. I wonder if anyone at the corporate office reads what we post? I think they have words the computer recognizes as something they think is inappropriate . But content no. Oh well I hope you get credit for this. Merry Christmas to all. Remember Linus Van Pelt Christmas 1965
Okay, I went to order the first light you mention in your article, and your discount doesnt work on the company site... so I bought through Amazon, which offers the lite for a lot less. I paid $185 for 3 lights instead of over $200. So, how far do I put this from the seeds?
We start around 15-18” above seedlings at 50% intensity watch for curling (taco shell shaped leaves) which indicate too much light
You should link your other channel….
Hello my friend, I hope you will accompany me as a friend who needs help. I am writing with a program because English is not very good. I hope you have given me bad advice and counsel about the plant growth lamp. Of course, I know the efficiency is somewhat windy. I know that the full spectrum plant growth lamp or purple cover has all the color spectrum that the plant needs, but I want you to help me prepare a plant growth panel for marijuana. Three hundred and fifty is good for me. I wanted you to help me decide what kind of LED to get, which is suitable, and the type of color combination that will be installed on the panel. How to place it and the number of colors it needs. And I want to make the cooling device and the panel and everything I need by hand because I do not have access and it is a crime in my country. I hope you can help me. Thank you very much for providing a growth panel for marijuana. It has a suitable and excellent use for the plant so that I can be suitable for the period that I am by the plant. I can get a little more or less the necessary color for the plant, I am really thankful and I will never forget your kindness.
just make sure you get Samsung chips.
Use hps
Everyone uses timers I don't get it. Why are you doing that? It's 2021 lets step into the current decade. Don't buy timer switches. Buy a smart plug. Way more flexible and about the same price. At least in my opinion, that's what I use. And I can turn it on and off on demand with my phone and setup a schedule from my phone so it goes on for 16 hours.
Got the timers lying around, and I don't really adjust how much time I keep it on often enough. They're also really simple so the power draw is incredibly low. Unless you're adjusting more than monthly (which is still more than I do), why would you need a smart one?
Timer is easier for some people. Just set it once and dont have to worry about another app on your phone.