May 23, 2022
In this grow light guide, you’ll learn how to choose the best grow light, and how to use a grow light. Spoiler alert, regular light bulbs don’t work.
Growing plants indoors can affect all environmental factors. From Alaska to Florida, you can grow the most upright plants’ crop your neighbors have ever seen with the right grow lights.
Violet-blue light in the 400–520 nm range promotes chlorophyll absorption, photosynthesis and growth.
Red light in the 610–720 spectral range promotes flowering and germination.
Grow lights should provide the proper spectrum for photosynthesis, which is key to plant growth. Be sure to review the color spectrum provided before purchasing a lamp. Lights that offer a full spectrum are ideal for your grow space.
This is where LED lights come in handy. Most LED grow lights offer two types of color spectrum lighting, so you get all the benefits.
Fortunately, it’s easy to learn how to use grow lights, and LEDs are very easy to set up — just plug them in. You can easily hang them over your plants for a simple setup and excellent crop. LED grow lights don’t run very hot, but you still need to set up exhaust fans and control airflow and temperature throughout the facility for professional production.
Ensure that the LEDs are far enough away from your plants to avoid light burns. Also, be sure to use a light that contains full-spectrum green and white light. Only red or blue light isn’t enough to nourish your plants.
ECO Farm ECOD Samsung UV+ IR 800W Dimmable LED Grow Light
Features:
This ECO Farm LED grow light adopts the top quality equivalent diodes, producing a 800W PPF output of 2019.6 μmol/s and a PAR efficacy of 2.8umol/J, ideal for home and vertical farm planting. This full spectrum grow light meets the lighting requirements of every stage during the plant’s growth cycle. It consists of 660nm of red light, IR, 3000K and 6500K of the white light spectrum, providing plants in all stages from veg to flower with everything they need in the natural sunlight.LED plant lights enable cultivators to produce density buds, the 8-bar configuration allows widely application in the home grow (grow box and grow tents), climate rooms, commercial growing (horizontal and vertical), greenhouse cultivation, vertical racks, hydroponics. Thick aluminium board and IP65 waterproof wide 8-bar grow light provide even and wide canopy coverage, and long service life. Fanless design with a thick heat sink supports the excellent heat dissipation effect.
Features:
Kind LED grow light uses top-of-the-line Osram and Phillips diodes to produce targeted full-spectrum light as well as UV and IR to enhance your plants during flowering. The KIND X750 uses the full spectrum white LED diodes used by top LED companies. Kind’s Targeted Full Spectrum is designed for plants to maximize harvest weight and plant quality. Our spectrum is the result of hundreds of thousands of hours of field testing in the Northern California medicinal plant industry. With 750 watts of power and a 4' x 4' footprint, the X750 is powerful enough for commercial growers while still being compact enough for single planting.
Don’t buy LED grow lights until you read these important factors.
1. Cost
This is the number one parameter to be considered. Of course, you must buy something that falls within your budget.
A grow light is available in the market at as low as $100. On the other hand, the cost may increase to as much as $2,000 for the lights equipped with the latest technologies.
How many times will you grow this plant per year? This question plays a key role in selecting the right product. If you have to grow plants multiple times a year, your investment will be recovered in a short span compared to if you grow it once a year.
Important Note: LED grow lights may be costly compared to HIDs, but they will cost you less electricity bills.
In addition, some lights get hot, and you need cooling equipment to cool them down. It requires more electricity which means more cost.
Don’t forget to consider all the parameters mentioned above to get the best cost-effective LED light to grow indoor plants.
2. Warranty
There is no doubt that LED lights are simple and easy to use. Moreover, you can easily maintain them. Still, it is always a better approach to check for the product’s warranty because you can claim either an exchange or refund if there is any built-in issue in the light you have purchased. A warranty secures your investment, and every reputed seller provides this service.
3. Number Of LED Grow Lights Required
Usually, the people who regularly grow indoor plants use 1 to 2 lights. Many states have allowed to grow up to only 6 to 12 Hemp or plants. So, 1 or 2 LED lights are enough for them. For instance, if you plan to utilize two different rooms, you can place 1 light in each room.
When it comes to how big an LED grow light should be, it depends on two different factors, i.e., the size of the space you want to grow in and the number of plants you want to grow.
If you have a small room to grow plants in, only a single LED light will do the job for you. But, if you have a bigger space, you can invest in big lights instead of installing multiple small lights. A light with more wattage will perform much better for bigger fields than many lights with less wattage.
4. Safety
Have you installed all the lighting equipment, and you are all set to grow plants? Great! You must consider that you should have a continuous power source to run the whole setup. To have a suitable power source, you need to closely monitor each component’s power requirements, e.g., air conditioner, fan, lights, etc.
Simply calculate the amount of power required by each component. Now, sum up all to find the total energy required for the complete system. Once done, purchase a power source or arrange the one that can provide you with slightly more power than the required threshold.
In addition, this system has to run every day for a series of months; therefore, ensuring a flawless and smooth power supply is a must. If your system performs well throughout the growing period, you will get an amazing product in the end.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to using LED lights for plants. Different plants will have different light needs at different stages of growth, and you’ll need to experiment a bit to see what works best for your garden. When using LED lights, it is important to follow the instructions that come with the light and be careful of heat build-up. With the wealth of information available online, there’s no reason not to start experimenting with LED grow lights today.
October 20, 2023