ECO Farm MB720 Foldable Grow Light Bar VS Sun System RS 1850 LED Grow Light
If you are planning on growing your Cannabis indoors, you most likely have already taken a look at the different lighting options available. Every grower has his or her personal preference for grow lights, and you have probably already received advice about setting up your own lighting system in one way or another. But how do you know which grow light will suit you the best for growing marijuana indoors?
This article will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision that will be best for you. It includes the various options for customization, as well as a few essential tips that are useful for every lighting system.
Uses of Grow Light
Grow light has 4 uses: propagate, growing food, seedlings, and limited light.
Limited Light: Grow light can help indoor plants to grow healthy and strong, especially during the colder months. Grow lights can also be used as artificial lighting for rooms with limited light or no sunlight.
Seedlings: Grow lights can be used to assist with the propagation of indoor plants from seedlings since seedlings need enough light and warm temperature to grow healthy.
Growing Food: Of course, if you have an indoor garden of greens and herbs, you definitely need grow lights for them to grow correctly.
Propagate: If you love propagating plants to give as gifts or as a side hustle, you must have grow lights to properly propagate your indoor plants.
How much full spectrum light does my indoor plant need to survive?
Bearing in mind that some plant species prefer shady conditions this question has no straightforward answer.
A plant needs a to spend a certain amount of time in darkness to fully develop so it’s not simply a case of the more light the better.
If the plant has no other sources of light available then the vegetative phase (when plants are growing but not yet flowering) would benefit from around 12 hours of full spectrum light. This need decreases slightly as the plant enters the flowering stage.
ECO Farm MB720 Foldable Grow Light Bar
Features:
This ECO Farm LED grow light has the popular design of 8 lighting bars focused on distributing more light as even as possible across the plant canopy. High efficacy of 2.7 µmol/j and up to 720 wattage power consumption contribute to high efficiency growing operation that helps you effectively optimize plant growth, enhances the yields quality, and cuts operational costs. Full Spectrum with enhanced red for full cycle grows especially bloom, from cutting/ seedind, vegetative and flowering. This grow light supports Daisy Chain and 0–10V dimming. Providing 4 x 4 ft for both vegetative and flower, the grow light for indoor plants supports all stages of plants’ growing lifecycle, whether used in a tent for personal growers or daisy chained together with up to 75 pcs fixtures in a large commercial operation. The dimming knob is dimmable from 100% to 40% so you may easily adjust the light intensity of the light for the veg and flowering phases.
Sun System RS 1850 LED Grow Light
Features:
The Sun System LED grow light is a 6 rail, foldable LED producing 1850 μmol/s with an efficiency of 2.5 μmol/j. The Sun System RS 1850 utilizes top-bin Sun System-brand diodes to produce a full-spectrum light source. The RS 1850 operates at 120–277 volt. Adding a Gavita EL Master Controller (sold separately) transforms your fixtures into dynamic powerhouses with the versatility to grow light-loving crops or conserve output, both with the same device. Together, these features give you the ability to control up to 500 fixtures. The 10% to 100% dimming range allows you to recreate sunrise, sunset and changing day lengths to create the ideal lighting levels for whatever you’re growing at every stage of growth.
Things To Consider
No matter what your aesthetic or price preference, here’s what you need to know about choosing artificial lights for the plants that you are growing indoors.
Opt for LEDs
Many of the lights available to use indoors for plants are LED, or light emitting diodes, which is a great choice for homeowners growing plants indoors.
“LED is a popular choice because it is very energy efficient,” Longfellow said. “They offer a good light spectrum range. They have also been found to have a longer lifespan.”
LED lights also have a lower heat output than other types of lightbulbs, which helps you to avoid burning your plants.
“Considering the type of source and generally you’re going to want to keep the lights pretty close to the plants the effectiveness drops quickly as you move away from the plants so you have to be especially careful with the heat,” Sundling said. “Given how LED options we have, I don’t really recommend a halogen or incandescent.”
There are other kinds of indoor artificial lights for plants, like High Pressure Sodium (HPS), and compact fluorescent (CFL) lights. Sundling said that HPS lights are more industrial than the average homeowner would need.
“I expect to find that in agricultural situations or growing rooms,” Sundling said. “If people are trying to grow crops at home, they might look at that type of stuff. What I’m geared more towards is houseplants which don’t need quite as much light as a production facility.”
Meanwhile, when comparing LED and CFL lights, Sundling said that the biggest difference is that usually the fluorescent has a narrower spectrum of light.
“The LED is a broader range of nutrients,” Sundling said. “However, fluorescent lighting can provide light to a large amount of space, more so than the LED generally. They have been found to have energy efficiency, but not as much as the LED.”
Check the spectrum
When choosing lights, you also want to make sure that your light has the right spectrum or color of light. The light that plants get from the sun is a full spectrum of colors, but many lights that we use indoors have a limited spectrum.
Sundling said to look at the box. Metrics like “lumens” and “watts” are not all that helpful to choosing lights — the former is a measure of brightness but not necessarily effectiveness, and the latter is a measure of power consumption — but what you want to look out for is the color “temperature” of a light. This indicates the kind of light it will produce, measured in Kelvin, designated by “K,” on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. Cooler colors have a higher K value; warmer colors have a lower value.
You want to choose a grow light labeled as “full spectrum,” but the range of color temperature that is best for your plants will depend on your goals, according to Johnny’s Selected Seeds. The cool color range — 5,000 to 7,000K — will promote vegetative growth and choose a color temperature in the warm range between 3,500 and 4,500K will promote fruiting and flowering.
Regardless of what your goals are, though, grow lights that are labeled as “full spectrum” are ideal for plant growth, though they generally cost more money. If you are not able to purchase one of those, he suggested combining a cool spectrum light with a warm spectrum light to give your plants the maximum benefits.
‘The plants want more colors of light, do everything they do to feed off the light,” Sundling said. “It gets it closer to a full spectrum without having to invest the money in actual full spectrum lights. Look for a bulb at both ends of that range.”
However, this may be easier to get away with for houseplants as opposed to other plants you may grow indoors, like herbs or short-season crops.
“In my opinion, houseplants are less specific than if you were trying to grow flowers or veggies, as those need much more care when it comes to indoor gardening,” Longfellow said. “A simple grow light can be all one needs for maintaining houseplants indoors through the winter. Some plants will benefit more from red or blue lights, while others can benefit under regular white lights. There is a big difference between what one needs for edible plants, versus houseplants.”
Consider cost
There is a wide range of costs when it comes to grow lights depending on which features you choose.
“Some of the smaller ones can be in the $20 range, and larger ones in the hundreds,” Sundling said. “It all depends what sizes and technologies you are looking for. Shopping around is the best way to find one that works for you when it comes to saving money.”
No matter what your budget, though, Sundling said that almost any light is better than doing nothing at all if you want your plants to survive the Maine winter.
“Something is always better than nothing,” Sundling said. “If you’re wondering if your plant will benefit from adding extra light in the winter in Maine, it definitely will.”
Conclusion
With the above information in mind, you know what makes the best grow lights for plants. Likewise, you know what to consider when making your purchases. What more would you need? It’s now up to you to make a decision and go for what you think will suit your needs the best.
