Growing plants indoors doesn’t get enough natural light. Therefore, grow lights are needed to meet the lighting requirements of indoor plants. Choosing the best grow lights for plants can be a daunting task, especially for beginners in houseplant gardening. Keep reading to find the best LED grow lights!

LED grow lights VS Natural Sunlight

The first patent for a grow light was issued in 1912. It is a metal halide for indoor applications. In the 1960s, growers began using LED lights to grow plants indoors.

The sun typically provides a full spectrum year-round. In spring, the days naturally lengthen and seeds germinate naturally using the blue light spectrum.

Flowering and budding occur in late summer, moving into fall when daylight hours decrease. During this time, plants utilize the red light spectrum.

Technology has made it easier to grow. The growing industry has gained the following advantages from new lighting technologies such as LEDs.

Growers can choose to grow plants indoors for small or large operations.

Spider Farmer G860W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light

Features:

This Spider Farmer LED Grow Light features an even peripheral PPFD score for even coverage, ensuring maximum light per plant. The elongated light bar design also ensures a more even distribution of light, reaching all edges and corners. The strip grow light design and the aluminium heatsink on the back contribute to better airflow and good heat dissipation. The G860W Garden Light features a detachable driver and 6.56" long power cord to reduce ambient heat in the grow space for longer life. The LED diodes are coated with water repellent, so they are not afraid of a wet environment. Dimming daisy-chaining allows you to link up to 60 G680W Series grow lights together — dimming multiple lights simultaneously. Widely used in commercial cultivation, vertical farming, home gardens, home cultivation, CO2 systems and hydroponics.

Dio-Tech Satellite Unit 830W LED Grow Light

Features:

Dio-Tech lighting solutions are designed by growers for growers. The result of years of research and development devoted to optimizing plant growth performance. Dio-Tech is powerful enough to not only replace but completely outperform your existing HID lighting, with a lighting formula that provides the ultimate spectrum for your garden at every stage of the plant growth cycle. The Dio-tech 830W LED combines a high-end Osram chip with a built-in dimmer. Dio-Tech 830 starts in F1 mode (flowering spectrum) but has a wide spectrum for excellent vegetative growth.

Benefits of Using LED Grow Lights

A grower will have the following benefits when they incorporate LED grow lights in their growing routine.

Environmental Friendly
LED lights provide a clean energy source for growing plants which is suitable for the environment as you release fewer carbons.

LED lights don’t contain heavy metals like mercury, which can significantly affect the environment.

It means that at the end of the LED lights’ lifespan (usually 6–10 Years), you can safely dispose of the LED lights without worrying about the environmental impact.

Long Lifespan
LEDs last longer than other types of light. They can last for more than 50,000 hours or 6–10 years. It means you won’t have to buy new lighting sources for long. It will be beneficial if you’re growing plants for economic gain.

Reduction in Water Wastage
When the grow room temperatures become too high, your plants may consume more water. LED lights maintain ideal temperatures in the grow room, ensuring that the plants don’t use a lot of water.

Reduction in Energy Costs
Growing large quantities of plants indoors may require several grow lights to cover all their plants. It may quickly become an expensive affair in terms of the electricity consumed.

With LED lights, electricity consumption is low since the lights are very energy efficient. They can consume up to 75% less energy than incandescent lights.

The result is reduced costs to grow your plants which can make your plants growing venture economically viable.

Full Energy Spectrum
LED lights provide all the lighting and energy requirements of your plant. During the different stages of growth, you don’t have to worry about switching out the lights.

The lighting will be sufficient for growing plants through its germination, seedling, vegetative and flowering stages.

Distance to place LED lights when growing plants

How far you place your LED lights can affect the health of your indoor plant. Proper placement of lights will ensure that you regulate the number of lumens your plants are exposed to and the amount of heat they receive.

The placement of grow lights varies for different stages of growth. Below is a breakdown of the heights required for each stage.

Seedling Stage — Place LED lights high in the plant canopy at this stage. You may want to expose the seedlings to too much light to promote faster growth, but if you do, you risk drying out the soil or growing medium from the extra heat. Your seedlings may also not be able to withstand the excess light that causes photoburn.

Plant Growth Stage — During this stage, plants have high light requirements, so it is important to place LED lights near the plant canopy. It helps if you don’t expose the plants to too much light. As you adjust lighting levels during this phase, monitor whether the plants are adversely affected by too much light.

Flowering Period — At this stage it is important to phase out LED grow lights as the plants do not have much lighting needs. Start by positioning the light about 16 inches from the canopy, and gradually increase the distance to 36 inches.

Conclusion

Lighting for growing plants has come a long way and we now have many different technologies to choose from. In this article, we’ve taken a look at the most common lights today, and hope it will help you make the right choice the next time you change your interior lights. If you like it or learn something new, I hope you will share it on your social networks so that more people can learn about it, thank you in advance.