what would you recommend for lights with Cacti Seedlings

[Godiam]

Hello, I'm looking for info on what sort of lights people have used for raising Trichocereus seedlings.

Are flouro or LED the best option? Or can I use HPS, as in 600 watts?

I have grown other plants under lights, HPS, but have no experience with cacti seedlings, in fact this is the first time I have attemped to grow from seed.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Godiam.

[2XB]

daylights are the best!

[pinegapcontrol]

im far from expert but a 90w LED has been great for me, i wasnt sure about it so just gave it a go and yeah, alls going great. a lot of people seem to use fluros with great success. personally i would avoid the power bill from a 600w and its probably not necessary.

EDIT - its a ufo style LED with 90x 1w globes, mixture of colours.

Edited November 19, 2015 by pinegapcontrol

[ghosty]

yup, the mixture of colors is what you want. broad spectrum. there are many to choose from. if all the dyes making up the chip look the same, keep looking

in other words, avoid "warm white", "cold white", "daylight", "warm daylight", etc. you want more variance to the spectrum than just 500k.

[BedOSpines]

White light contains all the colors, just saying, so the whites are more varied then the red + blue from my experience it ends being cheaper to buy very intence white leds rather then less powerfull targeted spectrum leds. All the white leds are measured in Kelvin usually. If you have the cash the red and blue may give you better growth but I reckon you need some whites in there too.

[Berengar]

One $5 45W 5000K-6500K CFL works perfectly for a m2 of young seedlings, and provides enough warmth for them.

[ghosty]

"White light contains all the colors," no shit, just saying. I build high end LED projectors (you know, the ones that don't yet exist...) and work with such tech's allot. the light output from the chips is UV only. it hits a phophor layer to give a balance of "white light", just saying.. the spikes of the white light produced are not even depending on the kalvin you bought. this is why they use multi-chips to get a broad mixture of spectrums.. fancy little chart, BUT i suggest you look into it a bit more, why? because "white" isnt "white". thats why. just saying...

[BedOSpines]

Righto mate don't mean to offend you, I don't know what you do. If you have some info on the matter please share it so we can know why white isn't actually white cause this what's written on the box of all these products.

[ghosty]

OK for a start, you would want some infrared light yes? you dont get that with normal types of "white light" from cfl and led. you will also want some uv doubt you will get that from most "white led's". i shall have a look soon and post what i feel would be OK.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

They go fine under cool White LED godiam. Just as good as ones under red/blue LED (I've raised a fair few in these conditions). I am referring to germination to about 5-6mths old. Berenger's example will support them for roughly the same amount of time. Anytime around 4-6mths I put em in the sun under shade cloth and just keep em well watered.

It's hard to gauge exactly what wattage I use but I worked out its approx 40-50w I use across a 80cm x 30cm shelf.

Were you just asking about the first part of their life or for extended periods?

Edited November 19, 2015 by theuserformallyknownasd00d

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Why the bickering fellas?! For all we know he only wants to germinate them under lights, not grow them to 6 foot. Wait for him to clarify his exact needs and then have your tech war.

[ghosty]

cant find the one i wanted, was on aliexpres, who has some great new chips not found other places. "

Wholesale 1W~100W Full Spectrum Led Plant Growth Light Chip Bead 380nm~840nm is one of the older types. have not tried it and think better of the other types.

[ghosty]

a fact is, almost any light will be ok for a seedling. their needs will obviously change as they grow and age.

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

i hunt for the 6500 kelvin range on white leds.. and any lights really..

i use 15w 6500k aquarium plant growing led bars for my seed and samara sowing projects

i use 6000k 15w (IP65 - outdoor weather proof) mainspower LEDfloodlight for over wintering my trichoes for now until i can afford some hans panels(eu)/area51(usa)

and 35w x 2 6500k SAD bulbs for not much longer on the cactus tank I like to call 'Ixtlahuatl'

but will upgrade to the 6000k floodlights soonish..

already done that in the rainforest box I like to call 'Yukutlan'

and same 'fully submersible/waterproof(IP68) LEDs as the seedlings ..-but longer LED bar-.. are on the aquarium cuz that's what they're designed for initially..

cool white tends to be a general label for this frequency of kelvin ...

i dont bother with lux but the purple effect of blue and red leds and the extras they offer with a view to flowering are very exciting from the position of: "not already having one of those yet"

so would recommend 6000-6500k LEDs

hope that helps,

-horseii #1

p.s. the newer floodlights are only IP65 but are way more efficient , use the same power and are cheaper too

cfls only last 6 months and go weak , maybe useful for the home after tho i guess but theyre all 4watt leds now anyway too

led bars about £17-20

floodlights are £11.50 if you buy 4

hps take the piss on the lecky bills

shame hans panels are gna slash my pocket for about £400 when i get there

no brainer on this island im on, at least x]

good luck and let us know how you go

and i wonder if the led on my new police torch would grow plants if the batteries would just last long enough

Edited November 19, 2015 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ

[ghosty]

"6000-6500k LEDs" great for projectors... waste allot of money on green light though. again, no infrared, and little to no uv. not great. thats a waste of some 30% light your paying for. better, i think to use that wasted power (unless your power is free) on more reds including infrared. this will also have the benefit of your plants getting what they need as they start to have more needs (over seedling stage).

Edited November 19, 2015 by ghosty

[BedOSpines]

I didn't think uv and infrared where that usefull for photosynthisis?

[☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ]

there maybe benefits to it that are more subtle

seems like plants only want purple light as far as i can study... ~(in different ratios of red/blue)

just white light pleases our eyes to view them with better .. and is added in designs just for as close to full specturm coverage possible..

some led reviewers go on about uv being included within the spectrum of a light panel as a bonus find that not many cater for..

but interesting to read it's all uv before hitting a dye if i understood that correctly from the above postings...

also some folk may wish to have herps/reptiles amphibs in their plants and uv would probably be lovely for them ..

im not sure what plants seek in uv or IR but perhaps they do seek it and to make it available could possibly be beneficial

and affordable in the "coffers of efficiency"

technically and with pure efficiency over ornamental value in mind ... white light is probably very wasteful for the energy as far as the plants would say i reckon from what i can gather so far..

but i also have to balance with daft things like affordability lol and personal viewing pleasures..

and to a lot less dafter extent; that also includes viewing pleasures of little ones

Edited November 19, 2015 by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ

[BedOSpines]

Yea uv might have a case but I reckon IR wouldnt have enough energy.

[ghosty]

its all supplemental isnt it. i mean, i could not live only on one food type

yes you understand correctly horseii. the chips themselves use gallium nitride i believe, mostly, and produce pure uv, this, hits a resin layer that consists of phosphor, this converts the light to white. this phosphor containing resin will vary allot in it's % and will this affect the spectrum produced. keep in mind too, that all plants / fungi have different needs for light too, so this will mean different systems for different plant types etc. to a point.

"but i also have to balance with daft things like affordability lol and personal viewing pleasures.." lol yup. true that. affordability is not issue now with china. those chips are only like 34x34xabout3mm and cost like $4-50 each, the driver though... well, take it from me if using over 100w led DONT BUY A WATERPROOF DRIVER!!!!! THEY OVERHEAT IN 800 HOURS. SO, FOR THE LIFETIME OF JUST ONE $4-50 LED (40,000-50.000 HOURS) WILL REQUIRE 32 DRIVERS (IF MY MEMORY SERVES ME) AT SOME $100.00 PLUS EACH.

in short, if it has a waterproof rating, its garbage. i have lost many hundreds of dollars on these shit things!

Edited November 19, 2015 by ghosty

[Godiam]

Thanks for the replies, Guys.

It is just for the first 5/6 months as I have a hothouse for later stage of growth, I have 50 pecent white shade cloth over the hothouse, so I think that would be OK to intoduce them to sun.

I saw a LED light in an aquarium shop the other day, about 2 foot longand you could add different colours of lamps!

so I quess looking for lights in the 500/600 lu ens would give good results, is that right?

Cheers.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Godiam

[BedOSpines]

DONT BUY A WATERPROOF DRIVER!!!!! THEY OVERHEAT IN 800 HOURS. SO, FOR THE LIFETIME OF JUST ONE $4-50 LED (40,000-50.000 HOURS) WILL REQUIRE 32 DRIVERS (IF MY MEMORY SERVES ME) AT SOME $100.00 PLUS EACH.

in short, if it has a waterproof rating, its garbage. i have lost many hundreds of dollars on these shit things!

thanks for this, I have some 100w drivers that aren't in any enclosure and was really considering the waterproof ones. the ones i have don't get real warm and have been going hard for 2~3 years, not bad for $13 from china.

good luck with your seeds mate .

[ghosty]

once you go over 100w they start to get hard to find open "build in ones" i got a meanwell driver ulp 150-36 from aliexpress but the idiot that sent it to me sent it with no packing.. of course, it was a waste of yet another $120.00

I'd like to recomend them as they seem to be good, but i cant yet obviously. so i wont.

the waterproof ones are called like ip67 or some such. im not up with the ratings of electrical stuff. odd really, because i work allot with such. but not in industry so i guess that explains that.

[ace1928]

Ill just add in here that infrared light acts as a shade signal for plants but does not do anything for photosynthesis. UV light is damaging and causes superoxide production which can lead to the photosystem in the plant being degraded. Green light, funnily enough, also acts as a single to plants but for the most part isnt used for growth (althpugh some accessory pigments can absorb a portion of green light).

Too high light intensity can also lead to similar damage as UV light.

Ill try post up some more stuff relating to it over the next few days.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

These are what I use godiam (5650 LED). I use cool white on a shelf, warm white on a shelf then a combo of cool white blue and red on another shelf. I use 40-60 pieces per shelf, or two-three strips as they come in units pre wired. A computer power transformer will power them, I think I'm using an 8amp transformer on all three shelves and it's doing well.

No discernible differences between the colors when we're only germinating and establishing them a bit. Don't let the other chit chat here throw you off man. Just get some cheap LEDs and you'll be set. Good work with the hothouse they'll love that after a few mths of being indoors.

Peace

Edited November 19, 2015 by theuserformallyknownasd00d

[ace1928]

I highly rate the 5650 LEDs too. I just use 6500K White LEDs and they work awesome for growth of grafts and seedlings.
Forgot the name of the chips. Cheers dood
You'll love LEDs Godiam. And they will last a long time.