That will work really well for you. You will need to fertilize as you would in summer if you want your plants to crank out the growth. I have home made systems similar to the video setup. I used CFL"s rated as daylight output. My citrus trees grew 3 times as much in the 6 months through winter than 7 months of April through end of October. The first floor of my 3 story grow-box used 12 CFL daylight bulbs of 13 watts. There I grew enough beat greens for every day. The heat from the lights heated the second story floor to 80 F. This kept the citrus treecontainers close to 80 F. The second story had 12 more daylight CFL's of 13-23 watts each. Any plants less than 3 ft resided under these light. In the center 2.25 foot by 2.25 feet the taller 4 foot plans got their light from a 3rd tier of lights from 8 CFL's of 13 watts. check out my Photobucket pictures of my different setups. They all produced more growth than any of them did in summer full sun (12 + hours of sun). The picture below show the exact box discussed above.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://s1094.photobucket.com/user/wreristhechimney/slideshow/sunshine2013

well that pretty much puts the misinformation i have been getting to rest if you have done it lol. yeah everyone was saying that they would die if i kept fertilizing and water regularly. one person said that because it was flowering that it would probably die because flowering in citrus is a sign of stress. But thats not the case flowering and growth in citrus is year round if conditions are right and they are happy as well as it comes in cycles. So i am just gonna keep doing what i am doing fertilizing and keeping the humidity around 70-80 percent during the day in there, they really seem to like that!

Here is a link that might be useful: TheItalian Garden

450 lumens per watt? Not possible

Hps put out 150 at best
Laboratory LEDs put out 200 and are not commercial yet

Find out how strong that light really is, it may be too weak to expect growth. 400w is a lot and a little it depends on how much space your trying to light up.

Jonathan

Keep in mind that you still have to pay attention to soil and air temperatures. If the soil is only 60 F under the light you will need to ease up on the feed. You can increase the amount of water your tree uses with a fan. My soil is too heavy for citrus trees so I use a vacuum cleaner in vacuum chamber to draw air through the roots. This help dry the mix and supply fresh air to the roots. As long as your plants and soil are warm and your tree is growing well, you can use the fertilizer. Here is my setup I use to aerating the roots. Notice the home made vacuum chambers under the pots holding the trees. I also did a lot of foliar feeding. I would also hold the humidity around 50% so your tree use more water from it's pot.

Can you tell me the model # of your light and tent.

Very nice video. I take it that is you and you are "TheItalian Garden"

I have a video on my growbox pictured above

Thanks Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaASoeaBErs

i have seen the measurements on interviews of them testing it i have no way to get an expensive lumens meter pip313. However when they did it, it was at around 190,000 right up at the lamp, and 3 feet down it was at 90,000 floor at 5 feet was in the 54,000 lumens range depending on the room. no i am lighting up a 5x5 which it seems after almost a month of using the light is plenty for the plants in there. This is advanced brand new LED lighting tech so anything is possible when it comes to the light output. now LEP lamps are pretty bright too the nice ones are throwing out 190,000 at the bulb all day no problem of course they create more heat and power consumption apposed to LED. I think in the end looking at how much wattage a light is using to operate in conjunction to how much light it can create in turn, is about as useful as saying the sun is bright. With the advancement in light tech over the last 10 years has gone especially LED lights can be using a fraction of what a LEP or HPS could use and be emitting more or the same amount of light. But yes i have been using the light and have got lots of growth out of my vanilla orchid both cirtus trees my pepper plants and kiwi plants all have tons of growth.

This post was edited by Jonathan29 on Thu, Oct 30, 14 at 5:33

yeah Steve the light Is a SL-400 LED light from SunLight LED grow lights
here is the link:
http://sunlightledgrow.com/store/
i do not have the model number per say but i have the sight and the name of the makers of these fantastic lights. they are very spendy though. worth the buy in my oppinion best money i have spent in awhile.

Dude 450 lumens per watt is not possible.

Believe me or don't but you will not find 1 reputable manufacturer of LEDs claiming that high of lumens per watt. Your lights claim is a scam to take advantage of stupid pot heads.

http://www.newscenter.philips.com/main/design/news/backgrounders/inside-innovation-philips-breaks-200-lumens-per-watt-barrier.wpd#.VFIIaKb3ac0

I found your light and it is very impressive. Your plants will do very well in this setup of a 5 ft by 5 ft area.

Check your number though. I think you put a 1 in front of the 90,000 lumens the manufacturer has it listed for its total output. The place of purchase may be messuring the lumuns at a cetain distance best for growing pot. Theses light are manufacture for growing pot. If pot grows well then all your ppants will do great. Keep up the good work.

I tell people, if you are serious about growing plants under light, research growing pot. You don't have to grow pot in a pot grow setup.

Steve

okay i took into account that article and i believe you Pip, however i wanted to do more digging and found that even the little older LED's and the new ones are using the purple spectrum of light mostly which is creating less lumens per what, this is producing a visible light spectrum of white. But lets forget about lumens per what and all that when it comes to LED grow lights. Good LED grow lights focus on the quality of light being output and the spectrum it produces plants love. such as: ultraviolet, red, purple, blue, and orange light spectrum. targeting the production of chlorophyll A and B production. So if those are being targeted, the intensity or "Lumens" of a light starts to become less relevant. like i said before i have measured my south facing windows natural light received and it hits 500-600 Lux which is not lumens be can be converted. the light i am using is giving off 12.5 to 13 Klux at the plant foliage which is a metric A## ton more than the daylight in my window during the fall. so as to how many lumens it puts out and if i was lied to i don't really care, its all in the proof and what i have seen with my plants under the light. What i have seen is faster more growth on my trees than i have seen since i got them. Even compact foliage super sized leaves, double the size of the previous leaves and even some so big they have become nice full circles. to top that off good even flowering started on the trees. You add all those things up, and you come to the conclusion lairs or not their light is working stupendously.

This post was edited by Jonathan29 on Thu, Oct 30, 14 at 20:29

Also yes i did miss hear and see the reading they got on their website up at the bulb or at the fixture its hitting 90,000 lumens so it alot less but what i have seen is the light does not dissipate very much the light wave length it throws travels alot.

You got the idea right. Your plants grow like weeds and you can treat them as you would in summer. They will probably grow better than they ever do all summer. Watch the soil moisture carefully. I dried mine out in late December, and the plants did very little growing till June.

It is very hard to compare grow lamps because of the dishonesty of the retailers combined with multiple measurement systems and government rules and regulations that have loop holes that the top lawyers can exploit for their companies. Bottom line is that the LED is the best out there. for example, A twin bulb system of 32 watt florescent bulbs uses 64 watts but how much wattage does the transformer use to power the two 32 watt bulbs. It does get hot and the heat is energy that never made it to the bulbs. How much energy is used to power a 13 watt CFL bulb. Maybe 20 watts to get 13 watts to the bulb and 7 watts wasted on heat. I don't know. That is kept secret from us by companies exploiting loop hole in bill written by politicians, not knowledgeable people. Keep us posted over the months on your progress.

My grow box put out about 8000 lumens and I had very good growth in my 4 by 4 by 3 ft deep system

Steve

will do Steve thank for subing by the way. i will be posting a video here in a few on the meyer lemon and then some more down the road =) nice talking with you!

Jonathan,
Congratulations on the new sunlight LED. I just bought the Kind K5 750 LED and it arrived today. I was wondering how long you had your LED on? The K5 has an integral digital timer. It also has an auto mode which wakes up the lamp for an hour at 3%, and an hour at 10%, and an hour 20% etc. Cetra until it reaches 100% for a couple of hours. Then it reverses the process. It is meant to mimic the sunlight a plant would see as the sun rises and sets daily. The only thing is is that it is only off completely for three hours. I would really would like to use the auto mode because it is all set up and it seems like such a sweet system. But, if that is not enough dark time, it has a customizable timer that I could program a similar set up with variable power settings and more dark time. I would still like my lemon and my orange to flower too. What do you think? Is that too much light?

Nice stuff but all I can really say to the $1,179

Ha ha, yeah I know! Ouch!

Nice looking LED setups you guys got there, little jealous myself. And I thought I was crazy buying a 400w MH for my citrus this winter. I look forward to seeing how much your citrus enjoy the LED lights. I was looking at LED setups when making my purchasing decision but it seemed like there were few legitimate budget options. i.e. if you don't spend for high quality you'll be disappointed. Good luck this winter and congrats on the new toys.

I want it to fruit too.

This post was edited by kaborrowman on Mon, Nov 3, 14 at 21:45

I just do old school with 150w cfl 6500k day lights.
Trace

All my trees destine for the greenhouse are in and doing well. I have 4 fig trees each in 5 gallon buckets that share 2 bucket lights with 6500 K CFL's of 13 watts each. two trees get the bucket from 8 am to 12 midnight. The other 2 sit in front of a window the same hours . At 12 midnight the buckets are moved to the 2 trees in the window for the whole night while the first 2 trees get darkness. the window trees get their darkness from sunset to midnight. I have found a home for my 3 kumquat trees. Kumquats are incredibly hard to grow. The roots are always very healthy and robust. The tips all have fresh growth, as kumquat roots grow very well. The foliage grows well but at half the vigor of the other trees. Almost with in weeks of a growth spurt the insects move in and kill most of it. The amount of poisons that are needed to protect kumquat foliage is mind boggling. I have 3 small HC figs in coffee container that have now just leafed out. One of them is going to a friend

In front stands the 8 am to 12 midnight fig. behind it stands the other and the light bucket set up to fig #1 sits to the right. They are now growing 2 inch/week and will be 50 inches tall at the may set out date.

Steve

The 2 coffee can fig trees will go at the base of the east facing rock wall that holds up the cherry tree in one of Cincinnati's inner city community farms. The man in the picture is one of the chief engineers whom I consult with on my citrus tree problems as well as the community fruit trees. He has been a great help.

Steve

Kumquat are challenging Steve I'm sorry u gave them away but u hopefullyfound them a good home. I hope your family is well.
Trace

Kabarrow, i have my light set for 12 hours on 12 off. no delay or anything fancy just strong light. they don't really need that babying under artificial light. i would say 100% strength on 12 hrs on and off is probably the best and will give the best results. i though about buying a kind but in the end sided with this due to its difference in visible lights color, and its "intensity" or spectrum the light creates. also for a test for my viewers on youtube to let them know weather i think it is worth buying for the money. personally i think it is way worth that OUCH price because the results i have got from my trees as well as my vanilla orchid. don't regret spending the money one bit.

I am curious about the amount of money needed to buy the K5 750 LED plant light system. How much did you have to KABARROW (^!@#$%^&*()!!! - - MAN my head has been spinning.

My latest addition to my citrus/figs portfolio is made out of scraps, including the used screws and nails. click link

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8-nVd3r8vw

Ponci,
It cost $1245. So far I really like it, and my tree seems to love it too. My Meyer lemon is beginning to bud out and bloom.

Here is another one

Hi everyone,

I love all your setups. I've looked into those LED lamps, but I've ended up going the MH route due to price reasons (while two good ballasts and light fixtures aren't as much as an LED setup, they're still quite pricey for a grad student!). Not to mention that bright magenta light is kind of unsightly for a living room.

Jonathan, that light looks very impressive. While it is expensive, I'm sure it'll bring you great joy during the middle of winter. And that's what matters.

I have always found your ingenuity intriguing, Steve. I'm looking forward to seeing how your outdoor greenhouse works this winter. Do you plan on keeping your window out to it open or closed most of the time?

Here's my setup: I run two 1000W metal halide lamps hung on a fixture I made out of conduit. When my collection was somewhat smaller, I only had one lamp, but I added another when my collection... grew (ha-ha, I mean in the number of plants). They did great last winter. I'm just waiting for the police to come knocking on my door thinking I have a marijuana-growing operation going on in my living room.

-Tom

P.S. This picture was taken in the dead of night. The window you see is south facing. There's a ton more light in the daytime, as I have a double-balcony door on the western side of the room too.

pretty awesome collection you have tom. MH will work and isn't as much of an investment. i just invested in one of these led for the 5 years its insured for when purchasing it and the quality of light it produces is superb i did think about doing the same thing you did though lol.

Pressed for time but I will get back on the GH plans later today.

Steve

I will not be keeping my windows open and plan to not heat see below.

My greenhouse is made of glass and wood all of which I pulled out of contraction dumpsters. I have enough glass for a 500 square foot surface with 4 layers of glass. This will give me a 37 foot by 15 foot tall lean-to green house at 8 feet wide against the south side of my house .

The outside layer of glass is hermetically sealed. The 3 inside glazes breath some. The inside is kept humid. When the surface get cold the vapor in the air condenses and give the heat of fusion to the inside air. This keeps the inside warm. When the out side gets below freezing the vapor must condense first (520 cal./gram H2O) then must release another 80 cal. per gram h2o to the in side air thus keeping it warm inside. The outer glass surface is locked at 32 F until all the moisture on its surface is ice. The next layer of glass must go through the same, then the third layer must succumb to this solid ice frosty state, The frosty state of moisture on the glass will greatly decrease the amount of heat that can slip through. This alone probable guaranties my safety to 10 F for many days in a row.

I heat the growing medium with the south basement wall. The R value of it is about R-4, While the other 3 walls are R-150 Minimum an loose near 0 heat. I heat the basement to about 75 F. There are no ducts to heat any where else in the house. With living area walls at R-40 they loose heat slowly enough to stay warm with the heat in the basement just bleeding up. The warm basement wall keeps the greenhouse soil at 60 F min. My annual natural gas heating bill is under $200 .

If the temperatures drop below 0 F I will have to place out buckets of warm water to supply the needed humidity to power the gasses phase change heating system.

Steve