My indoor LED powered garden

xlzerox

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Hello,
I'm new here and fairly new to plants. I just decided to start keeping plants indoors since I live in apartment. I don't have a balcony, but still wanted a garden of some sort. The solution was indoor growing with LED lights.

My journey all started in the spring of 2010 with trying to keep plants I bought from a grocery store near by. I wanted to try LED's and my first attempt was rather pahtetic ;) with a wimpy 12 watt LED light. It was a cree LED over 1 plant. It was obviously not enough light for my liking.

In about 3 weeks I realised I wanted more and these lights just weren't cutting it. After doing more research I ordered all the parts for my new power light. THe parts eventually arrived and I began to build.

I used the most powerful bridgelux LEDs out there, 50 Watts each for a total of 100 watts of power.

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My first test subjects were an almost dead lemon thyme (from lack of light) and a polka dot plant. The light fixture is resting on 2x4's in this picture and not hung up.
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I later purchased more plants and built a light stand to hold the fixture.
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the lemon thyme began to perk up after being repotted and trimmed.

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The polka dot turned BRIGHT dark pink!
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I also purchased more plants:

My basil when I first got it:
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In about a month the basil just exploded with growth and started to flower. And then I realised flowering was bad for the taste so I have been chopping the flowers off ever since.
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The lemon thyme has just keeps getting bushy and requires constant cutting back.
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An oxalis given to me as a gift 3 months ago.
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I've been giving away plants and acquiring new ones as my confidence grows. Right now this is the current set up with plants and light. You can see how crazy the oxalis has gotten! For some reason it won't stop flowering. I heard you have to cut them back when they go dormant. I'm waiting for ti to stop flowering before i can do this

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It's been getting quite over croweded and I'm going to start concentrating efforts on growing fruiting trees.

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I have under the lights right now, a european dwarf olive, a truly tiny banan plant, a strawberry guava, a turkey fig tree, and a strawberry guava plant.

Also under there are some various cacti, mexican cilantro, bay tree, basil, oxalis, a ficus, and an orchid that was given to me to try to revive because it wasn't doing too good. It's so far put out a new leaf... progress has been slow with it but it looks promising :)
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Here is the truly tiny banana plant. It puts out a new leaf every 2 weeks
The turkey fig can be seen in front of it
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The plants are over growing each other, and I've order parts for a second set of lights. It will be done soon and the dwarf olive and turkey fig will be moved under them.

I will keep this post updated as much as possible :)

A video tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU6D_mHv1Mk
 

xlzerox

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Hi,
Thanks for the comments.

hypnofrogstevie
I don't mean to be a downer but I don't think that type of setup would give you much growth. Maybe just for starting seedlings. The way you want to go is with the high power LEDs such as cree and bridgelux. I can't imagine what a pita it would be to drill all those holes for the lights. If you just want a small setup though i think it would be good.

Vfem
I am in the process of building a second set of lights to move the crowded plants over. f there is interest I can post a step by step instructions :). It's not very hard to do, all you really need to know to put things together is how to solder and drill holes, even then, the solder job doesn';t have to be super tidy

I do also use atami B-Cuzz stimulants to help with plant health and growth. I use the rooting stimulant a few weeks after repotting and the growth stimulant as outlined on the bottle.
 

hypnofrogstevie

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Of course and thank you for the input :) I am just using it for seedlings. I have a 65 gallon tank my wife brought here and I may turn it into a hydroponic for my veggies.
 

xlzerox

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A sneak peak at the second new light. Using reflectors to concentrate more PAR in smaller area. :cool:

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And my terrarium powered by a cree MC-e LED. 12 watts of power. The terrarium is home to mainly sundews. IT's been up for a bout 3 months. The sundews started flowering about a month ago.

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Organics North

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What is the lumen per watt? (Including the muffin fan to cool.)
Also what color spectrum are those LED's Can you get them in the 6500K range?

I use twin tube biax floro bulbs. 4800 lumen per 55 watt bulb (Bulb is only 21" long, so I can pack a massive amount of brightness in a small area.)
 

Organics North

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I looked it up, best I can tell is about 50 Lumen per Watt with the LED

My Biax floros are at 87 lumen per watt, and I assume cost a heck of a lot less.

Lets see.. $7.50 per bulb, one Fulham workhorse 5 ballast runs two bulbs.
Ballast=$22
Bulbs= $15
Total=$37
So for $37 and 110 Watts I get 9600 lumen!

I ran the numbers and I have the same efficiency as the gold standard. A 1000W HID set up.

I wished LED was there.. IMO it is not yet.:(

Regardless... Very cool project... I need to do that myself to start learning LED as one day it will take the lead in efficiency and cost.

ON
 

xlzerox

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Organics North said:
I looked it up, best I can tell is about 50 Lumen per Watt with the LED

My Biax floros are at 87 lumen per watt, and I assume cost a heck of a lot less.

Lets see.. $7.50 per bulb, one Fulham workhorse 5 ballast runs two bulbs.
Ballast=$22
Bulbs= $15
Total=$37
So for $37 and 110 Watts I get 9600 lumen!

I ran the numbers and I have the same efficiency as the gold standard. A 1000W HID set up.

I wished LED was there.. IMO it is not yet.:(

Regardless... Very cool project... I need to do that myself to start learning LED as one day it will take the lead in efficiency and cost.

ON
Hi Organics North,
You can't compare lumens to PAR output. While T-5's/ tubes have a lot more lumen per watt, LEDs put out similar PAR output to metal halides at a lower wattage. If you want to compare true plant grow power, you'd have to be comparing PAR values and not lumen output. It's PAR that is what plants use, not lumens since lumns is really just a measure of what we percieve as "brightness"

Anyway here are some updates.

I installed the new light fixture and added the reflectors on the older fixture. I have also added a humidifier to help with the humidity in the room since it is now winter. Interesting things are happening in terms of growth.
THe banana plants last leaf has been significantly bigger than the other leaves it's been putting out and the next one coming up seems to be a even bigger than the last one.

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Definately a lot more foliage on the fig tree and the strawberry guava tree

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strawberrry guava at the beginning of december:
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The olive tree seems to be chugging along slowly ( it's to the left of the fig treein the picture). Maybe I should trim it to encourage new growth? Also at the very bottom of this picture I've decided to try to plant some dwarf sunflower seeds, they've sprouted and seem to be growing quite well. Let's see if they flower :). I didn't think so many would germinate, i think I'm going to have to cut sum back.... there's about 7 in that little pot :(

First off here's a picture from the beginning of december:
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And now the shot taken about 4 days ago:
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Also when I purchased the banan plant a few months ago, the store greenhouse owner gave me a leaf to plant. However I forgot what kind of tree/ plant it is. Any ideas? If it helps you can grow this plant/tree from leaf cuttings.

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hoodat

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Congratulations on a succesful set up. I love those little Oxalis Triangularis. They will keep blooming as long as they are in active growth. I have mine in my Refuge strip in the center of my garden which is left as a sanctuary for my predators. They like the small flowers as a nectar source. Here in San Diego it takes it's "break" in the middle of Summer. The ones in my garden are still growing and blooming in December.
Theoretically they are edible but with caution. It has a high level of oxalic acid which can cause crystals in the bladder and kidney if you eat too much. I don't eat it on a regular basis but sometimes like to pinch a leaf for that sour bite it gives you.
 
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