Regular LED light is not recommended for indoor plants due to the lack of natural light. Over time, plants may show signs of light depravation and stop growing. Grow lights are a more efficient and longer-lasting alternative to traditional grow lights, but they can burn or damage plants if they are too intense or positioned too close to the plants.
Green light, although the least efficiently used color in the visible light spectrum, plays a role in photosynthesis and helps with leaf growth on lower parts of the plant. Proper distance between plants and LED lights is crucial, as LEDs are extremely bright and can damage plants if not properly positioned. The proper distance depends on the size, age, and type of plant being grown.
LED grow lights may not harm plants if they are the main light source for their growth, but improper use can cause etiolation. However, LED grow lights do produce some heat, which is not typically enough to cause damage to plants. Some plants with only flowering or growing fruit may have an un interrupted dark cycle consistently every night at the same time. Grow lights typically have UV-A, which can cause damage to the retina.
Overuse of grow lights on indoor plants can be harmful, as seedlings take on a bleached appearance or become stunted after growing under lights. Yellow-green foliage on plants nearest the lights can also be affected. With the advent of affordable and high-quality LED plant lights, it is possible to overuse grow lights on indoor plants.
In conclusion, while LED grow lights can be effective for indoor plants, they may not be as effective as traditional grow lights. Proper distance between plants and LED lights is essential, as LEDs emit light that can damage plants if not properly positioned or positioned.
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Can LED light replace sunlight for plants?
LED grow lights are a unique type of light source that provide a high light output, unlike regular LED lights which focus on lumens. Grow lights, on the other hand, focus on PAR (Parabolic Reflectance) and are designed to grow plants with the lowest light requirements. Regular LED bulbs have a low PAR, meaning they can only grow plants with natural sunlight. Therefore, if you plan to grow larger herbs indoors, you need to invest in a grow-specific LED light with a higher light output. You can find grow-specific LED lights at various online retailers.
Can too much LED light hurt plants?
Excessive exposure to LED light can potentially harm or even kill plants. While LED grow lights are efficient and provide the necessary light spectrum for plant growth, it’s crucial to manage the light intensity and duration to avoid detrimental effects. Plants require optimal light intensity for photosynthesis, and excessive light can lead to photodamage or photoinhibition, disrupting metabolic processes and causing wilting, leaf burn, or stunted growth. Different plant species have different light intensity tolerance levels, so it’s essential to provide the appropriate light intensity based on their specific needs.
Can LED plant lights burn plants?
Inadequate LED grow lights or incorrect setups can cause burns, bleaching, and other harm. Cheap LEDs may overheat or produce too intense light for tender leaves. Unsafe electrical installations can cause fires, putting your home and plants in danger. However, quality LED grow lights like Mars Hydro are designed to produce perfect plant light without unsafe heat or intensity, with efficient fixtures and protective venting/cooling to maintain the right temperature.
Are LED lights bad for indoor plants?
Misinformation or poor decisions can lead to excessive light exposure in plants, causing damage rather than growth spurts. Standard LED lights do not offer the same benefits for plants as other light sources, and improper use can lead to burns or burns. It is crucial to understand the consequences of failing to meet a plant’s light requirements and what happens if they get too much. In some cases, plants may not grow as fast as they normally do, while in others, they may suffer serious damage or die.
Each plant’s sensitivity to light should be considered, and care should be taken to ensure they are placed in an environment that meets their needs. Plants will often let you know when they’re getting too much light, and often, there’s enough time to correct the problem.
Can I use a normal LED light for an aquarium?
Planting plants requires adequate light intensity, but it is recommended to use LED lights instead of fluorescent or compact fluorescent (CF) lights. LEDs produce high brightness with lower power consumption and do not need frequent replacement. Some LED aquarium lights are dimmable, allowing for control over light intensity for different tank requirements. The intensity of a light varies depending on the location in the aquarium. The light spread is another important factor to consider.
Most aquarium lights have a 1-foot light spread, which may not be sufficient for plants outside the window. Shop lights have a larger spread, but may not display the colors of plants and fish. For an 18-24 inch wide aquarium, two aquarium lights or one cheap shop light may be necessary. Some manufacturers offer higher-quality lights with a 120-degree light spread, covering more area than generic brand lights.
Are LED lights OK for aquarium plants?
LED lights are suitable for use in fish tanks to promote plant growth, fish happiness, and oxygen levels for aquatic species. They protect the ecosystem’s balance and are suitable for aquarium planting, coral, and fish species. Our range of affordable, high-performance LED aquarium lights is suitable for tanks of any size, with Small Aquarium LED Light being recommended for smaller tropical and planted tanks.
How far should LED lights be from plants?
LED grow lights should be placed between 12-24 inches away from the top of the canopy during the vegetative stage, as more light is needed for photosynthesis. As plants progress through the flowering stage, their demand for intense light decreases, and the top leaves should be between 18-24 inches from the light source to produce flowers. Depending on the light and desired crop growth, it is not necessary to change the height of the lights during flowering.
Seedlings require less light intensity at the early stages of growth, so it is safe to keep grow lights between 24-36 inches from the top of the soil. LED grow lights should also be placed between 14-36 inches from the top of the plant canopy for cannabis cloning, where clippings or cuttings from a mature plant are used to grow another plant of the same kind. This distance depends on the power of the light and the maturity of the plants.
What color light do plants not grow best in?
The McCree curve reveals that red photons (600nm to 700nm) are the most photosynthetically efficient, followed by green (500nm to 600nm) and blue (400 to 700nm). UVA and Far red photons also contribute to plant growth, but efficiency decreases as wavelengths go outside the PAR range. Blue light, which falls between 400 and 500 nanometers, is crucial for plant growth and shape regulation, although it is the least photosynthetically efficient in the PAR spectrum.
Can LED lights be too close to plants?
To avoid harmful effects of LED light on plants, it is crucial to gradually acclimate them to the light and monitor their growth. The reach of LED grow lights is influenced by factors such as the type of light used, as different lights have varying intensities and coverage areas, making it essential to choose the right light for your plants. Acclimating plants gradually and monitoring their growth is essential for healthy indoor plant growth.
What color LED light is best for plants?
Horticulture lighting primarily focuses on red and blue wavelengths, which are the two most important colors on the visible light spectrum for promoting plant growth. The purple glow in products on the horticulture lighting market is due to the combination of red and blue light. Each color wavelength affects plant growth, as plants are exposed to sunlight in natural outdoor settings. Blue is the most important light for plant growth, as it is easy for chlorophyll to absorb and convert into energy.
Red light is potent when combined with blue light, while orange is similar but less effective. Ultra-violet light, which is harmful to plants, can promote healthy growth as plants work to protect themselves against it. Violet, while not significantly affecting plant growth, can promote color, taste, and smell when used in combination with red and blue lights. Green light helps regulate the “night” cycle and is not needed for plants to grow strong and healthy.
Are red LED lights bad for plants?
The curve indicates that red light is as efficacious as other colors in promoting plant growth, although this finding may be overinterpreted. While not the most efficient color for general illumination, it is among the most effective for promoting plant growth.
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3 months ago I gave up on fussing over expensive houseplants in the cold dark depressing Pacific Northwest and moved to Costa Rica. I weep every time I see the $$$$ plants I struggled to cultivate in the PNW growing wild like weeds along the roadsides. The house I’m renting here has a variegated Monstera deliciosa the size of 3 UPS trucks. Every day I discover new plants: various velvety Philodendrons, Monstera adansonii, giant carnivorous flowers, random orchids, tilandsias, and epiphytic cacti growing wild on every tree. The vines all grow a meter every day. It’s too much. I’m turning feral and delirious and ungovernable! My house and patio are filled with amazing plants that I didn’t pay a cent for. You have a standing invitation to come visit.
I’ve been using regular LED shop lights for my plants for many many years- I get great growth- beautiful blooms- and even vegetables! I’ve grown green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers and of course all the more common green leafies…. they all grew great! I’ve gotten laughed at, berated, name called and even thrown out of plant groups on face book for trying to share this information. I’m so glad that you’re doing this article!
This is the exact same conclusion I came to about lights. White light is preferable for residences where people will be exposed to it. The reduction in energy cost is only of use in major grow operations, where it becomes much more significant. So much information about lights and it just over complicates things for the lay person just trying to grown some nice plants to enjoy
You are hilarious – and clever! I am rethinking lighting instead of overthinking it. I am not a snob WRT plastic tents. IKEA cabinates are a phase. Our great-grandparents grew plants with fresh water, manure (aged) and sunlight; no humidifiers, soil additives, etc. and they had amazing houseplants. Your vibe is what I needed as I am new (1 year) in this plant journey, but I am 70 years old. If I am a successful plant parent some of my plants may outlive me! I love that.
For the last 2 years I’ve been using white 4000K LED lightbulbs (3 of them, about 5000 lumen total), in a “normal” fixture in my living room. My plants are a) totally fine and b) growing towards the fixture/middle of the room, and not towards the window, which is much more aesthetic. One thing you can look into is CRI of the lightbulb, which basically translates into how wide is the spectrum emitted. Most lightbulbs are around 90 CRI, but those that are 95 CRI and above have emission spectrum that correlates a lot better with absorption spectrum of chroroplyll(s). The price is very similar, but you may have to do a bit of digging to find which ones have higher CRI, because well, retailers don’t care
I’ve been growing plants under lights since 1972, but I learned somethings from you today. When I started, the bulb most used was the pinkish fluorescent tubes. I hated them for the same reason that you do. They distort all the colors so badly that it is hard to tell if your plants are healthy. About a year or so later, they came out with wide spectrum tubes, which were white, but very expensive. I found out that I could get the same result by combining one Cool White Deluxe tube and one Warm white Deluxe tube. (Deluxe tube had extra blue phosphors,) At the time and for many years, I used this combination in fluorescent shop lights, which I could buy for about ten dollars. I learned how to make many different shelving units, usually the individual shelves were four feet long and two feet deep. Each shelf would be lit with two shop lights. Each shop light would hold two 40-watt tubes, one cool white and one warm white. There was one big draw back to the system. Four 40-watt tubes burned 160watts of power, but you could grow just about anything under them. A three-shelf system like yours would burn 480 watts. It was expensive, but since I wanted to have my plants, I paid it. Sometime around 2004, natural daylight tubes became available. That was about the time that I learned about the Kelvin scale. Up until then the Kelvin scale was there, but it was usually ignored. You had warm white, cool white, and daylight. warm white was around 2700 K, cool white was around 5500K, daylight was around 6500.
I’m a gardener with an indoor grow setup for years and got into houseplants later when COVID hit. My remote at home office is now in my grow room. Can definitely attest to what you say, especially the pink light being hard on the eyes/brain all day. Turning the room light helps. A little. The things I do for my plants. Pink is great for veggies & carnivorous plants but houseplants definitely grow so much better in real light or fluorescent. Love your articles by the way. Your “whatever” tongue in cheek attitude is awesome.
I used to have fancy bar lights for my aquarium. Temporarily moved to a small apartment, built in the seventies. The living room had a little alcove built for (I presume) the large TV sets of the time. I decided that would be a great spot for my 55g tank, so I used some 2×4 to make a shelf and threw it in there. The alcove had track lighting in the ceiling, which seemed… Pointless, given that it was in a closet. But I had a bunch of hue bulbs left over after the move, so I decided to use those in the track lighting instead of the “aquarium” lights I had before. To my surprise, the plants inside the tank grew quite well with the hue bulbs. I’d even say the plants grew BETTER. I also created my own custom routines specifically for the fish tank, where the color and intensity varried throughout the day. Color temp started at 1600 in the morning, fading to a 6500k “blue” light after about 2 hours, then fading back down from 6500 to 1100 for the last two hours before turning off.
The Quality!!! I know that you don’t upload articles a lot, but every time they come out, it’s always very informative and I know that you put so much time and effort for doing this! At first I watched your articles because it’s fun . But fun mixed with quality information? AHH MAZING!!! Who cares about quantity, what we really need is quality! ❤️❤️❤️ 👍👍👍 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I know what the science says, but through over a decade of growing chillies and other edible greens indoors, my best results have been from cool white light. I’ve even had side by side grows with cool white, warm white, and blurple light, and the one that actually works for fruiting is cool white. It is also best for leafy green growth. My theory is that plants don’t care too much about a lot of red, and love blue. This applies throughout whole the life-cycle. Of course, cool white will have some red, and warm white will have some blue.
Thanks for the info. I appreciate that you pointed out that you tested over 6 months to give tested information. And, yeah, I like how you roll too. Well done! I’m currently shopping to prepare to bring in my happy plants from outside. Every winter they get as sad as me. I’m hoping the lighting will help all of us out.
Great article! One thing I need to point out though is that Lumens is a pretty inaccurate scale for measuring lamp brightness / efficiency when it comes to growing plants, since the measurement was created based on ‘perceived brightness’, i.e. how bright the human eye sees it. However because our eyes see some parts of the spectrum better than others, this distorts our perception (even if the light is completely white). For plants, the value you want to be looking at is the PPF (Photosynthetic Photon Flux). This is simply put a measurement of the amount of photons (within the usable spectrum for plants) that a lamp emits per second. It is muuuch more accurate than Lumens and lets you get a real grasp on the efficiency of the lamp and predict how many Watts you’ll have to put in and how much growth you get out of it. Now, I doubt that any lightbulb at Home Depot will have a PPF rating, and that the purpose of this article is to show budget solutions for hobbyists, but since it is a standard in the grow light industry to publish those ratings (or you can find creators on YouTube that buy lamps, measure them and publish their PPF(D) values), it shouldn’t be that hard to find some for a reasonable price online. Anyways, worth checking out. Keep up the good content!
yes, thank you for showing the results. a lot of gardening/plant articles show the setup, but not the results 1 or 3 or even 6 months later. it’s hard to know what worked or not, when articles just show the initial stages. i’m the same way about pots. I care less about how the pot looks, than I do about how the plant looks I’ll use styrofoam cups, plastic cups, ice cream tubs, 3 or 5-gallon buckets, etc to get more plants into containers, so that I have more plants!
How fun that you were able to germinate the string of heart seeds and grow it into a plant! I, too, enjoy growing plants from seed. Back in January I started a bunch of African Violets from seeds. They have been blooming for several weeks, living under my LED shop lights on a metal shelf set up similar to yours.
I have the same shelf in black! I do two 4 ft lights per shelf and paid about the same for my lights! It’s cool that we basically have the same setup. I’ve also incorporated pulleys into 3 of the 4 shelves, so that I can raise or lower the lights as needed. I mainly start seeds and keep my succulent collection on the shelf, so I don’t have the plastic cover. Nice touch for houseplant happiness!
I lost my shit when you said you weren’t a great example of melanin😂 This is the first article of yours I’ve ever watched. Seen it on my feed once before. I wasn’t interested in house plants until recently. I was forced to take care of a few plants that were dying(ironically). These plants had been gifted to the daughter of a family friend who past away. Now I’m wanting to exchange plants with neighbors and office employees all over my city. This article was great, and entertaining. I’m so jealous of your ability to take such good care of so many.
Thank you for explaining this stuff to me. I’m a reptile keeper, more than a plant keeper. I’ve never had great luck keeping plants before now. But my recent venture into bioactive enclosures has made learning how to keep plants alive a necessity. Pothos is saving my life over here in my humid enclosures, and succulents/cacti in my arid enclosures. Hopefully perusal your vids can help me figure out how to keep more interesting plants alive!
First article I have watched of yours; it came up as a selection on my aquascaping feed and I really enjoyed it. I appreciate your genuine intent of helping others to enjoy the hobby in an affordable manner and observed some cross-over for us wet-thumbs, cheap lights, woohoo! My wife is the houseplant keeper in our relationship and she will love your articles, she is big-time plant rescuer, as well… every rescue is a story, she loves to tell. One plant that we have in our house that everyone enjoys is the sensitive plant (moves when you touch it and has flowers that look like thneeds from The Lorax) that I expect you are familiar with, but I didn’t see in your collection (however, it is the first article I have watched of yours). I sell a lot of shrimp, fish, snails and aquatic plants and have many people over to our house… my wife usually gets in on the action and tries to lure my aquatic peeps into houseplant keeping, she is remarkably successful with her sensitive plant give-aways. If you’ve never kept this plant I highly recommend it, the movement is cool, but when you thee a thneed, it just feels like the world is a better place!
I first became interested in terrariums before planting; I love your article. Although I can cultivate a lot of plants, like spider or snake plants, I find it extremely frustrating and a constant test of patience when it comes to getting lavender seeds to sprout. Your film takes me back to the serene place I left behind.❤
Thanks so much, Nick! I’ve immensely enjoyed this article! I am also Latina and live in the NE, which means I feel you on these brutal winters (though I am older than you so can tell you they’ve gotten much worse in the past 20 yrs). Anyway, this set up and the ideas you’ve given us will help me with my outdoor garden, because I’ll be able to more effectively use my space to start plants from seed before the last frost and thus more efficiently grow food crops for next summer. In the late summer/fall, I’ll be able to better care for my poor succulents (I have many windows, but most get only medium light), and to overwinter both decorative and food plants. This article is genius and you are awesome. Thanks again! 💖
I kinda hated myself because I stopped perusal your articles, then I understood I needed to grow to come back and love your essence more. You make me laugh, relax and also pay attention at the same time, and of course I feel special and included because you make plant jokes and I get them yaaaay ❤️💚 thank yooouuu you are wonderful 🧡
Finally a plant influencer for me, the disenchanted, cheap, queer person! Love your sense of humour. And for saying blurple lights are gross because ick. I do get migraines and grow lights already give me headaches, let alone those damn blurple ones. In my bathroom I use a full spectrum led bulb in the normal ceiling spot and all the plants in there love it. And because it’s just an LED it costs nothing to run all day. Thanks for a good article!
Hi Nick. Just wanted to drop in here and say thanks for the article. I don’t have indoor plants but I did a stupid and purchased a plant that will likely die or go dormant in my climate. I’m wanting to keep it going inside for the next 6 months. Without any kind of set up and a plant soon to be posted, I’ve been stressing. You’ve given me some ideas. Thank you. 🙏😊
I used a combination of shop light fixtures and tubes back in the day. These were 4-foot-long fixtures with a ballast. The tubes I used were cool and warm light. Each fixture had one warm and one cool light. I wasn’t growing year-round but I did keep my plants ( tomatoes, peppers, etc.) under these lights for about 5 to 7 weeks before getting them adjusted to the outside. I also had some incandescent bulbs in the ceiling light fixtures but I don’t know if they were necessary. Anyway, I’m getting ready to upgrade to LEDs for future growing projects and your article has been helpful. One more thing: I noticed that your links for the spotlight LED bulb and the thermometer/hygrometer are the same and go to the hygrometer.
This is a good article! One comment though—you may want to replace the foil with mylar (space blankets). Aluminum foil can create, essentially, focused light like laser beams where the creases create high focal points. I used to use some foil and here and there I had these mysterious holes showing up in leaves that proved to not be a result of pests or disease or fertilization problems. YMMV so obvs isn’t an issue if you’ve never noticed spontaneous idiopathic browning or spotting. 🙃
I’ve been using shop lights for years, but had to switch to the LED ones because they just stopped selling bulbs (so now I get to throw out an entire light fixture every few years, instead of only a bulb, yay environment!!) but it works for plants fine. Always thought I might be doing something “wrong”, but I also don’t care because it works
yup! i had one of those purple lightbulbs, bought it when i was just starting in middleschool, and my entire room was purple all the time! it felt really professional and different than normal light, but it made it hard to do homework at my desk because it was right next to the window where the plants were😅
I have this same shelf set so I will definitely be replicating this set up. I’ve been trying to think of a way to set it up for a while now. I also have a Amazon Lily from a friend that separated her and it has to be by far my favorite plant and yes it does seem to be very rare in America. Loved the article and the plant tour.
I moved to a smaller appartment 2 years ago, and with that came a smaller bathroom. I used to keep all my towels and toiletries in an IKEA “fabrikör” cabinet. Since it couldn’t fit my new bathroom, but I also didn’t want to get rid of it because I liked the old medicine cabinet look, I put it in my moms basement until I could figure out what to do with it. A few months ago I noticed a lot of fellow plant enthusiast making plant cabinets out of IKEA furniture and I went to moms to fetch mine! So looking forward to be able grow some humidity sensitive plants at last!!! I’m hoping to keep maybe some tropical pitcher plants, a batplant (tacca) and maybe even an orchid or two! This was great help for me to decide on wich light to put in there!
Wow, what a refreshing discovery! As I scoured YouTube for grow lights, every recommendation seemed to be pushing the same ‘special growlamp.’ But then I found you, and your flamboyant, gay, or just downright happy attitude exuded the most genuine sincerity I’ve ever come across. Your authenticity is like a breath of fresh air in a sea of monotony. You’ve not only gained a subscriber for life, but also a fan who admires your unique approach to content creation. Keep shining bright and spreading joy!
Hi I’m a botanist and horticulturist. There are very few instances where you need higher or lower UV light or light warmth from the light source. Like if you were running an alkaloid farm. I would go on and on about this but you did great job explaining all of the reasons why. No notes other than talking about how temperature is an important additional variable, especially with temperate orchids.
I just moved to a house in Boca Raton, FL and it has three mature trees in the back yard. Once I trimmed up the undersides it created lovely part shade under which I can hang my stag horn ferns, Christmas cactus, Hoyas, and anything else I manage to make a hanger for. We have such high humidity here as the norm…I’m very interested in your string of pearls growing on a square? Your collection is awesome.
First off, you have an amazing personality and sense of humor. Anyway, I work in a rich retailer’s greenhouse with a wide selection of plants that you own and I have to figure out how the hell to keep them alive, so thank you for sharing your beautiful knowledge. I’ll have to look into your other content, subbed 😀 ps. im now convinced i can create a smaller version of what you made to fit in my tiny 2 bedroom apartment with 5 grown adults living here, thanks!
I have quite the plant set up in my home, almost a walk-in terrarium LOL. I use daylight equivalent LED bulbs for the most part, and the red blue bulb for only the one section for a timed period of the day in only one section where I have a four tiered growing station. I otherwise use windows with additional lighting for those dreaded bleak days. I find the daylight bulbs more enjoyable for me to see the plants, but I might look into investing in green lights for possibly another set up. I have a yellow shooting star hoya that has a home right by the window and totally loves it.. Thanks so much for the inspiration💚
Couple weeks ago I learned about the primary nutrients NPK, I thought it was a pretty deep thing to learn in the gardening and plant-growing world, however you talking about light and which colors affect which aspect of the plant made me realise that you can go even deeper and learn a lot more things. Beautiful set up, completely envy you. Quick question, if I’m in a place where the sun hits indirectly the plants, should I use RGB lights as a complement to it or just leave them with indirect sun light? They’re all indoors as I live in an appartment.
Best of Show !! I just read to clean your wire selves with simply a baking soda wash, avoid dragging anything along a cheeply painted wireshelf, those cheepos spontaneously rusting. I have a huge metro shelf, I get awfully sad losing plants now, they’re as lovable as little animals. Thank you, happy thoughts
Went to a reptile expo a few weeks ago and talked to a guy that is always there selling his terrarium plant cuttings about lighting. And he basically said that “made for reptiles/terrariums/tarantulas/plants” is a big scam, and they mark up their stuff by 3 or 4 times. He pointed me to a website selling generic LEDs and I found a 4500K (I am not a fan of pure white for terrarium lighting) and 850 lumens, which pretty much the same as my previous 4500K tropical plant LED light by Exoterra. The difference is that the LED by Exoterra is 40 dollars, compared to the generic one I found for 9 dollars. And while the Exoterra one is more efficient at 8 watts compared to 10, the one I had did break after a little more than a year of use, and the generic one has a two year guarantee. I don’t have much confidence the Exoterra one could outlast the generic one from my experience. Shop around a bit online, the two numbers you are looking for are kelvin, in the 5000 – 6500K range and lumens, at the 800 – 1200 range pr. 10 watts.
I use full spectrum grow lights only, since the lower leaves of the plants actually make use of green light by bouncing it back to upper leaves. And to be fair, depending on how many plants you have it’s more cost efficient to use LED-lights. Their prices are very reasonable also. I have 2 lights that both have two lamps you can twist around as much as you like, and both sets have 5 plants under them. One light with two lamps costs 40€. What I have noticed tho, is that the light is way too bright (it does come with a dimmer setting and you can choose from super bright to low light) and my maranta burned a bit under it. So, some plants that don’t do well in direct sunlight or even indirect sunlight are currently on their own little corner. Come winter I need to dim the lights a bit and move the others under the light as well.
I have used indoor grow lights for decades. I worked at the largest grow light sales company in the world. When it comes to led lights, most work fine with varying levels of power. Grow bulbs are still better because more energy is produced in the absorbable part of the spectrum. High Intensity Discharge lights need specific bulbs for growing or you face the same problem. The ballast for a shop light and a grow light are usually super similar, but the bulbs are most certainly tuned for their applications. But the real secret is that flashing lights provide as much energy for a plant as direct light. Turns out leaves are a lot like tiny batteries and can only utilize so much light over a given amount of time. This is why light movers are actually a positive use of energy where you get the same output fueling 1.5x or more plants.
5000 Kelvin LEDs work really well for peppers and tomatoes. I don’t really care about the aesthetics, but they look pretty close to natural sunlight. Purple fluorescent grow lights were a real rip off because the purple filter so reduced the total light output that any fluorescent with “white” in the name – cool white, warm white, daylight etc. – worked better. Daylight – 5000 Kelvin – worked best.
Here’s the issue……and the problem with using ‘regular leds’ Leds are individual diodes wired in string and powered by a device called a driver. ‘Regular’ leds are ‘driven’ or powered at a higher current, pushing the diodes to its limit. Pushing a diode to its max, reduces efficiency. Meaning you get less light per watts used that you are paying for. Grow lights are the opposite, and purposely powered or driven at a lower current, but using more diodes. This process makes them more efficient. -Think of it like this…..1 person can carry a 100 pound box, and will look really strong. But if you share the load with 4 people, the work load divided will be less per person, thus allowing more work to be done later. The average ‘regular’ led is probably around 1.2 – 1.6 umol/j. (Micromoles per jule). That’s the amount of photons your getting per watt you have to pay for. While quality grow lights put out between 2.0- 2.9 umol/j. We can use MPG from a car as an example. Your ‘regular’ led gas car gets 1.2 mpg for every gallon you pay for, while my quality ‘grow led car’ gets 2.9 mpg. So while I’m paying more up front, my yield is better, cheaper payment per month on my bill, and lasts 5x longer.
Growlights for house plants but for Marijuana u need the correct spectrum as well and enough par/ light for good flower development. A couple house hold bulbs just won’t cut it if you want dense solid buds, below 600 par for flower your getting into very airy buds. House plants most vegetables don’t need as much light as Marijuana.
I love perusal plant influencers on YouTube during my morning routine and just discovered you from recommended. I love everything about you!! You’re sharing so much amazing knowledge and keeping me completely invested and I can feel my brain retaining the information. Gonna go binge your whole website now 🥹
Watching your article January 1st in Alaska with a real need for more plants and light! Thank you for the clear and concise information. I live in a fairly isolated area and knowing how to properly make use of basic hardware store lighting will make things so much easier. Now I just need to level up my cat proofing skills!
thanks so much for your in-depth explanation, i got so much from this article – especially because i’m looking to go into flowering and fruiting plants and i was really unsure about why people don’t keep those kind of plants in this community, y’know? but now i see it is mainly aesthetic (when it comes to using grow lights) and your light spectrum breakdown really opened my eyes to using more red light. i’m excited to try maybe a combination of white and RB lights, thanks so much again 💞
Fun fact: humans are physiologically stimulated by green in a positive way, so If you put your plants under a purple light you are objectively lowering their benefit, even if you like discos and raves. Ive just gotten into plants in the past couple months, and I’ve got to say, you’re the funnest plant person so far.
I just discovered your website and I already love it! I can’t imagine what it’s like to always have such a harsh winter, but I was looking for information about artificial light for some plants that get little sun in my apartment. I almost never comment on articles, but I was amazed that next to so many expensive ornamental plants here in Brazil, you have JAMBU, which they called similar to lidocaine. I have it in my garden, but it is more typical of the Amazon, in Brasilia we are in the Cerrado biome, that’s like a savana. Jambu is food, medicinal and widely used in cachaça and taken at festivals such as Carnival, which speaking of which is just around the corner. Big hug from your new fan and thank you for the great information!
Well let me just say that the reason it’s such a big market is because it ABSOLUTELY DOES make a difference when we are talking about fruit/vegetable/cannabis growth and boiling down to the science of light color and what it needs to be during certain stages of the plant. I agree for house plants it may not make a difference, for most home growers it wouldn’t make sense, but for produce growers or cannabis growers we all know it absolutely makes a difference to have certain spectra and voltage in your LED
Hey there non-cool cool plant person. I just wanted to say thank you for this really helpful article. I have been learning a lot about plants through the internet and perusal YouTube articles and I have to say, your are definitely my favorite so far. Lots of information, no up selling of crazy expensive accessories and putting information into layman’s term for us plebs. My plants are the only thing keeping me sane right now and there has been A LOT of trial and error the past couple months, and your article is helping to restore just a tiny bit of that confidence I had before so much death and destruction took out some of my babies and then made me look at the survivors and made me feel like they look like a scraggly group of bad news bears. But I’m making a grow cabinet and I got one of those 4 packs of light you linked to and I’m diving back in head first. Took a week off of work to have some me time and focus on building my at home plant nirvana. I’ll send you my success story article if it all works out. (Because I’m sure you have loads of time to watch plant articles that random strangers on the internet send you) Thanks a bunch for reading my post if you do and for all the great content! (Im definitely signing up for your patreon or whatever as soon as I’m able!!). Im really impressed with your collection of plants and your growing skills! 😊
“im assuming you eat your philodendrons…” you had me spitting my coffee there. i love houseplants, sadly i do not have the space to grow a lot here in scotland. but that indoor-greenhouse idea might just be what i was looking for. i think over time i could build multiple of those and just keep my plants in there permanently. would need to figure out which plants prefer this kind of environment… thank you for the inspiration. i shall now google my way through the next 3 months of planning my indoor greenhouses ^^
I’m just discovered planting. Last winter I bought a bright daylight lamp just to wake up at the morning in the darkest Nordic winter. I just was surprised that my Coffee plant that I got from a friend suddenly started to grow like crazy. And still it wasn’t the absolute brightest. But one more step it would have been. So next lamp I bought was the brightest white lamp I could find. Not just to plain but for my plants too.
I’ve had great success with breaking off the plastic diffuser on the standard base led bulbs. Much brighter and directed. I have a fixture with 6 5000k 13 watt bulbs mounted on it all spaced evenly, down firing so I can hang it on yo-yo’s. It looks good enough. I thought I was only going to use it for starting seedlings. But things haven’t started to stretch. Granted I’m only using it for herbs at the moment. I’d still try it on something more demanding.
I do think it’s kind of a vibe to have your room look like a setting in that one movie adaptation of Color Out of Space… though my timer is set from 8am to 6:30pm, I do find it hard to be in the same room when the grow lights are the only source of light… but they also make me feel like I know what I’m doing, which I do most of the time, but I do still need the morale boost, provided by weird pink lights… my neighbors think I’m growing weed…
Well, to give an idea, I replaced my outside spotlights (2 cheapo Walmart LED floodlights) with some proper outdoor LED flood lights and didn’t know what to do with the old lights. They still worked just fine. So, mounted the fixture to a bookshelf and managed to grow a few plants with it. It even grew peppers indoors. I also have a cheapo LED shop light that puts out a lot of light and helps a sprawling tomato plant grow, which FINALLY bloomed after five months of growing. I’ve also grown with generic florescent shop lights. Back in the day I used the old incandescent bulbs (two 100 watters) to supply some extra light to some plants in an area without enough window light. EDIT: Also, WTF, I have never paid more than about $20 for a plant. Most plants I have and have had came from free to cheap seeds or cuttings from friends, neighbors, whoever has a plant I want that can be propagated via cuttings. Sometimes I get plants via root division.
Beautiful, darling… Bravo! Very valuable info and advice. I have an indoor setup for gourmet mushrooms, and I have to simulate a rainforest-like atmosphere from my humble abode located within an alpine high desert climate. The finicky fungi are demanding divas; however, I am about to start some plants via the Kratky method and will absolutely adopt some of your setup gems! Your plants are so perfect, the air in your space must smell absolutely delightful!! Mmmm! Om, XO
I don’t even remember what I was looking for when I saw your article. Subscribed for the thumbnail alone. My loft has 3 windows on one wall and is otherwise like a cave. I cannot wait to finish my reno so I can light this place up. I thought I was doin’ good finding a pink grow light at an estate sale for $1 until I put it next to my plants. Not cute. Maybe I’ll use it on the back of the bottom shelf.
To contrary this article. I was using “normal” LED lights for 2 years, i believed that everything is marketing until i bought Arcadia JungleDawn lights and omg. My plants went nuts withing 2 weeks of using it, no trying to push me out of apartment now. So yea i switched side and bough 4 more. Sure, my plants before were nice but nowere near nice, big and fast growing as now.
Thank you Nick. This is fantastically helpful. I’m disabled and on an allowance and have a dozen or so plants that give me great pleasure. Nothing of any particular value and, l really just want my Queen of the Night and my Christmas cactus to flower. As you can imagine l don’t have money to spend on an expensive set up but, l’m pretty sure l’ll be able to get some form of affordable lighting thanks to your tips.
I hope to successfully grow the micro tomatoes indoors this winter. Lettuce and other greens are easy enough but I have no transportation, on disability, very rural area, and in a camper, so if I want anything fresh I have to grow it. I order sardines and other things to survive. My indoor hydro gardens get overwhelming. But I have to use them. My first try, Tiny Tim tomatoes….way too big. So another fail. And they aren`t blooming. And it took nearly THREE YEARS to get real seeds of those thanks to sellers who lie. I planted several of the various seeds outside to find out what they were….Roma…Cherry, etc. I think I just received a variety pack of real ones. The Tiny Tims are great for pots though…just not the little gardens I use.
I still agree that LEDs are generally better than fluorescents, but the very first result that I found for a 4-foot high output T5 bulb (which most people would choose for this purpose over the T12 that you showed) will put out about 5000 lumens but consumes about 54 watts, so it will use more energy for roughly the same amount of light but not less than half, also LEDs are more durable and usually cost less over all.
I have a few bright led lamps around the house and even they are a help, especially in the winter. They tend to be very plain though and mostly white. Also always try to find white bulbs when I can, but, here in Ireland anyway, those warm white bulbs are all you can get. Don’t know why, they make everything look nicotine stained and yellow.
Love you’re article your are very good at teaching these things … but ….You didn’t show your good humor as much as you have done In the past .. just Al technical which is very much appreciated. I like your humor it’s great.. thank you for putting out this one I really learn a lot your thee greatest! 🤩
What an awesome article!! I basically bought your setup but not sure what light to get. Would the Barrina Plant Grow Light, 252W(6 x 42W, 1400W Equivalent), Full Spectrum be too strong if I have all my shelves in? or is this one better? Do you know what the space between each shelf is if I have them all put in?
Hey i was the person who said i half paying attention clicked on your vid bc I thought you were Harli G bc of your hair being so ridiculous nice and then i was pleasantly surprised that i found another awesome plant content YouTuber. I forgot my login and had to make q different account, butttt Just wanted to say youre wonderful and i hope you are having a great day !! ❤️
Greetings from Norway 🙂 I am using,,normal” led bulbs at home to support my plants during the dark period and they not only survive but also grow perfectly and get variegation. Living stones do well as well. No stretching. It is just to remember about Kalvins and Lumens and you have a,,grow” light 😆💪
10:25 When you say “more flowers and less growth”, what does that mean for fruits and vegetables grown indoors? I’m growing tomatoes and peppers currently and I’ve only read about 5000-6500K being what they need. What would you recommend? The purpose for me is the fruit and flowers are needed to grow fruit so I would assume 6500K would be what I’d want
YOUTUBE KEPT THIS FROM ME! Changed my notif settings Mfer’s. Anyways I’m less than 1 second in and I’m freaking out about the plant behind you cuz I forgot you talked about it already and it’s the reason I bought a black velvet alocasia as a “dupe”…. but it isn’t as big…. might have to go for the real thing. I have used LED lights as grow lights – it was my first experiment with artificial light actually. It’s not as hard as ppl think, you just gotta get specs eh? Gonna actually watch now. You’re hands down my favourite “plant tuber”