EYE HORTILUX Ascend LED 350-ES Grow Light VS AGLEX M320 LED Grow Light Bar for Indoor Plants

LED grow lights are becoming the go-to for hobby hydroponic gardeners and for good reason. LED grow lights are overall more efficient and have a longer lifespan. There are now so many different grow lights to choose from.

How Do Plants Use Light

Horticulture lighting is a science of spectroscopy that explores the interaction between plant biology and electromagnetic radiation. The sun propagates its energy through electromagnetic radiation which releases packets of energy called photons. Each photon carries a fixed amount of energy that causes the photon to vibrate or oscillate. The distance of one full cycle of the oscillation is referred to as its wavelength. The radiation spectrum of sunlight has wavelengths spanning from 200 nm to greater than 1000 nm. A very small part of this spectrum i.e. between the wavelengths 380 and 780 nm is capable of exciting the retina of the human eye and produces a visual sensation. This visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is called visible light. Coincidentally, this is almost the same range of wavelengths that plants react to (400 nm to 700 nm).

When the radiant energy of a single wavelength within the visible spectrum is viewed by the human eye, it appears to be of a single spectral color. In plants, the radiant energy of a single wavelength is utilized to drive photosynthesis, a photochemical reaction within the chloroplasts of plant cells. A chloroplast is an organelle that contains stacks of membrane-bound compartments called thylakoids. The surface layer (membrane) of the thylakoid is where chlorophyll, the key photosynthetic photoreceptor, resides.

Chlorophyll absorbs radiant energy from the violet-blue and reddish orange-red wavelengths of sunlight. The energy is used to drive electrons, which are split from water molecules through photolysis, to react with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). The reaction changes this carrier molecule from its oxidized state (NADP+) to its reduced state (NADPH). Photolysis of water also produces oxygen as a byproduct and hydrogen ions (protons) which form a proton gradient (energy gradient). The proton gradient drives the generation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through the action of ATP synthase that is present in the thylakoid membrane.

Photosynthesis proceeds in two phases: light-dependent reactions (light reactions) and light-independent reactions (dark reactions). Products of the light reactions, ATP and NADPH, are used to reduce carbon dioxide and convert it into glucose. Glucose is the energy source used by plants for cellular activities such as protein synthesis or cell division, it can also be passed into other biosynthetic pathways to form DNA. Complex carbohydrates formed by linked glucose molecules can be used to store energy for future needs (starch) or to build the cell wall of plant cells (cellulose). The series of reactions of using ATP and NADPH to produce glucose from carbon dioxide does not involve the use of light, and thus these reactions are called the dark reactions (also known as the Calvin cycle, named after Melvin Calvin who elucidated the pathway).

Plants also use light as a source of information to drive photomorphogenesis and photoperiodism. Photomorphogenesis refers to a developmental adaptation mechanism employed by plants to regulate seed germination, seedling development, organ orientation, cotyledon expansion, stem elongation, stomatal opening, root growth, and other morphological changes. Photoperiodism is a rhythmic characteristic of biological processes developed by plants in response to the variations in day length and dark period. Photoperiodic control is commonly used in horticultural applications to steer plants from vegetative to reproductive growth for induction of early or out-of-season flowering.

EYE HORTILUX Ascend LED 350-ES Grow Light

Features:

Eye Hortilux LED extends the standard LED growing spectrum providing energy outside the PAR range to include ultraviolet (UV) and far-red, promoting stronger plant growth with heavier flowers. The LED 350-ES is for growers with limited space who need lower wattage. This three-bar system will cover a 3×4 space with the same spectrum and benefits as the LED 700-ES. This unit is perfect for the small hobby grower looking to get the highest quality garden in smaller spaces. This LED plant grow light provides a full-spectrum light source of natural light from 380 nm to 780 nm (including UV + IR). This means providing synthetic sunlight for your indoor garden because it provides light covering the entire natural spectrum. For you, this means plants grow faster, yield greater and higher yields at harvest. Unlike traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs, this LED grow light uses high-tech LED chips to get more light with less electricity.

AGLEX M320 LED Grow Light Bar for Indoor Plants

Features:

The AGLEX LED grow light is equipped with an upgraded SMD 3030 chip and 6 high-efficiency aluminum rods to ensure high-efficiency PPE 2.8umol/J, better heat dissipation, and longer service life. Compared with old plant lights, the output per watt can reach up to 2.8 grams, the average PPFD is increased by 30%, and the yield and quality are increased by 50%. It consumes only 320 watts, 672 LED lights, and covers an area of 5 x 6 feet. The 320 watts LED grow light M320 will help you achieve maximum quality and quantity. You can freely control and adjust the light intensity outside the planting tent, without having to go in. It is easy to operate in your hand. It is composed of full-spectrum white 3000K 5000K, red 660 nanometers, and infrared 740 nanometers, which are close to natural sunlight. The spectrum applies to the entire stage of indoor planting. The full-spectrum LED grow light is equipped with 6 high-efficiency aluminum bars.

What are the light requirements of plants?

We all know that plants need light, right? In kindergarten, we all put our seed in a dixie cup and place it on the windowsill. Add the other magical ingredient — water — and up comes the sprout, always moving towards the light.

Plants seem to instinctively “know” that without sunlight their growth will be stunted.

You can’t just use any light you find, however.

We’ve already covered some of the differences in the lighting options available to indoor gardeners, but how do we know which is better? First, we need to know what makes light helpful to a plant in the first place. There are three factors that have a substantial impact on how the light a plant receives will affect its growth. These factors are:

Light Quantity — Historically, light quality has been expressed in units called lumens. While useful to scientific research on light affecting human sight, the term did not accurately account for measuring the photon particles of light coming into contact with a plant. Botanists and horticulturists now prefer to use Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD); an explicit measurement used to calculate the number of photons hitting a given surface — per sq. meter, per second.

A second term of value to plant science is the Daily Light Integral, which is simply a measurement that includes the photon density (PPFD) and the number of hours that a plant spends exposed to that rate of photon contact. Generally speaking, more light is required for flowering than for vegetative growth.

Light Quality — As I mentioned earlier, not just any ‘ol light will do. We need special kinds of lights to grow plants. Why? When we talk about the quality of light, particularly as plants determine it, we are really referring to spectrum — or color. All plants have photoreceptors that are triggered by photons of their respective spectrum entering the plant’s system. When taking light quality under consideration in your own project, ensure that your lights are either full-spectrum or that you have separate lamps to account for the spectrum of light needed at the different stages of growth.

Photoperiod (Light Duration) — The photoperiod is simply the amount of time the plants spend in the light or the dark. It can get a bit more complicated than that, however, as these light/dark cycles can be controlled to manipulate the growth of indoor gardens. A popular example is found in applying large doses of light for 18–20 hours/day throughout the vegetative stage, then cutting the light down to ~12 hours or so to trigger the flowering stage. This is known as photoperiodism and is used to optimize growth and yields.

Why ECO Farm LED Grow Lights are Better for Plant Growth 

Plants need a full spectrum for proper growth. They get this naturally through sunlight, which is a blend of all the colors of the rainbow. When it comes to LED lights, the spectrum colors are referred to as wavelengths in order to be more specific. Because there are many hues of red, for instance, simply say “red” doesn’t cover the entire range of red tones. Plants need wavelengths in both the blue and red spectrum, which drives photosynthesis. However, they also need other colors for various processes. That is why full-spectrum grow lights provide the best light for plants. When you use ECO Farm LED grow lights indoors as greenhouse grow lights, hydroponic grow lights, or simply for your favorite houseplants, you don’t get that horrible off-color from other LED lights. That is because they have a superior color rendering index (CRI) as compared to other manufacturers. The resulting light is natural and not tinged purple, which can make it difficult to observe plant health. The full spectrum grow lights from ECO Farm also provide all the wavelengths in the color spectrum for better plant growth. The resulting light resembles actual sunlight, which is the optimum light for plants.

Conclusion

We hope this resource helped you to decide which LED grow light is right for your indoor garden. When all the information is in one place, the advantages become pretty obvious. We don’t want anybody to make their decision based on outdated information, or stick with yesterday’s technology simply because they don’t understand the new stuff.

Indoor gardening began as a hobbyist pursuit, with little commercial application. Today, indoor agriculture is a standalone industry. Largely in part due to advances in LED lighting technology, commercial growers are harvesting more per plant than ever before.

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