HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Light Grow Test - August 20, 2007

Day one - setup and preliminary meter readings for the grow test. The HIDHUT UFO, grow chambers and tanks are set up and running, ready to start growing plants tomorrow.

Description - The light is about 11 inches in diameter with an LED 'window' of about six inches. The light has 10 Blue and 80 Red High Power LEDS. The light is fan cooled and has three fan vents on the top of the light, which of course point up when the light is hung. The light is barely warmer than room temperature and the air exhausting from the vents feels cool too. The light runs very cool!

Mounting - the light has three built-in eyelets on the top. I simply cut three chains and I'm hanging the light in the center of my 3' x 2' grow box. See the three photos below for the above features.

Spot	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
12 Inches
UFO	2000	3550	6200	4270	2380	2140	4150	7400	4990	2570	1770	3070	5460	3680	2150
Homemade	1440	1910	3020	2420	1000	2600	3660	4840	4800	2010	1620	3000	3430	3080	2010
18 inches
UFO	2190	3000	3670	3190	2340	2210	3080	3800	3300	2400	1950	2640	3200	2820	2090
Homemade	1740	2430	2860	2740	1400	2660	3710	4100	4450	2480	1240	1790	2060	1970	1450
24 inches
UFO	2000	2450	2680	2510	2070	2010	2430	2720	2530	2140	1790	2190	2420	2270	1890
Homemade	1700	2400	2400	2430	1620	2390	3370	3440	3700	2390	1290	1850	2010	1940	1510

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Light Grow Test - August 22, 2007

The three tomatoes were planted yesterday. To get the hopefully highest meter reading on all three tomatoes, it seemed 15 inches vertical distance of light to plants was just about right. This gave me 6400 LUX on the center plant and 4700 or so on the left and right. Lowering the light increased the center and decreased the left and right. Raising the light continued to decrease all three. So, the light is positioned for the highest LUX balance accross all three. If my grow area was square (say 3' x 3'), I would position my plants in a equidistant pattern around the center of the light as the light emanates in a circular pattern from the center.

Above is the grow test as of this morning in a slideshow format instead of a table of photos. You can control the slideshow using the buttons provided. 

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - August 27, 2007

Almost a week of growing under the light. All three tomato plants growing well and developing true leaves. I don't see any early signs of stretching. I have some new photographs which I merged into the slideshow above with last weeks photos.  I was asked about the wattage of my homemade light = 108 Watts.

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - September 4, 2007

Two weeks of growing under the UFO light. All three tomato plants growing well. Size is about 3-4 inches tall. Nice stocky growth and good internodal length. Roots are developing well. All three plants looking healthy. I'd be interested to hear your opinions of the growth so far - thanks! I merged the newest photos together in the below slideshow. I think the slideshow is a nice way to show kind of an animated progress. Let me know what you think of it.

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - September 15, 2007

Sorry for the delayed update. I ran into a grow issue all of a sudden with the tomatoes under the UFO. Growth was happening real fast and then a 'stall' happened. The leaves and stems went into a droop and roots sagged. The plants seemed to be getting weak and mushy. I did lose some branches, especially on the tomato on the right side as you can see as this was the last plant to get the extra blue. I took some time playing around with different things, as I wanted to make sure of the cause.

I believe I have the cause identified. The UFO seems to need some extra BLUE light help at this stage of vegetative growth (for tomatoes anyway). I started by adding an additional blue bulb to each of the tomato plants one at a time, starting from the left to right plants. Each one responded positively. The roots are starting to grow again, branches and leaves have lifted and they are back on the growing track. Summary - at least for tomatoes, some supplemental blue light needs to be supplied at the young growth stages when using the UFO. Other plants besides tomatoes? I guess we'll find out when we try some different plants in the future. Below are some photos of before and after the blue lights were added to the UFO. As you can see I now have one blue bulb on each of the plants now and they look a lot better. Not only leaves and stems nice now, but roots are taking off again.

The UFO is still a great light as the growth rate is pretty darn good. As we know from experiments, the red/blue ratios need adjusting during the plant stages. I don't think we are going to find one LED light that will do everything....unless...my opinion only...for these type of high-power lights like the UFO, I'm hoping they can supply plenty of Blue and Red and have dimmer controls for adjustments for the different plant stages and different plant types. For example, if I could have just raised the blue level up on the UFO (or maybe the red level down). Later on in blossom stage, lower the blue and crank up the red.  This is one suggestion I've already passed on to the folks at Hidhut for future enhancements. I'm thinking when these tomatoes get to blossoming, I'll probably just remove the extra blue bulbs I have in the chamber and the UFO will be fantastic for blooming.

First six shots below are before additonal blue light added. Last six shots are after blue added. 

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - September 26, 2007

The addition of the extra Blue light has done wonders for the tomato plants. According to the Red Robin, Florida Basket, and Florida Petite 'specifications' these tomatoes are approaching pretty close to full size. Notice in the slideshow below that much more vegetative growth has occurred. Leaves are thick and healthy now. Root growth has accelerated on all three. All three tomatoes are flowering now, hopefully we'll see some tomatoes soon.

Notice below the nice tight internodal length, etc. One thing this test has shown is the importance of blue light during the vegetative stage. I believe this is why some people use a lot of LEDs and fail to grow anything. The ratios of blue/red are of prime importance and can be the difference between success and failure.

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - October 4, 2007

The three plants are getting large. They are blossoming quite a bit now. The center one has the most, then the right, then left. Please note these are three diferent plants, so asumptions on light positioning can't be made yet.

Great root growth, stems and leaves so far. I continue to supplement with the blue lights and deciding if I should shut the extra blue off or not for the blossom phase coming up. I'd like to see a few more blossoms first before I do this.

The 'trick' of course will be to see if we can get some tomatoes forming which should hopefully be soon.

The below show has the newest photos.

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - October 17, 2007

The three plants are large. Larger than advertised for their varieties. Blossoming continues and blossom count increasing with more and more promising blossoms. There are a couple large tomatoes already and quite a few real tiny ones starting to form. Many more blossoms coming. They are looking good. Lots of vegetative growth, good roots and stems.

As you have noticed I have added extra blue bulbs when using this UFO. I've just heard from Hidhut they'll be swapping me one with 70 Red 20 Blues...thanks Justin! The one I'm using is 80 Red 10 Blue. I'm convinced the 70/20 will be a better overall light for my grow configuration and types of veggies I grow. As soon as the new one arrives, I'll probably start a new grow.

There really is nothing wrong with the 80/10 light I'm using now as some plants and other grower's configurations may need this ratio. The 70/20 is my own personal ratio choice based on the performance of this Tomato grow test. Personally, I prefer a larger ratio of blue for short stocky thick plants.

Photos below - the tomatoes are in great shape and growing fast. Check out the blossoms.

Contact Hidhut for sales information at http://www.hidhut.com

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - November 3, 2007

Blossoming continues on the center and right tomato plants. The plants have gotten pretty large. Much larger than they are supposed to be as they are advertised to be 9-12 inches. These things are approaching two feet. They're very hefty with lots of vegetative growth. The Florida Petite and Florida Basket in the center and right are blossoming the most. The Red Robin has a few but still seems to be more in the vegetative state. I've shut off the blue bulbs for a while to see if the increased red ratio will have any effect on blossoms.

Plenty of blossoms are stil dropping without fruiting, but more and more are seeming to fruit. I don't necessarily think blossom drops are necessarily a light problem. There are thousands of other reasons for this inside of course. Hey, this is my first attempt with these particular tomato varieties and using the UFO for the first time.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the performance of this light. One thing the UFO can do for sure is grow big tomato plants. I'll continue to try different nutrient formulas for the blossoming stage. To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure exactly what this'll take and the experiments will continue. Hopefully soon, the 70/20 Red to Blue UFO will arrive. I'm hoping I made the right guess. I'd like to see if I can avoid using extra blue bulbs and have a 100% UFO grow nest time.


I'm introducing a new picture viewer for this update. It's a Flash viewer called SimpleViewer. What I like about it is the thumbnail support. Click on the below button to see the newest UFO grow photos.

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - November 25, 2007

I know it's been a while since the last update, but I didn't want to keep updating with pictures of blossoms forming. However, now's the time I've been waiting for....tomato eruptions!

Tomatoes are popping out everywhere. The two tomato plants (center and right) have loads of new tomatoes fruiting. These are the Florida Basket and Florida Petite plants. The leftmost (the Red Robin) is really healthy and bushy, but seems to be much slower getting to the blossom stage. So, maybe the Red Robin is a slower fruiting breed or has to be treated entirely different than the 'Florida' types  as far as growth 'timing'.

I have absolutely no complaints about the HIDHUT UFO. It's done everything it was advertised for during my grow test. My 80/10 although a bit on the 'Red' ratio side for initial growth is doing a great job as far as a bloom light. As you can see from the earlier updates, I'm no longer supplementing with blue. So, the 80/10 red to blue LED ratio UFO turns out to be working very efficiently as far as blossoming and fruiting the 'Florida' varieties of tomato plants. By the way, these tomatoes are somewhat larger than the Tiny Tims and in my opinion 'tastier'. The Florida varieties are much sweeter if you like this type of tomato. The Tiny Tim is a more 'grape' type tomato flavor. I like them both and of course tomato tastes by variety is a matter of preference as hundreds of different ones exist.

What counts the most is a very successful grow on the first attempt with the 80/10 UFO. Some supplemental blue was needed in the early growth stages as you can see from the latest updates below, however, for the bloom stage the UFO by itself seems perfect. Maybe a 70/20 might be better? I think so, but the 80/10 is definately usable with a little bit of blue supplement creativity for ratio adjustment during the grow phases. It's entirely probable that any fixed 'red/blue ratio light' may need some supplemental fine tuning. For example, maybe the 70/20 will need a little red supplement at the end? These are questions that remain to be answered for the future. If you are growing with a UFO, please take the time to tell us about your results in the forum and what ratios you have!

The UFO is a great light with no heat, very low watts for a 3' x 2' area, and a successful bloom/fruit phase is really the measurement for success. I'm excited about it and very happy that I have one. With the UFO and three supplemental blue bulbs (I used a Homegrownlight 3 watt blue, a Ledbulbbizz 120 LED blue, and a groovygrow blue (one bulb on each plant). All three of these performed about the same - a successful blue supplement to the 80/10 UFO.

Grow area supported- in my 3' x 2' area, I don't see any spots that are light deficient whatsoever and penetration to the lower extremities of the canopy is no problem. I would say, even though my area is smaller, the advertised 3x3 would be no problem. The plants are very healthy from top to bottom, root growth is awesome too. The trunks are like trees.

Bottom Line - My opinion, take it for what it's worth and my photos below. These tomato plants are as good if not better than any I have seen grown with any kind of HID and without any natural sunlight, all on 90 Watts plus about an extra 20 watts for the supplemental blue during the early growth stage. Is it comparable to 300-400 watts of HID?....I say yes. Another factor - I grew a couple of these Florida petites outdoors this summer and these UFO grown ones have as many tomatoes and are actually larger and stouter plants than the ones grown in sun and dirt. The HIDHUT UFO works. Thanks to Justin at HIDHUT.COM for making this test possible!

HIDHUT 90 Watt UFO Grow Test - Conclusion December 5, 2007

I decided to conclude the test as all that is happening now is green tomatoes turning red. More blossoms also, but for the sake of the  light test, I believe some observations can be made without just waiting for ripeness as I ate 41 already and they taste great to me. Much better than what you can buy, that's for sure.

The last photos show the remaining 100 or so tomatoes that I picked when taking down the plants. The grand total was 141 tomatoes on basically two plants. I don't think this is too bad for sub-miniature varieties. The center Florida Basket had the most, the right plant Florida Petite second, and the Red Robin third. The Red Robin only had six total tomatoes. This plant seemed to be behind the others and may take longer or have different needs. Anyway, if I decide to grow them again I'll try something different

Observations:

Time-wise to grow and fruit, I'm pleased with the performance of the UFO (80/10 R-B ratio model).

What I would do differently next time:

- I'm waiting for Justin at Hidhut to swap me out for a 70/20. I still believe this will be better mix. If I were to grow with the 80/10 again, I would definitely start out with additional blue right away as you can see from the early days below, blue had to be added. When the 70/20 arrives, I think another cucumber attempt will be made with this.

- I'm needing to figure out some better tomato cages or some easier way to tie them up. I let them get out of control too much. Spending more time on this and some trimming would have increased the yield.

- I think raising the light off the canopy a little more would be better also. I think there's plenty of power to do this. This would have leveled off the LUX a little better with three balanced plants. The one in the center was the best producer as it had more LUX, but maybe too much. It kind of took over the entire enclosure and did a good smothering job on the other two.

My opinion - the HIDHUT UFO worked and worked great. Even though I have a 3x2 foot area, I believe it would have done okay on the claimed 3x3. I say this as branches grew out the front of my box over a foot and they lived, stayed green, and fruited out there. Absolutely no electrical, mechanical, or heat problems at all.

Please let me know your opinions of the UFO and of course anything I can do to improve grow results and/or the way I'm showing the tests.

Once again thanks to Justin at Hidhut. I'm looking forward to another grow using the UFO. Check out the final photos below. Nice root shots of a 'root mat' that formed also.