Hi all, new to the site here though I have been browsing the q&a's for a while now.

Ive recently restarted my indoor garden after moving across the country a bit, so involved buying the new set up (as I sold the old system to downsize the shift)

this time I went for LED lights, for power consumption mainly,

Now my old growing method was pretty standard and reliable MH (blue) for sprouting and vegetive growth, then HPS (red) for flower/fruiting stage.

so when buying the LEDS I had the same thoughts, I got 2x 7:2 blue:red for sprouting and veggie and a third light being 7:2 red:blue for flowering/fruiting. All 300w lights 3 units total

when they 1st arrived I was super eager to put them to use and did so in what I now see as too smaller place even with the low heat of the LEDS, things would sprout well and look rather healthy until about 2 weeks after sprouting when they would slowly start to show all sorts of symptoms at the same time, then eventually yellow off and die or close to it.

After a couple of repeats of the above paragraph I sorted out the more permanent room, being much larger and better ventilated, but maintained similar light distance from plants, Around the same time I got a long awaited reply from the manufacture regarding recommended light distance for these (300w) light units.

They recommended 1-1.5 meters from the plant tops, which I found quite hard to comprehend since I thought LEDs were meant to be run closer than MH or HPS, but from other sources I read that manufacturers recommendations were also very valuable as each light company can do a complete different set up than others.

so I raised the light to around 1m above plants at 1 end and left the other 1 down low, after a few days the ones under the high light looked to be perking up and reaching a little but not stretching, while the lower light plants stayed the same, apart from a few near the "edges" of the light covered area that did seem to be looking much greener and healthier,

i have since then raised the second light too, the same healthy plants are staying healthy where as the others are very slow to recover and I'm not too sure if they are,

i have many different seeds sprouting, from tomatoes, chillies, cabbages, peppers,

as well as young plants from my windowsill that were waiting for a bigger room to be set up like strawberries, onions and a 2 leaf pumpkin seedling,

also a few transplants rescued from the outdoor veggie patch that the escape sheep tend to enjoy, like leeks, 2 pepper plants (almost dead when rescued) and a mandarin tree still in the shop brought pot.

the seeds that have sprouted in the new room are all looking healthy, but with the light already almost at the roof I may struggle to maintain the correct distance as the plants grow, although I guess they should be able to handle more intensity as they gain more leafs for photosynthesis,

the young strawberries, onions and pumpkin are interesting, they have all been at the end where the light was raised 1st, the strawberries are in a home made strawberry planter from a 20litre container with holes in the side for the plants, the 1st few days the top ones grew 1cm per day but are now below the original height markers, perhaps concentrating on new shoots more than going up, but they are also producing flowers vey rapidly which would make me think that the light and penetration from it must be suitable or this wouldn't happen, also the 2 leaf pumpkin seed has now 4 good leafs after only 1 week in the new room compared to windowsill, but at the same time the onions haven't even gained enough strength to stand the shoots upright since the transplant and the week in new room, though they have the same light distance and temperature ect..

the rescued plants have similar variances, the leeks haven't gained the strength to stand up yet, while 1 of the peppers is growing new shoots, the other one is ripening the only small pepper it has and the rest of that plant still looks dead, and the mandarin tree is although in the corner so perhaps less intense light it is still creating new shoots near the top of it, and this is the tallest plant in there at present,

sorry about the ramble but I thought it best to explain as many comparisons as possible before handing in for possible ideas from the more experienced forum users and gardeners,

if anyone has any input + or - Im all ears, or eyes as this form of advice is written, but I guess the questions I have is

does anyone else run LEDs so far away from the plants?

Is a strawberry plant flowering a good indication that the light intensity is good at that distance?

also why such mixed results with some plants still not standing up while other grow happily in same conditions?

Thanks in advance even just for reading all of this haha thanks you