If you want to grow the best plants, then you need the best LED grow lights, but what’s so great about LED grow lights?

It doesn’t matter what you plant. High-quality LED grow lights are the key to maximizing yield and improving quality.

What is the different type of LED Grow Lights?

LED grow lights come in different forms, so it’s imperative to research all of them to find the best fit for your growing needs

LED Grow Light Panels
The most common type of LED Grow Lights is panels. Panels are the most common type of LED grow light. They include heatsinks for removing heat, a driver (think of it as a ballast), and often come with a warranty. Most LED grow lights are synonymous with LED pannel in the market and are the only type of best LED grow light and lights suitable for total stage growth.

Advantages:

Full-spectrum, which can be customized and combined for both the vegetative and flowering stage

Comes turnkey for a standard house outlet

Very long lifespan, with the bulbs, typically lasting for decades.

Disadvantages:

The most expensive type of LED grow light

LED Grow Light Bars
Many growers use LED bars as a simple way to expand their lighting footprint or change their natural light and spectrum. LED Bars come in different spectrums and are single rows of diodes. LED bars are not used in the entire growing cycle, i.e., from plant to seed, but as supplemental lighting to the primary light source.

Advantages:

Can easily replace T5 fixtures to increase PAR and less energy consumption

Some units come as turnkey and can work with a standard 120V house outlet

Disadvantages:

Most use a single spectrum with no switching options.

It cannot be used for a complete growth cycle, but more as supplementing, with the need to purchase multiple bars to use only light type.

LED Grow Light Bulbs
An LED grows light bulb is a single LED bulb. Like LED bars, they are restricted to growing plants until the flowering stage.

But, they can be a great asset for small growth, like leafy vegetables or smaller plants.

Advantages:

Made for a standard light socket

It gives the flexibility to create your preferred spectrum by mixing and matching.

Disadvantages:

Multiple bulbs required

A reflective hood may be required

Spider Farmer® G4500 430W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light

Features:

Spider Farmer LED grow light adopts a unique light bar design to provide more even and comprehensive canopy coverage, especially at the edge of the planting area. With 1484 Bridgelux diodes, the G4500 grow light is capable of delivering 430 watts of power to an impressive 2.8umol/J PPE, covering 4×2 feet of plant growth over a full cycle.

Fluence SPYDR 2i 33" LED Grow Light

Features:

The Fluence LED grow light is designed for multi-layer cultivation — from vegetable to flowering — with a PPF of up to 1,250 µmol/s for the 2i 33". SPYDR 2i is a high performance toplighting solution for commercial horticultural cultivation. Designed for growers Pushing the limits with high PPFD cultivation practices. Not suitable for growing without supplemental CO2. With an upgraded form factor, the SPYDR 2 series is a plug-and-play solution that works out of the box for faster installation. 

What Size LED Grow Light Do I Need?

How Many Watts Per Square Foot For LED Grow Lights?
Using wattage to calculate the size of your led grow lights was considered a good way to calculate the size of your led grow lights. You may have read about it in other articles, so let’s take a quick look.

Generally, a range of25–50 watts per square foot is considered adequate for most plants in the vegetative stage, while flowering plants may require a higher wattage of40–60 watts per square foot.

However, some high-light plants, such as tomatoes and peppers, may require even higher wattage levels. It’s important to note that the efficiency and quality of the LED grow light can also impact the recommended wattage per square foot, as some high-quality LED lights may require less wattage to achieve the same level of light output as lower-quality lights. Additionally, the hanging height between the LED light and the plants will also impact the intensity of the light and the recommended wattage per square foot.

Overall, determining the optimal wattage per square foot for LED grow lights will require careful consideration of the specific needs of the plants being grown and the quality and efficiency of the LED grow light being used.

HPS to LED Equivalency
HPS (High-Pressure Sodium) grow lights have been a popular choice for indoor plant cultivation for many years. However, with advancements in LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology, more and more growers are making the switch to LED grow lights.

As a general rule, a high-quality LED grow light will produce the same amount of light as an HPS grow lighting with approximately30–50% less wattage. For example, if you are currently using a 1000-watt HPS light, you may only need a 500–700 watt LED light to achieve the same level of lamp output.

How Much PPFD Per Square Foot For LED Grow Lights?
PPFD is easier to understand because it expresses the relationship between area and value explicitly in the unit of measure. PPFD is typically measured in units of micromoles per square meter per second (μmol/m²/s). That is to say, if you want to know how much PPFD per square foot you need, just do a conversion between square meters and square feet.

1 square foot = 0.0929 square meter

PPFD (µmol/m²/s) x 0.0929 = PPFD (µmol/ft²/s)

E.G. : 600 μmol/m²/s x 0.0929 = 55.74 µmol/ft²/s

So, for example, a plant in the vegetative stage would require approximately 37.2–55.8 µmol/ft²/s (400–600 µmol/m²/s x 0.0929), and a plant in the flowering would require approximately 74.3–92.9 µmol/ft²/s (800–1000 µmol/m²/s x 0.0929). However, this way is not common to see and use to find out the size of your lamp. The PPFD(µmol/m²/s), considered in other articles as usable PPF, is the more common measurement.

Conclusion

If you enjoy gardening indoors, it’s crucial to provide your plants with everything they need to thrive, including proper lighting. In addition to water and nutrients, plants need sufficient light to grow.

If you’re growing plants indoors, you need to choose the best lighting options. While there are a variety of options, LED grow lights are the most commonly used type of lighting for indoor cultivation.