I have 2 one year old clematis plants im trying to give as much growing time as possible under led grow lights. I use a light humidifier to counteract the dry winter air and heat in the house. I live in zone 8a in southwest nevada not far out of vegas so this is a very harsh desert environment. Please anyone with some suggestions for keeping my 2 babies growing strong or advice about the led lights would be greatly appreciated. This is my first attempt to grow these amazing vines and I've heard that with a little extra care and some shade in the brutal summer heat that they can be grown successfully. Thanks for any ideas or tips they are greatly appreciated.

Do you have your LEDs on a timer? How many hours do you give them?

In zone 8a, they could easily survive outdoors. They would go somewhat dormant over the winter.
They like sunny tops and cool shady feet or roots. East facing exposure would be perfect. Use a rich, well draining soil and never let them go bone dry.

If you do keep them indoors, you will need to mimic Summer time hours, or your old clematis will go dormant.

I'm currently keeping the lights on about 16 hours aday but the plants are about 2 ft away.They were growing well outdoors from March to about October. I slowly hardened theses 2 plants to more light and I'm wondering if anyone else has had success with clematis under LEDs. I have one Jackmani a Nike Warsaw rooting I'm hoping to sprout and I don't know what type my other one is. Thanks for any tips.Oh and yes the lights are on timers!

If you raised the plants from 2' away from the lights to 4-6", you could reduce the hours from 16 to ten or twelve.
Light intensity might be 1/10 of maximum at two feet. But if you get them to 3-4" below, you can get the full intensity and cut the hours.

Yes I have considered moving the plants closer and reducing some time would be great. I do worry alittle about wilting the leaves with the light so close. I'm totally new to grow lights just bought these about 2 months ago so I'd love to hear from more experienced gardeners their successes and failures. Thanks

I run mine 12 on and 12 off and have good results. The LEDs can burn the leaves very easily without any heat so be careful when lowering your lights. If you lower the LED stay with the plants or check back every few minutes to watch for leaf twisting. If the leaves twist, raise the lights until you don't get twisted leaves because twisted leave will burn and hurt the plant growing shoots.

If the lights are too high from the plants then they will become leggy and have weak stems. My LEDs are 18 to 22 inch's from my plants when I use them. I have burned many plant leaves until I learned the hard way, that more light is not always in the best interest of the plants. I hope that helps

I have my tubes on 12 hours a day from December until mid February. Then 13 hours from mid February to mid March. From mid March until early May when I move them outside I go to 14 hours.
In the Fall from mid September until late November, 13 hours a day.

I can drop my lights but I don't. I prefer to watch my orchids reaction to the lights by monitoring the color of the leaves carefully. The leaves tell me if the plant is happy or not.

Thanks for the info about the led lights and the plant leaves twisting. Like I said I'm an absolute novice to grow lights and all tips are appreciated.

I have my african violet, a couple of sedums and a couple of aloes under an 18 watt fluorescent light (old aquarium fixture) and I have one of those sedums pretty close to the light because there is almost no light 8 inches away. I'm guessing LEDs are a lot brighter

Incredibly bright! At least they seem to be.
It is like growing plants 2 feet below a street light! Like I said, that is the way it seems.
But I have to tell you that for me, they are cheap to run. At least in SE Michigan they are. I am running 6 fixtures with 12 tubes and it costs me less then $10 a month. Seems reasonable.

LED are tiny lasers and can damage plant tissue real easy depending on the diode wattage. While fluorescent have a soft warm glow that travels only a few feet very softly, LEDs pulsate a spot light using pulsation and with an intense light spectrum. The LED light travels very far because of this pulsation, and you can see it from two blocks away at night time.

LEDs typically last longer than lasers, while lasers are faster. The biggest difference between LED and laser lights is the way each one functions. LEDs have a higher output with wider bandwidths, meaning that they can produce a broad range of less-concentrated light however they use the same principles.

Fluorescent lights are for medium lighting requirements and LEDs are for fast growing robust plants, when you match watt for watt. My light of choice is T8s fluorescent 4 ft., 4 bulb fixtures, I use them for Wintering mother plants, starting seeds, making cuttings and growing seedlings and I use them like crazy about 10 months out of the year. .

All these lights together only put out 300 watts = to 3 regular incandescent 100 watt light bulbs. I run them for 12 hrs a day everyday in the Winter. I use two different type bulbs to give a better growing spectrum. My mother plants love them!!!

Luke, like your post of 12/23, regarding twisting leaves if lights too close to plant. Learned something I will use.
Also, liked your first post of 12/27, regarding LED bulbs. The pulses are caused by them being diodes that only allow current to flow in one direction and being on an AC circuit. If the AC is 60 hertz, the LED is on 60 times and off 60 times each second (not counting the light being dimmer on the front and back edge of each lighted cycle). Did not understand why the comparison with lasers.
Also, liked your discussion on fluorescent bulbs. In the 60s, probably had 5 minutes of discussion on them while attending Navy electronics tech school (38 weeks, 8 hrs/day). Went on Wikipedia & other sites for added knowledge, most historical and some technical (skimpy on tech).
Thanks for your posts.

BrooklynStart, The comparison with lasers are to show that diodes spotlight similar to lazers. They can move light very far when compared to fluorescents, or HID lamps. As an experiment you can shine a 80 watt LED light two blocks in the dark and still see it easily because of the spotlight similarities that lasers have. The light travels in light beams so much farther than HIDs or Fluorescents when using LEDS.

Spotlighting is the similarity that diodes and lasers have in common. However because of the different wider bandwidths of diodes they are not the same.. The spotlighting effect will burn leaves very easy and in the same way as a laser and that is the reason I commended., I hope that helps thank you for responding.