How to Choose the Best 1000W LED Grow Lights for Indoor Plants (Beginner's Guide)
Gardening under LED grow lights is a popular and effective way to grow indoor plants. When using LED grow lights, it is important to choose full spectrum LED grow lights to maximize plant growth.
Full-spectrum LED grow lights provide the full-spectrum light plants need for photosynthesis. These lights can be used to grow plants from seedlings to mature. They are also ideal for growing plants that require high light, such as tomatoes and peppers.
LED grow lights are available in a variety of sizes, shapes and wattages. They can be used with hydroponic systems, soil systems, or combined with other grow lights.
What Grow Light Setting is Best for Seedlings?
When it comes to growing lights, there are basically 3 different settings that can be used for seedlings. But which one is the best? Let’s take a closer look.
Full spectrum
The first setting is called the “full spectrum”. This means that the light emitted from the grow light covers all of the colors in the visible light spectrum. This is beneficial because it provides your seedlings with the full range of light that they need for healthy growth.
Partial spectrum
The second setting is called the “partial spectrum”. This means that the light emitted from the grow light does not cover all of the colors in the visible light spectrum. Instead, it focuses on a specific range of colors. This can be beneficial if you are trying to encourage certain types of growth in your seedlings such as more compact growth or increased flowering.
Monochromatic
The third and final setting is called “monochromatic”. This means that only a single color of light is emitted from the grow light. While this may seem like it would be bad for your seedlings, monochromatic light can actually be quite beneficial for certain types of plants. For example, blue light is known to promote compact growth in plants, while red light can help to increase flowering. So, which grow light setting should you use for your seedlings?
Ultimately, it depends on what type of growth you are trying to encourage and what your specific goals are. If you’re not sure, starting with a full spectrum grow light is always a good idea. From there, you can experiment with partial or monochromatic settings to see what works best for your plants.
ECO Farm ECOZ 1000W Samsung 301H Chips LED Grow Light With Separately UV+IR Control
Features:
The ECO Farm grow light is equipped with Top Bing Samsung & Osram Chip and brand driver to ensure high-efficiency PPE 2.9umol/J, better heat dissipation, and long service life. Compared with old plant lights, the average PPFD is increased by 30 %, and the yield and quality are increased by 50%. At the same time, it also has the most trustworthy full Cycle Sunlike Spectrum, close to natural sunlight. The spectrum applies to the entire stage of indoor planting. This ECO Farm LED grow light has independent control of the VEG switch, Bloom switch, and UV switch. VEG dimmer controls white light 5000K, one Bloom dimming The device controls white light + red light (3000K+660nm+730nm), and the UV dimmer controls UV 395nm. And there are optional knobs and touch screen controllers.
Spider Farmer SE1000W Dimmable Full Spectrum CO2 LED Grow Light
Features:
Spider Farmer LED Grow Lights feature a uniquely designed extension of 10 to provide more even and complete canopy coverage, especially in exterior growing areas. With 3710 SAMSUNG LM301B diodes, the SE1000W Led Grow Light consumes 1000 watts at 2955 umol/s, achieving an impressive PPE of 2.9 umol/J, covering a high yield full cycle growth of 4'x4'. The dimmer knob is ideal for growers to adjust light intensity for different growth stages. The SE1000W grow light comes with a detachable driver and long power cord to reduce ambient heat in the grow space and extend its lifespan. The LED diodes are coated with water repellent, so there is no need to worry about wet environment.
GrowPros HM960 LED Grow Light For Indoor Plants
Features:
The GrowPros grow light produces 1.8 gram per watts (dried) of crop yield. Generating about 50% more in energy savings over traditional HID and HPS light sources, the HM960 gives you meaningful savings over time. Will not produce the same results without CO2 supplementation. The HM960 Series system runs cool thanks to a passive cooling thermal management system, meaning your lighting systems last longer while retaining high light output levels. A longer lifespan means you can grow crops for many years without needing to replace the lighting system, reducing costs. Indoor plants grow best under full-spectrum lights, which replicate the natural spectrum of the sun. The HM960 Series, with an increased lifespan over traditional, grow light sources, cultivates healthier, happier plants.
How Do Colored Lights Affect Plant Growth?
It’s the time to understand what role each of them plays, we’ll see exactly how colored lights affect plant growth by talking about the two most important lights for plants.
Red Light
Red wavelengths initiate seed germination and root development.
Fluorescent lights produce the red wavelengths, which is why they can be used for growing microgreens indoors.
Let’s state the important: red light is the most efficient for photosynthesis and basically nothing can be done without the red light.
Moreover, red light helps the flowering and fruiting stages and it also prolongs flowering.
Does that make it the answer to what color light is best for plant growth?
The simple answer is no. The truth is that having only red light would result in poor growth. A result could be plants with elongated stems.
Blue Light
So, blue is added to the red in order to maintain the proper shape of plants, to make them grow compact.
Blue light is required for plant growth.
Bluelight photoreceptors influence chlorophyll production and regulate a plant’s retention of water.
We can’t only use blue light either because plants’ growth will be negatively affected.
Which is why there must a combination of blue and red, LED manufacturers offering a fixed ratio of red to blue for greenhouses.
If we were to ask is red or blue light better for plants, the answer would be that there must always be a combination of red and blue for productive plant growth.
So, another answer to what color light is best for plant growth would be: red and blue. Or white light if you choose full-spectrum LEDs.
Yellow and green lights have minimal effect.
White Light
This is a combination of red, blue, and green. It’s the best and it’s the version that comes closest to sunlight. That’s why white light should be our choice for growing plants indoors and even in greenhouses.
White light is also known as full-spectrum. We can get full-spectrum LEDs but we can also get full-spectrum T5 lamps.
By varying the intensities of the individual red, blue and green chips, we get white light.
Full-spectrum growth lights can result in better growth and improve yields over the traditional red/blue lights.
Red/blue lights give off a pink/purple hue and are also known as narrow spectrum. We can use them in greenhouses where the plants are already receiving the full spectrum from the sun.
Warm white vs cool white
Warm has more red and cool has more blue.
That means that we go for warm if we want to flower the plants and help them fruit. Cool white works best for seedlings, microgreens, leafy greens, herbs, etc.
Are Full-Spectrum LED Grow Lights the Best for Plant Growth?
The simplest answer to give if you’re wondering how do colored lights affect plant growth is: go for full-spectrum LED grow lights or go for red/blue spectrum LEDs.
LED stands for light-emitting diode. Their main advantage is that they offer more light with less power consumption. It makes them very efficient and enable us to save on energy costs. Their longevity of 25,000 to 30,000 hours is their second biggest advantage.
Choosing to get full spectrum LED grow lights is the best general solution to growing plants indoors by using just artificial light.
I used the word mimic because the artificial light doesn’t in fact come close to natural sunlight. It’s not surprising considering that sunlight is complex, it’s not only a matter of producing a Color Rendering Index (CRI) over 90.
Full-spectrum LED grow lights are the obvious choice when it comes to answering what color light is best for plant growth because these are the ones that mimic the natural light from the sun.
The second option is to go for red/blue spectrum LEDs but that’s recommended mainly for greenhouse, spaces which already receive a certain amount of sunlight.
Well,
Not all full-spectrum LED grow lights are created equal because not all of them are custom-tailored for rigorous plant growth.
From that, we can draw our own conclusion: we should pay attention when shopping and choose LED grow lights that have been designed for plant growth. Most are not cheap.
Conclusion
In short, LED plant growth lights are the future development direction. They are more energy efficient, last longer, and don’t emit as much heat. This is important for those who grow plants indoors. LEDs will help you save on your electricity bills, and those savings will offset the extra money you pay for LED grow lights.
LEDs are also a great way to save energy, as they use up to 75% less electricity than traditional grow lights like HPS lights. The only downside to LEDs is that they aren’t as bright as other types of lighting, so when you’re working in the garden at night or on an overcast day with low light, you won’t be able to see (but this is easily done by getting some extra high intensity light to solve).
