Succulents under 300w LED

[alex71]

Hello all,

It is my first post here, glad I found this forum. I am a recent succulent enthusiast hailing from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Not exactly a place for succulents, I know - lousy weather around here, most of the year. Which is why I have decided to try to grow my little garden excusively under artificial lights, 3x LED panels of 300W and additional HPS of 400W, covering about 9 m2 of tables and shelves. Attaching some pics for you to see, maybe help me identify some of the plants. All plants are from cuttings (Australia) and are 6 months old now.






I appreciate any feedback. So far they seem happy, although a nuber of them grew very little. I suspect it might something to do with the light cycle - I follow the natural cycle, so now they are receiving about 9 hours of light - I am thinking that the slowgrowers are dormant.

Regards to you all,

Alex

[7george]

Above URLs will work better like links, not images.
Here is one I recovered:


300W sounds impressive but everything depends on lumens, distance from lamps, temperature and so. Succulents are slow growers, most of them. Not sure about all, but some are Echeveria. These plants stay compact and low and the light provided looks OK.

[greenknight]

Agreed - they appear to be doing fine.

[alex71]

Thank you guys. Sorry about sloppy images, I am still trying to navigate around here. Will try attaching some images to this message.

As far as the LED panels are concerned, I am pretty satisfied with the performance so far, although I am not quite sure I am doing it right. Panels are 140cmx14cm, hanging 1m above the plants. Lux meter shows around 14000 lumens at the tables. At the suggestion of the manufacturer (China), I first hang them 1.5m above, but lumens dropped to below 7500, and I found that the general recommendation is to provide about 2000 lumens per square foot, which equals to 20000 lumens per square meter. Provided my math is correct, even at 1m I am not using their full potential, but am afraid I will burn them if I lower the height some more. Can anyone please shed some light onto this?

And then the issue with wintering. I am planning to turn off the lamps completely and open shades so the plants will receive natural window light for a period of time. How long does the wintering period needs to be? A month, two, three months?

Thanks for your response.

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

The easiest way to gauge those 300watt LED (which are usually 120 actual watts) is by testing the tolerance of your plant. If they are hanging from adjustable racket straps or ropes you can adjust them lower or higher as you see fit. If the plants are appearing leggy (yours look fine and healthy) you can lower them. If they appear sunburned with black dried tips or excessively red (so far they don't) you can raise them.

Is your 300watt LED a Mars Hydro or one of the many imitations of that design giving a mix of red, blue, purple diodes with a loud cooling fan?

[alex71]

Thanks a lot, your experience really means a lot to me. The lights I bought are Chinese ETL 300W Linear Grow Lights, and they are fanless. I admit I had a lot of reserve for Chinese LED, and pretty much everything Chinese - sorry If I come across as racist, but in my experience of the world, cheap stuff rarely pays off. But my suspicions turned out to be wrong, at least until now. Their panels are absolutely noiseless and do not heat up at all. The light they emit is not "blurple" as they call it, but appears white. The panel contains a mix of 60 diodes of 5W. In the end, they were by no means cheap - with shipping and customs, 3 panels cost me around 1000 bucks.

Now the height issue. I'd had some experience with HPS lamps, which I used, to great results, to grow some weed for my own use. When i got the LED panels, it just happened that I had young cannabis plants under HPS, and decided to test my new lights. Measuring only 7500 lumens at 1.5m, and against the recommendations of the manufacturer, I lowered them to 90 cm and in the course of the next couple of days burned them all badly and irrevocably. On the contrary, some young succulents seemed to like it a lot, so I really don't know.

Considering everything, it seems to me that my plants are doing just fine, so I guess it is better to not change anything. Once again, thank you for your kind advice. A bit of trivia for a closure: there are NO legal succulent growers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Except me

[7george]

And then the issue with wintering. I am planning to turn off the lamps completely and open shades so the plants will receive natural window light for a period of time. How long does the wintering period needs to be? A month, two, three months?

To answer this you better check origin and ecological requirements of these plants, I would start with this even before buying those. Maybe they will need short period (up to 2 months) of cooler temps and shorter days to be able to flower next season or maybe nothing like this would be needed.

Also maybe better put "Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina" in your profile because not everyone will go to your 1st post to find out your location.

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

Thanks a lot, your experience really means a lot to me. The lights I bought are Chinese ETL 300W Linear Grow Lights, and they are fanless. I admit I had a lot of reserve for Chinese LED, and pretty much everything Chinese - sorry If I come across as racist, but in my experience of the world, cheap stuff rarely pays off. But my suspicions turned out to be wrong, at least until now. Their panels are absolutely noiseless and do not heat up at all. The light they emit is not "blurple" as they call it, but appears white. The panel contains a mix of 60 diodes of 5W. In the end, they were by no means cheap - with shipping and customs, 3 panels cost me around 1000 bucks.

Now the height issue. I'd had some experience with HPS lamps, which I used, to great results, to grow some weed for my own use. When i got the LED panels, it just happened that I had young cannabis plants under HPS, and decided to test my new lights. Measuring only 7500 lumens at 1.5m, and against the recommendations of the manufacturer, I lowered them to 90 cm and in the course of the next couple of days burned them all badly and irrevocably. On the contrary, some young succulents seemed to like it a lot, so I really don't know.

Here's the link to the panels, check them out:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/ ... 3279EdQYpv

Considering everything, it seems to me that my plants are doing just fine, so I guess it is better to not change anything. Once again, thank you for your kind advice. A bit of trivia for a closure: there are NO legal succulent growers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Except me

The link you posted does not match the description. Right now it shows a typical cheap blurple light. However, I do see a number of different models shown so maybe one of those is the correct one.

Experience and results matter in grow lights, not where they are produced. There's a lot of hype associated with many manufacturers, including those who produce in North America and Europe. You will find winners and losers in both. Most of the cheap Chinese grow lights may have issues with warranty or efficiency, but that certainly does not mean they won't get the job done.

[Kaktusgartneriet]

In my experience Echeverias and relatives do not necessarily need a wintering period. But if you indeed put off the light panels, be sure to first dry out the soil pretty good and lower the temperature to fit with the very much lower light levels. These plants don't go into complete dormancy like some cacti. They will always grow a little, and the longer period of low light, the greater risk of etiolated growth