The Best Grow Lights for Healthy, Long-Living Plants
You may already be familiar with LED lights, as these are very popular nowadays and are commonly being used for different purposes. Whether you want indoor light or outdoor decorative lights, you will find a ton of options that use LED lights. In case you are a gardening enthusiast, add one of the top-rated grow lights in 2023 to your collection. As full-spectrum grow lights are as good as natural light, they are widely used. LED bulbs, just like fluorescent lights produce light that provides much-needed warmth to indoor plants.
There are so many types of grow lights available in the market, and it’s overwhelming to decide which one will best suit your needs. We have listed some popular LED grow lights, including their features and the benefits they provide.
Finding the Perfect Grow Lights: A Buyer's Guide
What Are the Things You Should Look for When Choosing a High-Quality Grow Light?
Quality build and material
Durability is one of the most important things about a LED light bulb for indoor plant production. If your lights are designed with the best quality material, i.e., polyvinyl chloride, metal, aluminum, etc., then the lamps last for 10 years or more so that you don’t need to worry about your setup in living space. You should buy your energy efficient LED grow lights from the best standard companies.
Brand reputation
The most difficult task is to choose the best brand to purchase your products. However, all the brands have their own specifications, considering that not all options are of equal quality.
When you find all the brand LED lights equal in price and appearance, then you should go for brand reputation. Check the customer reviews, long history, and company research make your decision easier
Quality semiconductor chip
The semiconductor chip serves the purpose of converting electricity to light and also plays an important role in determining the wavelength. For sufficient illumination, we advise you to look for a light that has a chip of at least 3 watts.
What Are Some Key Considerations When Buying a Grow Light?
Electricity consumption
Your LED light bulb operate 10-12 hours regularly, which leads to an increase in the electricity bill.
Read the brand description about the product carefully, as it may help you to choose the best option and save you from trouble in the future. Moreover, always check how many units is the total output.
Plant growing space
Always remember that your space at home is an important factor to note while purchasing the lamps as the size of the lamp depends on the space available in your production area.
Let’s suppose if you are planting in a room, firstly measure the exact size of your room. Then, measure the lighting area size of the lamp that you are considering using for your plant production. The size of your room will also decide how many lamps are used in that specific area.
Furthermore, you should consider that according to the general guidelines, if you are planting high-light plants, you just need to use 32 watts of actual power per square foot, but planting low-light plants like lettuce need 11-18 watt per square foot.
Low heat output
This factor is one of the most important factors choosing the LED lights as it is comprised of two factors:
- Plant protection
- Durability
This factor is important because light having low heat output guarantees that you would not face any damage to your house plants, but it is necessary to keep a smaller distance between the lamp and plant. In contrast, lamps that have high heat output may burn your plants more quickly.
Flexibility and ease of use
Sometimes, you may face some trouble in the adjustment of the lamp as it can not stay horizontal, so you have to prop them to keep them up from your plant. When you buy the best quality lamp, these are more efficient and also easy to use.
Moreover, an adjustable feature of wavelength and light intensity is also an essential part while choosing the best-LED lamps for your plants.
To learn more about all the basics of LED grow lights, watch this video from MIgardener:
Why Should You Consider the Things You Want To Grow Before Buying a Top-Notch Grow Light?
You must know which LED grow light is suitable for which plant as not every light is perfect for all plant types. Every light will do the job according to its specifications, but certain conditions are applied to certain house plants.
Blue lights are used for germination, while red is used for the growth of plants. On the other side, heavy crops need different light, and lighter crops need light to maximize the growth of plants.
So it is important to consider the type of plant you are growing while choosing the energy efficient LED lights.
Full-spectrum LED lights
Although plants can grow under any type of light, the best LED grow light provides the pants with full-spectrum and efficient photosynthesis.
A powerful full spectrum LED grow lights help you to grow your plants more efficiently as sometimes your plant needs blue or red spectrum and also infrared and ultraviolet at some instant. While COB and white light LEDs can grow plants, they aren’t necessarily the most efficient. White LEDs produce only 40% of usable light while wasting the rest in power consumption and heat.
How Can You Know Before Buying Whether the Light Is of the Full Spectrum or Not?
If your package contains a list of both CRI and KELVIN ratings from the brand, it shows that the light is of the full spectrum as the rating shows the color spectrum average between the natural sunshine and solar sunshine.
Always remember, if there is no rating list present within the package, it may not be of the full spectrum, even though it may claim that it is. The product may produce different light colors, but research shows that it produces a distorted spectrum that may damage the plant and leaves.
Top Grow Light Worth Considering in 2023
Sansi Grow Light
– Best Overall
The Sansi Grow Light will have you plants flourishing throughout your home in no time! You get three adjustable LED lamps to shine on your dying plants to bring them back to life. Save a ton on your electric bill with these lights, as they only use 30 watts of power over a whole day. You can use the adjustable gooseneck to focus one light on one plant or pull it back to cover multiple plants.
The clip at the base of the light can be attached to the side of a counter, chair, or shelf so you can place it virtually anywhere. The patented ceramic technology connects directly to the LED chip, which allows the heat and light to work more efficiently. These lights will last practically a lifetime, as they have a lifespan of 25,000 hours. These neat features elevate this grow light from Sansi to the best overall on this list.
- Patented ceramic technology
- Heats and provides light to plants
- Saves money over time
- Light does not stay in position
MARS HYDRO Grow Light
– Runner Up
These LED grow lights help you make your plants grow faster as a natural growth from sunlight. These grow lights have full spectrum 3000K 5000K and IR 660nm 760nm red. It is suitable for all stages of growth. These are scientifically more energy-efficient, which is perfect for the 2’ x 2’ veg stage and also for the 1.5’ x 1.5’ bloom stage.
- These are highly efficient energy-saving plant grow lights
- You can achieve maximum quality much better than the traditional 150w HPS grow system
- This white LED light gives rapid plant responses to the seeds of the flower
- These are noise-free lights that are convenient for home growers as aluminum makes it cool instead of using fans
- Sometimes, it burns leaves during the seedling and veg stage due to heat
EZORKAS Grow Light
– Honorable Mention
These LED lights are made with polyvinyl chloride material. It is suitable for indoor gardens and plants. It has auto-turn on and off 3 cycle timer modes which are its unique property. You can set the timer according to your convenience. It has 9 dimmable modes. These are easy to use as you can connect the adapter to the device, plug it into a switch, and adjust the distance and lighting as needed.
- It has 3 switch modes: red light on, blue light on, and both red and blue light on
- These are used for food production, plant propagation, and indoor gardens and plants
- These grow lights also improve the taste of vegetables
- It improves the quality of flowers and enhances the lengthening flowering time
- It may sometimes give no result to the growth of the seeds
SPIDER FARMER Grow Light
– Contender
These corded electric stainless steel, aluminum grow lights use the latest technology in high-yielding LM301B diodes. It has high efficiency with 2.5 umol/J. It is designed as an upgraded SF series, which has a dimming knob and light switch. It consumes less power than the HPS or other SMG LEDs.
- This is ideal for all growth stages
- It has excellent full-spectrum- white, blue, red, and IR (3000K, 5000K, 60nm, and IR 760 nm)
- The light has multi-connection with unified dimming, which gives benefits for large areas and indoor planting
- Sometimes, all tests show that it is not better than Mars H and other similar grow lights
JUEYINGBAILI Grow Light
– Also Consider
This traditional multicolor LED light is designed with aluminum and polyvinyl chloride, which is the newest with four goose-necks. It solves the trouble of inflexibility of hanging the grow lights and also provides a wider coverage area.
- This is 360-degrees adjustable goose-necks powered by USB and AC power plug
- These LED bulbs extended more than 50,000 hours and provided a steady current
- Its brightness ranges from 20-100% which boosts the lack of sunlight and nourishes the growth of plants at every stage
- You have to prop your grow light to keep them up from your plant as the arm of light wouldn’t stay horizontal
HOOMEDA Grow Light
– Another Great Pick
This red/blue spectrum LED grow light is easy to use and has 10 dimming lights. Its blue spectrum helps the germination of plants, and the red spectrum promotes plant growth. It has auto turn-off specification after arriving at the time of your choice
- It is suitable for indoor plant growth
- This light has an adjustable goose-neck and clips
- It has 3 timing modes
- The light has 60 lamp chips in total, with 39 red and 21 blue lights in which the wavelength of red light is 660nm, and blue is 460nm
- It comes with a foreign plug, so if you face any problem with the plug, you can’t fix it
GHodec Grow Light
– Sleekest
These grow lights are made with metal material, providing white LED light for the production of plants inside homes and indoor gardens. These are also effective when your plant needs extra sunlight during rain, snow, or night.
- Its versatile clips on a lamp are very handy for growing houseplants
- This grow light has a dimming feature that is adjustable according to your needs
- The light has an auto timer of 4 hours, 8 hours, and 12 hours
- Its 50W, 6000W LED light provides a full spectrum
- As it comes with American PowerPoint, there are no specifications for UK users
Mosthink Grow Light
– Most Versatile
These full spectrum grow lights emit wavelengths ranging from 380 nm-800 nm, which is almost equal to natural sunlight. These grow lights have four different brightness variations as 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% so that you can adjust the brightness according to the plant requirements.
- It accelerates photosynthesis as it is effective in the production of indoor plants
- The auto-timer of this light helps maintain the time automatically the next day
- It has a compact design as its cord Is 78 inches long, which is convenient for home and office use
- This light is certified by FCC, CE, ROHS PSE, which gives your plants a healthy life
- If you want to promote seed germination and growth, this light is the best choice
- Maybe these would not work as well as grow lamps for a plant
People Also Asked
A: Definitely no, you should set up a timer of different intervals for your plant as your plant needs a light-dark circle to nourish properly. The light should be provided to the plants almost for 12 hours per day. Now it is your own choice if you want to give a continuous of 12 hrs light or to provide the light with different intervals.
A: If you need to grow the vegetable seeds only, e.g., root crops, green vegetables, etc., then yes, 6500K will grow plants but for the production of fruits and flowers include cucumber, lemons, etc., you also need a lower spectrum light of about 3000K.
A: Red and blue lights are most effective for plant growth. In contrast, yellow and green produce UV lights which can damage plant life. Red and blue lights are used to germinate and growth of the plants.
A: A company with a good reputation provides you an LED that lasts for about 10 years and more in case of normal usage. If a company offers you grow lamps with a life of fewer than 10 years, you should ask for a warranty card or return policy as it is surely a sign of bad quality and cheap material.
