Mars Hydro FC-E 3000 300W LED Grow Light VS ChilLED Tech Growcraft X6 mini 330W LED Grow Light
Plants grown indoors typically don’t receive as much light as those that spend their lives outdoors. Many houseplants are specifically suited to lower-light conditions and will flourish inside. Some, however, may need supplemental lighting inside to flourish. Most seedlings that are started indoors to be moved outside when the time is right also get a better start when they’re helped along by grow lights.
Whatever the case, your plants will let you know they’re not happy and one of the steps you can take to address their distress is to set up some grow lights. Additional light will fuel the plants’ ability to photosynthesize, which in turn leads to the ability to create fuel for growth.
Choosing a Grow Light Type — Grow Bulbs vs. Lighting Fixtures
Should you swap out the bulbs in an existing light with special grow bulbs, or should you buy a brand new fixture with built-in lighting? It all depends on what you’re looking for — convenience and cost or specialized quality.
Grow light bulbs are the cheaper option. For most people, it’s easier to use as well. Just take an old lamp or ceiling light that needs bulb replacement, and pop in a specially-designed grow bulb.
Grow light fixtures are more expensive, but they offer a more holistic solution. A single fixture can provide the illumination for multiple plants, dispersing the lighting evenly throughout the space. Because these fixtures are specifically designed for grow light purposes, they tend to provide a fuller light spectrum range than cheaper light bulbs.
What Color Light is Best for Plant Growth?
Violet-blue light in the 400–520 nanometer range encourages chlorophyll absorption, photosynthesis, and growth.
Red light in the 610–720 spectrum range promotes flowering and budding.
Grow lights should provide the proper spectrum of light for photosynthesis, which key to plant growth. Before purchasing a light, be sure to check out the provided color spectrum. Lights that provide a full spectrum are the ideal choice for your growing space.
This is where LED lights come in handy. Most LED growing lights offer both types of color spectrum lighting, so you can get all the benefits.
Mars Hydro FC-E 3000 300W LED Grow Light
Features:
This Mars Hydro LED grow light with 1184pcs BridgeLux Diodes & Meanwell Driver, market-leading PPF 2.7 µmol/J, Max 2.5g yield/watt with 30% higher Average PPE, more cost-effective compared with other same type lights.Only consumes 300W, perfectly cover 3x3ft (personal), 2.5x2.5ft (commercial) grow space. Built-in removable bars interval & disability enable the exact & dynamic PPFD control over each of the plant growing stages, FC-E3000 detachable bars deliver highly uniform adjustable, PPFD levels throughout the plant canopy, best for more uniform Density Buds. Real Aluminum heatsink together with 4 slim profile passively cooled bars (THINNER & LARGER surface) and detachable Meanwell Driver, create less heat, save 50% energy than other old grow lights.
ChilLED Tech Growcraft X6 mini 330W LED Grow Light
Features:
The ChilLED LED Grow Light features six light bars that provide a footprint of up to 2 x 4. With a compact 1.375" design, it hangs easily in a variety of growing areas. This 6-strip commercial LED grow light is designed and manufactured in the USA with a choice of flowering or plant growth optimized lights to suit your needs. ChilLED LED grow lights can maximize your yield and profit. Switch from HPS to ChilLED and increase your yield and profits by over by 30–70% without adding any additional heat, energy costs or cooling requirements. Market-leading efficiency combined with our adjustable maximum yield spectrum equals unmatched performance. This grow light uses the highest build and component quality — never sacrificed for profit. ChilLED grow lights are built to last.
How to Choose the Best Grow Light for Your Indoor Garden
Grow lights provide a convenient, economical source of artificial sunshine, so your seedlings, indoor herb gardens, and houseplants can thrive throughout the year.
The lights and all-inclusive kits are easy to use, but there’s a huge variety of lamps to choose from.
From LED strips to fluorescent tubes, each has its own characteristics and strengths. And a basic understanding of their features can help you make a more effective decision when purchasing.
Let’s dig into the details a bit.
Why Grow Lights?
For plants to develop in a healthy manner, they need to capture and convert energy from the sun. This is the process of photosynthesis, and it provides plants with the fuel needed for vigorous development.
A vertical picture of lettuce plants growing hydroponically in an indoor garden under a lamp on a soft focus background.
In the absence of adequate sunshine, plants can become leggy, stretch for the sun, and fail to thrive.
Grow lights provide an artificial source of luminous energy, providing the different frequencies in the color spectrum that plants need throughout all their phases of their development — from sprouting as seedlings to setting fruit.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
The sun emits all the frequencies found within the electromagnetic spectrum, including those of visible light — violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red.
A close up of two pots of microgreens growing indoors under a lamp, on a soft focus background.
These are the frequencies plants need for normal development.
Blue — Blue is the first color absorbed by plants and is essential at the beginning, or vegetative, stage.
Purple — Purple also helps in the vegetative stage, although purple by itself does not provide effective energy for photosynthesis.
Green — Green is primarily reflected, but small amounts are retained and contribute to energy conversion.
Yellow — Yellow is the least effective for the purpose of photosynthesis.
Red — Red is needed in the mature, flowering stage for blooms to form and is most effective when combined with blue. Red alone should not be used in the early, vegetative stages.
White — White is the combination of all colors in the visible light spectrum and can be used effectively for all stages of a plant’s development.
So, for seedlings and leafy green vegetables, higher spectrum bulbs in the blue range are required.
But if you want plants to flower and set fruit, you’ll also need low spectrum red colors.
Or, you can make things easy. Use a full spectrum, white bulb to satisfy all stages of cultivation.
Lumens vs. Watts
It used to be that a bulb’s brightness was indicated by wattage. For example, a 100-watt bulb gave one and a half times the luminosity of a 40-watt bulb.
A close up of frilly lettuce plants growing indoors under a lamp on a soft focus background.
But due to the advent of energy efficient bulbs, wattage is no longer a good indicator of brightness. Wattage simply shows the amount of power drawn to produce a lamp’s brightness — which is now commonly indicated by lumens instead.
For example, an energy-efficient LED of 1,600 lumens has the equivalent brightness of one 100-watt bulb — but it only consumes up to 22 watts of power. And a comparably bright CFL bulb will use around 26 watts.
Basically, the higher the lumen value, the brighter the light will be. For seedlings, approximately 2,000 lumens per square foot is adequate. Flowering crops can require as much as 10,000 lumens per square foot.
Conclusion
LED grow lights are incredibly effective in growing plants and are guaranteed to give you the best quality harvest! LED grow lights are designed to be energy-efficient and help save on electricity costs. The LED bulbs are highly durable, so they last a long time and don’t require frequent replacements. LED grow lights are usually more affordable than other grow lights such as HPS or MH lights. These lights are also great if you need a grow light that cools down quickly; within a few seconds of turning the light off, the temperature of the bulb stays cool.
Happy growing!
