ECO Farm FLD 200W/320W Full Spectrum Dimmable LED Grow Lights VS Kind LED X220 Grow Light For Indoor Plants
With winter upon us, it is the best time to choose your LED grow lights for winter. Plants need a full-color spectrum to grow correctly, especially when you are doing winter indoor growing.
LED grow lights make growing indoors in winter easy to do. The LED lights are specially designed to simulate the natural light that plants need to complete an entire growth cycle.
From seedlings to harvest, LED grow lights offer the latest technology and are extremely energy efficient.
WHY CHOOSE A FULL SPECTRUM LED GROW LIGHT?
If you have done some research online, you may be wondering why everyone seems to be touting full-spectrum LED grow lights. There’s some science behind this, but we’re here to break it down so that it’s easier for you to understand some of the reasons why full-spectrum LED grow lights are considered the best LED grow lights.
Ever wondered why many farmers still prefer to plant outdoors where possible? This despite land scarcity, exposure to the elements, etc.? Well, it turns out that sunlight plays a huge part in this. Sunlight offers the whole spectrum of visible light which is important because many plants require different colors of the light spectrum during different growth stages.
If you only use a certain type of LED grow the plant, it’s likely that your plants will not have the appropriate color spectrum for one of the growth stages. Blue LED lights, for instance, may be great when it comes to encouraging vegetative growth, think plants that grow tall and leafy, but they aren’t so useful if you are at a stage where you want your plant to bud and flower.
In fact, this is where blue LED lights alone may result in not-so-ideal situations where your plants turn out to be busy with minimal buds that can eventually flower. Red LED lights, on the other hand, are really beneficial for the budding and flowering of plants, but this alone is also not sufficient if you want your plants to eventually grow tall and healthy.
That said, you may think that it will be fine for you to just get red and blue LED lights. Well, that’s not the end of the story. While there are different views on the value of ultraviolet light, there has been some research that suggests that the use of ultraviolet light in short bursts can help to boost THC production, i.e. increase the potency of the growing cannabis.
As for white LED light, it isn’t particularly helpful to the growth of the plants, but in an indirect way, it helps you, the grower, better see and resolve any potential problems in your grow room. These aside, research also suggests that plants are used to growing with the full spectrum range that’s available from sunlight, which is probably why the isolated use of blue and red LED grow lights may still not be an ideal way about it.
Since full-spectrum LED grow lights mimic real sunlight, it is probably best to use them in your grow room to achieve the best possible outcome. This is also why all of our recommended LED grow lights below are full-spectrum LED grow lights or at least LED grow lights that come with some combinations of the different spectrums that are essential for particular crops they are designed for.
ECO Farm FLD 200W/320W Full Spectrum Dimmable LED Grow Lights
Features:
This EOC Farm LED grow light with upgraded SMD 3030 chip, FLD 200W uses 800 LED chips that consume only 200W, with perfect coverage for 2x3ft; with a smaller footprint for better crop quality, more cost-effective. Built-in removable bars interval & disability enable the exact dynamic PPFD control over each of plant growing stages, FLD200W easy-to-install detachable bars deliver uniform adjustable PPFD levels throughout plant canopy, best for more uniform Density Buds. With Yield Max spectrum ( white 3000K leds, white 5000K leds, 660nm red led, and 740nm IR leds), innovative design FLD200W LED grow lamp is designed for commercial & home horticulture.
Kind LED X220 Grow Light For Indoor Plants
Features:
The Kind LED X220 LED Grow Light is the latest in innovative grow lighting technology at Kind LED. The X Series has been completely redesigned to merge the best features of their flagship X series grow lights with a form factor that’s been improved to work in smaller grow spaces. Full-spectrum diodes used by white light LED companies were originally designed for home and office use. Kind’s Targeted Full Spectrum is specifically engineered for plants to maximize harvest weight and plant quality. Efficacy measures a light’s capacity for turning electrical energy into photons but does not measure the number of photons that are usable to plants. Most white diodes are cheaper to produce and measure high in efficacy but use a spectrum that creates wasted light for plants.
HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST GROW LIGHT — BUYER’S GUIDE
To select the best grow light, you will need to consider a number of factors.
First, how big is the area that you need to cover? Your grow light should be sufficiently powerful to cover the entire area where you grow your plants. Consider the size of your grow room, including the height and footprint of the space.
You should also consider how many LED grow lights you will need and how they should be placed to maximize coverage. As a general rule, to increase space coverage, you should place more lights adjacent to each other.
Next, what are you growing? Depending on whether you are growing green crops, bushes, trees, etc., you may want to select particular setups that would be most conducive for the plants that you are growing in your grow room.
All LED grow lights that are full-cycle will be able to grow plants from the seedling stage to the flowering stage.
However, some LED grow lights are specifically designed for certain types of growth. One good example would be LED grow lights that are designed to grow cannabis.
There are also LED grow lights that are designed for the indoor gardener when it comes to growing fruits, vegetables, and even flowers.
The type of LED grow light is also important. As you may have realized by now, there are different types of LED grow lights that you can choose from.
Lights that are tailored for growing cannabis and vegetables can have various options in terms of the accompanying features. For example, there are LED grow lights that include single-channel lights (on or off), or two-channel lights that have a vegetable and bloom mode, and lights that can be programmed to set your preferred light schedules and even customize the spectrum and intensity of the lighting.
Programmable LED grows lights are considered one of the best LED grow lights. Reviews will tell you that these are among the advanced versions that make growing your crops close to effortless.
Using LED grow lights because they are supposed to have long useful lives? Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the warranty provided and the reputation of the manufacturer.
Don’t just take the manufacturer’s word for it, read the fine print. Given the large upfront investment that comes with acquiring LED grow lights, you don’t want to end up with the lights breaking down within months and having no recourse because you forgot to check if there was a warranty.
A reliable warranty will help to cover costs of replacing parts and possible repairs down the road, usually, five to six years after you have purchased and used the LED grow lights. Make sure that you get to benefit from the long-term savings that supposedly come along with the best LED grow lights. Reviews will indicate whether the manufacturer is a trustworthy supplier who honors the warranty provided for the product.
Last but not least, your budget is also an important factor when it comes to selecting the best LED to grow light. Obviously, high-quality LED grows lights come at a price. Consider the budget that you are willing to spend, and possibly the potential income you may get from your business if you are growing for profit, and work backward to decide on the best LED grow light that will be value for your money.
Conclusion
Consider your unique growing needs and then match those needs to the grow light that best suits the conditions.
Your winter indoor growing will be more effective when you operate and position LED grow lights to maximum efficiency.
During the winter months, life tends to slow down a bit as we spend more time indoors.
This makes the season an ideal time to use LED grow lights for the winter when you will be able to devote more of your time to your plants.
