How We Got Started

I got to experiment with LED Grow light at home.  Plant: Thai Basil and Italian Basil.  5 Weeks from transplanted cuttings. 

Happy LED ! Got a loaner LED Grow light from a local Maker Group ( Dim Sum lab ).  Dim Sum Lab is a Hong kong base Maker Group.  They are really cool, 3D printing, wood working, arduino hacking programming you name it they got it.  One of the fellow Dim Sum Lab regular has a LED Grow Light and I manage to loan it.

The result is actually quite good (Check out the pics). The first problem that I need to tackle is LED Grow light is know to have a restricted cone area for growing.  This is especially true since I only have one light to test with.  I knew the grow area must be enclosed in a grow tent or box.  Locally in Hong Kong there is no Hydro shop to buy any tent or box.

So, I build one.  Found a cheap fibre clothing closet made out of metal frame with non woven fibre cloth.  The next hard thing to find is the Mylar reflective material. Luckily, I found reflective silver/mirror mylar laminated cabinet liner for sale locally at japanese supermarket/department store.  I got all my material. Setup the whole thing out in an afternoon and started the experiment.  I have two plant in my grow tub.  I am doing Deep Water Culture .  Nutrient + Air Stone 24/7.  The LED light is set on timer for 16hrs on per day.  The first thing that I notice is the LED Light is so much cooler then my T-5 grow light set up.  So temperature is actually lower.  That is good.  Second is the light is really bright since there are only RED and Blue light the whole cabinet emit a purple glow.

So the pictures are the end result. I can say it works for what I tried out. Also, I notice I do not have any problem with white flies and aphids. Maybe the insect do not like the light spectrum but I do not know for sure. The plants that I am growing with T-5 are suffering from Aphids and White Flies. They are a pain on the butt.

I think I will try to grow more under LED Grow Light. The only problem is cost. LED Grow Light currently runs into hundreds or even to thousands of dollars per unit. There is offset cost of using less power and less cooling cost but for someone trying out Hydroponics LED Grow Light might not be the first light to try out. T-5 tubes is cheap and available locally. LED Grow Light for sure is the future of indoor growing and maybe you will be growing with LED too. Let grow some more food. I am hungry !