2020 Ultimate Guide To Hydroponic Grow Lights
Table of Contents
2020 Ultimate Guide to Hydroponic Grow Lights
What is the best lighting for hydroponics?
For hydroponics, the best light for growing plants is LED. White or yellow LED lighting will give you the best and even growth for your hydroponic plants. The type of hydroponic lighting you get depends on the setup you use. If you use a vertical growing system, which most hydroponic growers do, then you will need low power, hangable lights that spread evenly over a large area to maximize grow space. If you’re still unsure on what type of hydroponic set up would best suit you, take a look at this in depth version of the different hydroponic set- ups you can use ( it’s beginner friendly too).
This type of light can be hung within a few inches of the plants without burning them. This allows you to place several levels on top of each other. High power LED lights, 1000W or above, need to be placed over 3 feet away from your plants to prevent sunburn. The high-power LED lights are good for tall-growing plants like cannabis.
Brief History of Grow Lights
So, let us travel back in time to 1962 when the LED light was first invented. During this time, people used high-pressure sodium lights (HPS). You may know these lights from older streetlights, they come in 2 colors, either a blueish or reddish hue. These lights did the job of growing indoors but were very inefficient because of the heat they generated, the enormous amount of electricity they consumed, the light spectrum they gave, and the hefty price they cost.
Growers needed to use 2 different lights to give their plants the full spectrum of light they needed. The reddish light and the blueish light needed to either be swapped out regularly or both combined to give healthy plants.
The next competitor to HPS lights were fluorescent lights. This lighting was much cheaper and provided better lighting for plants. The most common type of fluorescent light for growing is T8 for its spectrum. Unfortunately, fluorescent lights generate a lot of heat, consume a lot of electricity, and are not bright, so you either have to use a lot of them or place them very close to your plants. If you place them close to your plants, you may burn your plants with the heat they generate.
Another issue is that they do not provide a full spectrum. Instead, they have these bands of specific wavelengths of light that combine to look white to our eyes. We may not know, but the plants will. Finally, even though they may last 10,000 hours before they completely burn out, they will dim and lose a lot of light intensity halfway through its life and will need to be replaced then.
Finally, LED lighting was expensive until recently. Now the price has dropped to the point where it is comparable in price to fluorescent. LED lights now come in white and yellow too, which are the best for growing plants. LED lights last 50,000 hours and stay fully bright until they fail.
LED grow lights consume half as much electricity as fluorescent, and the heat generated is just as low! White LED lights are the best because you can give the plants a full diet of sun-like light and allow the plants to filter through what they need, which they are accustomed to doing.
Do LED Lights Work for Growing Plants?
LED lighting is perfect for growing plants and should be considered better than all other types of lighting. LED lights last longer, consume the least energy, and provides the best spectrum. The common misconception is that plants only need red and blue light to grow. Even further that red is for flowering and blue is for vegging.
This is far from the truth for plants absorb much of the light spectrum. This is an outdated concept and not the best lighting for your plants. Unfortunately, since technology is advancing so fast, the information about it is still catching up.
With the advancements in LED technology, white LED lights have become a commonplace. White light LED is made from placing a phosphorus coating over a blue LED light. The blue photons react with the phosphorus coating and produce white light. With this advancement, Full spectrum grow lights can be made inexpensively and readily.
There are no power or cost savings between the red/blue lights and the white. Plants are designed to grow under the sun and your grow light should mimic the sun as much as possible.
Beware of Grow lights that have additional UV Light. White LED is lacking these colors and are invisible to the human eye. The first problem is since you cannot see the light, you can easily cause permanent eye damage if the light is improperly handled.
Secondly, you can overexpose your plants easily, for it is difficult to measure how much you’re giving to your plants. I have personally killed plants or prevented them from germinating by placing the grow light that has additional UV LEDs too close.
Plants protect themselves by making oils and increasing the thickness of their leaves and is not a necessity in the development of most plants. The only benefit I could see if you grow lavender or rosemary and want to increase your yield on essential oils, then add a small amount of UV.
What is the Difference Between a Grow Light and a Regular Light?
It depends on the grow light. Typically, a grow light is designed to be hung from a rack or placed on a stand. Grow lights are often shaped to direct light in a certain direction or pattern, whereas regular lights are designed to diffuse light over a large area. My white LED grow lights are like shop lights, and they hang from my shelving unit.
The biggest difference between them is that a grow light has a lot more power than a regular one. Regular LED lights can be used, but care has to be given to ensure there is enough light directed towards your plants.
Can I leave my grow lights on 24 hours?
Absolutely! I leave some of my light on 24 hours. You just need to make sure you’re not giving your plants too much light, or they will get sunburned.
In this video, I show what a sunburnt plant is and how to prevent it.
Start with a general range, if the manufacturer provides guidance, follow it. A good range is about 12-16 inches from the canopy of plants for my 100W grow light. If you use 1000W or above, you will need to keep the light over 3 feet away to prevent plant sunburn.
Monitor plants closely, they will show you what they need.
Leggy, pale plants that fall over need more light. Catch this early, because a leggy plant will often grow into a weak adult plant even if you correct the light issue.
Leaves that bend away from the light or curl, become bridle and have yellow spots, or tip burn, have been exposed to too much light. Remove brittle leaves after the plant has grown new, healthy leaves. Sun burning your plants is more common than leggy plants when using grow lights because of the upward growth tendency of plants. Do be sure to adjust the settings of your light as your plants grow. If you cannot raise it, then reduce the hours or dim the light.
By noticing these issues early, you can either raise and lower the light, add, or reduce the length of time the light is on, or increase or decrease the power of the light to prevent damaging the plant. This is not an exact science, so experiment and have fun!
As you can see here in this video I did give my cucumber plant a bit of a spotlight (okay, maybe a bit much) but it is not only a cucumber that you can grow hydroponically, check out this blog where I recommend the best hydroponic plants to grow.
Full-spectrum Led Grow Lights
The most common type of Hydroponic grow light is hangable light fixtures. This type of lighting hangs from a shelf or a rack and gives light down to the plants below. These lights are usually either square or rectangular shaped. Square shaped LED lights make a circle spot where light is intense in a small area and diffuses outward. This is best used for tall or singular plants. Square LED lights are often powerful and can penetrate the canopy of taller plants and are often used to grow medicinal plants.
Rectangular shaped LED lights are used for vertical hydroponics and spread their light evenly over an area. This is best used for plants that grow small and are numerous like vegetables.
Grow lights also come as an individual bulb. You can place them in a desk lamp and point them towards your plants.
Below are the best hydroponic LED grow lights for your plants.
Best Grow Lights:
Here are some examples of the best hydroponic grow lights you can buy.
The Duroluc DLED844W LED Grow Light
This is the light I use for my Hydroponic garden. I thoroughly enjoy this light, and it has served me well. My shelving units match the 4-foot length of the light, and I can grow up to 128 plants within a 4’ by 2’ space. This light is only 100W and can be hung close to your plants. It is water-resistant, and I have spilled water on it to prove it.
I highly recommend this light for beginners and expert growers alike. It has a big brother version of it too, where it has 8 strips of LED, half of which can be turned off to control the light given to the plants. I do a review of both lights in the video below.
Spider Farmer Newest SF-2000 LED Grow Light
This light is the one I drool over and wish to have. This light has a driver than can be dimmed to 10%. This light provides a mix of white and yellow LED’s to give a more sunlight spectrum than white only. This light can be chained together to other lights so you can control the brightness of all linked lights equally (not daisy-chainable).
It’s made of solid material and is completely waterproof. This light has a simple, polished design. No assembly required. This light is top of the line in its field and would be a great addition to any indoor grower.
I hope this information was helpful to you! Hydroponics can be a fun and relaxing activity out of the weather. If you’re still unsure if you’d want to switch from soil based farming you can check out my blog where I listed the pros and cons of hydroponics vs soil based farming. Go out and buy your hydroponic grow light today!
