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Old April 19, 2011   #1
ASFx2600
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Default HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator vs. Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45 - In Homemade Box

Hey everyone. I've been doing this LED panel test for the last few weeks (still in progress) and figured you might be interested in seeing how it progresses. I'm growing Red Robin tomatoes which is a very small dwarf variety. I'll post everything from my log so far. I created a box for them out of cardboard and mylar to keep the light from each panel contained.

Feb 4th:

Planted Red Robin cherry tomato seeds in Wonder Soil and put on heat mat.

Feb 11th:

Germination

Feb 12th: - Week 1

Transplanted into 8" pots
Fox Farm Happyfrog Potting Soil
No additional nutrients yet, but will use GH/GO BioThrive Organic nutrients
Placed under LED lights
Large box lined with mylar, with a separator in between
Both panels use exactly 25 watts according to my Kill-A-Watt
Left - HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator
Right - Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45



HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



Feb 19th: - Week 2

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



Feb 26th: - Week 3

Foliar sprayed with diluted kelp and continued to water with dechlorinated water. No fertilizer needed yet.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



March 5th: - Week 4

Began adding ¼ diluted organic fertilizer. Will slowly increase dosage with each watering.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



March 12th: - Week 5

Fertilized again with the General organics fertilizer, this time at ½ dosage. At first it might look like they’ve been over-watered due to the “leaf claw”, but that has always been the growth habit of this specific dwarf tomato variety in my experience. As the plant gets larger, it usually flattens back out as it begins to flower.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



March 19th: - Week 6

The HydroGrow LED tomato is starting to grow thicker stems and denser foliage compared to the GlowPanel 45. The GlowPanel 45 is stretching a bit more. This week I installed my Growonix RO filter so was able to fertilize with a 50% higher concentration than i’d normally be able to at this stage. Even with 50% more nutes, the PPM is still lower than it was before, since the base PPM of my faucet water was 470ppm. My RO water comes out at about 10ppm.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



March 26th: - Week 7

The HydroGrow plant now has two groups of flowers showing, with at least 10 buds. The GlowPanel also has some flowers showing, although it’s only a single group, with about 5 buds. The HydroGrow plant is also growing with a slightly more bushy habit, while the GlowPanel plant is growing wider.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



April 2nd: - Week 8

Very close battle now. Both plants are nearly identical, with roughly the same number of flowers. We will have to see how many tomatoes set on each plant in the coming weeks.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



April 9th: - Week 9

The HydroGrow plant is in the lead with 5 tomatoes so far. The GlowPanel 45 plant has 1 tomato. Both plants have a nice bundle of flowers at the top which should produce a lot more tomatoes in the next couple weeks. I have noticed a few blossoms dropping off each plant, but nothing to be worried about yet. I’ve also switched from the “Grow” bottle of nutrients to the “bloom” bottle. Also adjusted the amount per gallon according to the dosage chart provided by the General Organics website.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:



April 16th: - Week 10

Both plants seem to be doing well so far. The HydroGrow LED plant has six large tomatoes and five smaller tomatoes which have recently set in the trusses toward the top. The GlowPanel 45 plant has six large tomatoes and 3 more small ones at the top. The larger tomatoes on the GlowPanel plant are still slightly smaller than the ones on the HydroGrow plant though. I’m also still seeing a bit of blossom drop on the GlowPanel plant.

HydroGrow LED 50W Penetrator:


Sunshine Systems GlowPanel 45:
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Old April 19, 2011   #2
ireilly
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I always enjoy these comparison tests. I'll have to look into LED panels now that they are coming down in price.
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Old September 2, 2011   #3
lakelady
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Very interesting comparison since I was considering the glowpanels myself for indoor growing. thanks for the information!
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Old August 16, 2012   #4
epsilon
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It's nice to know that what I bought Isn't completely defunct I've been looking around for other people who've been using the glowpanel system for a while now, suffice to say all i can find are people grow other stuff. It seems as though the extra 5w does make a difference in growing capacities. so I wonder if it would be wise to supplement the glowpanel 45 with natural sunlight?

Also I wonder if one would be limited to dwarf varieties as I think the effectiveness of the light cut out at about 3ft if I'm not totally mistaken. better yet I wonder if that would open the door to use semi determinate varieties as well. maybe further research is in order this coming winter.
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Old August 17, 2012   #5
amideutch
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epsilon, very interesting and informative at the same time. Been toying with the idea of using a LED setup for growing seedlings. What is the usable growing foot print with these units? Ami
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Old August 17, 2012   #6
Cole_Robbie
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I like the idea of this thread, and it is a good experiment.

Sorry to be so negative, but I just don't like LED lights at all. I don't see any advantage to them over fluorescents. When they first came out, it was a gold rush among assemblers of the cheap Chinese parts, because the profit margin in selling them was tremendous. So then the companies got into a lying contest over who could claim the greatest LED performance. There is a lot of incorrect information circulated about LEDs, most of which originated with manufacturers or resellers.

Maybe someday LEDs will be worthwhile. Obviously, they get better all the time, but then again, so do fluorescents. For your next experiment, I would like to see an LED compared to a compact spiral fluorescent. You could also compare one of them to a 150 watt HPS, but it's not like there is going to be much of a comparison. HPS is the standard for using artificial light to produce fruit.
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