I totally agree with you Kenny. Grow carts and the carts and shelves that everyone sets up are usually 4-5'long and only 6-12" wide. I'm guessing the manufacturers are shooting for a certain type of (illegal) crop where there would be one light over ea. plant. You might try adding an incandescent or two or some lower K fluorescents to the mix.

There are a couple of 300 watt LEDs available that are rectangular but they are quite expensive.

Mike

I was looking for something unrelated to lighting but stumbled on this company. I'm not sold on the coverage area of the 120 watt panel, but at $200 plus change, it is definitely less expensive than I've seen.

Sent them an e-mail asking for real-life experiences using it to grow 6-8 tomato plants at a time.

Mike

wordwiz,

a somewhat local hydroponic store in my area (about 25 minutes north of me) has one of these in their garden display room. it sits over an ebb&flow table and the plants seem to be doing quite well. i never inquired about price though as im very happy with my 400w lumatek ballast with sunmaster bulb.

Interesting light Mike.
I wonder how many watts it actually draws? I refer to my former comments about how they list LEDs. Like 100 half watt LEDs, the call 50 watt but they only run at about half rating, so when you compare to other type of lights you get fooled. My 48 watter actually draws about 14 watts.
Have you ever been able to get a usable reading with a light meter from LEDs? It seems to vary unless at a great distance.
I have pretty much gone to CFLs on my small scale operation of Tomatoes.
KennyP

Kenny,

I don't have a light meter that is useful with LEDs. Too rich for my budget!

I use mostly CFL (105 watt) for seedlings but am trying both a 150 watt and 400 watt HPS for mature plants, plus one tomato under the CFL. I'm impressed with the 400 watter. Transplanted the seedlings on Jan 18 and they have several blooms on them now.

A friend in another forum bought a 300 watt LED system and he was not that impressed with it, at least not for growing peppers. OTOH, I have a couple of bananas under 14 watt panels and they love it!

Mike

Mike, I am running two of those Eico 81180 105 watt like you talked about. Have them in a 36 inch x 8in duct reflector. To early to tell results yet. They sure put out the light.
BTW; found them at telecom electric supply , tes.com, at 26.45 with free shipping when I bought two. For some reason that bulb was cheaper than others.
KennyP

I was looking for something unrelated to lighting but stumbled on this company.

Thanks. The prices look reasonable. I'm not so sure about the claims, but, at face value, the 90 watt lamps seem attractive. Did you notice that the guy used "their" in place of "there?"

I heard back from Jessica:

I have not found out the PAR yet on the light but I can give you a LUX reading at 3 ft [distance from light] is 2800. I am going to estimate about 3500 LUX at 2.5 ft. Our tech guys are on vacation until next week. I will ask as soon as they return.

I have an LED that seems to be great for the plant and at 20", I get 2000 Lux.

This system very well may be equal to or better than a 400 watt HPS. The initial cost is about $50 higher but over a 120 day grow period (14 hrs per day), the total cost is about the same. Over a year, the cost is $80 less.

I'm going to do a grow test with the panel and see how it works.

Mike

I ordered the light today. Got the Red/Blue/Orange (80/10/10 percent) model to aid in flowering.

Unfortunately, I don't have any tomato seedlings to grow under the light just yet (should have in about a month) but I do have a couple of pepper and cotton plants as well as tomato cuttings.

Mike

I have T8 form factor LED tubes - of course I'm a manufacturer of specialty LED lighting so I get access to this kind of stuff.

BTW - 7:1:1 ratio is a poor ratio - the insolation of the sun at sea level isn't that imbalanced, even in the dead of winter.

This is why you get less than impressive yields.

That's why you're starting to see pure blue panels coming out, now, by the same companies - they realized they screwed up, and then realized they could make even more money off of you by selling you another panel to fix what should have been properly designed from the beginning.

Got and installed the light. It is bright, though the effective coverage area is a bit less than four linear feet. In my basil grow test, the plants under the 14-watt red/blue panel are doing well, probably the best when mass, internode tightness and height are all considered. It is getting 478 lux at the plant canopy. On the very fringe of my 120-watt panel (about 20" from the center of the light), I'm getting 524 at the canopy.

I'm excited about this grow! I have three full-size tomato plants, three cuttings of tomato plants, three each of newly-transplanted tomato, basil and pepper seedlings, and some newly-germinated broccoli seeds under this light.

Mike