LED Project Results
After getting all the pieces together, plugging everything in and turning everything on, the LED project results are here.
I am keeping an account of what is happening and when so that we can see the results together. Hopefully we will be able to learn from these results and find out whether or not LEDs are really as good as they say.
I think we will find that no matter how well the flowers grow, the LEDs will be the least expensive method as far as energy is concerned.
So let’s begin with the first day and go on from there.
DAY 1
The seeds are planted. So now I water in the seeds, plug in the air pump, plug in the lights, put on the lid and WAIT.
DAY 4
I see sprouts. The alyssums are coming up everywhere. I didn’t think I’d see anything this early. The seed pouch said 7 -14 days.
Oh well, cool. Here are the plants under the CFL, but the plants under the R&B LEDs and the white LEDs are all pretty much the same size.
DAY 7
Today they are a little bit bigger but not much. I’m still only showing the ones under the CFL because they are all still pretty much the same size under the other lights.
I am also starting to see some of the Petunias but they are too small to take a picture of without a macro lens. I’ll give them a few more days.
The remaining pictures are in this order:
CFL, Red & Blue LED light, White LED light.
DAY 13
Everything is up and growing. Right now the plants are pretty leggy. Probably because they are so far from the lights.
Maybe I should have made the lights height adjustable. Oh well, we’ll keep going and hope for the best.
It appears right now that the CFL is doing the best. I imagine that is because it is closer and brighter then the other lights.
If this becomes a problem I will probably have to do this whole thing over again.
DAY 16
Gee, I think I’m learning something. My 24 LEDs are not powerful enough to reach the plants.
The Plants under the CFL are doing fine, although they are a bit leggy too, they are growing. The plants under the other lights are dying, which means they are not getting enough light. I’ll give them a little longer and hopefully they’ll come back.
DAY 17
It’s a sad day {:o( . I’ve decided to start over. There’s just too little growth happening.
The CFL is doing OK but even those plants are suffering. All of the others are almost gone. Time to restart the project with the knowledge that the light needs to be equal for all three lights, otherwise it’s not a real experiment, is it?
I plan on devising a way to make the lights adjustable so that I can raise them as the plants grow. I will also try to keep them about an inch above the plants at all times.
I guess this is a lesson for everyone (including myself) that without the proper light intensity, plants won’t grow properly. Stay tuned and I will get the experiment re-started very soon. In the mean time, happy growing.
That’s it so far
In order to stay up to date with this project, please click on my Blog. That way you will know every update as it happens. Or you could just keep checking back often to see what is happening with these beautiful flowers. Thanks for stopping by and please, check out the rest of my sit.
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