How To Choose The Right Grow Lights At Every Stage For Plants?
Understanding how to choose the right grow light is often the difference between success and failure regarding indoor plant cultivation. As such, nobody should underestimate the importance of choosing the right grow light. When growing indoors, a good light is as important, if not more so, than any other cultivation-focused product or piece of equipment.
That includes everything from seeds to soil and fertilizer. For many years, grow lights were quite rudimentary. They served their purpose, but results were often hard to guarantee. Now, with an ever-growing range of cutting-edge grow lights on the market, those days are firmly in the past.
The following is a closer look at how to choose grow light powered by different technology to demonstrate. For example, why and how to choose LED grow lights over high-intensity discharge or fluorescent lights. Furthermore, choosing the right grow lights for plants every stage is similarly vital.
And it’s there—specifically grow lights for plants stage, whether seedlings, vegetative, or flowering—that LEDs come into their own. But first, a closer look at what else is out there.
Choosing a Grow Light
Choosing the right grow light starts with a closer look at the available options. By and large, these are as follows:
- Incandescent bulbs
- Fluorescent tubes
- Compact fluorescent lamps
- LEDs
- High-intensity discharge lights
Alternatives like halogen and metal halide lights have also played a role in plant cultivation in the past. However, they’re much less widespread today than fluorescent tubes, LEDs, and other more prominent options.
Incandescent Bulbs
Incandescent bulbs are what people have used for most forms of indoor lighting for generations now, particularly at home. Meanwhile, special incandescent grow lights were popular for a time, with manufacturers like Philips producing a range of options.
However, incandescent bulbs have fallen out of favor in recent years. That’s because they are prone to running hot, are generally inefficient, and have short lifespans. Much better alternatives are now available.
Fluorescent Tubes
Fluorescent lamps, namely those boasting predominantly blue and red color spectrums, were the go-to source of artificial lighting for plant cultivation for many years. But, like incandescent bulbs, they always had a list of downsides.
With no better options available in the past, fluorescent lamps met the need for grow lights at the time. And the results were often impressive. But having become increasingly hard to track down like incandescent bulbs, few people today still rely on fluorescent lamps for plant cultivation.
Compact Fluorescent Lamps
Compact fluorescent lamps sought to combine the benefits of incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes but with fewer drawbacks. For a time, compact fluorescent lamps were a massive success. They were bright, powerful, relatively affordable, and reasonably long-lasting, providing good value for money.
Still one of the better grow light options, the biggest issue today is that compact fluorescent lamps are in increasingly short supply. That’s as manufacturers and consumers continue switching to the next option – LEDs.
LEDs
LEDs—or light-emitting diodes—are a relative newcomer among grow light options. Other forms of grow lights have been around for 150 years or more. Back then, greenhouse lighting quickly evolved from public street lamps. But it’s only since the mid-1980s that LEDs have been at all widespread in any form.
Moreover, they’ve only really featured in plant cultivation more recently. Since then, they’ve become the go-to grow light solution for anyone serious about raising plants indoors. Long-lasting, cool-running, and packed with technology, Bata’s LED grow lights are a perfect example of the cutting-edge level of innovation now on offer.
High-Intensity Discharge Lights
High-intensity discharge lamps, commonly known as HIDs, are electrical gas-discharge bulbs with several unique selling points. First and foremost, they produce more light from less electrical power than either fluorescent or incandescent lamps. At the same time, they’re short-lived, deteriorating more quickly than the alternatives.
Regularly replaced, though, they have long been a popular choice for plant cultivation. High-intensity discharge lamps are also commonly used by vehicle makers for car and truck headlights. But, as with fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, more and more manufacturers and consumers are adopting one main alternative.
That’s as they switch to longer-lasting, more cutting-edge LEDs, meaning high-intensity discharge grow lights, in particular, are seldom seen in many parts of the world today.
How to Choose the Right Grow Light
How to correctly choose grow light equipment involves knowing which plant or plants someone wishes to cultivate. On the whole, the most significant deciding factor is scale. Think space, height, and the necessary coverage required to satisfy the plant or, more likely, plants in question.
To demonstrate, take the Bata UFO Series and Boardlight Series. The former boasts low cost and high performance. Ideal for indoor and home planting, UFO Series grow lights are perfect for a single plant or, should an individual wish, several.
Meanwhile, Bata’s Boardlight Series caters more exclusively to larger-scale operations. Examples include commercial indoor and warehouse plantations. What’s vital here is that both are LEDs. Bata exclusively manufactures LED grow lights, backed by years of tireless research and development.
This research and development has repeatedly shown that LEDs outperform all other forms of artificial lighting for indoor plant growth. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the detailed effects of LED greenhouse lights on plant growth and indoor cultivation.
Choosing LED Grow Lights
Anyone serious about growing plants indoors will likely opt for LED grow lights. With that, choosing the right LED grow light is crucial. Thankfully, how to choose LED grow light is straightforward. That said, any grow light likely to be desirable must meet a few all-important criteria. For example, when exploring how to choose a LED grow light, ensure the following:
- Adjustable settings
- Appropriate intensity
- Appropriate spectrum
- Built-in safety features
- Energy efficiency
- Large coverage area
- Quality LED chip
- Value for money
- Versatile features
With these boxes ticked, success is all but ensured. It’s little wonder that experts are widely touting today’s latest LED grow lights as the future of indoor horticulture. Many LED units also serve wonderfully as grow lights for plants every stage. That’s because, unlike high-intensity discharge or fluorescent lights, LED grow lights are often highly customizable.
If a person is unsure which LED grow light to choose, a good full-spectrum LED plant light is often the best bet. Full-spectrum LED plant lights utilize a balanced combination of all visible color spectrums, mimicking natural sunlight.
Such units take some of the complexity out of choosing an LED grow light that caters more specifically to one particular goal. As a result, most full-spectrum grow lights provide suitable conditions for all stages of growth. That includes germination, vegetative growth, and flowering alike.
Grow Lights for Plants Stage
Did you know that different stages of plant growth require different kinds of light? A full-spectrum grow light will usually provide the necessary spectrum and intensity to grow crops at all times. However, where optimized plant growth and yield are paramount, choosing a more specific light is often beneficial.
Best LED Grow Light for Seedlings
Seedlings require quite specific lighting to ensure the best start in life. Without the best possible start, plants are less likely to thrive. As far as LED grow lights for young plants, target a gentle intensity and optimized spectrum focused on strong root development.
A prime example is Bata’s SYM Series seedling lights. Especially well suited to vertical and hydroponic use, custom spectrums allow these exclusively LED-powered units to grow seedlings of all popularly cultivated plants, including cannabis and food crops such as tomatoes.
Best LED Grow Light for Veg Stage
For almost any crop, an LED grow light vegetative stage focused to a high degree invariably comes highly recommended. The same lights may also cater equally well to plants in the flowering stage – more on that in a moment.
However, without an emphasis on developing vegetation, plants risk becoming stunted, unable to produce healthy leaves to turn light into energy via photosynthesis. When picking the best LED grow light for veg stage, large amounts of blue light are fundamental, making that an excellent place to start the search.
Best LED Grow Lights Flowering Stage
How to choose an LED grow light for the flowering stage of any crop involves delving into more of the above color-focused research. While blue light is good for the vegetative stage, most plants require light from the red end of the spectrum in their flowering stage. The same red lighting is also pivotal for fruiting among crops like tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables.
Again, a full-spectrum LED grow light will provide much of what plants need to flower. But by ensuring accurately dialed-in intensity and spectrum, growth rates and subsequent yields will improve, often significantly.
Remember, many full-spectrum units are still highly adjustable. So, while they work perfectly well as all-around lights almost straight from the box, with some adjustment, the same units can be utilized to promote, in this instance, an even more successful flowering stage.
How to Choose a Grow Light for Indoor Plants Like Orchids
Indoor plants like orchids, fiddle-leaf figs, and aloe vera are more popular than ever. These and many other houseplants will thrive with ample natural daylight. But when plants like the potentially finicky fiddle-leaf fig don’t receive enough light, they quickly start to suffer.
Whether that’s down to the time of the year or a plant’s proximity to a window or lack thereof, artificial lighting is consistently the answer. Grow lights aren’t just for crops like cannabis and microgreens. Regular houseplants, too, will benefit similarly from some form of artificial, growth-focused light.
Accordingly, the same advice tailored toward growing marijuana, tomatoes, or salad greens is also helpful in deciding how to choose the best grow lights for indoor plants like aloe vera. How to choose grow lights for indoor plants follows the same core principles as for any plant, including commercially grown crops.
For less demanding houseplants, a solid all-around solution will invariably suffice without complicating matters beyond that.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Best Grow Light for All Stages?
The easiest way to cultivate plants through all stages with the same light and settings is with a full-spectrum grow light. The best full-spectrum grow lights use LEDs. They’re the best choice here as they utilize a balanced combination of all visible color spectrums, mimicking natural sunlight.
As such, there’s little need to worry about providing too much red light or too little blue light during the flowering and vegetative stages, for example. Most full-spectrum LED grow lights should be well set up for all stages of plant growth straight out of the box.
How Do I Choose a Grow Light for My Plant?
Different plants require different levels of light across various color spectrums. When cultivating a particular plant variety, growers can tailor a grow light to that specific crop. Most versatile LED grow lights are highly customizable and easily tailored toward different plants.
Having chosen a suitable light, it’s always advisable to look up a given plant’s light requirements. Wherever possible, adjust the light output to meet these demands. Where there’s any doubt, a good full-spectrum grow light will take much of the uncertainty out of the equation.
How Do You Know What Color Grow Light to Use?
Most modern LED grow lights utilize several different colors of LEDs, including white, blue, red, green, and purple. Accordingly, there’s little need to choose one particular color. Instead, look up the required color spectrum for a plant at a given growth stage and adjust accordingly.
For example, when crops like cannabis or tomatoes are in the vegetative stage and predominantly growing foliage, large amounts of blue light are key. Then, when entering the flowering or fruiting stage, the blue output is less critical, with such plants instead calling for ample light from the red end of the spectrum.
How Do You Tell if Grow Lights Are Too Bright?
It’s important to remember that too much light can be just as damaging to plants as too little light. Old-fashioned halogen and metal halide grow lights would often be too powerful and bright for many plants. Signs that grow lights are too bright include otherwise unexplained yellowing of the leaves.
Modern LED grow lights help prevent issues associated with too much brightness by being easily and accurately controllable. If in doubt, start with a lower light intensity level and increase incrementally. Alternatively, look up specific light intensity requirements for a particular plant or crop and dial in the chosen lighting unit or units accordingly.
Grow Lights for All Stages
Bata proudly produces an array of cutting-edge, energy-efficient, and affordable grow light systems designed to grow plants at all growth stages. Bata’s customers range from small-scale home growers and hobbyists to vast commercial operators in countries worldwide.
The company has invested years in tireless research and development. This ongoing research and development ensures that every product provides exceptional results. The same is true whether growing cannabis, fruits and vegetables, or simply supplementing the life-giving daylight required by one or more humble houseplants.
Whoever the customer and whatever their purpose or wishes, Bata is redefining the future of indoor and greenhouse plant cultivation. Accordingly, the global grow light manufacturer empowers growers of all shapes and sizes daily to sustainably and consistently produce crops of the highest caliber.
Bata are experts on how choose grow light. To learn more or for further information on a host of related topics, visit BataGrowLight.com.
