LED v HPS Review - Invisible Sun LED UK
I've been a HPS grower for many years. I tried many of the "Blurple" type LED grow lights years ago from budget to expensive and found they were lacking when compared to HPS in both quality and yield. I moved my way through different types of HID grow light shades until I settled on the parabolic shade. This in my experience was the best style of light to grow cannabis. I started to see new white type LED grow lights being used but after wasting so much money in the Blurple days and always going back to HPS as nothing seemed to come close I figured I'd stick with what I knew worked, if its not broke don't fix it.
Invisible Sun LED kindly gifted me a prototype version of their latest F Bar LED grow light. The issue for me until this point was to cover a 1.2 x 1.2m area with these new lights it would have been expensive and I'd been burned with the first generation of LED Blurple lights. Being gifted a light capable of covering the area I grow in I figured I had nothing to loose. Massive thank you Invisible Sun.
I've now used these lights for 2 full grows. The interesting part is I grow in a 2.4 x 1.2 grow area so I used the 480w LED on 1 half and my old faithful 600w parabolic grow light on the other. Id seen some growers on the forum using Invisible Sun with amazing results before this but in my mind 480w of LED was never going to compete with a 600w HPS.
Having now done 2 grows, on both I used the same strain on both sides of the tent I can say I'm a LED convert. I didn't think I'd ever be looking to completely turn my back on HPS but after the results of the last 2 grows its obvious to me that there is a huge difference in both quality and yield.
The 2 strains and results I've had using the ISH F Bar prototype system v my HPS Parabolic reflector.
Glueberry OG by Dutch Passion:
LED covered area 19oz. 1.10 GPW.
HPS covered area 15oz. 0.7 GPW.
8 plants, 4 under each light.
Critical by Dinafem Seeds:
LED covered area 32oz. 1.86 GPW.
HPS covered area 24oz. 1.12 GPW.
8 plants, 4 under each light.
Yield was not the best benefit I had growing under this LED v HPS. The smell and general health of the pants themselves was a massive improvement. The plants under the LED carried a deeper more delicate aroma profile both before and after harvest. Resin production was also more under the LED compared to the HPS. For me the days of HID lighting are numbered, not something I thought id ever say. LED is more efficient, lower cost to run per area and produce a better quality end product.
Below is the Critical grow. This was the big eye opener for me. Both the LED and HPS sides looked even through veg and early flower. The real difference can one mid flower kicked in. The HPS side looked bigger but up close I could see the real difference was the structure of the buds. The LED side were far tighter in structure and as mid flower came and went the difference in trichome production and smell was miles apart.
(Dinafem Critical. Invisible Sun LED v HPS review)
(DInafem Critical grown under Invisible Sun LED review)
(DInafem Critical grown under Invisible Sun LED review)