ECO Farm FLD 320W Full Spectrum Dimmable LED Grow Lights VS Iluminar 330W iLogic™6 Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
Experienced growers know that the success or failure of your plants cultivation relies on three major factors: Soil, water, and light. No matter what other variables you’re going to tweak, you must get these three elements dialed in if you want to enjoy an abundant harvest.
For the overall cost of your grow, though, choosing the right light can make it all seem worth the time and effort… Or break your wallet and your overall yields. While LED grow lights may not have been a great option even 5 years ago, advances in LED technology have made them our hands-down favorite style of light for consistent, low-maintenance indoor grows!
The only problem with LED grow lights for growing plants? There’s a lot of imitators on the market, trying to sell bargain-bin lights at a premium price. That’s why today, in this review, we’re going to be presenting a comprehensive guide to choosing the best LED grow light for your indoor grow.
With every product taken from a well-vetted source, we’re presenting only the best of the best products of LED grow lights. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
Led Lighting Fixtures For Your Indoor Garden
These lighting fixtures have been around for a little while, but they are still new in hydroponics for a good number of growers. Although they are still relatively expensive, they do come with numerous benefits over other lighting systems.
Luckily, as they gain more popularity, their prices will continue to fall. However, some manufacturers produce lights that deliver lower amounts of light. When looking to purchase, be sure the lights you look for are 2.0 micromoles per watt of energy as a minimum.
These cheaper LED bulbs aren’t enough to support flowering plants, so it is essential to do some homework beforehand. This can change depending on the type of plants being grown, but hopefully, these subpar grow lamps will vanish when costs fall.
One final thing to note when looking at buying LED lighting systems is that many are sold as being all in one unit. In some cases, this isn’t the case, and there is a need for reflectors to be used with LED grow lights.
Pros
Very energy efficient, and are among the cheapest type of light sources to run.
LEDs produce more light per watt of energy than both HID’s and fluorescents. But with some exceptions
The LEDs run much cooler, so there are considerably fewer chances plants will be burned
LEDs are very long-lasting, and in many cases, it is the control unit that fails before the bulbs themselves
LEDs don’t need any ballast to operate and can be plugged directly into the mains socket
LEDs cover a wide range of the color spectrum and are adjustable so they can be tailored to your plant’s needs and stages of growth
LED’s are now known to be the easiest to use
Cons
At present, these lighting fixtures are more expensive than the alternatives
Some of the lighting systems throw out less light than other varieties of LED grow lights.
Some manufacturers produce lights that don’t have the power to support plants when they are in their flowering stages.
ECO Farm FLD 320W Full Spectrum Dimmable LED Grow Lights
Features:
Equipped with SMD 3030 chip, this ECO Farm LED grow light has a maximum yield of 2.5 grams per watt, 30% higher average PPFD, and 50% higher yield and quality compared to other similar lights. Consumes only 320W. This LED grow light has a Yield Max spectrum (3000k, 6000k, 660nm red, 730nm IR LED), which can make the light more uniform, truly simulate the sunlight, and perfectly meet the entire growth cycle of all plants from seed to harvest, including Medicinal plants, flowers, vegetables, etc. Newly designed fast heat dissipation material aluminium with 4 slim cooling strips, produces less heat and saves 50% energy than other old grow lights! The whole plant grow lights are waterproof. No need to worry about wet growing conditions. LED grow lights can be folded 180°, easy to install and move.
Iluminar 330W iLogic™6 Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
Features:
The Iluminar LED grow light provides depth, penetrating light intensity, and industry-leading uniformity in a 4' x 4' square space. Optimized for the most demanding floriculture applications, iLogic 6 is designed to scale easily as your operation grows, delivering unmatched reliability, longevity and performance. iLogic 6 LEDs maximize plant productivity, even in the densest canopy in CO2-rich flowering chambers. Likewise, in single- or multi-story cultivation environments at home, this state-of-the-art LED grow lighting promotes compact and vigorous growth and produces high levels of secondary metabolites with full spectrum output.
Choosing the Best Light for Growing Plants Indoors
When using Grow lights for your plants, it is critical to keep some things in mind such as the intensity of the light, color of the light, duration of provision of the light source and what kind of light like incandescent, LED, Fluorescent and others.
This would essentially depend on the brightness of the bulb used in the Grow Light as well as the distance between the plant and the source of light. Since plants vary in their requirements of intensity, this will have to be considered before matching your plants with your Grow Lights. A general thumb rule is most flowering and fruit/veggie plants require high intensity lights whereas foliage plants can be positioned about 36 inches away from the Grow Light.
Right Color of Light
Sunlight encompasses the entire spectrum of white light and thus has all the colors of the rainbow from violet to red. Thus, impliedly indoor plants grow best when placed under lights with bulbs of the whole spectrum. This provides a natural balance of warm as well as cool light imitating the natural spectrum.
Right Duration of Light
Plants respire in the dark and thus it is pertinent that plants get their time of darkness as well. Thus a good Grow Light should typically include a built in timer as well. Plants that fit in the Short-day category of plants would require about 12 hours of contact with light. Those that are classified as long-day plants would require nearly 14 to 18 hours of light per day and those that are day-neutral only need about 8 to 12 hours of light throughout the year!
Conclusion
As you can see, not all LED grow lights are created the same. Each comes with its own benefits, and also its own unique downsides.
On top of this, is the fact that all grow rooms are very different, so there are countless other variables growers need to consider. Lighting is only one part of this puzzle, but it is evident, no one lighting system is perfect.
Growers need to understand all of their plant’s requirements, and also what they want from their plants. When they know this, they can put things in place, and choose the best lighting system that their budget allows. Even then the choice may not be so simple, but at least growers will know the options they have, and which lighting systems are most suitable for them.
