LED grow lights and Phals

[Orchidhound56]

I am getting ready to purchase my first LED grow light. My question is, would a 100 watt grow light be enough for Phals? Or should I purchase a 200 watt? Should it be for vegetative growth or for blooming? I want my Phals to grow and bloom and be happy.

[WhiteRabbit]

[Nexogen]

Sorry I can't help

[Ray]

That depends upon the distance from the plat to the light, but "certainly" - maybe too much, if it's too close.

[Orchidhound56]

How close to the leaf canopy should the LED light be? I know that if I have 100 watt light that it would have to be closer. Can you have leaf burn from LED lights?

[naoki]

Which brand/model are you thinking of getting? Or are you doing DIY?

I grow species phals under 28W LED grow light (2-band), which covers slightly less than 2x2' area. It's located about 10-12" above leaves. They grow and flower OK. Mine is actual 28W. You probably know this, but lots of LED lights are not advertised with the actual wattage. For example, one of my LED UFO is marketed as 90W, but actual consumption is 67W measured. It has 90 diodes with maximum 1W capacity. That's why it is marketed as 90W, but most LED units will be using lower current than the the max capacity.

You'll also need to pay attention how the light is distributed. One of mine has uneven light intensity, so I don't like it much. It's an older 1W diode model with narrow angle lens.

I don't think you have to worry about vegetative vs flowering spectrum for phals (i.e. flowering of typical phals can be cued by temperature).

[Orchidhound56]

Yes, I want to get one of the new models with 5 watt diodes. The new kind are much more powerful and give out much more light, I want to stay away from the Chinese made LED lights as they are not good in quality and the lights burn out more easily according to my research. Have any of your 1 watt diodes burned out? I am looking at the LED lights from California Lightworks, the Solar Flare 100 or The Solar Flare 200, although they are expensive, they are made in the U.S.A.

[naoki]

I've heard that the company is reputable, and people are happy with it (expensive, though). With LED, it is good to choose a company which backs up their products with warranty (regardless of the country of origin).

By looking at 200 model, it uses 165W, and gives PAR of 578 micro-moles/m^2/s (18" from the panel), which is about 1/4 of direct sun. But LED should give higher PUR (removing green) per given PAR than the sun. So it is probably similar to 3/8 to 1/2 of the sun in PUR. So it could be slightly less than Cattleya level light. Maybe you'll need 2-3feet distance for phals.

I personally would go with the lower W model (for low light orchids), and get two of them. You can get a wider coverage area.

I've heard good things about Area51 (which has decent warranty), too. They are now using White + red.

I haven't used my 90W (with 1W diode) much, so it hasn't burned yet. The 28W model, which uses older 10mm diodes, is a different story. I have two panels: 4 and 2 blue diodes burned within 6 months for the 1st and 2nd panel, respectively. There is no way to contact the company (sunshine systems) for warranty. I would never buy their product. But the good thing is that it is super easy to repair with hand soldering. Phals grow well, and I like the product when it is working because it has relatively even light spread, and it doesn't make any fan noise.

If you get the solar flare panel, I would like to hear your impression/opinion.