Indoor farming has become increasingly popular in recent years, and LED grow lights make it possible. Finding the best LED grow lights for your plants is critical to their growth and overall health, and there are a few key factors to consider when choosing an LED grow light.

Advantages of LED lights for plant growth

Gardening is an activity that can bring joy and peace into our lives. But to get the most out of it, you need the right tools. LED lights are one of the most revolutionary garden tools! As a botany and gardening expert, I’m here to tell you why LED lights can be a huge advantage for your growing plants.

LED lights offer many advantages over other grow light options. For starters, they don’t require a lot of energy to run, which makes them more cost-effective than traditional fluorescent or incandescent bulbs. Plus, they generate very little heat, so they won’t burn your plants or damage their delicate leaves and flowers. Also, since LEDs emit very little UV radiation, there is less risk of sunburn and other damage from overexposure to UV rays.

ECO Farm 480W LM301B Classic Quantum Board

Features:

ECO Farm LED Grow Lights utilize the latest in high yielding LEDs technology today-Samsung LM301B+ diodes, high Energy Efficiency, delivers a powerful light output and uniform canopy penetration to resulting maximum higher yields. Only consumes 480w, running 50% less power than the HPS or other SMD LEDs or Blurple lamps. Veg coverage is 5 x 5 ft, Flowering coverage is 4 x 4 ft. Excellent full spectrum-White and 660nm Red and 730nm Far Red and UV 395nm. 3000K diodes provide more reddish light and the 5000K provides more blueish. The 660nm red and IR light is especially useful during bloom, speeding up flowering time and boosting yields. Turn your seeds into your own supply. And the light looks fairly natural, so it’s good for accurately monitoring plant health. Full-spectrum led grow light, Heatsink height 10mm, extend the service life of lights.No Fan Noise Free design will make your growing life easy and quiet, the same current about the board, making it more stable. allowing your plants to receive more energy.

King Plus UL Series 4000 LED Quantum Board

Features:

KingLED developed the most efficient and safe Quantum LED Grow Light, using SAMSUNG chip (more energy-efficient and brighter), UL power supply (safer, longer use time), high-strength aluminium alloy heat plate (lower operating temperature and not easy to deformation), high-quality products bring the highest cost-effective. No fan No noise, the structure is more simple, lightweight, easy to install, cable special protective cover, waterproof LED panel, far below the traditional LED lamp operating temperature, so that its service life is extended by 100%, high-quality products bring longer lifespan. Blue, White, Red and IR (660–665nm,3000K,5000K and IR 760nm), provide all the spectrum needed for plant growth, let your plants thrive, high-quality products bring higher yield. SAMSUNG chip, energy-saving technology representatives, compared with the traditional LED LIGHT, HPS, while providing efficient lighting, the actual power is only 447.5w, high-quality products bring lower electricity bill

AC Infinity IONBOARD S44 400W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light

Features:

This full spectrum LED grow light is designed with algorithmically positioned Samsung LM301B diodes to maximize plant yield. Features proprietary drivers for dimming, daisy chaining, and interfacing with our smart controllers. Built on a fanless one-piece aluminum plate for heat dissipation and longer diode life. All components are sealed to IP-65 standards for optimum performance even in high temperature and humidity growth environments. Includes a pair of metal rod hangers and rope hangers. This LED grow unit is specially designed for grow tents with internal reflective mylar lining for growing a variety of plants, fruits and vegetables.

HLG-300 V2 Quantum Board LED Grow Light

Features:

The HLG LED grow light draws only 275 watts at the wall and covers up to 3' x 3' area. Great coverage for very low energy use! Each lamp uses two custom-designed high-efficiency white light 4000k quantum boards. The 576 Top-Bin Samsung LM301B LED arrays are mounted on clear anodized aluminum and are dimmable from 90–270W via a top-mounted Mean Well driver. The light has 2 circuit boards, each containing 288 (576 total) Samsung LM301B diodes. Samsung is known to produce top-shelf LED quality, so you won’t have to worry if you decide to go with this quantum board grow light. The boards are placed on a larger aluminum panel with a dimmable Meanwell driver on the opposite side.

Things to Consider

What plant do you plan to grow?
Figuring out the light requirement of your plant is always the first task. Every type of plant has its light compensation point and light saturation point, if you give them light less than its LC point, plants won’t grow well or even die, if you give them light way more than their LS point, it will cause waste and may burn the plants. Please refer to the picture below, see how photosynthesis goes during the light compensation point and light saturation point

Light spectrum
Plant’s photosynthesis activity mostly occurs in the 400–700 nm visible range and converts CO₂ uptake and water into oxygen and glucose. We call PAR 400nm ~ 700nm full spectrum, it works well for most plants that naturally grow under sunshine, but blue and red light stimulates plant photosynthesis most, and the middle part of yellow light works less.

Light intensity
The light intensity is the amount of light your plants need, it will depend on their species and growth stage. Most plants need 10–12 hours of light per day during the vegetative stage and 12–14 hours per day during the flowering stage, remember plants also need sleep. We can measure it with DLI value, the daily light integral, the measurement formula is

DLI（mol/m2/d) = PPFD x light hours/day x 60 minutes x 60 seconds ÷ 1,000,000

Here is the DLI recommendation for some common indoor crops.

According to that formula, we can know the force between light hours and PPFD, for example, if we are going to grow lettuce indoor, and we are going to give 12 hours of light per day, then we need a light that can produce around 324 umol/m2s at a certain distance from light to the plant

14 DLI = 324 PPFD x 12 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds ÷ 1,000,000

PPFD value is affected by the distance between lights and plants, the closer to the light, the PPFD value is bigger, but the light distribution will be more uneven. That’s why we need to consider the light application, to get the ideal light fixture type and power.

Lighting application
The size of your grow space will impact the type of LED grow light you choose, if you do it in a greenhouse with a high roof, then the light will be hanging high, and you will need a more powerful LED grow light to provide adequate coverage; if you do in a vertical farm, the light will be hanging low, then a light with lower power will be better.

Light type
According to your grow space, you’ll know what type of light is best for you. Such as for a greenhouse light, a good light fixture shall be high power and a centralized body to create less shadow, because it can be hanging high, there is enough distance from light to the plants, and the light can be distributed evenly. But for vertical farm light, there is very limited space for hanging the light, a good design shall be low power and decentralized body, to distribute light equally at low distances.

Conclusion

In conclusion, LED lights offer a viable, cost-effective and sustainable way to grow indoor plants. With the right setup and adjustments, it is possible to create the ideal environment for a variety of plants. LED lights are energy efficient, easy to maintain and there are minimal health risks associated with them.