What are the best grow lights for indoor gardens? With so many options, it can be easy for customers to get lost. There are too many options on the market today, including low-quality knockoffs.

If you are looking for a product, you can trust the advice of our professionals.

We searched for the best materials and designs, as well as expert and customer reviews, to find the best grow lights for indoor gardens.

Detailed performance data and recommendations are included in the review. Find out which is the best LED grow lights for you.

Why is light important to your plants?

Providing plants with adequate light is critical to their survival. Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, such as vegetables and herbs, are able to produce nutrients.

The energy of the sun is used by plants. Plants use at least 70% of the sun’s rays in the process of photosynthesis. For plants like vegetables and herbs to survive and thrive, they need sunlight. However, if used in excess, the plant may die.

As a means of earning a living, indoor home gardening has changed the lives of many people. UV lights or LED grow lights allow most plants, such as herbs, to survive in their natural environment without the danger of overexposure to sunlight.

To grow plants successfully indoors, grow lights are essential. Everything has the ability to produce light without undue damage to the plant.

ECO Farm ECOD Samsung UV+ IR 480W Dimmable LED Grow Light

Features:

The ECO Farm full spectrum LED grow light was designed to help enhance photosynthesis so you can enjoy stronger and healthier crops! This linear horticulture lighting fixture produces a broad-spectrum lighting output made for Vertical Farming and indoor use. This premium LED growth light is an energy-efficient system that helps you to make important savings. This full spectrum LED grow lights come with 876pcs leds. Excellent spectrum mimics the sun spectrum, optimizing the whole stages of indoor growing plants from seed to flowering, to maximize the yields and ensure crop quality. It has a 2.8 umol/J efficiency level so you can make sure that this grow light system is a sustainable and eco-friendly solution for your garden. 

GrowPros HM480 LED Grow Light

Features:

This GrowPros grow light, with an increased lifespan over traditional grow light sources, cultivates healthier, happier plants. The HM480 Series produces 1.8 gram per watts (dried) of crop yield. A high-PPFD and PAR indicates high efficacy, or light output produced per expenditure of unit of power. Generating about 50% more in energy savings over traditional HID and HPS light sources, the HM480 gives you meaningful savings over time. Will not produce the same results without CO2 supplementation. A full-spectrum LED rack lighting solution designed for commercial indoor and greenhouse applications, enabling control over the plant cycle from the vegetative stage to the flowering stage.

How LED grow lights differ from other LED lights

There are four main differences between LED grow lights and those developed for other purposes, namely intensity, spectrum, footprint, and proximity.

Intensity
Plants that are typically grown indoors can tolerate a greater intensity of light than humans can under similar conditions. If we are exposed to full-spectrum sunlight, our skin burns and our eyes hurt. Long-term exposure to optimum grow lighting can cause irreparable damage to both.

If plants are supplied with inadequate amounts of light they will become leggy as they strive to get closer to the source. In edible crops, such as microgreens, this results in light, less nutritive dense leaves, and a more woody taste.

Spectrum
In indoor plant production, the light can be manipulated to meet the needs of the plant. For example, if you wish to grow leafy plants or microgreens, where foliage is more important, blue or ‘white’ light is needed.

Although this light has become prevalent in modern living, overexposure has a detrimental effect on our eyes and our melatonin production, which controls our sleep/wake cycle and moderates our immunity levels.

Red light, which stimulates flower and fruiting in plants, induces drowsiness in humans and is used to treat patients with insomnia.

Footprint
The footprint of a light can be mapped. Usually, the light intensity is greatest directly underneath the center of light, with diminishing levels further away. The quality of a grow light can be determined by measuring light levels across its footprint.

Plants that are furthest from the center will receive significantly less light. Growers can use this space to grow plants that require less direct sunlight than those that they would place at the center.

If you are only growing only one crop, the distribution of the light needs to be more even. Quantum boards which spread the individual LED lights out more, seek to improve the quantity and quality of light distribution across the footprint.

Humans are mobile and far more adaptable to light levels. We can move closer or farther away, according to the light intensity in an area. We tend to operate with fewer lights at home, at work, or in other venues. They are hung several feet from our heads and therefore create a larger footprint of less intense light.

Proximity
Typically, plants are grown in a confined area indoors. In order to achieve the required light intensity, an artificial light source needs to be within a few feet of the plant and should be raised as the plants grow.

Humans can tolerate this close proximity for tasks or mood lighting, but consistent exposure would strain our eyes.

Conclusion

This concludes our discussion. We’ve narrowed down over a thousand options on the grow light market to the best options for your indoor garden.

Grow lights are not all created equal. Everyone can find advantages and disadvantages. What buyers want and expect from grow lights is entirely up to them.

It is possible to spend a lot of money on a high-end grow light with all these great properties. Or, if you’re just starting out with indoor plants, a low-cost grow light will do the trick.