Nicky-
One of the biggest growers in the group, @Hoppiefrog uses HPS/MH lights. You may be referring to bad lights meaning blurple, I am not sure.
But Mr. Frog said it would cost a lot of money to replace his lights with LED, like the cost of a home kind of money. And he gets great results with the MH/HPS set up. It really depends on what style you want to grow your marijuana. I dont know, but, the commercial growers seem to be doing pretty good, or they wouldn’t be growing that way. If you haven’t seen his grow the thread is called Afficiandos with Hoppie frog and friends. I do not mean any disrespect Nicky, you are a good grower. I am still new and just breaking into how I want to grow.
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Yeah I can see it, I know a couple “commercial growers” and they are more than happy with their 600 or 1000 watt MH/HPS lights and not wanting to change at this point, specially at the good LED price point (like HLG). But swap out enough eyehortilux super hps bulbs at $80 each and the new crappy digital ballasts that die quickly and moving to LED starts to make financial sense.
I grew with MH/HPS lights for over 2 decades and got tired of the ballast and bulb failures recently, the new digital dimmable ballasts really suck, I never had a single failure with the older magnetic ballasts but was losing at at least one or two ballasts a year with the newer digital ones, that’s what really made me move to good LED lights.
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That image may have been taken when blurple was breaking technology? Not many big shows use blurple for anything short of seedlings. Even then the majority still use 8 tube florescent fixtures.
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ash93-
I cannot remember if I told you or not, but I have started my grow and journal. The thread is called “growing again, or at least trying to grow.” I am diving into organics and living soils. For me its about leaving t he chemicals behind and making things simple (k.i.s.s). What could be easier than water and go? No measuring out 1.5 grams of this per gallon. And with the soil being living, the micro organisms feed off of roots providing them something to eat (by releasing food from the roots). In turn, the micro organisms deliver nutrients to your plants and also builds a defense against pests and disease. Ok, I will stop rambling. Stop by if you like and feel free to comment. Betty is just a baby at this point. 1 set of true leaves and the cotyledons are still on. She is only 3 days above ground. You plants look great ash- keep up the good work! Oh, did you see one of Hoppie’s pictures of a cherry noir that he split a stem on? It looked like the plant was bleeding!
Have a good one ash- peace
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Its bleeding its own blood!
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That picture is just a trip! Hoppie could call that “Vampire weed” because it bleeds the way it does.
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No. When runoff exceeds input it’s time to reset. Just like before.
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@patchman Thanks for the info. I’ll check your journal out for sure. Im still new to this so organics and living soil will be the next thing for me to learn. I appreciate the info.
No I havent. This is the first time I see it, it looks super cool tho. Damn.
Thanks for the feedback and stopping by and checking my journal
@Myfriendis410 Thanks! I know we talked about this before but I cant seem to find it in my notes.
Would -0.5 range be a red flag for runoff pH? if input is 5.8 anything lower than 5.3 would be concerning or whats the threshold
Ive noticed that when my plants arent taking up nutrients and my runoff is higher my ph always seems to drop as well. I take it as the salts buildup is causing ph to drop to an undesored level locking out certain nutrients. Which intern causes less uptake. I notice when i start gettingvbelow 6.3 i start seeing plant issues. 6.1 i see cal/ mag issues. Kind of a viscious circle that get worse. Anyway off topic observation i suppose.
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Of course no disrespect these are discussions to share knowledge.
Lots of people grow with HPS/CMH/MH because they invested a bunch of moeny already and they know their systems and it works, changing everything would be a big change all at once or a bit of a hassle to do bit by bit but like myself and @Hellraiser explained the issue of cost to maintain those type of setups and pay the power bills on them are serious costs.
Many of these old school growers are just that old school, not all of them of course, so to sit down and put everything into a spreadsheet to calculate their budget/ profit margins/maintenance costs/ and to lay out how to justify an led upgrade is just beyond what they wish to do considering the sticker price up front.
It’s like that friend of yours who keeps putting thousands of dollars into their truck because it works, they love it and it does the job for them.
The cold hard facts of the matter is LED’s are cheaper long term leading to a high profit margin and less heat issue as well as less maintenance, personally I wouldn’t buy HLG’s because they are over priced and to do that Ina. Commercial grow my God yeah. I would buy good quality Chinese made led strips from a company like kingbrite.
Another cold hard fact is led’d produce a better product, this has been studied. Watt for watt they produce a high cabanoid content.
I don’t see why anyone buying a light would buy a HPS/CMH/MH, unless you already have a setup that was built years ago and your just keeping your system as is plugging away.
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There are a multitude of valid reasons to use LED. There is only a few reasons to use street lights, if you have them already, if you are using them to create heat for an indoor winter grow and if you like paying electric bills.
Here are the main reasons to use LED.
Lower electricity consumption per umol
Lower HVAC costs
Higher umols per watt per square foot
No risk of vulb explosion
No risk of burns
No annual bulb replacement
Thin fixture takes up less height
Can be closer to plant- gain height there
Can be turned up or down
Will not catch hair on fire
Light is better to observe plants with
Im sure Ive forgotten a few things
Oh yeah, lights can be tailored to the growth stage like with RSpec etc.
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Better canopy penetration as well.
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Will not catch hair on fire. 
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Yep that too! So right my friend410
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Yup exactly @Cannabian @Myfriendis410
I think one point that many people don’t seem to point out is LED’s produce higher cabinoid content hence THC % is higher, 26-36% higher Infact.
There was a two year study that observed this, I can’t link it here but if you google
" The Effect of Light Spectrum on the Morphology and Cannabinoid Content of Cannabis sativa" you can access the study.
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Everybody has to figure out how they want to grow. What works for one person may not work for another. All I do know is that @Hoppiefrog grows the way he wants to, and his last grow was one of the best indoor grows that I have seen. Everyone must find what works for them.
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And that’s fair but science doesn’t lie =l
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