LED Grow Lights: An Overview

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LED grow lights are the future of grow light gardening and you have come to the right place to learn all about how to buy, install and use these energy efficient, low heat, long lasting grow lights. Think of this website as a LED grow lights review site.

Firstly, let’s go over the basics – what are grow lights? Grow lights are lights used to stimulate the growth life-cycle of plants indoors. They can be used to expand your gardening space by bringing your garden indoors as well as out. Grow lights can be especially useful if you live in a cold climate where outdoor gardening can be constrained by weather, temperature and light availability year round.

Growing plants under lights indoors is also the best way to increase plant growth and extend the sprouting, growing or flowering season of various plants either indoors or in your greenhouse. If you grow flowering plants you can extend the flowering season, increase the number of blooms and grow blooms out of season. Germinating plants from seed is also most effectively accomplished under grow lights. Growing herbs and vegetables year round, especially in areas with short growing seasons, is also a great use for indoor grow lights.

Grow lights come in a variety of colors, types and sizes and you will want to choose the configuration that works best for the space you have available and the type of plants you would like to germinate, grow or flower.  The color of the light, the intensity and the duration are three initial factors to be considered when choosing grow lights. You may also want to consider the lifetime costs of the various grow light systems and their environmental and financial impact. The space you have available may also impact the type of grow light you buy and the tracks and stands you use to mount it. Heat and water are the other factors to consider as different types of grow lights will have different heat impacts and therefore impact the amount of water and cooling needed for your plants.

Indoor LED grow lights have a variety of uses tailored to specific plants or growing mediums such as hydroponic LED grow lights or LED grow lights for kitchen counter gardens.  LED grow lights come in various sizes, watts and colors.  Popular models include LED grow lights 120w and either blue or red LED grow lights.  As we build out our reviews you’ll learn more about the pros and cons of different types of lights and feel more confident about making the right decision in choosing between the various LED grow lights for sale on the market.

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LED Grow Lights: The Advantages

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The goal for any grow light gardener is to achieve optimal plant growth and development.  This may mean growing tomatoes and herbs during mid winter when days are short, giving seedlings a boost, encouraging an orchid to flower in time for an orchid show or simply growing some herbs and salad greens for the kitchen.

Most amateur gardeners and hobbyists want to be able to achieve these goals without having to purchase and install expensive accessories or deal with high running costs.  The good news is that recent advances in technology mean that the latest LED grow light models offer a highly cost effective and energy efficient solution.  In fact LED technology is proving to be so effective that NASA scientists have been using the lights for their space farms. Here are some of the key advantages over other grow light technologies.

Useful for all stages of plant development – Unlike fluorescent lights for example, which are mostly useful for seedling start up and early stage development, LED grow lights can be used across the entire plant life-cycle from germination through to flowering or fruiting.  LED grow lights work well with either soil based environments or as hydroponic lights.

Emit light at maximum chlorophyll absorption points – When purchasing a grow light the best measure to use for measuring the effectiveness of the light that is being emitted is not lumens but PAR watts.  PAR stands for Photosynthetically Active Radiation and provides a measure of plant utilizable light output.  Lumens measure the brightness of visible light.  Great for lighting up a room but not efficient for plant growth.  Studies have shown that plants do best in red and blue section of the electromagnetic spectrum of light (these are the colors of maximum chlorophyll absorption) and LED grow lights can be tailored to meet these precise wavelengths.  In fact it is even possible to custom blend the red and blue wavelengths to meet the needs of different plant varieties and growing environments.

Longer life-span – A typical LED grow light will last for 50,000 to 100,000 hours.  That is considerably more than a typical HID light such as metal halide, mercury vapor or high pressure sodium.

Low heat signature – This has three benefits.  First LED grow lights can be placed very close to the growing plants without risk of dehydration and scorching; second expensive air conditioning systems or extractor ducts are not needed for most systems; and third less watering is required.

Plug and play – Most HID grow lights systems require a high voltage ballast as part of the installation.  This transforms normal household current into a form that can be used by the light.  Such systems are not needed for LED grow lights.

Eco-friendly – LED plant grow lights do not contain mercury or harmful substances found in other grow light systems.  They are also around 60% more energy efficient than HID lights.

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Led Grow Lights And The Duration Of light

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When planning your led grow lights system it is important to understand that plants need a cycle that includes both activity and rest. Periods of activity are when the plant is exposed to light (photoperiods) and rest periods are when the plant is in darkness and is not carrying out photosynthesis. The dark periods are just as important as the light periods as a regulatory mechanism. The length of darkness directly affects growth, flowering and seeding of many plants.

The ideal photoperiods of plants will vary depending on the type of plant. Specifically, different plant species will have a different photoperiodicity or physiological reaction to day and night length. Finding the right balance between rest periods and active growth periods is an important aspect of implementing a indoor grow lights gardening system.

Plants can be categorized into short day, long day or day neutral plants depending on the number of hours of light per day that they prefer for optimum growth.

Short day plants

Short day plants are happy with less than 12 hours of light per day and may need even shorter periods of light per day (long nights) for optimum flowering. A short day plant will not flower if days are long or if they are subject to artificial light at night, even if for a short time only. Short day plants may need to have their hours of daylight varied in order to satisfy their growth needs.

Long day plants

Plants classified as long day will need more than 14 hours of light per day up to a maximum of around 18 hours per day. Long day plants can become leggy and pale if not exposed to sufficient hours of light per day. To induce flowering they typically need fewer than a certain number of hours of darkness in each 24-hour period.

Day neutral plants

Plants known as day neutral plants are happy with a constant amount of light per day all year; somewhere between 8-12 hours of light per day will be optimum. Their flowing rhythms are not dependent on photoperiodism (day and night length) but on other factors such as developmental stage, temperature or age.

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