January 08, 2022
If you’re looking to grow plants indoors, you need to choose the right grow lights. Without adequate light, you won’t get a decent harvest. The best lighting usually equals the highest quality THC, so it’s essential to get the best ones you can afford. There are so many different types of grow lights available that finding the ideal ones for your needs is challenging.
This article provides a handy list of some of the best LED grow lights for indoor plants currently available on the market. Some of them are cheap; others are a little pricier. Regardless, if you use them correctly, they’ll get the job done.
The uninitiated may believe that house lights are sufficient for plants. However, even if you use LED lighting, it is almost certainly too weak to help a plant crop in a grow room. Remember, your home’s lights are designed for your eyes rather than plants. The light spectrum required to help us see is very different from what plants require for photosynthesis.
There are plants like microgreens that can flourish with a basic lamp. However, plants require fairly strong and consistent light to help them into the blooming phase. Remember, when you grow plants indoors, you’re competing with the sun in terms of light! This means you need high-power lights in your plants’ grow space.
These days, plants growers are spoiled for choice with grow lights. There is an incredible array of options, providing better safety, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency than ever before. Simply put, if you want a decent yield, you must invest in specific grow lights.
HYPHOTONFLUX HPF4000 Full Spectrum Led Grow Lights
Features:
HYPHOTONFLUX 480w led grow light utilize the latest in high yielding LEDs technology today-SAMSUNG LM301B & OSRAM deep red 660nm diodes, it is equivalent to 1000w HPS/MH grow light, high energy efficiency with 2.7 μmol/J. The led plant grow light has 1224 pcs LM301B LEDs(3000k+4000k) and 48pcs OSRAM deep red LEDs(660nm), provides the plant with the full spectrum from seeding to flowering. Ideal for indoor plants all stages growing, rapid plant response from seed to flower,speeds up flowering time and boost yields. HPF4000 grow lights have a six-level dimming knob to provide ideal light for plants at different stages.
Grow-It-LED Excalibur King Series 400W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
Features:
The Grow-it-LED is a commercial-grade LED grow light that can easily replace DE HPS lamps with a power of up to 650 watts, and provides a variety of spectrum options, allowing your indoor garden or planting operations to have excellent flexibility. The Excalibur King series includes the spectrum package you need to provide tiered pricing and spectrum options. These are some of the best LED plant growth lights on the market, with a passive cooling design that provides completely silent operation. Each LED is under-driven to improve efficiency and service life, so you can get 100,000 hours of service life from this system.
Below are the features you should expect to find in high-quality LED illumination for growing plants.
1. Color Spectrum for Plants
Why do plants grown outdoors do well? That’s because the sunlight contains full-spectrum colors the plants need for growth and development. This means that you should look for a model with such capabilities. Full-spectrum LEDs provide all the important hues and colors for different stages of plant growth. The most important colors are:
Blue light. This enables the plants to thrive during their early stages. They are able to absorb it during their vegetative stage.
Purple light. The purple color is also necessary for the vegetative stage. However, it is not very effective for photosynthesis like blue illumination.
Red light. Plants need this color in their later stages of development. It also helps buds to flower.
White light. You can use the white color alone since it has all the color spectrums required by plants in all their development stages.
2. Light Intensity
The light intensity of LED grow lights is determined by Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR). The PAR is usually the type or amount of illumination that LED grow lights produce. In this way you can regulate the photosynthetic features of sunlight that plants need.
The ordinary bulbs produce less PAR. It explains why they are not commonly used in indoor gardens.
Light intensity is the measure of the amount of illumination that can produce photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a series of chemical reactions that are responsible for producing glucose and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide. The reaction requires illumination energy in order to work.
You can determine intensity in 2 ways:
Wavelength
Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR).
The wavelength, measured in nanometers, determines what part of the spectrum a plant uses for photosynthesis. The PAR determines how much energy there is in those wavelengths.
3. Types of PAR
There are three main types of PAR: blue light, red light, and infrared (IR).
Grow illumination with a high PAR rating fits better for growing plants. These ones are the brightest and they are very good for plants since they greatly enhance the development of leaves. They also have the required amount of photons that plants need for flowering and growth.
Lack of enough luminosity may cause the leaves to turn yellowish. You should check the recommended footprint by the manufacturer. This is the easiest way to know the best grow illumination that will be suitable for your plants. Some manufacturers list it as PPF (Photosynthetic Photon Flux).
4. Grow Light Power Consumption
The good news is that these types of lights are very cost-effective. You need little power to run them. However, their power consumption differs from one model to the other which means that some consume a lot of electricity. A model that produces bright light without consuming a lot of electricity can be a great choice.
The amount of power the unit consumes is determined in watts. In other words, models with high wattage are likely to consume more power. However, models with low wattage may not provide the required level of brightness. A model with at least 1000W will be a great option.
5. Lighting Footprint
Even if brighter illumination may help your plants to produce better yields, sometimes it may be very dangerous and may cause your plants to dry due to too much heat. Therefore, you need to determine the best amount of illumination that is suitable for your plants.
To do this, measure the size of the area you would want the light to project. This area is known as the footprint. LED lights can only cover a limited area or footprint.
Therefore, you need to ensure that the model you have chosen matches the area you would like the light to cover.
In short, the illumination footprint provided by the LED luminosity should not be more than the growing space because this might cause the leaves to bleach or curl. It will also be a waste of electricity.
6. Plant Photoperiods
This simply refers to the amount of light you give the plants within 24 hours. When growing plants outdoors, they have a limited photoperiod since they use sunlight. In most cases, the plants will be subjected to sun for 24 hours during the day or less depending on the season.
Growing plants indoors allows you to extend the photoperiods of plants according to your requirement since you can leave the LED grow illumination even for 24-hours.
As a result, plants grown indoors may grow faster than those grown outdoors especially during the winter.
LED grow light comes with many advantages for indoor gardens as compared to other types of illumination. They are highly effective since they produce a wide range of colors required by plants. In case you have been considering purchasing a suitable model for your indoor garden, we hope that you have learned something from this guide.
October 20, 2023