Interesting that 4.13 times more light ONLY produced about 16% more end product.. reasonable to speculate the limitation is the surface area of the leaves to absorb the light. Theoretically, a 28 watt LED of equal lumen output could yield the same as the other harvests at half the T5's power consumption. Realistically, I don't think it would as it would most likely use less bulbs decreasing the uniformity of light distribution.
Amazing experiment, thank you. I am as a city farmer (indoor) for more than 10years made my personal conclusions from this video: 1. Total Wattage does make difference 2. Shelf 2 and Shelf 3 - how to get near similar produce & product top look from cheap shelf 2 same as shelf 3 -> place 4 LED lights 30W-35W each on shelf 2 -> you should get these extra 60-70grams. Also if 2 lights will be 6500К and 2 lights will be 6500К+2700К you will get that vibrant look of mg's. And all that will be for the 1/3 cost of Shelf 3 😁😂Did you get to that and experiments in these 3 years ? Interesting to know what you finally came to in years. Healthy harvests)
@@auspiciouscloud8786 you can do it even without spreader mat. Like this grass... just do it with any sprouts th-cam.com/video/TCk6LeLZF0M/w-d-xo.htmlsi=qtvLuat1s7g3McL8
@simonci5177 and certain cancerous implants are silicon also... sorry I was harsh. It seems if you go through all the work to grow these, why would you use a sketchy product. Great idea just wish it was silicon... 💕
I started my first grow on radishes 3 days ago. I have grown lettuce in the winter for a couple of years in MN. Looking forward to have them to add to fresh salads. Thanks for the information to get me growing.
BE VERY VAREFUL GUYS! because you are both starting to inspire me to do something like this here in the uk!! lol. found your channel yesterday and really loving your content, thanks :D much love from the uk xxx
Just wanted to point out that because the top 2 were sitting on top of warm lamps; this may be the reason that they dry out more. This might also account for the lower harvest weight.
Great observation! Yes, they both had the heat rising from the lights below, but we actually found that a little heat helps with the growth... It could potentially dry it out more though, so you are correct. We will find a way to experiment better with it!
Or maybe shadows in dense vegetation made those variations. Better to make a growth with not that dense vegetation... That would be a better comparison with those different lux. What I have read about lettuce for example it's better to have more space between plants... It will get bigger yield.
If you took the extra 2 ounces from the sprouts on the bottom shelf, and sold it for six dollars a container at the farmers market, that would be an extra $120 for 20 racks, providing that you got the same extra yield every time. That would pay you back for the more expensive lights in seven weeks, then after that you would have an additional $120 in profit per rack, or approx $12k per year for the two racks I can visible see on screen.
Great video! Thank you for sharing so much great information on your channel! I just finished my seedling germination rack and modeled a lot of it around your shelves.
Thank you so much for the support! This setup has worked well for us so far! We have about 70 varieties that we have grown with great results so far. Excited to see how we can continue to improve the rack while keeping it cheap...
😀 Eugenia Hobbs Again...we really benefit from your support and nice compliments!!! Have you visited our newest website... www.onthegrow.net ...we are so proud of the help it provides!!! We hope you can tell we enjoy helping out!
Thanks for a great, informative video! A key advantage of higher light output is the ability to support thick canopies. That manifested as greater yield in your bottom sprouts. High light output becomes especially important for grow tents with mature plants such as tomatoes, whose leaf canopies are at least a foot thick or more. However, for microgreens, super thick canopies may be less important given that growth time is so short. In particular, the intensity of COB lights would require greater shelf heights to avoid burning the sprouts and would thetefore actually decrease yield per square foot. Your video has inspired me to retire my blurple sprouting leds and I will now invest in the full spectrum panels that you used for your bottom shelf. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the support!! We are beginning a lot more light experiments with about 5 more types of lights. Excited to see what the differences will be! Thanks again!
Huge fan of your guy's work and rigor in collecting the data for these different variables! It's been very fun and helpful watching you guys grow (both channel and product). I was wondering if you guys tried playing around with different wavelength lights for your grows? Have you tried using "grow spectrum" lights that blast the blue-red spectrum? Haven't seen any of these lights in your videos, so is there a specific reason you guys decided against them? Thanks for the content, keep up the great work!! By far favorite microgreens channel on YT.
Thank you so much for the support Timothy! It means a lot to us! We are about to begin playing with more spectrums like what you are discussing. We have some blurple lights we are going to test first with some more powerful daylight LED's. We don't love looking at the multi-spectrum lights because they are so hard on the eyes... We have used them in the past, but you have to wear glasses to observe the crops. We did love our blue spectrum lights, they gave us amazing results... but for some reason the vendor stopped selling them :( Stay tuned for some more lights tests soon! Thank you so much for the kind words, we really do appreciate your support.
If you thumbs-downed this... Really? This is such a great video. Well shot, good editing, easy to follow, clear, concise. Good job and very informative.
Excellent video. I like the level of details and price comparing on screen, like an extra layer of content. Nice work! I would like to see red and blue LED lights in your next comparison. Thanks!
Another cost issue that needs to be addressed is the longevity of those different lighting systems - the lights AND the ballasts. I think in most people's experience the old adage about 'you get what you pay for' is generally true. What are the manufacturer claims for the life of those lights? I'd love to see you update this - now 2 years on since you first posted this - on how they're all still doing. And don't forget that increase in product from the bottom light is cumulative over it's lifetime, which is a further cost reduction overall. Beyond that, most people also don't have dedicated growing sheds and have to grow them in their homes. Cold light isn't only irritating but the blue spectrum is bad for eyes - pets and people. The warm light of that third rack is much more beneficial and easier on the eyes for everyone who has to see it. So, yeah, I'd say it's worth the extra dosh.
Excellent test, thank you. I have the 18 watt lights in white and pink. I'm going to try 2 white and a pink pet shelf to see what happens. Keep it up man, I'm over in Azle north of Fort Worth and have 2 racks to try this out. First for the family to see how we like them, and then maybe hit a few farmers markets for fun on the weekends. I'm an aircraft engineer full time, so can't make a run at it like you guys, but I think it would be fun for the whole family to give it a go. If it works out, I have a 1200 sq foot insulated shop that I could convert if I wanted to. Solar panels coming, along with lithium ion batteries, so Browning this stuff of grid would be awesome, and doablea long as I stick with these leds. Use to grow corals when I was your age with 1200 watts of metal halide , and 440 watts of VHOs...... Want to talk about an electric bill!!!!!! Keep doing what your doing with the testing, I love it. I am also interested in doing mushrooms, if you ever decide to get into that.
Thank you so much for the support!! I can't even imagine that electricity bill! Microgreens are so dang tasty and really addictive once you start growing them... It went from hobby to passionate business for us very quickly. You could grow an incredible amount of microgreens in a shop that size! We are also interested in mushrooms and we should be attempting some in a few months. I hope they are easy enough to work with and we would love to make videos on it too! Thank you again for your support, it really does mean a lot to us.
Wow! Lights in your country are cheeeeap!!! I’m paying double I think? Plus our energy costs are way up, but that’s another story! I’m eating up all of your content and applying the knowledge daily. Keep at it please.
Great video! Thanks for making this. I always wanted to know the difference between the lights. I'm really pleasantly surprised. I just bought the ten pack of led lights you're using (for my two car garage, not to grow with), and am super impressed with how well they light the whole area with very little wattage. I need to get another ten pack and get some racks going! Thanks again!
Great information here! Clearly state that we should stick to the cheap LED. Can’t wait to see an experiment to compare 3 unit per shelf to 4 unit to see if more lumens lead to more yield...and if it’s worth the initial + running cost + amortization
Such a great video - clear and concise, and on a difficult topic. I've been happy with my fluorescent tubes in shop light ballasts, but decided to move to LEDs this season after doing some research this winter. You inspire me to track the data. Thanks.
Great content! So - and correct me if I’m missing something - on a 48” long shelf, using the 42 watt LED grow-cycle cost of $0.55 - the energy cost/tray would average just under $0.14 per 358 g of greens... Not bad, bud! Even using the expensive lighting, split between 4 trays you’d be at $0.3125 per tray per grow. Sweet!
Very informative, your right huge investment for full spectrum, I will stick with the LED's I have just like the ones you currently use. Thanks for the video!
I really enjoy your videos guys! I saw a lot comparisons you did and appreciated the dedication, level all detail, quality and quantity of information and data. Far for being a critic, I think that providing the gap between the different units of measure (weight, price, watt, etc) also in percentage, could better highlight the differences! Thanks for sharing your passion, knowledge and curiosity with the us the rest of the world!
Thank you for watching!! Great suggestion, we've been searching for some blue led lights so we can do that but haven't found any yet that aren't way to pricey or to bulky. Hopefully soon will be able to do that 😃
Hey guys, great video. I use the cheapo Wal-Mart daylight spectrum LED shop lights, something like $22 each, only cost $5 a month in electricity to run. I've grown everything from cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, herbs, and microgreens with them. Fantastic results. For anyone on a budget they can do a complete setup for
Thank you so much for sharing!! We will try to get some like these to try out! We are all about budget here and it sounds like you are getting some great results with them!
thats was very interesting to see on a day to day basis .... and agree with you decision on going with the middle light that you have always used ... but here is some food for thought ... the bottom led system looked to me like you could possibly harvest a day or even 2 days earlier than the other setup thus making your turnaround alot quicker ... would like to see if that would be the case and if the earlier product would then be comparable the middle or top light with your current turnaround time .. and also maybe getting the spicyness back in the product ....? all in all that would shorten the turnaround thus being slightly more cost efficient ..maybe .... well done and thankyou for taking the time to show us the difference in lighting .... i pesonally dont do microgreens at the moment ..i am using my lights (t5) for plant starts for my traditional market garden (tomato,pepper,celery, peas ,beans, potato, and corn ,,,etc).. so im always on the lookout to make my starts stronger while under the lights before i harden them off for the field
We completely agree Debra! You are correct that we could've harvested sooner... The turnaround time would be a lot better and it would've cost less to run the lights and take up that space for 2 additional days... Thank you so much for your support and sharing!
Hello,nice work and keep going,on growing lights you need to look after PPFD(avg at certain heights) for plants and efficacy for your wallet( PPE as μmol/J);also between the three of your testing lights only the bottom one is a real growing one,but imo is overkill for microgreens - you can grow plants into flowering stage successfully with that,tho it has a nice feature being the lenses wich improve the light coverage (and maybe the PPFD);sadly a good spectrophotometter is starting at 2000$;P.S. radish is not a demanding crop,you could try a slow/hard growing crop to test for a more acurate result.Cya!
Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, we’re not trying to be perfect on this experiment and simply wanted to provide some form of measuring the light. $2,000 is way too expensive and we just care about the results really... We chose radish because of its coloration and we have a lot of other crops that we have filmed and will be posting soon. Thanks for the suggestions!
Great job you guys! What are you using on top of the shelves? Looks like there are two different mats - one clear and one reflective. Which do you prefer and why do you use them?
I love watching stuff like this, but I always wonder how relevant it is when tested on a specific plant. I wish someone would make a really video about different classifications of plant light spectrums and circadian cycles.
Great video! (UPDATE, I did the math) Turns out, using the middle setup saves @ $400 over 5 years with the assumption that the flourescents need to be swapped once per year and the LEDs last the full 5 years. The initial LED upfront cost is large enough that they would need to live a total of 8-9 years without replacement, just to match the middle flourescents. If the middle flourescents go live longer than a year, it makes it all that much less likely that the LEDs would ever catch up. Also, just occurred to me that the $400 savings is just one shelf. Multiply by all the shelves and it is a huge savings. Just waned to add a couple of add factors. LED may be a higher up front and I believe you factored in upfront costs into your days cost, but, I would add that the life of LEDs compared to fluorescents is huge. They last for ever and the energy cost is way cheaper, so, yes in a one year comparison, the LEDs end up being more expensive and maybe not worth making the change. I would like to see the math for a multi-year comparison. I believe all the products will give you an estimated lifespan. Using that, you could probably do a ballpark calculation of how many times you will need to replace each. It should be an especially easy calculation, being that you leave these lights on 24/7. Just my 2 cents.
Absolutely! We completely agree and we talk about that in the new lighting videos. The LED’s last supposedly 8 years while the fluorescents only last 1.5 years. So we would have to buy the fluorescents 5 times in the time the LEDs would last.
@@OnTheGrow Running the numbers, I think the middle flourescents stiil are the way to go. The LEDs seem to break even with the middle flourescents at year 8 or 9 and I was assuming only 1 year for the flourescents, If they truely get 1.5 years, that starts to put the LEDs out to 10-11 years break even. I assume you and your operation will look much different in 10-11 years and I am not sure the big LED investment will be worth it, unless the quality makes it preferable. I am looking at starting an aeroponics grow of a different type of plant and am going through the same type of calculations right now myself. (edit: In rereading this reply I realize that probably seemed like I was referring to "weed", I am doing saffron actually)
Doing it in Canadian $ LED array+shipping+taxes arox $200 to cover 1x 4 foot shelf 65Wx2 power draw 130W total $800 to light up 4 shelves on a rack. 130w = .13KW/h x $.10 = $.208 in hydro cost per 16hours $6.24 per month per shelf How many years will the LED array last, lets say 5. Sunblaster shopping at local hydro store $42 after tax x2 = $84 to cover 1x 4 foot wide shelf. 110W power draw. $336 to light up 4 shelves on a rack. 110w = .11KW/h x $.10 = $.176 in hydro cost per 16hours $5.58 per month per shelf Need bulbs replacement every 12 months at say $12 retail each bulb so say $25 per year or $100 per 4 levels each year. so $500 in bulbs in 5 years So in reality very little difference between the two. Production wise there aprox 12% more yield on the LED. Possibly nicer looking product so possible better sales and more $ per tray?
@@karmakoma9743 Summary. If you are 1st tone grower and budget constraints are there, take the most affordable route. But if you are a committed gower (looking to upgrade your rack), or you just have the funds, go for the long haul. The full spectrum LED's (highest upfront cost) might be the wise way to go for two reasons. 1: Better yeilds. 2 a&b: Better for the environment (less waste tossing out old lights).
Great video, thank you for sharing. I think you should try a mostly blurple light, like the JCBritw 90W Transformer, two per shelf. Each one draws 25w from the wall, and only $30 each, so $60/shelf up front cost. Would love to see how it compares to the 3x T5 LED's per shelf you presently use.
Yes, but we would have to send it off to a lab and it costs $1,000 per test :( We've looked into it, but just can't afford that at this very moment. Hopefully in the future though!! 😄
I love your guys vids can you please try the LED regular how bulbs please because i want to use the daylight ones that go in the house lamps thank you for sharing. 😘
CJ thanks so much for the TEST videos you and Mandy create,they are Sooo helpful it keeps me coming back every day to see what's new!keep the videos coming!!
Great question! Most varieties will not grow back again, but some will like Pea microgreens. I'm actually working on a video for this right now...but it will still be a bit till its out on TH-cam. But what I can tell you is it's really not worth it. I noticed that on the first harvest I got an amazing harvest, then on the 2nd harvest it was more than half the weight of the first harvest I got haha. Really disappointing. So I found that it's more worth it to just replant.
Had first back surgery 15 years ago and out of boredom grew weed with fluorescents t12 bulbs. Don't even really smoke weed but learned cloning, seeding, moisture, and many other things effect grow rate. Even the height from bottom shelve to top will effect by temp. My lights I always tried to keep as close as possible without burning leaves. Be really careful on mediums , dirt tracked in, or visitors bringing any unwanted aphids, mold, or other contaminants. Could cost you big. An oscillating fan always helped to make plant stems stronger. And I the light spectrum that has huge effect. Plants and plant ages loved different hues from red to blue spectrum. My plants were in attic and loved 100 plus summer heat.
Thank you for sharing! Yeah we just had a run in with spider-mites in our house grow-systems. Mandi brought in a plant from outside and put it near our flood and drain system and they took over all of our edible flowers and collads/etc in just a few days. Thanks again for sharing!
Great research! Have you ever reviewed the extensive research done by Dr. John Ott, during the 1980's? One of the many things he learned was that the color of the light affected the growth of plants (and animals) AS WELL AS the electro magnetic field produced by the cathode and anode ends of his lights. His work was mostly before the l.e.d. era. He created a research foundation to promote and collate his discoveries.
I'd be interested in this too. I have seen some places do a blend of red and blue LEDs and change the intensities of each color depending on the produce
One of the all time best videos of all the videos I watched recently. Very objective and very detailed and clear review. Appreciate. Would you have a link to the 18watt now to a link of the 20 watt LED bulbs you recommend on Amazon and provide a link so I can buy them through your affiliate link. Thanks appreciate
I believe so! You could lower the lights more than we have them so that they don’t stretch as much. We only stretch ours so it makes for easier harvesting, but if we were growing these to be planted, we would put the lights closer so they stay short. Thank you for the support!!
Yes we did, we used Ocean Solution 2-0-3 and our general rule of thumb is we start bottom watering with nutrients the same day we introduce them into the light. Thank you for watching! 😃
Really great video! You do such a good job putting these together. I am getting ready to set up a grow rack for personal use. The one thing you didn't measure, and I'm not sure how you might, is the nutritive value difference between each tray of greens. It would be pretty interesting if that could be figured out. Thanks so much for the video!
@@OnTheGrow I was wondering the same thing... if you doubled up the leds from 3x to 6x would you outperform the yellow in growth... with comparable power usage.. but still less up front costs... keep up the great content...
We are back with more of them to come, Carrie! Thanks for watching! Keep an eye out for the books! We truly Beleaf they will be helpful to growers and eaters, both! 😊
It was 15k for the decked out trailer, then about 5k in racks, lights, fans, dehumidifier, washer for spin dry and a lot of the supplies needed. All in about 20k. It could be done for much, much cheaper though. Buying a used trailer and converting it myself would’ve saved 5-10k at least. With microgreens, you could make that back in 3-4months with the growspace. Check out our website for more information about the space! I’ll try to get a more accurate price on everything added together on the website! www.onthegrow.net/growspacefaq
I recently discovered you guys and the content is awesome. I've got a small indoor nft lettuce system going and starting wheatgrass/microgreens now. My question is I believe the test may be more fair to the led tubes if you use 6 per rack to get the power draw per shelf even between types. There only $5ea in the 10pack which would be $30 per shelf for lighting with yield closer to the best one. This could be very cost effective and profitable if it makes gains over only running 3 per shelf.
Your welcome, it’s nice how much faster we can learn and improve through shared experiments. After watching your videos I’m running a test on those same lights on leafy greens grown to adult size in nft. NOTE I suggest using foil or something reflective on the shelf directly above these lights. In my initial check with a cheap light meter I got 3x more output with a reflecting top. The lights have a wasteful reflector for plant use
Good to know!! We will try and get some form of reflectors above it! Thank you for sharing 🤗🌱 We completely agree that it is nice when people openly share information as everyone can benefit from it so quickly!
Thanks for all your videos guys specifically this one I’m very much considering starting a small micro greens business. I live on an island off the coast of Panama and I’m on solar so power management is a high consideration for me and this has helped a lot keep up the good work and thanks again
May I suggest that you complete your calculations to include the yield in grams/$ of light operational costs? That would yield a very telling number of cost per gram of product produced. Great educational video - thank you for taking some of the guesswork out of growing micro greens for us nubies!!
Good remark. It is obvious that the LED at the middle shelves is the more efficient. It costs 50% less than the lowest shelves, which one produces only 20% more.
You just saved me a lot of time by sharing this video. Awesome experiment!!! I wanted to know my options regarding the watts needed to run the lighting. I am off-grid and starting my budget for creating a microgreen growing system. Thank again for sharing this!!
I'm regretting purchasing the ActiveGrow LED lights...$175 for two 4ft lights isn't cheap. I would love to see if you can get even higher output out of that brand. For now, I'm going to try some different variations as well.
Yeah, "grow lights" tend to be very pricey, but standard LED shop lights grow produce really well... We have 4 more sets of different grow and shop lights that we are about to begin some tests with so hopefully that will help you!
Thank you so much for the support! We really appreciate it! I loved my T5 HO lights but the amperage draw is why I moved away from them. We are limited in our space to a maximum of 50 amps total draw with the A/C, Heater, Fans and everything else... That's the main reason we moved to LED's so that we could get the same light for less energy.
Thank you so much Jeff! We don't know too much about composting so all we do is toss it into a pile with other tray mediums, mix in some other material like grass and mix it up every now and then. We probably aren't good sources for how to compost efficiently. We will see about making a video on it though!
So far, LED's are doing an amazing job and cost nothing to run for extended periods. Also gonna save us cooling cost in the summer since they don't put out as much heat.
I believe results for lowest most tray are skewed as all other trays have bottom heat from light below that seems to make quite a difference. Also high par also requires higher environmental temps to be most productive 83 to 85 for high par and below 80 for t5’s and middle rack leds
You guys always produce great content. Have you compared these rigs taking the longevity in consideration? How long will the T5's, the LED tubes and the high tier LED panels last and how much will they cost, say over the span of a year?
Great question and thank you for the support! The LED's are supposed to last over 50,000 hours... We have used ours now for about half a year at a rate of 17 hours a day. So far we've used 3,102 hours of their life (supposedly). To get it to a year, we would be at the 6,204 hour mark. At that rate, the cheap LED's should last about 8 years. The T5 HO Fluorescents are rated for only 10,000 hours total... We've used ours for a year at the same frequency as the LED's which means we have less than a year left on the Fluorescents before they go bad. So we would have to replace all of our Fluorescents next year at their premium price if we wanted to keep using them. Glad you asked, this would've been a great point to talk about in the video. Thank you for the continued support!
Dude from migro does testing and most newer led lose about 5 to 7% every 6000 hrs so after 3 to 4 years they would be around 80% of original par light.
Lol, okay expert. The fans cost like 2 cents a day to run or something like that. They work great for preventing microclimates above the canopy of the crop. Get a big fan to move most of your air, then the small ones to prevent microclimates on each shelf.
Great presentation. Several comments on your related videos mention Barrina LED T5 lights in 4,000K and 5,000K. Given that the top-performing light in this test is 5,000K have you considered testing Barrina T5 4,000K and 5,000K lights (same price point as the 18w 6,500K lights frequently used). Some have said that any energy distributed above 5,000 cannot be used by vegetative growth and is wasted (I cannot confirm this). Learning a lot here.
I've been trying to put together a Death Stranding critique and I'm trying to immerse myself in the post Apocalypse so I see you guys as fabulous preppers
We should hopefully have a pretty good system down for survival :) I want to get some solar and batteries on the growspace and then it could be off-grid.
Great detail. One factor to experiment with is which shelf each light is on. Shelves with other lights underneath might play a role and possibly the reason why some trays dried out faster. Also, airflow may be different at the different heights. Thanks for the detailed experiment!
Totally agreed! The best way to test would to be have separate racks at the same height but it would just consume so much space for an experiment. Eventually I'll get a real lab xD Thank you for the support Todd!
➽ Full Article with table breakdowns now available: onthegrow.tv/BlogFluovsLEDs
Interesting that 4.13 times more light ONLY produced about 16% more end product.. reasonable to speculate the limitation is the surface area of the leaves to absorb the light. Theoretically, a 28 watt LED of equal lumen output could yield the same as the other harvests at half the T5's power consumption. Realistically, I don't think it would as it would most likely use less bulbs decreasing the uniformity of light distribution.
Amazing experiment, thank you. I am as a city farmer (indoor) for more than 10years made my personal conclusions from this video: 1. Total Wattage does make difference 2. Shelf 2 and Shelf 3 - how to get near similar produce & product top look from cheap shelf 2 same as shelf 3 -> place 4 LED lights 30W-35W each on shelf 2 -> you should get these extra 60-70grams. Also if 2 lights will be 6500К and 2 lights will be 6500К+2700К you will get that vibrant look of mg's. And all that will be for the 1/3 cost of Shelf 3 😁😂Did you get to that and experiments in these 3 years ? Interesting to know what you finally came to in years. Healthy harvests)
It was an honor and a pleasure to observe and to learn from you friend. You have an excellent heart. A true Offspring of GREATNESS.
COOL COMPARISON!! How has this channel not popped 100K already ?????
Put silicone mesh on top of soil. Put seeds on that silicone mesh. It will be zero soil contamination during harvest.
Where would one find those?
Silicone is not food safe no matter how much someone tells you it is.
@@auspiciouscloud8786 you grow on it, not cook in it.
@@auspiciouscloud8786 you can do it even without spreader mat. Like this grass... just do it with any sprouts
th-cam.com/video/TCk6LeLZF0M/w-d-xo.htmlsi=qtvLuat1s7g3McL8
@simonci5177 and certain cancerous implants are silicon also... sorry I was harsh. It seems if you go through all the work to grow these, why would you use a sketchy product. Great idea just wish it was silicon... 💕
This was an excellent experiment . Thank you. I truly enjoy all these experiments. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I started my first grow on radishes 3 days ago. I have grown lettuce in the winter for a couple of years in MN. Looking forward to have them to add to fresh salads. Thanks for the information to get me growing.
That's exciting! Radish is a great addition to salads, adds a nice spice. Hope they turn out perfect! Thank you for watching 😃
Wow, that's a nice trailer and clean set up inside. Thanks for all the info, detail, and comparison.
You did a truly thorough job of explaining lighting for this newbie...so because you did for me, I subscribed. Thank you.
Thank you so much! We're excited to be doing more light tests soon and we greatly appreciate your support!
BE VERY VAREFUL GUYS! because you are both starting to inspire me to do something like this here in the uk!! lol. found your channel yesterday and really loving your content, thanks :D much love from the uk xxx
Just wanted to point out that because the top 2 were sitting on top of warm lamps; this may be the reason that they dry out more. This might also account for the lower harvest weight.
Great observation! Yes, they both had the heat rising from the lights below, but we actually found that a little heat helps with the growth... It could potentially dry it out more though, so you are correct. We will find a way to experiment better with it!
Or maybe shadows in dense vegetation made those variations. Better to make a growth with not that dense vegetation... That would be a better comparison with those different lux. What I have read about lettuce for example it's better to have more space between plants... It will get bigger yield.
If you took the extra 2 ounces from the sprouts on the bottom shelf, and sold it for six dollars a container at the farmers market, that would be an extra $120 for 20 racks, providing that you got the same extra yield every time. That would pay you back for the more expensive lights in seven weeks, then after that you would have an additional $120 in profit per rack, or approx $12k per year for the two racks I can visible see on screen.
Great video! Thank you for sharing so much great information on your channel! I just finished my seedling germination rack and modeled a lot of it around your shelves.
Thank you so much for the support! This setup has worked well for us so far! We have about 70 varieties that we have grown with great results so far. Excited to see how we can continue to improve the rack while keeping it cheap...
Super cool experiment. Finally, I get to see the difference between the lights. Thank you
Thank you so much for the support! Yeah, turns out lighting on microgreens can vary quite a bit depending on the lights :)
Fantastic analysis brother. This is the best one on the subject.
Thank you so much for the support!
Excellent analysis. A good TH-cam tutorial which was thoughtfully prepared and presented, thank you.
😀 Eugenia Hobbs Again...we really benefit from your support and nice compliments!!! Have you visited our newest website...
www.onthegrow.net ...we are so proud of the help it provides!!! We hope you can tell we enjoy helping out!
Thanks for a great, informative video! A key advantage of higher light output is the ability to support thick canopies. That manifested as greater yield in your bottom sprouts. High light output becomes especially important for grow tents with mature plants such as tomatoes, whose leaf canopies are at least a foot thick or more. However, for microgreens, super thick canopies may be less important given that growth time is so short. In particular, the intensity of COB lights would require greater shelf heights to avoid burning the sprouts and would thetefore actually decrease yield per square foot.
Your video has inspired me to retire my blurple sprouting leds and I will now invest in the full spectrum panels that you used for your bottom shelf. Thank you!
Thank you so much for the support!! We are beginning a lot more light experiments with about 5 more types of lights. Excited to see what the differences will be! Thanks again!
Really thank you both. Hope you both good in shape
Thank you so much for the support! We are well and we hope the same for you!
Huge fan of your guy's work and rigor in collecting the data for these different variables! It's been very fun and helpful watching you guys grow (both channel and product). I was wondering if you guys tried playing around with different wavelength lights for your grows? Have you tried using "grow spectrum" lights that blast the blue-red spectrum? Haven't seen any of these lights in your videos, so is there a specific reason you guys decided against them? Thanks for the content, keep up the great work!! By far favorite microgreens channel on YT.
Thank you so much for the support Timothy! It means a lot to us!
We are about to begin playing with more spectrums like what you are discussing. We have some blurple lights we are going to test first with some more powerful daylight LED's. We don't love looking at the multi-spectrum lights because they are so hard on the eyes... We have used them in the past, but you have to wear glasses to observe the crops. We did love our blue spectrum lights, they gave us amazing results... but for some reason the vendor stopped selling them :(
Stay tuned for some more lights tests soon!
Thank you so much for the kind words, we really do appreciate your support.
Thanks for helping me with honesty and your great explaining technical gardening
If you thumbs-downed this... Really? This is such a great video. Well shot, good editing, easy to follow, clear, concise.
Good job and very informative.
Brilliant CJ and Mandi. Great information here on lighting
Thank you so much for your continued support Craig!
Most welcome
Excellent video. I like the level of details and price comparing on screen, like an extra layer of content. Nice work!
I would like to see red and blue LED lights in your next comparison. Thanks!
Please, see this: www.freightfarms.com/blog/indoor-grow-lights
We will get some mixed LED's in the space soon! Thanks for the suggestion and support!
Another cost issue that needs to be addressed is the longevity of those different lighting systems - the lights AND the ballasts. I think in most people's experience the old adage about 'you get what you pay for' is generally true. What are the manufacturer claims for the life of those lights? I'd love to see you update this - now 2 years on since you first posted this - on how they're all still doing. And don't forget that increase in product from the bottom light is cumulative over it's lifetime, which is a further cost reduction overall.
Beyond that, most people also don't have dedicated growing sheds and have to grow them in their homes. Cold light isn't only irritating but the blue spectrum is bad for eyes - pets and people. The warm light of that third rack is much more beneficial and easier on the eyes for everyone who has to see it. So, yeah, I'd say it's worth the extra dosh.
Thanks so much for this test! I am due to buy some lights and you really helped!
Thank you so much for your support Penny, it means a lot to us!
Excellent information! I've been very curious about this subject. Thank you.
So impressed I'm subbed after just watching two of your videos. Love the scientific approach.
Thank you so much for the support!
Yeah, I am scientist and I’m so impressed with these guys.
Excellent test, thank you. I have the 18 watt lights in white and pink. I'm going to try 2 white and a pink pet shelf to see what happens. Keep it up man, I'm over in Azle north of Fort Worth and have 2 racks to try this out. First for the family to see how we like them, and then maybe hit a few farmers markets for fun on the weekends. I'm an aircraft engineer full time, so can't make a run at it like you guys, but I think it would be fun for the whole family to give it a go. If it works out, I have a 1200 sq foot insulated shop that I could convert if I wanted to. Solar panels coming, along with lithium ion batteries, so Browning this stuff of grid would be awesome, and doablea long as I stick with these leds. Use to grow corals when I was your age with 1200 watts of metal halide , and 440 watts of VHOs...... Want to talk about an electric bill!!!!!! Keep doing what your doing with the testing, I love it. I am also interested in doing mushrooms, if you ever decide to get into that.
Thank you so much for the support!! I can't even imagine that electricity bill! Microgreens are so dang tasty and really addictive once you start growing them... It went from hobby to passionate business for us very quickly. You could grow an incredible amount of microgreens in a shop that size! We are also interested in mushrooms and we should be attempting some in a few months. I hope they are easy enough to work with and we would love to make videos on it too! Thank you again for your support, it really does mean a lot to us.
Wow! Lights in your country are cheeeeap!!! I’m paying double I think? Plus our energy costs are way up, but that’s another story!
I’m eating up all of your content and applying the knowledge daily. Keep at it please.
hahaha that's so wild how different things can be. Thank you so much for watching and supporting us! Glad you enjoy our channel 😃
Thanks for your contributions to humanity 👍 you provide free training to grow your own food. God bless 🙏
Great video! Thanks for making this. I always wanted to know the difference between the lights. I'm really pleasantly surprised. I just bought the ten pack of led lights you're using (for my two car garage, not to grow with), and am super impressed with how well they light the whole area with very little wattage. I need to get another ten pack and get some racks going! Thanks again!
Thank you for the support and we agree, they put out a ton of light for the energy usage!
This is so helpful for us! Beginning a new business in Olympia WA. Your videos have helped us tremendously! Cheers!
Thank you so much for the support!! It really means a lot to us Hethermm31!🙂 We get excited when folks take that leap and learn they got this!!!🙂
Awesome! It is very important experiment for growing plants with LED.
Thank you so much for the support! We really appreciate it!
Love your videos, great, comprehensive experiments.
Great information here!
Clearly state that we should stick to the cheap LED.
Can’t wait to see an experiment to compare 3 unit per shelf to 4 unit to see if more lumens lead to more yield...and if it’s worth the initial + running cost + amortization
Thank you!! 🥳 We just started some new LED tests today. Appreciate you watching!
Such a great video - clear and concise, and on a difficult topic. I've been happy with my fluorescent tubes in shop light ballasts, but decided to move to LEDs this season after doing some research this winter. You inspire me to track the data. Thanks.
Thank you for watching Katie Kirkup!!! 😄 Glad you enjoyed it and glad it helped you see better! Hope your microgreens are tasty.
Great content! So - and correct me if I’m missing something - on a 48” long shelf, using the 42 watt LED grow-cycle cost of $0.55 - the energy cost/tray would average just under $0.14 per 358 g of greens... Not bad, bud! Even using the expensive lighting, split between 4 trays you’d be at $0.3125 per tray per grow. Sweet!
That is correct 🥳
I've been looking for grow lights. Great presentation look forward to more
🙂Rebecca R Mosley Have you signed up for our Master Class yet? Please get ready to take advantage of all the information we've assembled for you!!!
Very informative, your right huge investment for full spectrum, I will stick with the LED's I have just like the ones you currently use. Thanks for the video!
The 18watt LED's do a great job, especially for the upfront cost and the cost to run them! Thank you for your continued support!!
Wow Great Video! Great job!
Thank you so much Luis!! We appreciate your support!
I really enjoy your videos guys! I saw a lot comparisons you did and appreciated the dedication, level all detail, quality and quantity of information and data.
Far for being a critic, I think that providing the gap between the different units of measure (weight, price, watt, etc) also in percentage, could better highlight the differences!
Thanks for sharing your passion, knowledge and curiosity with the us the rest of the world!
This was such a rad video, I love love love that you explained everything ❤️ You guys are so awesome!!! Thank you for doing this 💜
Thank you again!!! We greatly appreciate your support!!
I want to thank ya'll for the vids.. learning alot....
would love to see a similar experiment with blue led light.
Keep up the good work
Belle
Thank you for watching!! Great suggestion, we've been searching for some blue led lights so we can do that but haven't found any yet that aren't way to pricey or to bulky. Hopefully soon will be able to do that 😃
Thanks guys!💚
Thank you for the support!!
Hey guys, great video. I use the cheapo Wal-Mart daylight spectrum LED shop lights, something like $22 each, only cost $5 a month in electricity to run. I've grown everything from cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, herbs, and microgreens with them. Fantastic results. For anyone on a budget they can do a complete setup for
Thank you so much for sharing!! We will try to get some like these to try out! We are all about budget here and it sounds like you are getting some great results with them!
Can’t find these what watt size
thats was very interesting to see on a day to day basis .... and agree with you decision on going with the middle light that you have always used ... but here is some food for thought ... the bottom led system looked to me like you could possibly harvest a day or even 2 days earlier than the other setup thus making your turnaround alot quicker ... would like to see if that would be the case and if the earlier product would then be comparable the middle or top light with your current turnaround time .. and also maybe getting the spicyness back in the product ....? all in all that would shorten the turnaround thus being slightly more cost efficient ..maybe .... well done and thankyou for taking the time to show us the difference in lighting .... i pesonally dont do microgreens at the moment ..i am using my lights (t5) for plant starts for my traditional market garden (tomato,pepper,celery, peas ,beans, potato, and corn ,,,etc).. so im always on the lookout to make my starts stronger while under the lights before i harden them off for the field
We completely agree Debra! You are correct that we could've harvested sooner... The turnaround time would be a lot better and it would've cost less to run the lights and take up that space for 2 additional days... Thank you so much for your support and sharing!
You, sir, are a scientist. That was an easy subscribe decision. Thanks!
Appreciate that! Thank you for subbing 🥳
This is SUPER helpful!!! Thank you!!!
Hello,nice work and keep going,on growing lights you need to look after PPFD(avg at certain heights) for plants and efficacy for your wallet( PPE as μmol/J);also between the three of your testing lights only the bottom one is a real growing one,but imo is overkill for microgreens - you can grow plants into flowering stage successfully with that,tho it has a nice feature being the lenses wich improve the light coverage (and maybe the PPFD);sadly a good spectrophotometter is starting at 2000$;P.S. radish is not a demanding crop,you could try a slow/hard growing crop to test for a more acurate result.Cya!
Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, we’re not trying to be perfect on this experiment and simply wanted to provide some form of measuring the light. $2,000 is way too expensive and we just care about the results really...
We chose radish because of its coloration and we have a lot of other crops that we have filmed and will be posting soon.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Just switched from t5 h.o. to to t5 led and it's a big difference ! Just switched bulbs !
Great video very interesting thumbs up
Thank you so much for the support!
Hi I love your videos. I am in Canada 🇨🇦 working on starting my own business. Small business. I would love to learn more from you. Thanks 🙏
Great job you guys! What are you using on top of the shelves? Looks like there are two different mats - one clear and one reflective. Which do you prefer and why do you use them?
I’ve got Sun Blasters, too… During the fall/winter/spring, they are WAY brighter than the Sun here in Ottawa! Worth every penny.
I love watching stuff like this, but I always wonder how relevant it is when tested on a specific plant. I wish someone would make a really video about different classifications of plant light spectrums and circadian cycles.
Gary Barbour II try looking up dr Bruce Bugbee here on TH-cam. He’s doing cutting edge research on plant lighting.
@@Agr414 thanks for the suggestion! I watched a few of his videos, they're great!
Glad this got worked out!
Great video!
(UPDATE, I did the math) Turns out, using the middle setup saves @ $400 over 5 years with the assumption that the flourescents need to be swapped once per year and the LEDs last the full 5 years. The initial LED upfront cost is large enough that they would need to live a total of 8-9 years without replacement, just to match the middle flourescents. If the middle flourescents go live longer than a year, it makes it all that much less likely that the LEDs would ever catch up. Also, just occurred to me that the $400 savings is just one shelf. Multiply by all the shelves and it is a huge savings.
Just waned to add a couple of add factors. LED may be a higher up front and I believe you factored in upfront costs into your days cost, but, I would add that the life of LEDs compared to fluorescents is huge. They last for ever and the energy cost is way cheaper, so, yes in a one year comparison, the LEDs end up being more expensive and maybe not worth making the change. I would like to see the math for a multi-year comparison. I believe all the products will give you an estimated lifespan. Using that, you could probably do a ballpark calculation of how many times you will need to replace each. It should be an especially easy calculation, being that you leave these lights on 24/7. Just my 2 cents.
Absolutely! We completely agree and we talk about that in the new lighting videos. The LED’s last supposedly 8 years while the fluorescents only last 1.5 years. So we would have to buy the fluorescents 5 times in the time the LEDs would last.
@@OnTheGrow Running the numbers, I think the middle flourescents stiil are the way to go. The LEDs seem to break even with the middle flourescents at year 8 or 9 and I was assuming only 1 year for the flourescents, If they truely get 1.5 years, that starts to put the LEDs out to 10-11 years break even. I assume you and your operation will look much different in 10-11 years and I am not sure the big LED investment will be worth it, unless the quality makes it preferable. I am looking at starting an aeroponics grow of a different type of plant and am going through the same type of calculations right now myself. (edit: In rereading this reply I realize that probably seemed like I was referring to "weed", I am doing saffron actually)
Doing it in Canadian $
LED array+shipping+taxes arox $200 to cover 1x 4 foot shelf 65Wx2 power draw 130W total
$800 to light up 4 shelves on a rack.
130w = .13KW/h x $.10 = $.208 in hydro cost per 16hours $6.24 per month per shelf
How many years will the LED array last, lets say 5.
Sunblaster shopping at local hydro store $42 after tax x2 = $84 to cover 1x 4 foot wide shelf. 110W power draw.
$336 to light up 4 shelves on a rack.
110w = .11KW/h x $.10 = $.176 in hydro cost per 16hours $5.58 per month per shelf
Need bulbs replacement every 12 months at say $12 retail each bulb so say $25 per year or $100 per 4 levels each year. so $500 in bulbs in 5 years
So in reality very little difference between the two.
Production wise there aprox 12% more yield on the LED. Possibly nicer looking product so possible better sales and more $ per tray?
@@karmakoma9743 Summary. If you are 1st tone grower and budget constraints are there, take the most affordable route. But if you are a committed gower (looking to upgrade your rack), or you just have the funds, go for the long haul.
The full spectrum LED's (highest upfront cost) might be the wise way to go for two reasons. 1: Better yeilds. 2 a&b: Better for the environment (less waste tossing out old lights).
Great video, thank you for sharing. I think you should try a mostly blurple light, like the JCBritw 90W Transformer, two per shelf. Each one draws 25w from the wall, and only $30 each, so $60/shelf up front cost. Would love to see how it compares to the 3x T5 LED's per shelf you presently use.
We will get two of these ordered! Thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks a lot for the above. Good to know the cost & harvest comparisons.
Thank you so much for the Feedback Tan Chew Leong! We appreciate your support!🙂 Glad to put some light on the issues!!!😉
Another Great vid! Thx !
maybe try this one...
Spider Farmer SF-1000 LED Grow Light
Thank you for the support! I actually considered that one recently... I’ll look into it! Thanks for the suggestion!
Try Mars Hydro TS1000 👌🏻
Incredible video. Very professional, thanks!
Is there a way to know if the nutrient content is higher w the different lights ?
Yes, but we would have to send it off to a lab and it costs $1,000 per test :( We've looked into it, but just can't afford that at this very moment. Hopefully in the future though!! 😄
On The Grow for what its worth I pendulum tested it and they are all the same vibration so that’s good !
@@susanfitch8698 What's a pendulum test?
Wow nice data and good video keep it up.
I love your guys vids can you please try the LED regular how bulbs please because i want to use the daylight ones that go in the house lamps thank you for sharing. 😘
I'll see what I can get setup for a test with some of those! Thanks for the suggestion and the support!
CJ thanks so much for the TEST videos you and Mandy create,they are Sooo helpful it keeps me coming back every day to see what's new!keep the videos coming!!
quick question. Is it one harvest per tray? Or do the plants come back and you can get another harvest before composting the grow medium?
Great question! Most varieties will not grow back again, but some will like Pea microgreens. I'm actually working on a video for this right now...but it will still be a bit till its out on TH-cam. But what I can tell you is it's really not worth it. I noticed that on the first harvest I got an amazing harvest, then on the 2nd harvest it was more than half the weight of the first harvest I got haha. Really disappointing. So I found that it's more worth it to just replant.
Had first back surgery 15 years ago and out of boredom grew weed with fluorescents t12 bulbs. Don't even really smoke weed but learned cloning, seeding, moisture, and many other things effect grow rate. Even the height from bottom shelve to top will effect by temp. My lights I always tried to keep as close as possible without burning leaves. Be really careful on mediums , dirt tracked in, or visitors bringing any unwanted aphids, mold, or other contaminants. Could cost you big. An oscillating fan always helped to make plant stems stronger. And I the light spectrum that has huge effect. Plants and plant ages loved different hues from red to blue spectrum. My plants were in attic and loved 100 plus summer heat.
Thank you for sharing! Yeah we just had a run in with spider-mites in our house grow-systems. Mandi brought in a plant from outside and put it near our flood and drain system and they took over all of our edible flowers and collads/etc in just a few days. Thanks again for sharing!
Great research! Have you ever reviewed the extensive research done by Dr. John Ott, during the 1980's? One of the many things he learned was that the color of the light affected the growth of plants (and animals) AS WELL AS the electro magnetic field produced by the cathode and anode ends of his lights. His work was mostly before the l.e.d. era. He created a research foundation to promote and collate his discoveries.
Thank you so much! We haven't done much research into lighting yet, we're just kind of playing around! We will check this out!
I'd be interested in this too. I have seen some places do a blend of red and blue LEDs and change the intensities of each color depending on the produce
One of the all time best videos of all the videos I watched recently. Very objective and very detailed and clear review. Appreciate. Would you have a link to the 18watt now to a link of the 20 watt LED bulbs you recommend on Amazon and provide a link so I can buy them through your affiliate link. Thanks appreciate
Awesome video thanks, would the 18 w led be good for starting my vegetable seedlings
I believe so! You could lower the lights more than we have them so that they don’t stretch as much. We only stretch ours so it makes for easier harvesting, but if we were growing these to be planted, we would put the lights closer so they stay short. Thank you for the support!!
Outstanding presentation. You covered everything. Respect.
Thank you for watching Jacob Christian!!! 😄 Glad you enjoyed it!
Great content. Thanks for the video and the research! keep up the good work :D
Thank you so much for the support!!
Sick intro and closing! 🙌
Thank you so much!!
Great vid!! Did you add nutrients to the water and if so at what day did you start the nutrients. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Yes we did, we used Ocean Solution 2-0-3 and our general rule of thumb is we start bottom watering with nutrients the same day we introduce them into the light. Thank you for watching! 😃
Really great video! You do such a good job putting these together. I am getting ready to set up a grow rack for personal use.
The one thing you didn't measure, and I'm not sure how you might, is the nutritive value difference between each tray of greens.
It would be pretty interesting if that could be figured out.
Thanks so much for the video!
Great experiment ! Could you make another comparing 2, 3, 4, 5 LED tubes ?
Absolutely! We’ve got some more tests with different light setups coming soon!
Yes. You cannot tell whether the differences were due to light type or light intensity.
where did you get yellow lights from
How much would the lux increase by adding a fourth led lamp in the shelf - did you made any testing in regards to this?
Great question! It will increase it by about 2,000 lux per 18watt LED. We will be testing that soon!
@@OnTheGrow I was wondering the same thing... if you doubled up the leds from 3x to 6x would you outperform the yellow in growth... with comparable power usage.. but still less up front costs... keep up the great content...
Love your comparison videos! Thank you.
We are back with more of them to come, Carrie! Thanks for watching! Keep an eye out for the books! We truly Beleaf they will be helpful to growers and eaters, both! 😊
How much did your trailer set up cost with all the equipment, minus the grow medium and seeds?
It was 15k for the decked out trailer, then about 5k in racks, lights, fans, dehumidifier, washer for spin dry and a lot of the supplies needed.
All in about 20k. It could be done for much, much cheaper though. Buying a used trailer and converting it myself would’ve saved 5-10k at least.
With microgreens, you could make that back in 3-4months with the growspace.
Check out our website for more information about the space! I’ll try to get a more accurate price on everything added together on the website! www.onthegrow.net/growspacefaq
Wonderful video!! Thank you
Thank you so much for the support!! 🤗🌱🌱
I recently discovered you guys and the content is awesome. I've got a small indoor nft lettuce system going and starting wheatgrass/microgreens now. My question is I believe the test may be more fair to the led tubes if you use 6 per rack to get the power draw per shelf even between types. There only $5ea in the 10pack which would be $30 per shelf for lighting with yield closer to the best one. This could be very cost effective and profitable if it makes gains over only running 3 per shelf.
We will give that a try!! Thanks for the suggestion! Thank you for your support, it means a lot to us!
Your welcome, it’s nice how much faster we can learn and improve through shared experiments. After watching your videos I’m running a test on those same lights on leafy greens grown to adult size in nft. NOTE I suggest using foil or something reflective on the shelf directly above these lights. In my initial check with a cheap light meter I got 3x more output with a reflecting top. The lights have a wasteful reflector for plant use
Good to know!! We will try and get some form of reflectors above it! Thank you for sharing 🤗🌱 We completely agree that it is nice when people openly share information as everyone can benefit from it so quickly!
I’m not very good on camera but if you search monster lettuce I just added a short video clip of the test setup
Thanks for all your videos guys specifically this one I’m very much considering starting a small micro greens business. I live on an island off the coast of Panama and I’m on solar so power management is a high consideration for me and this has helped a lot keep up the good work and thanks again
May I suggest that you complete your calculations to include the yield in grams/$ of light operational costs? That would yield a very telling number of cost per gram of product produced. Great educational video - thank you for taking some of the guesswork out of growing micro greens for us nubies!!
Good remark. It is obvious that the LED at the middle shelves is the more efficient. It costs 50% less than the lowest shelves, which one produces only 20% more.
You just saved me a lot of time by sharing this video. Awesome experiment!!! I wanted to know my options regarding the watts needed to run the lighting. I am off-grid and starting my budget for creating a microgreen growing system. Thank again for sharing this!!
I'm regretting purchasing the ActiveGrow LED lights...$175 for two 4ft lights isn't cheap. I would love to see if you can get even higher output out of that brand. For now, I'm going to try some different variations as well.
Yeah, "grow lights" tend to be very pricey, but standard LED shop lights grow produce really well... We have 4 more sets of different grow and shop lights that we are about to begin some tests with so hopefully that will help you!
thank you for very exciting experiment!
Thanks I really enjoyed that! I do like T5’s for my growing but I do use some LED’s as well.
Klaus
Thank you so much for the support! We really appreciate it! I loved my T5 HO lights but the amperage draw is why I moved away from them. We are limited in our space to a maximum of 50 amps total draw with the A/C, Heater, Fans and everything else... That's the main reason we moved to LED's so that we could get the same light for less energy.
I enjoy the variety of content. I was wondering if you could do a video on your composting practices.
Thank you so much Jeff! We don't know too much about composting so all we do is toss it into a pile with other tray mediums, mix in some other material like grass and mix it up every now and then. We probably aren't good sources for how to compost efficiently. We will see about making a video on it though!
@@OnTheGrow Thanks. I am in an urban setting and about to begin my first grow. Not sure how to handle composting without an outdoor space.
I was wondering since I switched recently to all LED's and ditched the HID's.
So far, LED's are doing an amazing job and cost nothing to run for extended periods. Also gonna save us cooling cost in the summer since they don't put out as much heat.
Hi, we get I buy the led grow light. I live in Greece
I believe results for lowest most tray are skewed as all other trays have bottom heat from light below that seems to make quite a difference. Also high par also requires higher environmental temps to be most productive 83 to 85 for high par and below 80 for t5’s and middle rack leds
Outstanding content. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for the support!! It really means a lot to us Tim!
You guys always produce great content. Have you compared these rigs taking the longevity in consideration? How long will the T5's, the LED tubes and the high tier LED panels last and how much will they cost, say over the span of a year?
Great question and thank you for the support! The LED's are supposed to last over 50,000 hours... We have used ours now for about half a year at a rate of 17 hours a day. So far we've used 3,102 hours of their life (supposedly). To get it to a year, we would be at the 6,204 hour mark. At that rate, the cheap LED's should last about 8 years. The T5 HO Fluorescents are rated for only 10,000 hours total... We've used ours for a year at the same frequency as the LED's which means we have less than a year left on the Fluorescents before they go bad. So we would have to replace all of our Fluorescents next year at their premium price if we wanted to keep using them. Glad you asked, this would've been a great point to talk about in the video. Thank you for the continued support!
On The Grow Thank you for the answer 🙂
Do you have any advice on GAP compliance for MGreens?
Dude from migro does testing and most newer led lose about 5 to 7% every 6000 hrs so after 3 to 4 years they would be around 80% of original par light.
@@MrSportystv not true do your research 50000 hours on average and no loss of or degradation of light unlike hps hid or fluorescent
Informative vid, thumbs up!
Hey guys what about the FANS energy comsumption could u guys share the info...
Also thank you for the content u give very informative and genuine...
It's pc fans, so they don't use any thing worth mentioning (12v each) and the way they are installed, I doubt they have any effect
Lol, okay expert.
The fans cost like 2 cents a day to run or something like that. They work great for preventing microclimates above the canopy of the crop. Get a big fan to move most of your air, then the small ones to prevent microclimates on each shelf.
Great presentation. Several comments on your related videos mention Barrina LED T5 lights in 4,000K and 5,000K. Given that the top-performing light in this test is 5,000K have you considered testing Barrina T5 4,000K and 5,000K lights (same price point as the 18w 6,500K lights frequently used). Some have said that any energy distributed above 5,000 cannot be used by vegetative growth and is wasted (I cannot confirm this).
Learning a lot here.
🙂Thank you so much for the Feedback Jeffipookins! We appreciate your support! I will check on that!!!
I've been trying to put together a Death Stranding critique and I'm trying to immerse myself in the post Apocalypse so I see you guys as fabulous preppers
We should hopefully have a pretty good system down for survival :) I want to get some solar and batteries on the growspace and then it could be off-grid.
thank you for sharing your experiment... lighting is still a challenge to me as this led lights arent cheap at all in my country. XD Cheers!
Great Video :), Question for you, how many grams of seeds did you use for these trays?
Thank you so much for the support! We used 25grams per tray for this experiment!
Thanks for sharing your experiment the effects of light for microgreen plants.
Good job, I think you should focus on LED light soon getting cheaper.
Great test! I’ve been curious on different lights. I went with similar leds because of the low cost per light. Good to know they compare well.
Thank you for watching!!! 😄 Glad you enjoyed it!
Great detail. One factor to experiment with is which shelf each light is on. Shelves with other lights underneath might play a role and possibly the reason why some trays dried out faster. Also, airflow may be different at the different heights. Thanks for the detailed experiment!
Totally agreed! The best way to test would to be have separate racks at the same height but it would just consume so much space for an experiment. Eventually I'll get a real lab xD Thank you for the support Todd!
I've found with LED's, putting them lower, closer to the tray makes a difference
(and you don't have to worry about heat or burning with the LEDs either.)