Best Commercial Fixture for Single Tier & Vertical Racking Marijuana Cultivation

[dizzlekush]

Hello,

I am interested in what commercial fixtures (that are UL or ETL Certified) you have seen that seem to be the best for marijuana cultivation with the potential to be used in multi-tier racking systems, with particular interest in lower intensity fixtures that can be placed close to the canopy that use primarily white light (instead of "purple" style LED's), and focus on lighting uniformity.

The companies I've currently found the most compelling are Fluence and ProGrowTech for 4X4 fixtures that are designed for vertical racking, and the NextLight Mega, which was designed to replace DE-HPS fixtures and light a 5x5 area and is recommended by the manufacturers to be dimmed when used for vertical racking.

What do you all think of these fixtures and what other commercial fixtures would you suggest that fit into the parameters of having primarily white light, excellent canopy uniformity and are designed in a way that is compatible for vertical racking?

[rps13013265]

There are some really cool DIY shelf builds around if you search.

[unkle_psycho]

I think these commercial systems don't beat QB's or strips in efficiency... Perhaps one of the advantages they have is optics, but even in that regard they seem obsessed with competing with 1000w HID's, so I'd be surprised if you find a commercial fixture where the optics are optimized for proximity.

If you have money to splurge, you can pay 4-10x more to get the real benefits (warranties/ customer support) that a brand fixture can offer. It would probably be cheaper to pay a local electrician to wire strips for you, and having such a technician available would be superior to anything these brands could offer you. Further more the cheaper price allows you to double/ quadruple your diodes per $. If you want performance specs to brag about, you won't find them in commercial fixtures. Some DIY guy will always come and tell you how they got more for less.

But for example right now it seems there is one product on the market, which uses a special bin of the LM301B diode, so getting the new QB's does give you a better diode then you could buy on the free market. Likely in 6mnts that will no longer be the case.

[Puffunguarded]

There are several techniques to accelerate the vegetative stage. But do keep in mind that this will always depend on the strain of cannabis. Some strains naturally take longer to mature and flower. Then again, cannabis plants respond well to how much sunlight is available during this stage. Carefully controlling the light intake can accelerate or decelerate the vegetative stage.

One of the simplest ways to fast track to flowering is to allow exactly 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness for the plants per day. This works for nearly all strains of cannabis. Switching to the 12/12 method forces the plants to flower.

If you are looking to extend the vegetative stage of the plant in order to grow larger plants, just make sure the plants get at least 16 hours of light per day. It could quickly hasten the flowering stage. Marijuana Grow Guides

[PurpleGunRack]

It would be very expensive if you were to use one of those lights for each shelf and dim it down, and a waste of potential,

Getting strips with lower diode count, like Samsung Q-series would mean that you don't have to dim and get full value for the upfront investment, very high efficiency and little need for cooling.
The lower diode count boards that don't require heatsinks would also be a good choice.

Old school fluorescent tubes are rather decent compared to their low upfront cost.

[dizzlekush]

I would like to emphasize that I would like to limit this discussion to commercial fixtures that are certified through UL or ETL so that they are actually commercially applicable in licensed facilities.

I understand that DIY setups are cheaper, I am trying to find out what LED lights are the best for vertical racking that can actually be used in a licensed facility.

Thank you for your comments.

[DaveJonesFan]

Fluence should have an option that fits your needs, and they have large backing now from Osram. I'd be looking to them if you concerned with dealing with a smaller company.

ProGrowTech I would consider if you want to support someone closer to the DIY guys. Andrew seems pretty great and you may get a bit more transparency.

Maybe ring them up and chat with them each about what they can offer specifically, I'm sure they'd love the chance to give you a proposal.

You seem to be onto some of the best options already with these 2.

I think most here lean more towards the DIY stuff, with smaller scale needs.

[unkle_psycho]

Larger needs = greater benefit from DIY

[Professor Xavier]

If he is in Canada, he is likely concerned aboot insurance requirements for certified fixtures.

[dizzlekush]

I would like to include the Verta 8-Bar from OpticPAR a.k.a. SpecGradeLED in the discussion.

So far some of the main differences I'm seeing between the 650-700 watt fixtures designed by a 4' x 4' space from Fluence, OpticPAR and ProGrowTech (besides price) are:

The OpticPAR and ProGrowTech are made in a modular way that is designed to have the LED boards swapped out as the technology improves without having to buy entire new fixtures. I don't think Fluence has this as part of their design.

The LED array in the ProGrowTech has LEDs concentrated at the sides of the unit to combat uniformity & light intensity issues seen at the periphery of the unit, giving it probably a better uniformity than the OpticPAR or Fluence equivalents. The ProGrowTech also has spectrum tuning capabilities

The Fluence fixture is the lightest, 10-15 lbs lighter than the other two.