Plant growth is driven by light, making the right lighting set-up for your crops paramount. You would think then that there would be a standard for LED setups. However, this is far from the case. LED grow lights come in all different strengths, colors, and combinations of the two.

This means, for commercial growers, it is imperative to find the right light for your crops.

What is the Full Spectrum?

We distinguish the spectrum according to the wavelength of sunlight. The solar spectrum can be divided into visible light and invisible light.

The wavelength of visible light is 400～760nm. The wavelength of this interval can be divided into red (770～622nm), orange (622～597nm), yellow (597～577nm), green (577～492nm), cyan, blue (492 ～455nm), purple (455～390nm), etc. The spectrum of these wavelengths is white light when combined.

Invisible light is divided into two types: infrared light located outside the red light, with a wavelength greater than 760nm, up to 5300nm; ultraviolet light located outside the violet light, wavelength 290–400nm.

Therefore, the wavelength of 290nm-5300nm, or even longer wavelengths, is called the full spectrum.

What are the Best Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights?

The wavelength of the full spectrum includes 290nm-5300nm, or even longer. So do the full spectrum LED grow lights refer to the LED grow lights with a wavelength of 290nm-5300nm?

At present, most LED grow light manufacturers claim that their LED grow lamps are full-spectrum LED grow lamps, but the wavelength of the LED plant lights is only 400nm-760nm. Although it contains blue and red light that are most conducive to plant growth.

In fact, this is not a full-spectrum LED grow light.

The light source of the full-spectrum LED grow lamps should include white LEDs, blue LEDs, red LEDs, UV LEDs, and IR LEDs. The combination of these light sources can be regarded as a real best full spectrum LED grow light.

Best Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights Recommend

ECO Farm 660W Commercial Full Spectrum LED Grow Light

Features:

ECO Farm LED grow light with 6 removable passive-cooled led bars to ensure higher light intensity, less light decay and better PAR values than ordinary LED chips. Max 2.5g yield per wattage with 30% higher average PPFD and 50% greater yield & quality compared with other /Blurple/HPS lamps. 2160 LED chips consume only 660W, perfect coverage for 4x4ft, helping you achieve maximum quality and quantity. This grow light has a full-cycle spectrum, which contains 2112 LM301b 3030 white chips + 48 Osram 660nm Red chips, and optimized plants growth at every stage of its development, from seeds to harvest. It is composed of 6 independent light bars with aluminium cooling fins, so the plant grow lighting fixture manages excellent heat dissipation. Compared to the quantum board led grow lights, it dissipates heat faster and achieves lower surface temperature. No need to worry about burning your plants and the light fixture would last a longer lifetime.

Sunking Model X 660w LED Grow Light

Features:

Capable of supporting photosynthesis, the LED grow lights are for places where there is little to no sunlight. It’s perfect for home use, greenhouse use, and laboratory use, the bulb is sure to provide flowering results. Ideal for indoor gardens, hydroponics, and aquatic plants, these grow lights are essential in promoting perfect plant growth and maturity. Maximize your yields & profits with this LED Grow Light. Switch from HPS to it and increase your yields & profits 30–70+% without adding any additional heat, energy costs or cooling requirements. LEDs can deliver more usable light per watt than traditional grow lighting.

HI-PAR 660w LED Grow Light

Features:

The HI-PAR 660w LED Spectro is an innovative true full-spectrum LED fixture, with a futuristic design unlike anything else. HI-PAR 660w LED Spectro delivers maximum performance and efficiency with removable LED bars for customisation while maintaining the highest possible output and huge coverage. SPECTRO 660w LED is built tough for durability and is compatible with the HI-PAR Control Station V2. And SPECTRO is designed for best use for both vegetative and heavy flowering plants.

Do Full Spectrum LED Grow lights take longer to flower than CMH lights?

Both full-spectrum LED lights and CMH lights are strong performers for flowering. How long flowering takes depends on a lot of factors, including hours of light, temperature, humidity level, and the light spectrum that bathes the plants. Older “burple” LEDs, with only blue- and red-emitting diodes will not flower as well as a CMH (ceramic metal halide) or a newer full-spectrum LED fixture. Both CMH and full-spectrum LEDs approximate sunlight, so they include blue, red, and good vegetative wavelengths, such as green and yellow.

Many high-quality, newer LEDs allow you to adjust the spectrum; lower-cost LEDs usually do not adjust. For flowering under an LED fixture, adjust the spectrum to give plants considerably more red and some additional blue. Adjustable LED fixtures sometimes have pre-set levels for propagation and flowering.

Although good for flowering, CMH grow lights do not allow for adjusting the spectrum. To add red during flowering, consider replacing the CMH bulb temporarily with an HPS (high-pressure sodium) bulb that is compatible with your CMH fixture. It will provide higher levels of orange and red and accelerate budding and flowering.

Conclusion

Traditional LED arrays tend to only emit the spectrums that activate after the photorespiration period takes place ( grow lights with dominant red and blue LEDs). This is the reason traditional LED lights sometimes finish cycles with immature plants that produce low yields. By supplying plants with only the limited “beneficial” spectrums (pink light) from traditional LED arrays, you are essentially putting them into a permanent chill mode. You may end up with some healthy plants, but they will not yield as much or be as healthy as plants under a full spectrum LED grow light. If red and blue light were truly all that plants needed then why do HPS lights which don’t have much of either color outperform them? The answer is intensity which plants go for first then spectrum. When you give your plants both intensity and full spectrum light they will pay you back every time.