Grow lights allow you to garden almost anywhere and in every season. While grow lights are popular when the spring garden is starting to seed, you can also use them to grow herbs, houseplants, and vegetables year-round.

When you’re looking for the right grow lights for your needs and space, remember to always look for the most environmentally friendly lighting options. Even small efficiencies like placing lights near sunny windows or finding lights with timers can really add up over the years. You’ll feel good knowing you’re starting a green habit like gardening while reducing your overall carbon footprint.

Using the Best Grow Lights for a Seed Start Is Essential

We have a lot of experience starting seeds indoors and know how important it is to provide the right amount of light intensity. Without it, your seedlings will suffer.

We see it time and time again in gardening forums. A new gardener is planting seeds and placing trays on the windowsill. Soon after the seeds germinated, they asked why the seedlings stretched so far and leaned toward the window. Let’s get this out of the way, there is never enough light in a window, even a south-facing one.

Providing the right amount of light produces shorter, sturdier seedlings and strong stems. This is especially important when it is time to place them outdoors in the garden. If the plants are not strong, they will fall over, need to be staked, and are more likely to die from high winds or pests.

ECO Farm MB3 Pro 760W LM301B LED Grow Light

Features:

High efficiency + high yield ECO Farm LED grow light is equipped with tWith 2880 pcs SAMSUNG LM301B diodes+80 Osram 660nm, with high PAR/PPF efficiency up to 2.8 umol/J and powerful output, enabling you to Obtain higher output. Only consumes 760W. The ultra-thin and unique 180° foldable design grow light is easy to stretch or fold. It is very suitable for large-area planting and commercial planting. The perfect coverage area is 4*6 feet. Both sides can be folded freely from 0° to 180°, easy to install, save space, and easy to carry, no need to worry about hurting hands and lights. The dimming knob is ideal for growers to adjust the light intensity according to different growing stages., which provides the needs of each stage of the plant, allows the plant to obtain the perfect growth effect flexibly, increase the yield, and save energy costs at the same time.

Gavita Pro RS 2400e 800W LED Grow Light

Features:

Gavita LED grow lights produce 2400 μmol/s at an impressive 3.0 μmol/J efficiency and provide a broad spectrum of white light and enhanced blue light to help enhance flavor and aroma. This powerful full-spectrum light source is designed for all aspects of plant growth — from the vegetative stage to the end of flowering and when higher light levels are required. Using the Gavita Master EL3 controller, the luminaire can be dimmed by up to 10% without any loss of efficiency. The RS 2400e is built with high quality components including Gavita drivers and custom Gavita branded diodes to deliver the performance and longevity you’ve come to expect from a trusted brand.

How to Choose the Light for Vegetative Growth?

Lumens
The amount of light emitted by a lamp is measured in lumens. The lower the value, the dimmer the light is and vice versa. However, when buying grow lights, remember that the overall power of a lamp is not equal to the number of lumens. The fact is that the measurement of lumens is based on the human eye’s sensitivity to various light wavelengths.

Since humans perceive yellow light best, it outweighs red and blue light. Keep this in mind when checking lumen levels for grow lights. However, plants require blue and red light for better photosynthesis. Therefore, models emitting predominantly yellow light are not the best light for vegetative growth, even if they have a high brightness level.

You can usually find information about two types of lumen measurements provided by the manufacturers. The first is the initial light output, or initial lumens, which represents the power of the light at the maximum efficiency. Mean or design lumens show the average output of the light during the entire life of the lamp.

Wattage
Watts is not related to light color or light output. This measurement shows the power consumption of the grow light. Typically, less efficient lights emit less light per watt of power than high-efficiency models. You should check if the wattage of the grow light is suitable for your power source. Besides, the price depends on this measurement.

Conclusion

With all the LED grow light options on the market today, it can be difficult to knock out the best and stay within your budget. Luckily, we’ve looked at some options that might work in your favor and budget without going overboard. There are many others besides the ones we have listed. But you now know the features to check out before buying. When it comes to choosing the best cheap grow lights online, all is well.