May 17, 2022
One of the elements necessary got the growth of plants is sunlight. Light is important for the growth of all plants for the purpose of photosynthesis. Light is also important for the production of buds.
When a plant is grown outdoors, you can harness the effect of the sun on the plant. However, when it is grown indoors, you need to make sure the right proportion of sunlight reaches it. This is usually achieved by using grow lights in the indoor space.
With plant grower lights, you can control the daily amount of sunlight the plant gets. Also, you do not need to worry about weather conditions, as the grow light would produce constant light for your plants with or without the natural sun.
There are a few benefits of using LED strip lights for plant growth.
Energy-Efficient
LED strip lights are more energy-efficient than traditional grow lights. They use less power and last longer, so you’ll save money in the long run.
Long Lifespan
LED strip lights also have a longer lifespan since they last for 50,000 hours or more, so you won’t have to replace them as often.
Low Heat Output
LED strip lights produce very little heat. It means you won’t have to worry about burning your plants with the heat from the LEDs
ECO Farm DBL3000 Full Spectrum LED Grow Light 320W
Features:
This ECO Farm led grow light is equipped with SAMSUNG LM281B diodes.It draws 320 watts achieving an impressive PPE of 2.5 umol/J, coverage for 3'x3′ of high-yielding full-cycle growth. Simple structure, no fan, no noise. Four aluminum light bars for better heat disappear and stay cool while enabling even light spread. Save you a lot at ventilation and exhaust. Proven high-yield full spectrum(3000K, 5000k, 660nmnm, 30nm) with enhanced deep red 660nm. Born for big buds, Rapid plant response from seed to flower speeds up flowering time and boosts yields. Easy dimming design meets the needs of indoor plants at different stages of growth. The most powerful daisy chain-max up to 15 DBL3000 growing light can be connected, controller available, especially beneficial for home, grow tent, grow room, greenhouse, garden.
Viparspectra KS3000 300W LED Grow Light
Features:
The Viparspectra LED Grow Light is a device that benefits both the grower and the plants. These grow lights are a beneficial and reliable option for your plants. Other brands distribute too much light to the centre and too little light to the outer edges. The larger size of the KS3000 ensures enough light for every plant from corner to center. The KS3000 also enables indoor farms to reduce energy usage. The full spectrum of this grow light includes 3000K warm white, 5000K neutral white and 660nm deep red, making it ideal for all stages of plant growth. It also has the industry-leading photon efficiency of 3.10 μmol/J SAMSUNG LM301H and OSRAM 660nm diodes. Finally, a flexible dimmer allows you to adjust the light intensity from 0% to 100%.
If you’ve never bought a grow light before, it’s easy to make a mistake and get something that’s pricey but close to useless. Everyone’s done it, and some of my first lights were just overpriced paperweights.
However, you don’t have to learn from your mistakes — just listen to what I learned from mine.
Light Spectrum
This is the first thing I need to talk about since it’s definitely the most important one. Nothing else I talk about here will matter if you get a grow light which doesn’t emit light of the right spectrum and your plants will underperform.
Plants also require different types of light in different stages of development, so you’ll have to be careful about that as well.
Most budding plants and plants in the vegetative stage will require a lot of blue light and UV light. This is light of a wavelength between 400 and 500nm, ideally, and some ultraviolet light from 180 to 400nm.
On the other hand, plants in the flowering stage will require more red and infrared light, which is near the top of the spectrum. The light between 620 and 780nm is probably the best, though light slightly higher on the spectrum will also do well.
Most grow lights will list which type of light they emit in their product information so you can’t miss it if you just look carefully. If it’s not listed though, that’s a bad sign and the light is probably not effective, so steer clear of it.
The ideal thing you can do is to get a full-spectrum grow light where you can adjust the light spectrum to your liking, though that can be prohibitively expensive in certain cases.
As a stop-gap measure, some people will go for LED grow lights which feature both blue and red LED’s and can switch between the two instead of the whole spectrum.
It’s vitally important that you get a light which hits the required spectrums of light because that’s what will allow your plants to develop properly and maximize your yield.
Watts
Some people might tell you that the wattage of your lights is unimportant — and it might be, in certain cases, but it does matter, especially with HID lighting.
In short, the more wattage a light has, the more powerful it is, and the more electricity it spends. However, wattage is not directly reflective of the power of the light or the electricity it spends.
It’s most reflective of this for HID lights, less so for LED and fluorescent ones which use less power while having similar brightness to HID lights which use more power.
Manufacturers also tend to use deceptive wording when describing the wattage of their lights.
Don’t look at the wattage stated in large numbers to figure out how strong a light is — look at the “actual power” or “actual wattage” which will be listed somewhere in the product description. This will give you a good gauge of its real power.
Coverage
The size of the grow lights you’re buying, and the coverage they can achieve based on their placement are things you have to consider since you need to be able to cover all of the plants that you’re growing in order to get as much yield as possible.
You also need to consider the shape of the light and how easy it is to adjust. Achieving optimal coverage is not always easy and can become more difficult to do as the plants grow. You’ll definitely have to adjust your grow lights from time to time.
LED lights are usually the most adjustable ones due to having more individual lights, which means that they can be arranged in some non-standard shapes.
Stay Cool
One of the most common mistakes that beginners make is burning their plants with their grow lights and drying them out.
To avoid making that mistake, always check the temperature that a grow light produces at certain distances, compare that to the space you have available and the temperature preference of your plants, then make your choice.
LED lamps with heat sinks and fluorescent lights usually have low heat output and can be placed close to the plants, while HID lights tend to get quite hot, but this also varies from model to model.
Lifespan and Warranty
No grow light will last forever, and depending on the type and model, the lifespan can differ wildly. Some grow lights might not last for more than 3 or 4 seasons while others might last for years.
LED lights are the most long-lasting in general, while HID lights tend to lose their effectiveness the quickest. However, even LED lights can fail quickly if components other than the bulbs themselves are not well-made.
Most manufacturers will provide an estimate on how long their grow light should last. However, they’ll always give you the best-case scenario — cut their estimate in half, and you’ve got a more realistic idea of what the lifespan of the light will be.
No matter the lifespan of the light, always try to get one that has a good warranty attached to it, so you’re secured in case the light fails right out of the box, or something unexpected happens.
A good warranty should be lengthy, but it should also cover most parts of the light, especially the light bulbs, and cover a wide range of possible problems, not just extremely specific manufacturing errors.
Ideally, get a grow light from a manufacturer that allows you to return it for free within 60 to 90 days from the moment of purchase, no questions asked. That’s the best way to make your purchase risk-free.
Set a Budget
When you’re looking at different grow lights you can buy, it’s easy to get carried away and spend more money than you should.
That’s why you need to carefully consider how much money you can spend, set the maximum budget before you even start window shopping and work within that budget.
You can get a decent grow light at any price and getting the maximum possible yield isn’t always the most important thing, especially if you need grow lights well outside your budget to get them.
What about Accessories?
Most grow lights these days come with a lot of bells and whistles attached, which can be a good thing, but that’s not always the case.
Some accessories can be useful, for sure, but there’s no use for an auto-shut-off timer on a light that is too hot and doesn’t offer your plants the type of light that they need to grow.
However, a good rule of thumb is to never buy a grow light just because the accessories seem good. Always look at the core performance first and foremost.
Only look at accessories as the deciding factor if you’re in two minds about lights with similar performance but different accessories.
In conclusion, LED grow lights are the way of the future. They are more energy-efficient, last longer, and don’t emit much heat. It’s important for people growing their plants indoors. LEDs will help you save money on your electricity bill, and these savings will offset the additional cost you’ll pay for your LED grow lights.
October 20, 2023