Code		Price	Qty
	1547	GroWell Holiday Watering Kit - 12 Plant	£34.95		Add to Basket

	Code		Price	Qty
	1995	Budget Digital Timer	£11.95		Add to Basket

You do not want water to collect in your saucers or work tray as a result of overfeeding, so it is important to get the correct length of time for your feeds.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1480	Small Garland Work Tray (58cm x 40cm)	£4.95		Add to Basket
	1481	Jumbo Garland Work Tray (117cm x 40cm)	£8.95		Add to Basket
	1491	Giant Garland Work Tray (120cm x 55cm)	£12.95		Add to Basket
	5871	Metre Square Garland Work Tray (100cm x 100cm)	£24.95		Add to Basket
	1482	1.2 Metre Square Garland Tray (120cm x 120cm)	£34.95		Add to Basket

As the plants grow bigger and you begin to make plans for the flowering stage, you should increase the frequency of the feeds – and not the length of time the plants are fed – aiming for a little and often approach.

Your plants will now follow an automated feeding regime. Aside from ensuring that the reservoir contains enough nutrient solution and occasionally checking for dripper blockages, there is very little required in the way of maintenance. This leaves you more time to focus on your plants, by conducting regular bug checks and striving to maintain optimum grow room conditions.

Advanced Irrigation

Once the basics have been mastered there is essentially no end to the possibilities. Here at GroWell we stock a wide range of irrigation equipment to cater for almost any set up. There are different drippers available and a whole assortment of pipework pieces – including corner pieces, t-pieces, manifolds and outlets.

Whilst the core principles remain the same, one or two factors need to be reviewed with regards to larger irrigation systems.

Firstly given the larger scale nature of the operation, you need to guarantee that the reservoir size is adequate and that the pump is powerful enough to manage with the demands of the system. BudBox Aqua Tanks are a professional solution for water storage, giving you two high capacity, extremely durable and collapsible reservoirs to pick from. In terms of pumps, our Sicce range has models that will satisfy every grower out there.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1868	BudBox Aqua Tank - 100 Litre	£37.95		Add to Basket
	1869	BudBox Aqua Tank - 250 Litre	£49.95		Add to Basket

	Code		Price	Qty
	1199	Extrema 800 - 2500 Litres per hour 19mm outlet	£64.95		Add to Basket
	1200	Suprema 1200 - 4000 Litres per hour 19mm outlet	£84.95		Add to Basket

Secondly, for a larger size of irrigation system the pipework should be constructed to make an enclosed loop rather than a series of lengths - using a tee-piece to perform the job. This will mean that the pressure is equalised throughout the set up, enabling all plants to get an even amount of feed.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0184	Tee Piece 13mm	£0.55		Add to Basket
	0172	Tee-Piece 19mm	£0.85		Add to Basket

If you are going to employ an irrigation system throughout the entire crop cycle, definitely try and use the time saved in watering to monitor plants and see that they are getting sufficient feed. Once you have several crops under your belt you will have a good idea of what the plants need at the different stages of growth.

Versatility

With a basic understanding of irrigation, there will be numerous occasions where the irrigation planning part of the brain kicks into overdrive and the versatility afforded by an irrigation system becomes apparent. Taking it outside of the context of a grow room, it could be used in the garden, the conservatory, for hanging baskets or anywhere you have plants. An example of a traditional set up for a grow room and one in another setting can be seen in the up and coming articles of this series.

Don’t forget the growing experts at GroWell are available both on the phone (call 0845 345 5176) and online (see the chat tool in the bottom right hand corner of the page) to help you with any irrigation-related queries.

It would hardly be surprising if you wanted to use the most powerful lamp(s) available for your grow room but the floor area and headspace can limit what options are suitable – always make sure you measure up before starting out. Knowing the dimensions you have to work with will help determine whether your best bet is a 250 Watt lamp, a 400 Watt lamp or a 600 Watt lamp.

HID Lamp Specs

Whilst all of our grow lamps perform to a similar high standard, each model does vary – in terms of replacement times and spectrums for example. Get to grips with the products that make up our range by checking out the details below:

How to SAFELY and EFFECTIVELY get power to your lamp

To set up a light system you can trust to produce great results and not terrible headaches, we recommend equipping yourself with a reflector, lamp, ballast, timer, contactor and either Exolux Ezi-Roll Light Hangers for small/medium-sized reflectors or Exolux Rope Ratchet Heavy Duty Hangers for large reflectors.

Then assemble the items in the following order:

1.) Use the hanging accessories to suspend the reflector in place, carefully screwing the lamp into the lampholder and making sure of a firm fit.

2.) Plug the lead coming from the reflector into the ballast.

3.) Plug the power lead coming from the ballast into the output socket of the lighting contactor.

4.) Locate the ‘input’ lead coming from the contactor and plug it into the mains.

5.) Identify the ‘Timer’ lead coming from the contactor and plug it into the timer.

6.) Select when you want the timer to switch on and off by adjusting the settings and afterwards plug this into the mains.

You are now in a position to safely switch on the mains.

Light Cycles

Vegetative Growth

A plant in the vegetative cycle is primarily aiming to establish a solid root system and plenty of foliage, and as growth continues, new flowering sites both on and away from the main stem. By tailoring your conditions to help prolong this period of development, you can encourage the entire infrastructure to become bigger and stronger ready for the start of flowering. It goes without saying that the eventual size of your plants really depends on the effort you put in during the vegetative stage.

In many cases simply maintaining an 18 hour light cycle will be enough to keep plants laying down roots and preparing points of reproduction. Using growth feeds and enzyme products can provide significant aid, as can the provision of a sufficiently large pot or container for your plants.

Flowering

The beginning of the flowering phase is a seminal point in the growing cycle, as you finally move on from vegetative development to fruit production. There are several key changes that need to be made to the way you grow your plants over the last 8-16 weeks of a crop, most notably regarding the lights and nutrients.

Switching to a twelve-hour cycle tricks your plants into thinking that it is later in the season, which makes the reproductive system work hard to try and catch up. The change in emphasis for the plant can take a while to hit home, especially because the gradual transition experienced outside will not have occurred. Techniques that steer plants towards flowering are useful, e.g. suddenly increasing nutrient strength and feeding plants towards the end of the lights off period – call 0845 345 5176 for additional information.

Also remember that for hydroponic set ups you need to sub out the grow nutrient for the bloom nutrient. Plants grown in pre-fertilised soil can continue on the remaining supply of nutrients, but we do recommend introducing bottled feeds full of extra minerals and useful elements. If you’re using an inert media, administer growth nutrients several weeks after the switch to ensure the plant has everything needed to bloom.

Ten Top Tips for Usage

1.) Regularly replace your lamps – output will significantly decline over time

2.) Firmly screw your lamp into your lampholder to avoid causing future damage

3.) Always have a spare lamp to hand just in case of an emergency

4.) Excessive handling of lamps prior to use can negatively affect performance

5.) Keep even light levels across your crop with a Heat Shield Super Spreader

6.) Monitor lamp-hanging heights to maintain preferred grow room temperatures

7.) Ensure you use the correct wattage bulb and ballast

8.) Don’t repeatedly switch your ballast on and off as this will significantly shorten the lifespan of the bulb

9.) The intense nature of lamp output can leave you blurry eyed over time – protect your vision and see more clearly by purchasing LUMii Lenses

10.) When using 1000 watt lamps we recommend choosing an air cooled reflector to cope with the additional heat that such a powerful lamp can omit

The new store shall operate 7 days a week and the relevant times are as follows:

Other important details can be found below:

The Oxy-Dripper/Brummie Bubbler utilises a 90 litre tank to accommodate the nutrient solution as well as the several air stones needed for aerating it, and on top of this sits a 15 litre sub-surface tray filled with pebbles and a drip ring that provides a constant flow of nutrient direct to the top of the root zone. Once the roots are established the bubbler aspect comes more into play and the oxygen rich environment inevitably leads to a massive increase in nutrient uptake and explosive growth and plant development.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1861	Oxy-Dripper System (Brummie Bubbler)	£49.95		Add to Basket

Setting up the Oxy-Dripper/Brummie Bubbler

From first impressions you might expect the system to be difficult to set up and use, but that’s certainly not the case! Putting it together takes less than an hour, even for the slightly slower, more considered and methodical grower.

Two plug sockets are required – one for the air pump and one for the nutrient pump. This is in addition to the outlets you will need for your light and extraction systems so ensure that you have enough available in the surrounding area. An extension lead is ideal here because it lets you place a group of four sockets exactly where you want them (like just outside your tent).

	Code		Price	Qty
	0599	Extension Lead	£6.95		Add to Basket

To start with you must drill some holes into the sub-surface tray that will eventually sit in the reservoir. These enable the watered-down feed flowing through the drip ring to easily return to the tank and later on allow the roots to grow into the highly aerated nutrient solution provided by the bubbler. The number of holes you choose to drill is a matter of personal preference, but we recommend a generous spread. Once the drilling has been completed, ensure any plastic burrs are removed and give the sub surface tray a quick clean.

The next stage is to prepare the drip ring. More than enough flexi pipe comes included with the kit for this process – measure out and cut the length you require and then pierce several holes for the nutrient to drip through.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0176	Hole Punch	£0.85		Add to Basket

You may also wish to use nipples to ensure the nutrient flows at a constant rate.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0722	Standard Nipple 4mm	£0.25		Add to Basket

Attach the pierced pipe to the Tee piece to make a loop, checking that the holes face downwards. To the remaining barbed outlet add a length of pipe capable of reaching the edge of the tank and then fix this to the barbed elbow.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0555	Greenblade Quality Trimming Scissors	£9.95		Add to Basket

Cut the remaining length of pipe to reach the pump (which will be submerged at the bottom of the tank) and attach it to the other end of the elbow. You now have the drip ring element of the system!

Installing the aeration kit couldn’t be easier. All that you do is cut the air pipe to the desired length, connect one end to the air pump and the other to the air stone (and repeat for the second air stone), place the air stones in the bottom of the tank and the pump somewhere out of the way of the reservoir, and finally plug in the pump.

At this point we recommend positioning the nutrient pump inside the reservoir, attaching the drip ring to it and putting the plug in the socket (still switched off for now).

As far as setting up the system goes, that is pretty much it. All that is required now is to fill the sub surface tray with some well washed clay pebbles and have it ready rest it on the top of the tank.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0082	Clay Pebbles - 45 Litres	£14.95		Add to Basket

Before putting everything in place you should definitely check that each of the system components works as intended – to do this for the pumps half fill the nutrient tank with de-chlorinated water. You won’t want the water level reaching the bottom of the sub surface tray and instead aim to have it falling just below. Once the tank has been filled, turn on the air pump and the nutrient pump to ensure they operate properly and look to see that a sufficient flow of nutrient solution flows through the drip ring.

There we have it! A functioning, ready-to-use Oxy-Dripper/Brummie Bubbler!

The final steps are to make up and pH-adjust the nutrient solution and add a rooted cutting or seedling to the sub surface tray. Unlike with other drip systems, there is no need to hand water the plant during the initial stages of growth as the drip ring will provide sufficient nutrient to develop the roots.

	Code		Price	Qty
	7520	Accuread pH Meter	£39.95		Add to Basket

We advise that you cover the exposed parts of the nutrient tank. In this example two pieces of correx from an NFT Gro-Tank 205 GTi have been used because it allows for quick and easy access to the tank, but you can also use Total Blackout sheeting.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0456	Correx Cover Gro-Tank 205 GTi	£2.50		Add to Basket

All you need to do now is maintain the nutrient solution and watch as the plant grows and develops into a monster!

	Code		Price	Qty
	1861	Oxy-Dripper System (Brummie Bubbler)	£49.95		Add to Basket

If only…

Ideally there would already be lamps in existence that produce really high levels of powerful light whilst simultaneously keeping heat output down to an undetectable amount. Such a design means you could then fully utilize 100% of the energy generated, hanging the lamps directly above the plants (having them as close as possible stops any light from escaping and being wasted). Although some people argue LED technology does what is described here, the evidence continues to suggest otherwise through poor results.

The tried and tested

At present the majority of people use High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps for the main part of a grow cycle and fluorescent lights during propagation.

HID lamps can be subdivided into Dual Spectrum Sodium (for vegetative growth and flowering), Standard Sodium (for flowering) and Metal Halide (for vegetative growth), and are available in 250 Watt, 400 Watt, 600 Watt and 1000 Watt versions. It’s true that the greater the rating of wattage the greater the level of light and heat, but all of these lamps will burn brightly over 4-9 months and become hot when operating. Consequently you must carefully consider their hanging position in relation to the tops of plants. Our recommendations for good practice are below.

Recommended Hanging Heights for HID Lamps

If you want to locate a propagator under a main light, position your home for clones off centre so that the small plants enjoy some protection.

Germinated seeds will grow under any size of light, but keep 600 Watt and 1000 Watt lights at least 150cm away for a few days until the plants have hardened off a bit.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0270	600 Watt SOLAAR Dual Spectrum Lamp	£19.95		Add to Basket

Recommended Hanging Heights for Fluorescent Lamps

Fluorescent lights like the Eco-Light and T5HO Sunblaster are a lot less powerful than HID lamps but only tend to kick out a little bit of heat. The lower levels of light perfectly suits cuttings and seedlings in propagators – you will have no issues maintaining a very short distance between your young plants and one of these units.

Eco-Lights prove to be slightly more powerful fluorescent models than those using T5 technology and should therefore take up a position further away from propagator tops – say about 80cm.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1587	125 Watt Blue Eco-Light	£19.95		Add to Basket
	1588	125 Watt Red Eco-Light	£19.95		Add to Basket

Most single strip fluorescent lights work well from 10cm to 40cm above a propagator, or in the case of the T5HO Sunblaster Light, sat upon the propagator lid itself. If you want to suspend a single strip T5 light directly above cuttings and seedlings, the optimum distance is 10cm.

	Code		Price	Qty
	5065	T5HO Sunblaster Propagation Light Complete	£21.95	Out of stock

	Code		Price	Qty
	1785	T5 Propagation Grow Light 2-Tube	£44.95		Add to Basket
	1780	T5 Propagation Grow Light 4-Tube	£114.95		Add to Basket
	1781	T5 Propagation Grow Light 8-Tube	£149.95		Add to Basket

Reflector Selector

Your choice of reflector also impacts upon the potential positioning of a lamp and indeed the overall spread of light.

Flexible, open-end models like the Adjust-a-Wing Avenger and Adjust-a-Wing Enforcer feature “wings” that can be manipulated to change the focus of light and thereby facilitate closer interaction with plants.

Air-cooled units are the same in terms of allowing for a particularly effective hanging height, since the constant blowing of air past the lamp significantly reduces temperatures in this area.

Accessories and additions

Attaching a heat shield to your reflector will help deflect heat away from right underneath the lamp and also works to spread light. This neat and cheap little accessory lets growers using reflectors not necessarily designed for low hanging heights (e.g. Proxima Euro and Prima Klima Optomiser) safely suspend them nearer to their plants.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0882	Heat Shield Small (250 Watt - 600 Watt)	£14.95		Add to Basket

The LightRail constantly moves your source of light across a 1.8m stretch of track above the plant canopy and can be instructed to only stop for short periods of time at either end, ruling out the chance of burning foliage if you decide to have the lamp adopt a low hanging height. It even makes 1000 Watt lamps a suitable option for many growers, which we normally think twice about recommending due to the heat they produce alongside the incredibly intense beams of light.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0584	LightRail 3.5 Smart Drive Complete Kit	£175.00		Add to Basket

Given that this is an article on hanging heights, it only seems right to end on the choice of devices open to you for suspending your light.

Quite incredibly Exolux Ezi-Roll Light Hangers are not much more expensive than using chain and s-hooks, offering strong and reliable support for most systems.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1520	Exolux Ezi-Roll Light Hangers (pair)	£8.45		Add to Basket

However the best product for the job has to be the Exolux Rope Ratchet Heavy Duty Light Hangers - which will comfortably support any of the reflectors from our range!

	Code		Price	Qty
	1522	Exolux Rope Ratchet Heavy Duty Hangers	£9.95		Add to Basket

]]> http://www.growell.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/HID-web-150x150.jpg Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:06:45 +0000 GroWell Bristol represents our first venture outside of London and the Midlands, but you can still expect to find each and every one of the great features from the stores in those areas!

First off we’ve picked a superb and easy-to-reach location served by numerous efficient motorway and road networks, which conveniently includes plenty of free on-site parking for you at the end of your journey.

Then once in store, our aim is to present you with the most in-demand and effective growing products around – only ever made available after rigorous and thorough testing. These will be used in working displays to demonstrate capabilities where and when possible, and always kept fully stocked up so that if you want something, you can get it! For a second opinion, a cheeky tip or general growing advice, there’s also going to be our friendly, trained experts to consult and question. Big orders are no trouble either – in fact we have a handy loading bay to help you!

As the UK’s number one retailer of hydroponics systems, grow tents, lights, environmental equipment, nutrients, boosters and more, GroWell is able to offer you unbeatable value and fantastic prices – and this will be clearly evident at the new store. Keep your eyes peeled for further news and information, and when we’re up and running drop by to check things out for yourself.

GroWell Bristol opens its doors on Monday the 29^th of April

We are currently on the look out for people to join our team at Bristol. Click here if you would like more details.

Whether you are hand watering in soil or coco, or have an active hydroponics system, you should first leave your water to stand and dechlorinate for a few hours before adding nutrients – this removes the chlorine and other existing additives through dissipation. At the same time it is recommended that you begin aerating the water with a suitably sized air pump, appropriate lengths of air line and the necessary amounts of air stones. A very affordable means of getting the right equipment is by selecting from our Aeration Kits, and the smallest and most popular of these costs just £7.95. To complete the set up, you plug in the air pump, attach the air line to the outlet and each air stone, pop the air stone(s) in your bucket, switch on the mains and then watch the bubbles go! That’s it! When you come to add the nutrients the water will be well and truly oxygenated.

If you are growing with an active system the air stone should sit in your tank to provide a constant supply of oxygen. There is also the added benefit of the nutrient solution being constantly mixed to ensure that your plants get the best possible feeds delivered to them.

Having dealt with the how, it’s obviously important to consider the why. So… Why must you strive to introduce oxygen into your nutrient solution? What benefits are on offer and what happens if you fail to establish an aeration system?

After illustrating just how simple and cheap it is to aerate your nutrient solution, the following list of advantages will surely be convincing enough to see you joining the ever-increasing ranks of growers that resort to bubbling away!

Dechlorinisation

Aeration or no aeration, you always need to dechlorinate your water. Chlorine gets added to tap water to prevent a proliferation of bacteria and to control other harmful substances, making it safe for human consumption. While there is scarcely enough chlorine present in tap water to kill a plant outright, performance can still be inhibited. Although leaving the water in an open container will lead to the evaporation of chlorine as a gas, using an air stone accelerates this process and also infuses oxygen into the water. Along with dechlorinisation, the act of letting the water stand over night allows it to get to room temperature and similarly prevents possible shock by introducing coldness to the root zone. Everyone should leave water to dechlorinate before application, and as has been previously stated, you may as well begin bubbling at the same time.

Oxygen

Oxygen is of course present in water regardless of whether you choose to add any or not. Yet whereas oxygen in the atmosphere is constant at around 18%, in water it varies according to the temperature of the water. The warmer the water the less oxygen can be held, so water in the tropics will contain significantly less oxygen than the colder arctic waters. For the typical grow room environment this has great significance because temperatures are purposely kept high to promote optimum conditions. Putting this into context, the oxygen content of a solution at 10 degrees Celsius is around 13 parts per million, increase the temperature to 30 degrees and the oxygen content drops to around 7 ppm. Since most grow rooms operate at around this sort of level the oxygen content does not prove ideal.

Plants use oxygen for respiration, requiring the sugars produced by photosynthesis and oxygen to release energy that then aids overall growth. The less oxygen there is, the less energy can be released and the more the plants performance will be affected.

Potential Problems

Without delving too much into the technical science behind it, a lack of oxygen can cause the plant to not only under perform but may also lead to far more serious situations. These problems tend to occur in hydroponic systems where the roots are exposed (like in the NFT Gro-Tank below) and more reliant on the nutrient solution for their oxygen. Those plants in soil or coco have access to oxygen at the root zone through the tiny air pockets found in the media itself, but that is not to say they steer completely clear of issues. If you over water soil or coco the air pockets will not be available to the roots, so that then like with the hydroponically grown plants, they come to depend on the oxygen in the nutrient solution.

Lack of sufficient oxygen hampers the ability of the plant to respire adequately, but before the consequences of this are explored there is something else to consider. Whilst the amount of oxygen in the solution decreases as the temperature rises, the respiration actually increases. In fact with an established plant the respiration rate will actually double when the temperature rises from 20 to 30 degrees. Consequently even though the available oxygen in the solution drops with the increase in temperature the plant then requires twice the amount.

So what happens to the plant if it does not get sufficient oxygen to the root zone? The first signs are actually quite general and can present themselves as a wilting of the plant during the hottest part of the day. A lack of oxygen affects the plants ability to take on water through the roots, limiting access to vital minerals, reducing the efficiency of performance and increasing stress levels. The wilting will slow the rate of photosynthesis thereby reducing the carbohydrates present. If the levels of oxygen remain low and the plant is unable to take on sufficient nutrients then mineral deficiencies inevitably start to show. Growth becomes stunted, but more importantly so too does the development of the roots. The build up of toxins in the roots because of the inability to take on sufficient water can make the roots weak and cause the cell walls to collapse – signs of when the real problems are about to start.

Pythium

Pythium is every indoor gardener’s worst nightmare, as more often than not it leads to the decimation of an entire crop. Interestingly pythium spores are present in many places, even the cleanest of grow rooms may be home to the destructive pathogens. This in itself does not pose a problem because pythium represents an opportunistic pathogen or a secondary problem, meaning that if the plant features a nice healthy root system the pathogen has nothing to attack. If the root zone is stressed or damaged then the pythium can attack and begin the plant-wrecking process of colonisation – not what you want! So the healthier the root system, the less chance there is of an attack.

Aeration in Action

In nature the water that feeds plants is oxygenated as the rainfall passes through the air during descent. Because the droplets are small, the surface area in relation to volume proves high enough for the water to be sufficiently aerated. This is similar to the principle adopted in aeroponic systems. The hydroponics industry in general has become more centred around highly oxidated nutrient solutions with the recent popularity of aeroponic and bubbler systems, but for those of us who use other systems aerating the nutrient solution can make a massive difference to the health of our root zone and the plant in general. An air stone in the nutrient tank for nft, flood and drain or even irrigation systems will provide a much needed boost of oxygen to the solution. Even those of us who use pots can benefit by aerating the water before hand watering.

Taking all this into account, along with just how simple it is to add oxygen to the solution, the question you have to ask yourself is ‘are your plants getting enough oxygen?’

	Code		Price	Qty
	3360	NFT Aeration Kit 1 (suits NFT Gro-Tank 205 GTi & 424)	£7.95		Add to Basket
	3361	NFT Aeration Kit 2 (suits NFT Gro-Tank 604)	£14.95		Add to Basket
	3362	NFT Aeration Kit 3 (suits NFT Gro-Tank 901 & 1000)	£19.95		Add to Basket

Click here to the read the introduction for this series of articles.

Primary Macronutrients

Element

Nitrogen (N)

Uses within the plant

-       Helps plants form and use proteins, carbohydrates, hormones, chlorophyll, vitamins, enzymes and amino acids

-       Dictates how plants function inside

-       Pushes vegetative growth through the production of new leaves and helps establish the shape and size of the plant through stem development

The presence of nitrogen is vital for enabling the plant to carry out most of its functions.

Mobility

Mobile - easily moved around the plant - deficiency first visible on older leaves because what nitrogen is available can be directed towards supporting new growth.

Signs of Deficiency

A nitrogen deficiency tends to be caused by underfeeding your plants – i.e. you use a very weak nutrient solution for a prolonged period of time and it doesn’t provide the necessary levels of the element.

Signs of a nitrogen deficiency include the following:

-       Short, restricted plants as a result of reduced growth

-       Pale green/yellow leaves (especially on the older foliage but quickly capable of spreading to newer, top leaves if left untreated) that can lead to the undersides of leaves purpling/browning and possibly even dying and dropping off

-       Thin, spindly, purple/brown stems

What to do if you have a deficiency

Slowly increase the strength of your nutrient solutions and also consider using an additive like Vita Link Foliar Feed. By following this advice, you can expect a nitrogen deficient plant to start getting better after about a week. However, affected leaves will not recover from the damage inflicted upon them.

Signs of Excess

Excess nitrogen results from overfeeding your plants – i.e. you use a very strong nutrient solution for a prolonged period of time and it provides too much of the element.

Signs of excess nitrogen include the following:

-       Weak, stunted plants

-       Leaves that are thick, brittle and dark green

-       Disease and bugs due to lack of strength

-       Spindly, frail stems

What to do if you have excess nutrient

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Element

Phosphorous (P)

Uses within the plant

-       Helps plants form and use essential oils, sugars and starches

-       Changes solar energy into chemical energy (photosynthesis)

-       Aids respiration, energy transfer, storage and use of water

-       Boosts root growth and produces increased numbers of fruits that are also of a bigger size

-       Improves the quality of seeds

-       Strengthens plant defenses

The presence of phosphorous is vital for flower and fruit formation.

Mobility

Mobile - easily moved around the plant - deficiency first visible on older leaves because what phosphorous is available can be directed towards supporting new growth.

Signs of Deficiency

A phosphorous deficiency either results from underfeeding your plants (i.e. you use a very weak nutrient solution for a prolonged period of time and it doesn’t provide the necessary levels of the element), from excess amounts of Iron (Fe) or Zinc (Zn) in your nutrient solution, and/or from very acidic conditions reducing the availability of the element.

Signs of a phosphorous deficiency include the following:

-       Slowed/stunted growth leading to small leaves

-       Small and thin stems that can go purple

-       Dark blue-green foliage (tends to occur in older leaves first) that may turn purple, starting on the veins of the undersides of leaves, and then yellow when on the brink of dying (the tips of the leaves die before the change of colour)

-       Purple/black spots on leaves, later spreading to stems

-       Delayed plant maturity (no/slow flowering) and limited fruit and

seed production

Element

Potassium (K)

Uses within the plant

-       Activates enzymes and produces proteins and sugars for building cells and tissue

-       Plays a key role in the process of photosynthesis and plant metabolism

-       Strengthens stems and the overall plant structure for increased resistance to adverse environmental factors

-       Aids the control of water and chemicals within plants

-       Improves the flavour and colour of fruit

The presence of potassium is vital for flower and fruit formation.

Mobility

Mobile - easily moved around the plant - deficiency first visible on older leaves because what potassium is available can be directed towards supporting new growth.

Signs of Deficiency

A potassium deficiency either results from underfeeding your plants (i.e. you use a very weak nutrient solution for a prolonged period of time and it doesn’t provide the necessary levels of the element) or from excess amounts of Nitrogen (N) and Sodium (Na) in your nutrient solution.

Signs of a potassium deficiency include the following:

-       Slowed/stunted growth of overall plant

-       Poorly formed roots and weak stems and stalks

-       Older leaves turn pale green/yellow, and some dark spots and burned edges may appear

-       Leaves curl and bend in the worst cases

-       Disease and bugs due to lack of strength

Signs of Excess

Excess potassium results from overfeeding your plants – i.e. you use a very strong nutrient solution for a prolonged period of time and it provides too much of the element.

So as you can see, when plants receive too much or too little of these key nutrients they will soon begin to show you certain signs that all is not right. By being able to recognize the cause of different types of distress and then regularly checking your plants, you put yourself in a prime position to quickly deal with any developing issues, stopping further suffering from occurring and maintaining plant health.

Why should you want to know about different nutritional elements?

Towards the start of the last century a lot of research went into identifying both the primary “macro” nutrients (large amounts used by plants), secondary “macro” nutrients (slightly smaller amounts used by plants) and “micro” nutrients/trace elements (small amounts used by plants) that combine to offer complete nourishment following absorption through the roots and leaves. No single element is more important than the next one; plants just require different quantities and concentrations at different stages of their lifecycle. Ever since these successful initial studies took place and all the key nutrients were found, the focus has switched towards investigating the interrelationship of elements (for example you will sometimes find that when there is a large quantity of one element another element becomes deficient) and the most effective combinations.

It’s true that all plants experience a shift in their nutritional requirements as they move from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage. Refer to the important NPK (Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K)) balance of primary macronutrients and you’ll see how the vegetative cycle dictates a high demand for nitrogen to help build healthy leaves and stem whilst during the bloom cycle upping the ratio of phosphorous and potassium boosts fruit and flower production.

That said, despite these commonalities there are different preferences between plants,

between species and even between clones!

More so than anybody else, growers adopting hydroponic techniques should pay special attention to the food that they feed their plants – since a unique opportunity exists to fine-tune the mix right down to the very smallest detail. Hydroponic nutrient packages are a veritable soup of goodies covering the whole spectrum of required elements, produced in a liquid concentrate form, whereby you just add them to water, check cF and adjust pH to make them available for plants. These can be purchased as one-part, two-part or three-part pre-mixed products, with the simpler of the offerings giving you one option for vegetative growth and one for flowering, and the more advanced packages actually letting you change the ratio of mineral elements at any stage of a crop.

The amount of each element present in a nutrient varies from brand to brand, and also varies based on how many parts make up the product. You can also increase the level of a particular set of elements by introducing liquid and powdered stimulants and boosters with the intention of improving anything from nutrient uptake, root strength, growth rates, flower sizes and fruit flavour. However it is wise to keep things as simple as possible if you are only just starting out. You do not want to bombard your plants with high quantities of all the different types of elements!

So what nutrients does a plant need?

To grow and develop to as near to full potential as possible, each and every plant requires a supply of the following elements:

Primary Macronutrients (large amounts used by plants)

- Nitrogen (N)

- Phosphorous (P)

- Potassium (K)

Secondary Macronutrients (slightly smaller amounts used by plants)

- Magnesium (Mg)

- Sulphur (S)

- Calcium (Ca)

- Silicon (Si)

Micronutrients/Trace Elements (small amounts used by plants)

- Sodium (Na)

- Iron (Fe)

- Manganese (Mn)

- Copper (Cu)

- Zinc (Zn)

- Molybdenum (Mo)

- Boron (B)

- Chlorine (Cl)

- Nickel (Ni)

- Cobalt (Co)

In addition to these elements, a further group of macronutrients exists that are derived from the air and water and include Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O). But since the purpose of this article has been to provide a brief overview of plant nutrition and what you choose to include in the feed regime, the macronutrients derived from the air and water will get covered in a separate article further down the line.

Other growth-influencing factors like light, pH, temperature and humidity merely affect how well a plant uses the elements available to it.

If symptoms of nutrient deficiency/excess appear on new leaves, the problems are usually related to secondary macronutrients and micronutrients whereas if symptoms appear on old leaves, the problems are usually related to primary macronutrients.

How do plants use the available nutrients?

The roots absorb mineral salts from your nutrient solution (or the pre-fertilized media) and the leaves access the beneficial elements from the air and any utilised foliar applications. From here the plant then transports them to areas where they are most needed – for example it will always try and supply more nutrients to the fresh shoots of new growth as opposed to older, established leaves. At this point the issue of nutrient mobility comes into play, given that some elements are more mobile and easily moved around the plant (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) than others. Consequently the lack of a mobile nutrient in the plant is first visible on older leaves, but for a missing, less mobile nutrient the younger leaves suffer because it can’t be moved up to them from the lower, older foliage. With that fact in mind you give yourself a much better chance of determining whether or not a plant has a nutrient deficiency or excess and which particular element may need bumping up or down in feeds (more often than not once you’ve had to flush everything) to rectify the situation.

Now you know all of the elements that a plant needs to grow, the next step involves identifying the signs of deficiency and excess relating to each of them and the correct course of action to take if a problem emerges. Article 2 in the "Food For Thought" series will solely focus on the Primary Macronutrients (large amounts used by plants), covering in great detail the uses within the plant, level of mobility, nutrient deficiency symptoms and remedies and excess nutrient symptoms and remedies for Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (P).

The Clone Station is remarkably efficient in terms of space, covering a footprint of only 82cm x 52cm yet still being able to hold up to six medium propagators. For this exercise one of the propagators has been sacrificed to accommodate a KlimaHeat Grow Room Tubular Heater – a product that will go some way to ensuring optimum growing conditions are maintained.

Although rockwool cubes are shown later on, the actual shopping list is geared towards soil growers.

1 x 6991 Clone Station - £99.95

5 x 0961 Medium Hi-Top Propagator - £6.95 each - £34.75 total

1 x 0611 KlimaHeat Grow room heater - £24.95

120 x 3879 Jiffy Pellets - £0.10 each - £12.00 total

4 x T5 Sunblaster Propagation Light - £21.95 each - £87.80

	Code		Price	Qty
	5991	Clone Station	£99.95		Add to Basket
	0961	Hi-Top Medium Unheated 38cm x 22cm	£6.95		Add to Basket
	0611	80 Watt KlimaHeat Tubular Grow Room Heater	£24.95		Add to Basket
	3879	Jiffy Plug (each)	£0.10		Add to Basket
	5065	T5HO Sunblaster Propagation Light Complete	£21.95	Out of stock

Rather predictably the first step involves preparing the grow area. With a self-contained unit such as the Clone Station you’ll be required to do some minor construction, but nothing here is particularly complicated. After opening the box, simply open the legs of the unit and stand it in the correct position.

Next insert the two poles into the holes in the cover and prepare to attach it to the frame of the unit. If you intend to use the provided light hangers, feed these through the slots in the cover and place the poles into the fixings ensuring they are securely fitted.

Then use the Velcro straps to attach the fabric enclosure to the frame, making sure that the bottom straps are fastened beneath the lower crossbeam.

The Clone Station is supplied with a handy utility storage bag, which fixes to the side of the unit using wing nuts. It may be easier to attach this before putting the cover on.

There are also two shelves included, again attaching to the Clone Station via Velcro fastenings. The bottom one stops the propagators from being sat directly on the floor, an important feature during colder months. To utilise the unit to as near to full capacity as possible, fit both shelves.

With the Clone Station assembled the next step is to focus on the KlimaHeat Grow Room Heater. Again this requires some very basic assembly to put the feet on, placing the plastic loops around the heating tube and fastening using the provided screw.

As soon as both of the feet have been attached, it can be put in the tent. Then just feed the power lead through one of the provided ports.

The final thing to do before starting your seeds is to get some lights in there! The T5HO Sunblaster seems perfectly designed for use in the Clone Station, covering a small footprint yet producing a lot of light. First add the ones to the top shelf because they are harder to change should they not work. With that in mind, always check your equipment before installation to catch any potential faults.

Place the remaining T5HO Sunblaster Lights on the bottom shelf.

You’re now ready to introduce the seeds! More in depth articles can be found here for starting seeds in soil and starting seeds in hydroponics.

Once you have everything in place, close the doors.

The Clone Station easily manages to store five medium Hi-Top Propagators containing 120 seeds in Jiffy Pellets alongside the five T5HO Sunblaster Lights and KlimaHeat Grow Room Tubular Heater.

So there you go, 120 plants waiting to sprout in a small unobtrusive area. A simple set up yet one still capable of providing huge benefits to those who have the foresight of getting started early.

	Code		Price	Qty
	5991	Clone Station	£99.95		Add to Basket
	0961	Hi-Top Medium Unheated 38cm x 22cm	£6.95		Add to Basket
	0611	80 Watt KlimaHeat Tubular Grow Room Heater	£24.95		Add to Basket
	3879	Jiffy Plug (each)	£0.10		Add to Basket
	5065	T5HO Sunblaster Propagation Light Complete	£21.95	Out of stock

Please note that mail order deliveries may be affected by the disruption depending upon how long it lasts and how quickly the couriers can get back up to speed.

-------------------------------------------------------------- Live Update --------------------------------------------------------------

21/01 - 10:00am - All GroWell stores are open

19/01 - 10:00am - All GroWell stores are open

18/01 - 10:35am - We're afraid to say that Dudley has had to shut up shop because of the weather.

18/01 - 12:27pm - GroWell Hockley Heath and GroWell Coleshill are both now closed too.

Over the last two years GroWell have been exhibiting at Chilli festivals that take place all around the country, the majority of which I can say I attended. From my interactions with the incredibly enthusiastic growers who visited our stand, I noticed an interesting trend: a lot of them are missing out on one of the most crucial elements in getting a decent yield – starting seeds off at the best available time. This was especially true for those nurturing superhots, a type of species that has a long season.

Lots of chilli growers plant their seeds and place them on a windowsill during March or April. Now by no means are they doing anything wrong, it’s just that a slight change in scheduling and a small investment of about £40 could easily end up making the difference between a small harvest/no harvest and the biggest harvest achieved to date!

In this first comparison-drawing project of the year I am going to start off a batch of seeds now and put them under a light (a number of these seeds will become my show plants and come to chilli festivals with me) and then start off a batch in March and leave them on a windowsill, looking at what sort of a head start you can gain as well as the effects on your final results.

I have previously done a detailed article about starting from seed which you can reference here for a more precise how-to-guide.

A handful of different types of chilli will be planted throughout the next week, but to get the ball rolling today I am beginning with some of the superhot variety of seeds that were harvested from last years crop. Certain varieties of chilli can take two to three weeks to germinate, so by planting these superhot seeds first it gives them the little head start they need to stay level with the other ones that are going to be used.

The first stage as always when using tap water is to allow a small bucketful to stand for a while whilst it de-chlorinates and gets to room temperature.

Jiffy pellets are preferred for this batch because most of the plants will be grown in soil – I have selected this method only due to the fact that hydro systems prove difficult to transport around the country. One or two hydro plants are also going to join me on the road, but I’m limited to the pot-based units as opposed to larger, more active systems.

After letting the water stand for a few hours I pre soak the jiffy pellets. This growing medium comes with a little bit of nutrient in them, so you just have to place them in the water until they expand.

Next you pop in a seed into each of the jiffy pellets, gently disturb the top of the media to cover over and around each of the seeds and then locate them in a propagator with the vents closed. This leads us to the most crucial aspect of my article, putting the seeds under a light.

I am using a 125w blue Eco-Light and reflector, available through GroWell for £37.95. The Eco-Light is a spectrum-adjusted energy-saving fluorescent bulb, which uses little more power than two of the old school household bulbs. A tent has also been set up, which I always recommend, but if necessary you can get by without one on this occasion. The light just needs positioning somewhere suitable indoors, and pleasingly the ambient temperature will be more than sufficient given that the Eco-Light contributes an extra little bit of heat. At this point it is simply a case of waiting for the seeds to sprout.

By sowing the seeds now I am giving myself a massive head start ready for putting the plants outside or in a greenhouse. When the time comes to move them they will be well established, and ready to produce a heavier and more prolific yield. At risk of repeating myself, this could be the one change that makes a massive difference to your final yield. It is something we tell everyone at the chilli shows, and while they can understand the basic theory, these articles will hopefully provide the hard evidence that gets you adopting the same outlook and enjoying similarly fantastic results.

We're excited to announce that GroWell South London has now officially opened to the general public, taking our number of specialist indoor gardening stores up to six! It is a direct replacement for the old Fulham branch and resides in nearby Merton, serving customers from both of these regions as well Croydon, Merton, Mitcham, Wimbledon and Wandsworth. In fact you'll easily be able to get to the store by car if you're living anywhere around the south of the capital. Good news!

As with all our stores, we aim to provide the following features and benefits:

- Incredible choice of products including lights, growing systems, tents, fans, filters, nutrients, boosters and more

- Huge stocks of everything you see on the shop floor

- Impressive working displays and helpful information boards

- Friendly, expert members of staff who are keen to assist and advise you

- Free parking and great transport links

GroWell South London is located just off Western Road, at Chelsea Fields Industrial Estate.

The full address is: Unit 8 Chelsea Fields Industrial Estate, 278 Western Road, Merton, London.

The SatNav reference is: SW19 2QD (please be aware that some SatNav devices do not send you directly to the store. This postcode will get you onto Western Road, it's then just a case of looking out for our signs)

The phone number is: 0845 345 5174

Located in close proximity to the former site, GroWell South London has been specifically designed to improve upon every aspect of the shopping experience that you encountered at the old store.

Remember how it was a nightmare to drive to GroWell Fulham and then try and find somewhere to leave your car?

This will no longer be the case! GroWell South London really is easy to get to by car and features plenty of free parking spaces – plus a loading drive-in bay for extra convenience when you need assistance with large orders and big equipment. It has excellent transport links from all directions and proves ideal for topping up your growing supplies if you are based in the regions of Fulham, Croydon, Merton, Mitcham, Wimbledon and Wandsworth... in fact, anywhere around South London!

Remember how small, cramped and awkward GroWell Fulham was to visit? With limited displays and low stock compared to other modern GroWell stores?

We did the best that could be done with the available area! But yes, the Fulham shop had issues regarding space and layout. In contrast, GroWell South London boasts enough room for us to put out 100s of additional products and carry the same high stock levels found at all other shops bearing the GroWell name!

GroWell Fulham wasn’t bad though! Far from it…

Remember how the store had growing experts on hand to answer all your questions and to help you identify the best products for your particular needs?

We’re taking all of our best staff with us, nothing else in London will compare! Yet whether you’re dropping into GroWell South London, GroWell Wembley, GroWell Birmingham, GroWell Coleshill, GroWell Dudley or GroWell Hockley Heath, you can always expect to get great expert advice! We are proud to provide an enthusiastic team of knowledgeable, well-trained staff members for the benefit of our customers and consider them to be the hardest working around!

GroWell South London is set to open on Monday the 14th of January. Keep your eyes peeled for more news by following us on facebook and by signing up to the email newsletter - see the panel on the right.

The main observation to make is that the model up has been selected with regards to the fan when compared against the equivalent carbon filter. The RVK100 A1 will extract around 175 cubic meters per hour, which proves sufficient for one of the BF160 Budget Carbon Filters, but since two are being used here, to ensure sufficient extraction takes the RVK125 A1 represents the better option, moving around 250 cubic meters per hour. Whilst not quite doubling the power of the RVK100 A1, the larger fan is sufficient for the chosen size of both tents – 2 x Medium BudBoxes.

First take the 10m of 100mm Aluminium Ducting that will be attached to the two filters and cut it in half. To achieve balanced extraction rates from both tents equal lengths of ducting are necessary. With different lengths of ducting a damper unit is required to regulate the flow from the shorter length of ducting, but that shall remain a subject for another time! Once the ducting has been halved, attach one of the pieces to one of the filters using Quick Release Duct Clips.

Repeat the process with the other length of ducting and carbon filter, then hang the latter using super convenient Exolux Rope Ratchet Heavy Duty Hangers. Next feed the ducting through one of the exhaust holes in your first tent, and obviously do so again for the second piece of ducting and the second tent.

With the first stage complete, now focus on the fan. Once it has been wired up, run the unit to ensure everything works and to identify the exhaust side. This will prevent you from needing to make changes as a result of incorrectly setting up equipment.

Since a 100mm (4”) Y Piece is being used with a 125mm (5”) fan, you initially must attach the Reducer to the Y Piece. A fast clamp is the most effective way to do this since it provides a very secure, airtight seal and won’t be affected by the hanging of the fan.

Once the Reducer and Y Piece are connected, you can then attach the latter item to the fan itself – on the intake end. In this case the Reducer slipped straight onto the fan, negating the necessity for another fast clamp. Adding duct tape for extra security is an option, but the fit was tight. Next attach the ducting to the exhaust side of the fan using a quick release duct clip.

All that remains is to hang the fan and attach the smaller piece of ducting from each filter to each Y Piece, again securing the connection with quick release duct clips (depending on the location of the fan, it might be worth doing these two tasks in reverse order). Use the chain and s hooks to support the fan, y piece, and the exhaust ducting that is to be led away from the growing area. The ducting can be shortened at this point to keep everything nice and tidy, but remember to remove equal amounts from both lengths. Once suspended in place, connect the fan to the mains and check that it works.

Job done! Air is now equally extracted from two locations using just a single fan.

Grow Room Heater

If you're growing plants in an area where there is no proper heating system installed, introducing a tubular grow room heater should rank highly on the list of priorities. Always plan ahead and try to prevent problems caused by winter weather and the lights off period rather than having to react when the situation my already be out of control. An easy-to-use tubular grow room heater is effective at generating warmth and maintaining desirable temperatures without demanding a great deal from your power supply.

1.) Assemble the grow room heater and mount it to the floor or a wall in a horizontal position using the brackets provided and suitable fixings. Make sure a plug socket is located nearby.

2.) Surfaces other than the one that the grow room heater is attached to should be a minimum distance of 30mm away

3.) Also ensure that there is a minimum distance of 200mm between the grow room heater and any shelving placed above it.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0611	80 Watt KlimaHeat Tubular Grow Room Heater	£24.95		Add to Basket

Nutrient Heaters

Keeping nutrient temperatures at the optimum level is paramount – particularly during chilly winter months. A cold root zone can adversely affect your plant’s ability to absorb feed, potentially causing a whole host of stress related problems that may end up reducing final yields. Hydor Nutrient Heaters provide a highly effective means of maintaining good growing conditions down below and are essential purchases for growers looking after plants with exposed roots.

1.) Remove the heater from the accompanying packaging, then clip on the suction cups

2.) Plug the heater into a suitable mains socket (switched off) and position it horizontally at the base of your system/tank. Gently apply some pressure to the top of the product to help the suction cups firmly stick in place.

3.) Twist the dial to set the desired nutrient temperature - we recommend 20oC. This setting will be maintained unless you switch off the power or adjust the target. Turn on the mains and leave your heater running at all times, never letting the nutrient solution level drop below your heater.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0179	Heavy Duty Hydor Nutrient Heater 50 Watt	£23.95		Add to Basket
	0224	Heavy Duty Hydor Nutrient Heater 150 Watt	£31.95		Add to Basket
	0225	Heavy Duty Hydor Nutrient Heater 300 Watt	£33.95		Add to Basket

Temperature and Humidity Meter

Keep a watchful eye on important environmental factors with a temperature and humidity meter. Both the minimum and maximum temperature and humidity values should be recorded so that you can make continuous evaluations of the suitability and stability of indoor conditions in a quick and easy manner. An ideal grow room temperature typically registers somewhere between 21^oC and 25^oC, whilst relative humidity needs to hit 70-80% when propagating, 50-80% for vegetative growth and 35-80% at the flowering stage.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0876	Accuread Temperature and Humidity Meter	£9.95		Add to Basket

Nutrient Meter

For a clear picture of how the root zones of hydroponically grown plants are shaping up at any given time, look no further than a nutrient meter. The better models out there have been designed as all encompassing, vital statistic generators, capable of giving you incredibly accurate, instant readouts on nutrient temperature, pH and cF. The optimum nutrient temperature target is 20^oC (see pages 96 and 97 to learn about recommended pH and cF levels).

	Code		Price	Qty
	1313	The Tri-Meter	£135.00	Out of stock

Propagators

Quality heated propagators come into their own during wintertime, proving to be low costing, highly effective options for maintaining perfect propagating conditions and speeding up the rooting process. Aim to keep the temperature inside your heated propagator between 21^oC and 26^oC (optimum of 24^oC) and root cuttings within three weeks to avoid any major risk of failures.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0963	Hi-Top Medium Heated 35cm x 21cm	£34.95		Add to Basket
	0964	Hi-Top Large Heated 50cm x 37cm	£59.95		Add to Basket

Fan Speed Controller

Unless you’ve installed a temperature-controlled extractor fan, it makes a lot of sense to closely manage your fan speeds via a controller unit. By choosing one of the better controllers found on the market you can avoid the unnecessary burden of having to carry out regular checks of your fans and of manually changing the settings when required, and are also able to run them at lower idling speeds to limit the amount of cold air entering into the grow room.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1619	Klimavator	£99.95		Add to Basket

Air Movement Fans

On top of the extraction system that you should have installed in your grow room, it’s worthwhile setting up one or two air movement fans. These are great for creating a continuous flow of air around your plants, preventing stale pockets of air from forming and helping with temperature control. We highly recommend placing a fan in the corner of a room that is not square or rectangular – just don’t point it directly at any plants located nearby.

	Code		Price	Qty
	7787	6 inch Clip-on Fan	£9.95		Add to Basket
	0353	Small Professional Air Circulator - 20cm (8 inch)	£29.95		Add to Basket
	0354	Medium Professional Air Circulator - 32cm (12 inch)	£49.95		Add to Basket

As the festive holiday period draws nearer and nearer to us, we strongly recommend taking a moment to work out what you’re plants are going to need to keep alive and kicking over the break. Without a doubt you should definitely hold stock of nutrients, additives and pH solution, plus a back-up timer and spare lamp just in case of an emergency.

GroWell shops, online and mail order division do shut down for a short duration during Christmas, temporarily putting the delivery of goods on hold. Likewise, the couriers we use also have busy schedules and can only guarantee pre-Christmas Standard Delivery when orders are placed before midday of Monday the 17th of December and pre-Christmas Guaranteed Delivery when orders are placed before midday of Wednesday the 19th of December. For a complete view of the days GroWell intends to open and close in the next two months, see the following details.

Two grow areas have been set up using identical tents, extraction kits and modified bubbler systems, the key difference being for comparative purposes one contains a Proxima 600 Watt light system with a SOLAAR bulb and the other features the new £550 LED light. The plants themselves are clones from the same mother plant, feeding from the same nutrient mixture. Here’s the view from last time out…

What you can see are two very sorry looking cuttings, one markedly worse than the other. Due to the terrible state of them the decision was made to place a couple of soil grown plants in as a contingency so that the test could continue if the original subjects died. The smaller of the two clones went under the 600 Watt light and the larger plant got the LED.

There was a genuine concern that the test might end before ever really getting going. Since the cuttings barely survived the time spent with an LED light, whether they could or would last any longer remained a huge doubt.

Somewhat surprisingly then, by the ten-day stage both cuttings showed signs of having significantly improved and almost resembled normal plants! The LED plant arguably made the biggest turnaround regarding size and growth, however it was in a better condition to start with out of the two test subjects. The new growth did not seem as ‘gnarly’ as the pre existing leaves and when taken outside of the LED appeared to have a good dark colour.

The plant under the 600 Watt light put in a slightly less successful performance, but then again there was only one real leaf left on it after transplantation. New growth appeared to have been less prolific but the colour looked healthier than that of the LED plant. Some growth beats no growth though, and at least the test is able to continue!

Four weeks after transplanting into the modified bubbler systems and both the plants are looking pretty impressive and following maintained growth patterns.

Clearly the plant under the 600 Watt light picked up dramatically – it is a good size now with a healthy, bushy appearance. Conversely the development of the LED plant slowed down a bit, seeing as the plant gained a little height but enjoyed nowhere near as much lateral growth. While the vegetation on the 600 Watt plant is lush, the leaves on the LED remain thicker, leathery and darker – not ideal.

Considering the two set ups only differed by means of the light used, the varying results has to be attributed to that factor. The conditions in both tents were relatively similar in regards to temperature and humidity, and the nutrient mixture was the same. It’s fair to say that the LED plant looks relative healthy when judged alone, but when pitted against the 600 Watt plant the superior one stands out a mile.

A table to show the difference between the plant grown under the LED light and the plant grown under the 600 Watt HID light can be seen below:

The table shows that there is no discernable difference between the tents in terms of the environmental conditions. From the figures relating to the size of the plants, you don’t necessarily get the fully story of what happened – especially when reviewing the quality of the two plants. You can see the 600 Watt plant is clearly bushier with greater lateral growth, and this proves far more desirable than the extra height gained by the LED plant. The leaves on the 600 Watt plant, while looking pale in the pictures, are in fact the kind of vibrant green you would expect to find with new growth. They feel soft to the touch, whereas the LED ones appear leathery, thick and have a darker green colour to them.

More worrying from a personal point of view is that both tents experienced the beginnings of another aphid infestation. These annoying bugs have run a mock all summer long, and it was hoped that the cooler temperatures would bring an end to their destructive ways. It would appear not! After topping up the nutrient solution, both tents were sprayed with a Pyrethrum mix in the hope that this will contain them enough to continue the test.

So in summary, after initially out performing the 600 Watt light the LED now seems to be slipping behind performance-wise and according to the overall appearance of the plant. It is still early in the test, therefore final conclusions cannot yet be drawn, but after the first stage the 600 Watt light holds pole position.

Because of the aphids, the plants are going to be kept in vegetative growth for another couple of weeks and then switched to flowering. Check back next time to catch the next progress update.

Ideally I would have transplanted them sooner than now, but there was quite a lot of work involved in the set up, not to mention the little matter of carrying out my day job!

Spending additional time under the UFO unit did not really benefit the cuttings seeing as they all appeared quite grotesque and under-developed. Here then it’s worth noting that in the same scenario with an Eco-Light the plants would have almost definitely grown a lot more and been far healthier. On the flip side though, the roots somehow still ended up looking pretty good and were coming out of the bottom of the cube – consequently crying out to be transplanted.

In previous articles from this series many of the comments left by readers suggested that I use a ‘proper’ LED light for future tests, and it was always our intention to do so. One LED retailer kindly sent us a bigger unit to trial, adamantly claiming their light would stand up against a 600 Watt HPS. The light certainly is superior to the 90 Watt UFO (then again priced at £550 it really ought to be!) delivering 360 Watts of power through 120 x 3 Watt LED bulbs and featuring seven different spectrums of light, spread over 8 circular clusters. As the test progresses I will go into greater detail about the system, but you can hopefully tell we’ve got our hands on a serious piece of kit!

For this test I am using the clones taken from the previously conducted one so that they have the same genetics, and in terms of lighting, there is the new LED grow light, and for comparison, a 600 Watt Proxima ballast, a Proxima Euro reflector and the new, super bright SOLAAR lamp.

To ensure a fair test takes place I set up two identical Medium BudBox Tents, each measuring 75cm x 75cm x 200cm. The height is essential for the LED light, which supposedly needs an absolute minimum height above the plants of 100cm.

The extraction system was installed next – and again to maintain fairness – I decided to draw air from both tents via a single fan. To guarantee effectiveness it is essential that both lengths of ducting leading to the fan are the same length – thus ensuring that equal amounts of air get extracted. In truth you can use different lengths of ducting but you’d then need to implement a balancing damper to achieve sufficient rates of extraction from both areas. Since what I am looking for in this test is to establish an equal playing field and then let the lights differentiate the results, I must do my best to treat each tent the same and create the same extraction conditions.

Finally I turned my attention to the lights. These were set up so that both ballasts occupied a spot on a non-flammable surface. Before suspending the Proxima Euro reflector from one of the tent ceiling poles using Exolux Ezi Roll Light Hangers, I remembered to remove the blue plastic film that protects it against scratches.

With regards to the LED light, the first thing I noticed was the weight – it felt a lot heavier that the 6.2kg advertised! The unit included a heavy duty hanging apparatus and actually suspends from a single attachment. I think this is a slight design fault because when a light hangs from a single point it doesn’t often stay in a fixed position and instead rotates every now and again.

Once I’d hung up the LED unit, another design fault became abundantly clear - the power cable barely reached down to floor level. Compared against the 4m lead provided on the Proxima Euro reflector, getting this much shorter one to the power source was difficult. Fortunately the two-gang contactor that both lights are plugged into could be moved around the back of the tent and nearer to the LED unit.

After switching on the lights to check that they work, we get the first chance to see how the two tents match up. Despite being surprised by the initial brightness of the LED light when it was tested on arrival, the HPS does seem a lot brighter in the tent, and the other obvious difference is the colour variation. The LED, despite the mixed spectrum lights, still has the characteristic purple glow, whereas the HPS emits a warm orange.

A couple of final additions were made prior to introducing the main growing systems. These comprised of an Accuread Temperature and Humidity Meter for monitoring the environmental conditions inside the tents, and a Yellow Sticky Insect Trap for detecting the outbreak of a pest infestation.

At this point the tents looked ready for action, I could bring in the main growing systems. The fast approaching winter season made me conscious about exposed roots and the potential problems these sometimes cause down the line, so I chose to amend an IWS Oxy Pot by turning it into a smaller version of our Oxy Dripper system. I used an IWS inner pot for the job, which has a much larger capacity than the one supplied with the Oxy Pot.

I mixed and pH adjusted a half strength vegetative feed and added it to my two systems before putting air stones into each bucket and attaching them to the same air pump.

To introduce the plants, I first poured a small amount of well-washed pebbles into the net pots, then placed the rooted cuttings on top of these and finally filled the space around them with more pebbles. It was here I realised just how bad the plants looked, and some concern over the long-term health of them soon surfaced. The plants looked very small and insignificant in the pots, the only consolation being that the roots remained healthy.

As a precaution I decided to add another couple of plants to the test. Although these are seedlings rather than cuttings, and therefore not the same genetics, they do come from the same variety, were planted at the same time, and look around the same size. I re-potted these into 8 litre Rhizo-Pots and placed them inside the tent beside the cuttings in the modified Oxy Pots. This way if the cuttings do not make it, at least the test can continue…

A precautionary spray with an organic insecticide was administered due to my recent aphid problems and the timer set for an 18-hour light cycle – the lights on period being during the colder evenings.

I closed up the tents and let the test begin!

	Code		Price	Qty
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	0851	100mm-125mm (4-5 inch) Quick Release Duct Clip	£1.42		Add to Basket
	0592	100mm (4") RVK100 A1 Extractor Fan - 175m3/hour (Matches Carbon Filter CF160)	£64.95		Add to Basket
	1522	Exolux Rope Ratchet Heavy Duty Hangers	£9.95		Add to Basket
	1850	600 Watt Proxima Ballast	£44.95		Add to Basket
	1083	Proxima Euro Reflector Only (IEC connection)	£18.00		Add to Basket
	0270	600 Watt SOLAAR Dual Spectrum Lamp	£19.95		Add to Basket
	8190	12 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 26cm x 26cm x 22cm (Height)	£1.65		Add to Basket
	8191	16 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 28cm x 28cm x 26cm (Height)	£2.55		Add to Basket
	8192	30 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 35cm x 35cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.25		Add to Basket
	8193	39 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 40cm x 40cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.95		Add to Basket
	8194	56 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 43cm x 43cm x 38cm (Height)	£4.95		Add to Basket
	8199	8 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 21cm x 21cm x 21cm (Height)	£1.45		Add to Basket

Before moving on to that, it makes sense to consider the optimum conditions for propagation. Generally speaking there are three main ones that must be met for successful seed germination.

The first of these is seed viability. For the propagator test some recently purchased herb seeds have been selected, which are from the current season and a reputable supplier. As a result, seed viability should not steer the results in any manner.

The second factor dictates that the condition of the seeds must be favourable for germination. If a seed is cracked, damaged or otherwise interfered with it does not stand much chance of developing as intended. Even newly bought seeds can fall into this category from being crushed in transit, not stored in a dry area, and so on.

The third and most applicable condition to this article is that the seed grows within a suitable environment, referring to moisture, oxygen, temperature and light. For hydroponics, the pH levels and nutrient strength should also be monitored.

Germination begins with the absorption of water by the seed, the trigger for all other processes. Seeds require a constant source of moisture because once germination has started any kind of dry period can kill the embryo inside.

Oxygen is also a crucial aspect. Although respiration in dormant seeds proves to be low, they do still require some of this important life fuel. The need for oxygen increases once germination reaches full flow, and without an adequate supply of it the process can be inhibited to the point of failure.

The media used to germinate the seeds also has the potential to impact upon the percentage and rate of germination. In this test rockwool cubes are used, which provide decent moisture retention and very good oxygen levels. You would not want to use something like top soil, which whilst rich in nutritional content, lacks the structure required for aerating the root zone, gets sodden easily and can harbour pests.

Comprehensive articles pertaining to the effects of both pH and cf levels already exist here and here so there’s no need to explore them in such great detail again, other than to say if they don’t fall within the range required it will greatly effect the chances of germination. Soaking both sets of seed cubes with the same nutrient solution further ensures that feeds aren’t responsible for causing any differences between the two sets of plants reviewed.

Looking at temperature, many species have a preferred range whereby germination is more likely to occur, primarily down to the conditions that would normally trigger the seed in nature. Most plants also have an optimum temperature at which they germinate. Temperature greatly affects the rate and percentage of germination, hence why it is the main focus of this article.

So of all the equipment shown, the only difference that should have any impact upon the results is the propagators themselves – a standard model and a heated one providing a gentle amount of warmth from the base to optimise conditions for germination. Everything else will be identical. Both packs of rockwool cubes are going to get soaked in the same pH adjusted nutrient solution, housing seeds taken from the same packets. The test can now begin!

A solution of Vita Link Plant Start and Rhizotonic was mixed up with some water that had been left standing, then pH adjusted to 6.5 and used to pre soak the cubes. It is important here not to over saturate the Grodan Seed Cubes and to squeeze off any excess liquid. You’re always aiming for a moist consistency, rather than flat out wet.

Once they had all been pre soaked, the seeds were gently placed in the cubes and, where possible, covered with loose bits of rockwool.

Next the two identical seed trays could be put into their respective propagators and located under a T5 Lightwave. To keep things tidy and not disturb the surroundings, all of this then went inside a tent. Finally the lids went on with the vents closed.

+2 Days

After two days there was little difference between the two samples. Some of the seeds did show small cracks in the heated propagator, but no signs of life could be detected in the unheated one.

+5 Days

Five days in and there was quite a bit of action to report! All of the seeds except the parsley had sprouted inside the heated propagator, whereas three seeds still remained at the starting line inside the unheated propagator. The size of the developed seeds in the unheated propagator did not match up to those in the heated one, especially the purple basil. It is also worth noting that the heated propagator needed spraying with water because the cubes had dried out significantly compared against those in the unheated propagator. If you are using a heated propagator this is something that you need to keep an eye on, since letting them dry out too much will cause the seedlings to suffer and possibly even die.

+7 Days

At the seven-day stage it’s a good time to check the temperature and humidity readings from both propagators.

Unheated Propagator

Temperature – 20.6oC

Humidity – 54%

Heated Propagator

Temperature – 23.9oC

Humidity – 63%

As you can see from the pictures, the seeds in the heated propagator seem much more developed and have sprouted in all varieties. In the unheated propagator, the holy basil seeds are yet to germinate and the seedlings in general appear smaller.

+9 Days

The trend from day 7 continues through to day nine, with the seedlings in the heated propagator being more advanced than the unheated counterparts. One thing of note though is that there are more parsley seeds germinated in the unheated propagator, but still no holy basil.

Even after as little as nine days you can begin to see the benefits of using a heated propagator. It looks like the seeds in the heated propagator, even at this early stage, are at least two days further along.

The experiment will continue for the next week or so, with any further progress or findings reported on the blog. Make sure you check back regularly for developments!

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For my experiment I will continue to use the ufo LED light, mainly because it’s an affordable option and because it’s easy to compare with other light systems on the market. A few comments have come in on previous articles suggesting that I should trial purely blue LED lights for vegetative tests, and while these are valid points, the availability and cost of such units would put them beyond the realm of most gardeners – especially when you consider that cuttings can successfully be taken using a £21.95 T5HO Sunblaster Propagation Light.

In terms of what I want to do, this is a simple “can they or can’t they” test – I have no intention to explore how well they may compare to cuttings established under a specific propagation light just yet. The lights are advertised as being able to grow a plant from start to finish, and obviously cuttings represent the very beginning of the process.

The first step of course is to prepare and pH adjust the nutrient solution and pre soak the cubes.

I then selected two plants to take cuttings from, including one of my precious Naga Ghost’s. Given that most chilli plants have a habit of self flowering my choice was restricted to those not showing any flowers. With the cubes-pre soaked and plants selected it was time to make the final preparations. To take cuttings from two plants I am using two brand new scalpels and have poured my Clonex into two 60ml measuring cups – one for each plant. Everything is now ready so the cuttings can be taken!

Several things require consideration when you take cuttings. Firstly they should always be from tips showing new growth, with ideally two sets of leaves or more located above where the cut is made. If necessary remove any large leaves and take the cutting at the spot where they were formerly found – an internode. This is the widest point of the stem and provides a larger area from which roots can sprout. The cut should also be diagonal, again increasing the area for potential root growth.

As soon as the cutting is taken it needs submerging in the Clonex and leaving for a minute or so before gently being inserted into the pre-soaked cube.

I placed the cuttings from both plants into a propagator and labelled them. Since there was a little bit of space in the propagator I also decided to conduct a side test and popped a few seeds into some jiffy pellets too.

I then sprayed the cuttings with a pH-adjusted Rhizotonic solution and put on the lid.

The plants were positioned in the tent about 75cm below the LED light. Honestly speaking, I really hoped that they would take as I was looking forward to flowering the Naga Ghost chilli plant.

It is important to spray the cuttings regularly and keep the vents on the propagators closed for a few days to maintain high levels of humidity that are beneficial at this stage.

The first couple of days saw the cuttings wilt and struggle, not an unusual reaction, and also a reminder as to you need to spray them often and keep humidity levels up. A couple of the larger leaves were shed, but again no real cause for concern. You never see any encouraging signs in the first few days with any cuttings, so the main attention is always going to be on the negative.

I always recommend taking around twice as many cuttings as you need, especially for beginners. After a few attempts though you should achieve a minimum success rate of 50%. In this instance I took four cuttings from the Joes Long, and three from the Naga Ghost. It was unfortunate that the Nagas did not seem to be doing too well after a week. I gave them a couple of extra days to try and recover but signs of mould began appearing on the stem. At this point two of them had to be removed to prevent the mould from spreading. So after nine days there were only five cuttings left, and none of those looked particularly healthy. I started to think none of them would make it. Many of the larger leaves had now been shed and frankly the plants themselves looked awful. The lighting can’t really have helped with their appearance.

However there was some surprising news, a handful of the seeds in the jiffy pellets had sprouted, in only 9 days, and they seemed pretty healthy! I hoped these genetically identical cuttings would provide the plants for further tests. Forgetting the lack of cuttings, at least some plants grown solely under LEDs remained for use later in my studies.

After two weeks, and only a few days following the discarding of my two Naga Ghosts, one of the Joes Longs suffered the same fate. There were now only four cuttings left, and no sign of any roots on any of the cubes. Despite how the plants appeared under the LED, they did not look too unhealthy and even showed signs of new growth. This was the first positive sign.

As well as regularly misting cuttings, it is equally important not to let the cubes dry out. To counter this, I dipped the cubes into some weak, pH-adjusted nutrient solution and gently squeezed out any excess.

The lack of any roots did slightly concern me, but that was still not necessarily unusual after a fortnight. Usually three weeks is the most common time to see root development in clones.

Speaking of root development, the seedlings in the jiffy pellets were doing very well, and by the two and a half week mark had to be re-potted. We will look at this in more detail next time during direct analysis.

Three weeks in and finally the first root was showing on one of the cuttings. What seemed unlikely a couple of weeks beforehand had eventually happened! It was only on one of the Joes Long plants, but still represented some form of success all the same.

Days later and more roots emerged! Another Joes Long was showing them, but more importantly from a personal point of view, the Naga Ghost cutting also had some on display!

My plants do not exactly look the picture of health, but there is new growth developing along with the roots, so in essence we did manage to take some cuttings under an LED light.

Although they needed longer and appeared a little worse for wear with a rather strange slimy mould on the cubes, the goal was achieved.

Under conventional lighting and cloning conditions the cuttings would be expected to look better and have a bigger root mass at this stage, still being the optimal conditions for cloning.

As part of the next series of test, we aim to continue to keep these plants going along with the ones started from seed. Those of you who have taken the time to leave us comments calling for use of a proper LED system as opposed to the UFO will be pleased to hear that a ‘decent’ system is ready for trialing! Stay tuned!

UPDATE!

Check out the links below to view the following tests:

LED Grow Lights Test 3: Transplanting and Vegetative Growth

Click here to see whether or not the established clones from test 2 could be grown through the vegetative stage under a large LED light.

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	5065	T5HO Sunblaster Propagation Light Complete	£21.95	Out of stock
	0226	Disposable Surgical Scalpel - each	£0.85		Add to Basket
	7520	Accuread pH Meter	£39.95		Add to Basket
	0130	pH Down - 250mls	£4.95		Add to Basket
	0135	Clonex Rooting Gel - 50mls	£4.75		Add to Basket
	0794	Canna Rhizotonic - 250mls	£10.95		Add to Basket
	3092	2 Litre Professional Pump-Up Sprayer	£5.95		Add to Basket
	4000	Jiffy Plug (box x 1000)	£79.95		Add to Basket
	0200	Grodan Large Cuttings Seed Cubes x 77	£8.50		Add to Basket
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Hand watering plants is often a nuisance, especially when you have a large number in pots to get around and feed. The bigger these plants grow, the thirstier they become – meaning water and nutrients must regularly be administered to keep providing everything required for further development. Failure to do so leads to a drying out of the rootzone and, through this, the emergence of stressed plants that are unable to function properly. In the worst case scenario, if left untreated over time, plants can become damaged beyond repair. Not good!

This is where DIY drip irrigation saves the day! Super cheap to set up and very easy to maintain, the potted plant grower aiming to automate feeds surely won’t find a better solution!

Lets have a look at how to assemble a basic watering system…

First of all you need to select a tank, taking into account the following:

- how much floor space do I have?

- how many plants do I want to water?

- how long am I going to leave them for?

As an example, if you had twenty big plants (20) that each drank half a litre (0.5) of water a day and only wanted to check up on them every 7 days (7) you

would need a tank with a minimum capacity of 70 litres (20 x 0.5 x 7).

Next there's the pump to pick out.

In a drip irrigation system you generally use a higher pressure pump than in low level hydroponics (e.g. NFT) because enough pressure needs to be created to keep the drippers flowing regularly. The pump size required depends upon the height that it will have to lift the water to reach your plants and the number of them you intend to feed. As a rough guide, for every dripper you put together, 50 litres per hour of pump action is required. So a system with 10 drip lines needs a pump capable of moving 500 litres per hour of water

at the very least - however we tend to recommend running a larger one than this where possible.

With your pump and tank sorted, it’s time to start building the system. You can set up your pipework in one of two ways:

- a drip ring

- a single line with an end stop

Run some pipe (13mm, 19mm or 25mm) between your plants making sure that they are in close proximity to it. Use Elbows and Tee Pieces to re-direct

the pipe where necessary.

4mm Drip Line has been designed to carry nutrient solution from the larger pipework to the drippers. By creating small holes in the pipe using an Irrigation Hole Punch you can securely attach the 4mm Drip Line and run it wherever is desired. Alternatively for higher numbers of evenly spaced plants, an 8-Outlet Manifold and Tee Piece proves to be an even easier means of establishing multiple drippers in one area of your room.

Make sure the lengths of 4mm pipe are the same to keep pressure even across the system – pre-assembled drippers are an ideal ready-to-use product.

Choose the drippers based upon the type of medium supporting your plants. Most potted plant growers opt for water retentive mediums such as soil and coco, therefore a slower more regulated dripper works best – like the 2 litre an hour dripper. Smaller pots usually only require one dripper each, whereas larger ones benefit from having two.

Set up a timer to control your pumps on/off cycle. Watering little and often will benefit the plants greatly since it keeps the medium damp but not saturated, allowing for plenty of oxygen around the root zone. This results in sustained

growth and healthy plants! Just remember to increase the number and length of feeds as they mature bearing in mind that the bigger the size of plant, the bigger the demand for fuel.

Tips

- Use Garland Trays and place these underneath your pots to collect any run off that is produced

- ATA Clean is a must when using drippers. It helps keep lines clear, meaning your plants will never go thirsty. Adding an Inline Filter to your system also helps prevent blockages

- Running an Oxy-Plus solution through your drip system in between crops will

help keep it clean and free of infection

Rather than insert drippers directly into the main pipe, you can use an 8-Outlet Manifold and 13mm Tee Piece

Each 12 Litre Rhizo-Pot (propped open with a plastic pot for display purposes only) requires just a single dripper

Using an Inline Filter to avoid pipe and/or pump blockages is highly recommended

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	0777	MC450 Pump - 450 Litres per Hour (for Gro-Tank 604/901)	£18.50		Add to Basket
	0185	Elbow 13mm	£0.55		Add to Basket
	0359	Connector 13mm -13mm	£0.80		Add to Basket
	0176	Hole Punch	£0.85		Add to Basket
	1247	Assembled Low Pressure Dripper 2 Litres per hour	£1.25		Add to Basket
	1049	8 Outlet Manifold M.BSP	£2.50		Add to Basket
	1050	13mm F.BSP Tee	£1.45		Add to Basket
	0282	In-line Filter 13mm	£4.50		Add to Basket
	8199	8 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 21cm x 21cm x 21cm (Height)	£1.45		Add to Basket
	8190	12 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 26cm x 26cm x 22cm (Height)	£1.65		Add to Basket
	8191	16 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 28cm x 28cm x 26cm (Height)	£2.55		Add to Basket
	8192	30 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 35cm x 35cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.25		Add to Basket
	8193	39 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 40cm x 40cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.95		Add to Basket
	8194	56 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 43cm x 43cm x 38cm (Height)	£4.95		Add to Basket
	1480	Small Garland Work Tray (58cm x 40cm)	£4.95		Add to Basket
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	1491	Giant Garland Work Tray (120cm x 55cm)	£12.95		Add to Basket
	5871	Metre Square Garland Work Tray (100cm x 100cm)	£24.95		Add to Basket
	1482	1.2 Metre Square Garland Tray (120cm x 120cm)	£34.95		Add to Basket

Coleshill: OPEN 11:00am – 4:00pm

Dudley: OPEN 11:00am – 4:00pm

Hockley Heath: OPEN 11:00am – 4:00pm

Birmingham: CLOSED (reopens Tuesday 28^th of August at 10:00am)

Fulham: CLOSED (reopens Tuesday 28^th of August at 10:00am)

Wembley: CLOSED (reopens Tuesday 28^th of August at 10:00am)

The Test

This first simple test involves a 90w UFO LED grow light, and – to make it interesting – the unit has been matched against a similarly efficient 125w blue Eco-Light so that comparisons can be drawn.

I bought 2 x basil, parsley and chilli plants from a local supermarket, one of each to go under the two different lights.

The test, conducted through observation, looks at how well the plants perform in separate tents containing the lights over a two-week period. All plants are treated exactly the same. With the short- term nature of the experiment in mind, the plants only receive water. At the end of the two week period any differences would be recorded.

Setting Up

I used two BudBox Intermediate Grow Tents, one for the 90w UFO LED light and one for the 125w blue Eco-Light. Neither tent had extraction. Both lights remained suspended approximately 90cm above the plants according to the manufacturers instructions. The plants were divided at random and placed on a Garland Work Tray. After watering the plants, I closed the tents and began the test.

Initial observations of the set up of the LED light were that the fans used to cool the circuit board are unexpectedly loud, and can actually be heard over the extraction system in another tent. One of the selling points of the LED lights is that because they do not give out any heat, they are able to be placed close to the plants – indeed I had previously seen four lights closely stacked in a 1m high growing rack. However, reading the manufacturers instructions the ideal height is 90cm above the canopy.

Week 1 - Day 2

After watering the plants and leaving them to settle into their new environments, the first time I checked back I was in for a shock. All the plants under the LED looked and felt much drier than those under the Eco-Light. The parsley had suffered extensively as you can see in the pictures. It seemed beyond repair if I’m honest but for the sake of the test I gave them all a good watering. The parsley under the Eco-Light didn’t escape without damage either to be fair, drooping a little too on closer inspection, but nowhere near as much as the UFO one. This surprised me because a major benefit of LEDs is that the lower heat emissions make the climate easier to control. I could only guess that the fans to cool the light had aided the drying out of the soil.

To maintain equilibrium within the study, I also watered the plants under the Eco-Light. I then left the plants again, understanding that they would require far more regular checks than at first anticipated. I just could not have imagined discovering dry plants so early into the test – a factor that should definitely be taken on board by those considering LEDs.

Week 1 - Day 3

The following day had seen the parsley make a significant recovery. The plant under the CFL appeared far better than the one under the LED, but it too had recovered enough to warrant further inclusion in the test. The basil and chilli plants were looking well in both tents. However aphids could be seen on the chilli plant under the Eco-Light, so I prepared a Pyrethrum spray and applied it to all the plants in the test – even though those under the LED lights showed no signs of infestation. I also sprayed the other plants in my room. Aphids are potentially devastating, so you should deal with them as soon as possible upon discovery.

Week 1 - Day 6

Over the weekend the plants remained in a stable condition and had not dried out enough to cause any health-related problems. The aphids were thankfully gone ahead of the one-week side-by-side examination. At this stage I want to say that it is quite difficult to check on the plants in the LED tent as everything has a purpley red glow. You’ll really struggle to distinguish one green from another, and thus the health of the plants. Only when you take them out of the tent does the true picture become clear. Otherwise it is possible that a plant will seem to be doing fine, but on closer inspection appears lighter or darker than desired, hiding potential problems that could affect overall performance.

Week 1 - Day 7: The first side-by-side analysis

The plants have been fed light by the LED unit for a week now, and for the first time will be taken out of the tent and put beside those kept under the Eco-Light. I must reiterate that this is a simple test to deduce whether the plants under the LED lights will perform well enough for our later tests, because we could easily get carried away with technicalities and small detail – a reminder for myself as much as anyone else!

Lets start with the Parsley. It suffered somewhat during the first coupe of days of the test, but in the tent looked to be making a decent recovery.

The LED plant sitting on the right (and below) clearly looks a little sorry for itself – being smaller and droopier than the one under the Eco-Light, as well as containing a greater amount of yellow leaves. While they both suffered during the initial two days it is clear that the Eco-Light plant enjoyed greater success in the survival stakes. But considering the state of the LED plant so early on, the fact that it has recovered at all can only be seen as a positive. The main observation here is the occurrence of the yellowing leaves. Under the LED lights it did not appear that they were yellow. The bright red hue emitted from the lights disguised the discolouration, leading to a slight shock when I removed the plant and discovered the damage.

Moving on to the basil plants. These had not suffered at first, and while they both looked healthy enough in the tents I was now keen to conduct a check without the disguise of the red light.

Again the LED plant is on the right, and on first examination appears to be performing pretty well. If anything it has bigger, darker leaves than the Eco-Light plant and seems bushier. Both plants are displaying a couple of new growth shoots at the top, and there was no surprise of yellowing leaves this time around. A positive performance so far for the LED light with the basil!

Finally we move on to the small chilli plants. I wanted to have a little variety, featuring a non-herb plant in the test because my research indicated LED lights fail with these types.

Once more the LED plant is on the right, and straight away we can see that it appears bigger. With the simplicity of the test, and the fact that the two plants were bought from the supermarket, we can’t read too much into this result. I did try to get them as close size-wise as possible. Not a bad start, but on closer inspection (below) the leaves look “gnarly”. When you compare them to the close up of the Eco-Light plant – which are flat and smooth – the leaves seem pinched and the plant may well be stressed. So while it could have grown more, I would say that the plant under the Eco-Light is healthier.

Week 2: Overall Analysis

Jumping forward a week to the original anticipated end of the test, and everything reflects the earlier findings.

The parsley was still struggling, the basil flourishing and the chilli plants about the same. As you can see in the tent, the yellow leaves are not really visible.

With everything progressing quite nicely I decided to extend the test for another week. This was for my own curiosity more than anything else – I wanted to observe how an extra week would treat the plants.

Week 3: Overall Analysis

The two parsley plants are now well past their best, both displaying yellowing leaves. What differentiates them is size – the one under the Eco-Light ranks as a significantly bigger plant than the one under the LED and still has vibrant useable growth. On comparison here the LED vastly under-performed.

The basil perhaps performed the best out of all the plants in terms of health and growth in both tents. The LED plant on the right is still bigger and bushier and experienced more growth than the Eco-Light plant, but that extra week has seen the colouring fade and the leaves start to droop. The extra week has given the Eco-Light plant the chance to improve its health, again showing off more useable foliage. So despite the initial strong performance of the LED plant, in comparison tests, the Eco-Light would just win.

The chilli plants did not suffer from any yellowing.

On initial inspection the plants seem to be doing well. Perhaps the LED has the slightest edge on growth, but again the curling of the leaves raises some concern. Whilst the Eco-Light did not grow as much, the new growth looks good and healthy, whereas the LED one, whilst perhaps more prolific, was not as healthy. The fact that the leaves are gnarly indicates that there may be problems further down the line in the plants growth. To me the plant looks stressed, and whilst this could probably be resolved in a normal grow room environment, my simple test did not incorporate such tonics, it was simply to see how the plants perform on a basic level.

The Results

The main result here is that the plants survived, and in fact performed pretty well at times. The reason for this test was to establish validity for the further tests. Had the plants not survived this simple test, then there would be no reason to conduct further tests. While using the comparison with the Eco-Light might have made the LED lights look to have under performed, without something to compare against it would simply be a case of saying that the plants survived under the light. With that said though, the comparison also showed that the plants under the Eco-Light also deteriorated, perhaps at a slower rate, but still showed that these kind of plants are not designed to last.

What we have established from this is that despite having thoughts that the plants under LED lights would not survive a week, they did in fact manage it. In some cases the LED performed better than the Eco-Light, mainly in terms of the basil. It also generated a higher rate of growth in the chilli plant. Whilst at the end of the three week period the LED may have been slightly outperformed by the Eco-Light, it still provides us with the validity of the lights that enable us to conduct further tests.

The next test will explore how well cuttings root under the LEDs, again using the comparison of an Eco-Light.

UPDATE!

Check out the links below to view the following tests:

LED Grow Lights Test 2: Rooting Clones

Click here to see the sort of success that can be expected when attempting to root cuttings under an LED light.

LED Grow Lights Test 3: Transplanting and Vegetative Growth

Click here to see whether or not the established clones from test 2 could be grown through the vegetative stage under a large LED light.

	Code		Price	Qty
	3800	125 Watt Blue Eco-Light complete with CFL Hobby Reflector	£29.95		Add to Basket
	6999	Intermediate BudBox Tent (75cm x 75cm x 160cm)	£99.95		Add to Basket
	1480	Small Garland Work Tray (58cm x 40cm)	£4.95		Add to Basket

We’re not sure whether it’s down to the intriguing spectacle of a “world famous” chilli eating competition, the fantastic opportunity to catch live entertainment from morning through to night, or the mind blowing (and mouth burning!) variety of spicy delights on offer, but either way the thoroughly enjoyable Fiery Foods Festival returns for 2012… starting very soon! As one of the more established dates in the chilli festival calendar, you can expect to find plenty of things to see and do, not to mention an upbeat atmosphere that encourages your participation – all adding to the fun! The enthusiasm of chilli fanatics proves remarkably infectious; you’ll inevitably end up sampling a plethora of weird and wonderful products whilst also learning about how chillies are grown. There’s even an opportunity to add a few plants to your collection too!

After the success of the 2011 show, GroWell has registered to attend for the second consecutive year.

Yet again the wide selection of stalls, stands and marquees will be scattered around Victoria Gardens, which sits at the heart of Brighton close by to several key shopping districts. Unlike last year though, the event kicks off on a Friday (14^th of September) running between the hours of 5pm and 6pm, opens from 11am to 9pm on the Saturday (15^th of September) and then finishes on Sunday (16^th of September) 11am to 6pm.

“Gradual Harvest”

By only harvesting the fruit when they are ripe it refocuses the plants energy to develop those found to be not quite ready yet and also helps turn the remaining flowers into fruits. This method is a good one to use for produce like the chillies, tomatoes and cucumbers.

“Two Stage Harvest”

Here you harvest the majority of the crop in one go and leave the last few undeveloped fruits to finish off before taking them. It is unusual for a plants produce to be ready to remove all in one go, and by taking the majority of them, it puts a considerable amount of stress on the plant, which then focuses energy on the last few remaining bits. This method suits the aforementioned plants, but is also ideal for the likes of basil.

“All-In-One Harvest”

The final method involves taking all the produce in one shot. Whilst this may not result in achieving the most from your plant, it is a well-used method, especially effective in cases where you have a pest problem, or have plants waiting to go into your flowering room. By far the simplest method, you harvest everything on the plant but end up sacrificing the smaller potential harvest from the bits that are not quite ready.

I decided to go with the “gradual harvest” for reasons that are explained below…

The First Harvest

After switching the plants to their flowering cycle back in February, there has not been a great deal to report. I haven’t actually done much to the plants other than change the nutrients and watch flowers develop and slowly turn into chillies.

But now, as you can see, there are a number of chillies present and even more flowering sites. This brings me to the point where I am able to take the first harvest.

Twilight chillies mature from white to purple to orange to red, the main reason why the plant is regarded as one of the most beautiful of the chilli varieties.

Once the chillies turn red they can be harvested. The general rule is that the longer a chilli remains on a plant, the hotter it will get – however my main objective was to maximise yields, not to develop face-melters! By taking the fruits that are ready, the plant then has the ability to refocus its energy on converting the many other flowering sites into chillies.

I used Greenblade Quality Trimming Scissors to remove the ripe chillies with a precise cut but you can also apply a scalpel or just pinch them off. It is important to ensure that the break is clean, as otherwise it can cause additional stress to the plants. For the first harvest there were around 8 chillies taken from each plant.

Since this is a comparison grow, it would be remiss of me not to explore the results a little further. Looking at the plants, I think the one in the bubbler system generally seems better developed. It is more symmetrical and has an overall larger mass of foliage. Of course the soil plant is of a similar size, and therefore the study does not perhaps extol the virtues of hydroponics producing more yield. I can put this down to two main factors. The first one being the variety of chilli used for the grow. I chose the twilight because of the way it looks, not considering that it is a relatively small plant. Had I used another variety, the differences would perhaps be greater. The second factor was that the plants began growing during a cold snap, in a garage type room. Therefore the ambient temperature registered below the ideal range. Whilst there was a grow room heater in there, the temperatures could have done with being higher. I believe that the cold start stunted the initial growth and led to slower development compared against what’s possible in a warmer environment.

Obviously we learn from our mistakes. The next time I do a comparison grow, not only will the environment be better suited in terms of temperature, but I shall choose a variety of plant where the difference is easier to see.

So over the up and coming few weeks I intend to continue harvesting the fruits that are ripe and keep a tally of them, because despite the previously mentioned factors I feel that by the end of the crop there will still be a significant difference between the two.

Once the harvest is complete if you are not going to use the produce immediately, the best thing to do is pop it on a drying rack. This allows the fruits of your labour to dry, or finish ripening without the risk of losing any of it to mould.

	Code		Price	Qty
	0556	Greenblade Spring Loaded Trimming Scissors	£12.45		Add to Basket
	4020	Jumbo Hanging Drying Rack	£18.95		Add to Basket

The home for roots, traditionally speaking

For many years round and square pots manufactured from plastic and terracotta materials have been the only choices available when it comes to housing roots. Although there is nothing wrong with these existing options, certain problems are associated with them – such as root circling.

Why does root circling occur and how is it detrimental to plant development?

The impenetrable shell of a standard plastic or terracotta pot sees probing roots circle around the sides and base in an ongoing and ultimately failed attempt to find a way through. This leads to a large amount of roots being positioned up against the pot wall, with wasted space materializing towards the centre and less of your growing media being put to effective use. Also, because the roots run along the sides of the pot they are more prone to suffering if it becomes warm/hot.

Indeed a recent study reported on by BBC News revealed that plants grown in traditional pots never quite reach their full potential. Numerous different species were tested and with all the cases the roots appeared to detect the size of the pot and then hit the brakes, consequently restricting any future development.

Understanding the way that your roots work

The majority of the water and nutrients absorbed at root level are taken up by the root hairs. As a root grows so too will new hairs (forming just behind the root cap), a combined effect that allows the plant to increase its access to available sources of food and drink. Having roots continually advance in length and produce new root hairs will expand the root zone, and the bigger and better that this becomes, likewise the overall plant.

Given that normal pots stunt root growth, clearly the production of new root hairs has to slow too – meaning plants cannot then maintain the same levels of overall growth as was experienced earlier in the lifecycle. Worryingly the entanglement and damaging of roots over time can cause leaves to discolour and droop, with the worst-case scenario ultimately being death. A different tact is needed if you want to keep the rootzone thriving and maximise plant performance.

Air Pruning

When root tips become exposed to relatively dry air conditions something interesting happens – they dehydrate and stop proceeding forwards. The mild shock caused by this action does however kick start the development of secondary roots, which sprout up along the length of the original ones and progress until the same series of events takes place again. Air pruning is very advantageous because it triggers new root growth, leads to a more fibrous/branched out root system, helps overcome the issue of spiraling/twisted/constricted roots and stops plants from becoming pot-bound.

In the context of plant pots, several new innovative products actively encourage the air-pruning process.  From our research we consider the best of these to be Rhizo-Pots.

The Rise of Rhizo-Pots

At the heart of the Rhizo-Pot design is a simple idea – enable greater amounts of air to reach the rootzone to facilitate air-pruning and the associated benefits. The fabric media container more closely resembles a pouch than a pot, offering flexibility in movement to better accommodate the plant, and significant tiny little access holes for root tips to come into contact with the air. Compared against a basic alternative, you will notice plants nurtured in Rhizo-Pots have larger, healthier looking roots and a much denser root structure.

For soil and coco growers that are results driven and focused on yields, there’s really no substitute to using Rhizo-Pots!

Air pruning at the propagation stage

Indoor gardeners that are using hydroponics can also apply air-pruning principles, and during one of the most important stages of root development too! Propagating plants in relatively airy rockwool cubes is already a good move for establishing strong root systems, but by placing them on an open-bottomed rack or shelf that elevates the media, you allow air to reach all available surfaces. This encourages roots to grow in every direction, and at whatever edge of the cube they reach, be successfully air pruned. Accommodating the air pruning process at the propagation stage and letting the cuttings/seedlings take a little longer than normal to develop will allow them to attain the best possible position ready for entering a main system.

	Code		Price	Qty
	8199	8 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 21cm x 21cm x 21cm (Height)	£1.45		Add to Basket
	8190	12 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 26cm x 26cm x 22cm (Height)	£1.65		Add to Basket
	8191	16 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 28cm x 28cm x 26cm (Height)	£2.55		Add to Basket
	8192	30 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 35cm x 35cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.25		Add to Basket
	8193	39 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 40cm x 40cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.95		Add to Basket
	8194	56 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 43cm x 43cm x 38cm (Height)	£4.95		Add to Basket

Seeing how the weather forecast showed a continuous band of rain across Whitley Bay and Newcastle for the duration of the first full weekend in July, it was with some trepidation that we headed up the M1 to attend the North East Chilli Festival. Thankfully though, upon our arrival the rain stopped!

Despite the previous warnings the weather in fact held out and almost seven thousand people passed through the gates of Seaton Delaval Hall on the first day alone – much more than the event organsiers anticipated. It actually proved to be so popular that the road was blocked for over half a mile either side of the venue!

Chilli fans from across the northeast and beyond flocked to the festival to take in the wide range of chilli related delights. Our stall once again drew in the growing enthusiasts, with the grow tents seemingly opening up a world of possibility for intrigued visitors.

Rhizo-Pots were of particular interest to the chilli-growing contingent, both young and old (the benefits of which are discussed in this accompanying article). Why, you may ask? Well, the plant roots do not get bound in these pots – unlike with solid plastic alternatives – and instead facilitate air pruning to increase the lateral root mass, creating and maintaining a healthy root mass. Growers seemed excited to try them out, helping Rhizo-Pots make their way into homes across the North East!

There was also a surprising number of questions about the over-wintered Dorset Naga, which looked pretty impressive in a BudBox Grow Tent. Some of the visitors had heard of overwintering and not seen it in action before, though in truth the concept was new to most of them.

We chatted to visitors about their grows, the problems they have encountered and how the world of indoor gardening can help matters. Again we experienced genuine interest in our products, and the benefits that indoor gardening can offer… we’ve never shifted catalogues so quickly!

At the end of the first day we were quite happy, until the weather report indicated what Sunday would probably have in store for us. Only we got away with it for the second time!

Almost as many visitors showed up as on the Saturday and our stand proved a real success. The catalogues and Rhizo-Pots actually came close to running out!

As we packed up our stall, we reflected on the incredible levels of interest the people in the North East had in our products, and looked forward to returning next year to see how they got on with their Rhizo-Pots.

	Code		Price	Qty
	6999	Intermediate BudBox Tent (75cm x 75cm x 160cm)	£99.95		Add to Basket
	1587	125 Watt Blue Eco-Light	£19.95		Add to Basket
	1588	125 Watt Red Eco-Light	£19.95		Add to Basket
	8865	CFL Hobby Reflector only (mains connection)	£19.95		Add to Basket
	1785	T5 Propagation Grow Light 2-Tube	£44.95		Add to Basket
	5876	Sun Mate Grow CFL Reflector Only (mains connection)	£39.95		Add to Basket
	5065	T5HO Sunblaster Propagation Light Complete	£21.95	Out of stock
	0961	Hi-Top Medium Unheated 38cm x 22cm	£6.95		Add to Basket
	0962	Hi-Top Large Unheated 52cm x 37cm	£14.95		Add to Basket
	0963	Hi-Top Medium Heated 35cm x 21cm	£34.95		Add to Basket
	0964	Hi-Top Large Heated 50cm x 37cm	£59.95		Add to Basket
	8199	8 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 21cm x 21cm x 21cm (Height)	£1.45		Add to Basket
	8190	12 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 26cm x 26cm x 22cm (Height)	£1.65		Add to Basket
	8191	16 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 28cm x 28cm x 26cm (Height)	£2.55		Add to Basket
	8192	30 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 35cm x 35cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.25		Add to Basket
	8193	39 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 40cm x 40cm x 30cm (Height)	£3.95		Add to Basket
	8194	56 Litre Rhizo-Pot - 43cm x 43cm x 38cm (Height)	£4.95		Add to Basket

Like many members of the indoor growing community, I too got caught up in the excitement. Who wouldn’t welcome a choice of spectrum specific lights costing just a fraction of the price to run compared against existing models? Of course the prices for these LED light systems were initially extortionate, but as is the case with all new technology, the anticipation was for them to soon become affordable to the masses.

Now almost ten years later, you can buy a ‘decent’ LED light system for only £90.

So I bought one.

It claims to be able to outperform a 400 Watt light system, a bold statement that I wanted to put to the test. As I prepared to examine how the LED light performs against other rival products, I thought I’d do a little research beforehand.

After all these years of development and hyperbole you’d expect there to be plenty of proof that LED lights outperform HID’s. Well I looked, and I looked again. NASA did tests, that’s true. However the main result available on their website is taken from a study into LED lights and the healing of human skin cells. The primary experiment in terms of plant growth dealt with raising seeds up to a size of 10mm. There was a picture of a potato plant under LEDs and lots of information about tests planned seven years ago, but no actual results.

I have emailed NASA to see if they could help shed any light on the matter, and will let you know if anything happens. So it was back to the drawing board. Let me tell you, finding legitimate research is difficult! The majority of the articles out there are by LED manufacturers and therefore tend to be a little biased, again providing no actual evidence. Now I am certainly no expert when it comes to internet research, but I can usually find what I want without putting in the hours that I have spent this time round. The truth was proving difficult to find. An example of the extent of the unreliability of information taken from the web was a site saying that LED lights provide both the red light needed for vegetative growth and the blue light for the flowering/fruiting phase. If something so simple in terms of plant requirements is clearly wrong, how then can we be expected to believe anything else they write?

Finally I stumbled across something, a grow diary with LED lights! Not quite the £90 set up I had, more a laboratory-based grow with a $1,200 LED setup. How exciting! So I started reading. Unfortunately within the first few lines the company stated that despite all the claims they had never previously been able to achieve full sized tomatoes with any LED light. That might explain all the broken links where research was promised, and the lack of legitimate studies. If after all these years a laboratory research centre had failed to grow full sized tomatoes, then how can the LED lights out perform HID’s?

Therein lies the biggest problem with the LED lighting industry, it has perhaps been blighted by unrealistic claims. Some of those relating to the 90 Watt system I bought were as follows:

- Powerful 90W LED grow light can replace standard 300-600W HPS grow light

- High efficiency, save 85% power consumption

- The G3 LED UFO GROW LIGHT is manufactured using long life LED lights. These lights have a rated life of over 100,000 hours (there are 8,760 hours in a year)

- The G3 LEDs are nearly 100% efficient at plant growth!  This is 10 times the efficiency of a Sodium or Halide light!

- Uses only 90 watts but has the output equal to a 400 watt High Pressure Sodium System!

- 80,000 hour life expectancy

- Consuming only 90 watts of power and producing virtually no heat, the G3 LED GROW LIGHT boasts light intensity and growth rates exceeding that of a 400W HPS.

Let’s leave it there, you get the picture. Apart from the conflicting life expectancy of the unit, every bullet point can arguably be contested. In all reality when I bought the light, it was not to outperform a 400 Watt system. Instead I bought this light simply because at £90 it was in the price range of a standard HPS system.

You may think my exploration of the world of LED lights has got off on the wrong foot somewhat, with the initial focus of this article being to identify a large amount of mis-information and general lack of legitimate studies. Nevertheless my aim and intention is to provide a balanced, unbiased series of articles examining whether LED lights actually work in an indoor garden environment.  I must admit that I am a little annoyed at the pages and pages of claims that can’t be backed up. In my opinion the truth about LEDs is still largely unknown. That’s why rather than continue to look at the results of other tests, it may be better to simply begin my own.

To try to get a true representation of the current capabilities of LED lights I intend to conduct a series of tests, starting with the most basic and working up to more in depth. It would be churlish of me to put the light side-by-side with a 400 Watt alternative, realise the performance is not similar and dismiss the product out of hand. Of course comparison grows will give us a greater indication of the level of performance, but I want to go further than that. The main emphasis here involves establishing whether they work when it comes to plant growth. If and when that is settled we can look at how they compare against other lights.

UPDATE!

What we’ve learnt so far…          

In the first test the 90watt UFO grow light – a widely available LED unit – did manage to maintain several different types of store bought plant over a two-week period of the vegetative stage.

However the similarly efficient 125watt blue Eco-Light that the UFO was pitted against outperformed it for 2 of the 3 plants tested, with the judgement being based on final size and colour.

	Code		Price	Qty
	1587	125 Watt Blue Eco-Light	£19.95		Add to Basket
	1588	125 Watt Red Eco-Light	£19.95		Add to Basket

From our experience the 125watt blue Eco-Light would have helped raise even better cuttings/seedlings and plants at the very beginning of the life cycle (and the red one works well as a supplementary flowering light), but did that mean the same for the LED unit? We needed to find out…

Check out the links below to view our series of tests:

LED Grow Lights Test 1: A Small Matter Of Survival

Click here to see how three store bought plants fare under an LED light compared against a 125 Watt CFL.

LED Grow Lights Test 2: Rooting Clones

Click here to see the sort of success that can be expected when attempting to root cuttings under an LED light.

LED Grow Lights Test 3: Transplanting and Vegetative Growth

Click here to see whether or not the established clones from test 2 could be grown through the vegetative stage under a large LED light.

LED Grow Lights Test 4: Bringing out the big guns!

Click here to see how much difference a high-end LED light makes to the plant-growing process when compared against the previous UFO model and a competing 600 Watt HID unit!