Grow Lights for Indoor Plants and Indoor Gardening: An Overview
Growing plants under lights indoors are something you might have heard about but haven’t attempted. Many people believe growing plants under lights is a costly and complicated business but the truth is anyone with even a little gardening know-how can set up lights for growing plants indoors.
LED grow lights “vary in color” depending on the intended use. But to avoid complexity, I’ll give you this general knowledge: Plants will grow normally if given both red and blue light and provides the most cost-efficient method of growing.
That means you don’t need to find any ultra-high-tech super expensive grow light just to get optimal yields from your plant. There are many grow light in the market, quantum board led grow light can also be a good choice!
What Specifications To Look For In The Best Cheap LED Grow Lights:
1. Light intensity:
The best cheap LED grow lights will provide a light intensity that’s enough to grow your plant from seedling to harvest. That means 20 to 40 moles of light per day.
In order to hit the 40 mole level for maximum yield, you want a grow light that emits between 600 uMols (for 18 hour veg) and 925 uMols (for 12 hour flowering) PPFD of light.
As long as you have sufficient light intensity, you don’t need to worry about wattage which is not an accurate indicator of performance when it comes to grow lights.
2. Good Spectrum:
The best cheap LED grow lights will have a balanced spectrum. Some of the worse performing lights have too much blue or too much red, which leaves you hanging for the Veg or Flowering stage of growth.
Spectrum isn’t a settled science yet, so some grow lights will vary slightly. But generally speaking your LED grow light should use a white spectrum or a balance of blue and red (purple looking). You can find that out by viewing the spectrum chart of each light.
3. Coverage Area:
The best cheap LED grow lights will cover the area you need covered for a good price. Take coverage area claims on lower priced lights with a grain of salt.
Most lights in the “best cheap” category won’t cover beyond 2x2 feet sufficiently.
How Long Should I Leave Grow Lights On?
Plants grown indoors require more hours of light than those grown outdoors. 14 to 18 hours of light per day is recommended for most edible species when grown under artificial lighting. Don’t be tempted to leave the lights on 24-7, however – at least six hours of darkness each day is essential to plant health.
As the plants grow, raise the light fixture accordingly to maintain the optimal distance, which varies depending on the type of bulb used and its wattage (the higher the wattage, the farther away the bulb can be). Here are the basic parameters:
Fluorescent Grow Light: 3 to 12 inches
LED Grow Light :12 to 24 inches
HID Grow Light: 24 to 60 inches
There are many best LED grow light for sale, for photosynthesis to occur and chlorophyll to absorb the maximum amount of light for plant growth, plants use both blue and red light most efficiently. Other spectrums of light, like greens/yellows/oranges, are less useful for photosynthesis due to the amount of chlorophyll b, absorbed largely from blue light, and chlorophyll a, absorbed largely from red and blue light.
It’s worth noting photosynthesis is more complex than just chlorophyll absorption, but it’s important to recognize the fundamental principles.
For growth, blue light is essential to help plants produce healthy stems, increased density, and established roots – all which occur in the early vegetative growth stages. Growth then continues with increased red light absorption, resulting in longer stems, increased leaf and fruit/flowering etc. It’s here that red light plays the dominating role in plant maturity and, therefore, size.
And finally, yield – this comes down to a combination of light spectrums and is often very unique to growers, including growers of several varieties of the same crop (like Cannabis). There’s no one single light spectrum that produces more of a crop – optimal lighting is very much a holistic, ever-changing process. Spider Farmer Quantum Board can be a good choice!
Final thoughts
Indoor growing offers many advantages. The biggest benefits are the most obvious: garden pests can’t get at your plants, and you have total control over the weather.
LEDs are already quite cheap and utilize less energy even though they provide enough intensity for the plants to grow naturally. If you are someone who watches out for their carbon footprint and looks for energy-efficient devices, cheap LED grow light is your best bet.
There are still many options and when choosing something for your grow tent, focus on the area of your indoor garden and the kind of plants you will be growing. A full spectrum LED grow light is obviously the best.