Full Spectrum Grow Light Comparison: How Choose Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights For Your Crops?
How to Choose Grow Light Brands for Your Indoor Kale Garden
If you’re interested in adding kale to your diet and you’re tired of buying it at the store, you should consider growing it yourself. Even if you live in an area where it gets cold in the winter, you can grow as much kale as you desire year-round, even without a greenhouse. By using a full spectrum LED grow light, you can grow a thriving indoor garden that will provide you with plenty of kale to juice and add to soups and salads. This will enable you to quickly enhance your health with the immense amount of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that kale provides. Here is a complete overview of how to grow all the kale you want, inside your home with the use of an LED grow light.
What Are the Benefits of Growing Kale Indoors With Full Spectrum Grow Lighting?
There are many benefits to growing kale indoors aside from the fact that you can grow this healthy vegetable year-round. One benefit of growing any vegetables indoors is that you have more control. You are in charge of choosing the light source and type, which affects how your kale grows. Growing your superfood vegetable indoors also eliminates or at least greatly minimizes the need for pest control. The inside of your home protects your plants, making it nearly impossible for common pests to become a problem.
Furthermore, growing your kale indoors using full spectrum growing lights can yield more plentiful harvests. The leaves and stems will be fresher and richer in color. Your indoor kale garden will grow with very little effort on your part, as long as you follow certain steps.
How Long Does it Take Kale to Grow With Full Spectrum Plant Lights
As long as you make certain that your soil remains moist, you should notice your kale plants budding after about five days. However, the time from seedlings to maturity can vary significantly, depending on the type of kale you plant as well as other factors. Using grow lights to grow kale indoors as opposed to placing your plants in the window to utilize natural sunlight is superior. You should expect to have baby kale ready sooner than other varieties, and the average amount of time from seedling to harvest is about 45 days. You may be looking at two months or longer before other types of kale is ready to eat. Red Russian kale is one type that takes the longest to mature, and it can take up to 90 days before it’s ready to be harvested.
Exactly How Much Light Do Kale Plants Needs Each Day?
To grow a thriving and fruitful indoor kale garden using the best spectrum LED grow lights, you need to ensure that your kale receives a sufficient amount of light each day. You should aim for anywhere between 10–18 hours of light daily. Exposing your kale plants to this amount of light each day will increase your chances of growing a successful indoor kale garden and providing yourself and your family with plenty of crunchy and flavorful kale.
Finding the Right Grow Light
Choosing the right type of grow light for your indoor kale garden is important. If you end up with the wrong lights, your plant may fail to prosper as you expect. Your kale could take longer to harvest, or you could end up with smaller leaves and less yield. Kale and similar vegetables don’t require full light to thrive, so low light is recommended. You will need to choose high-quality full spectrum LED grow lights for indoor plants, as a regular LED will still grow your plants, but not as effectively as an LED grow light will. Grow lights were made especially for indoor gardens, as their light has all the different spectrums necessary for optimal growth.
Before choosing between the best full-spectrum LED grow lights, you must consider your budget. Full spectrum lighting for growing plants can cost anywhere from $50 – $2,000, on average. Of course, depending on where you shop, you can find adequate grow lights for less than $50 and higher than $2,000, depending on how elaborate of a system you need. You’ll also need to determine how large of a kale garden you plan to have, as this will determine how many grow lights you need.
You may need to research full spectrum grow lights for indoor plants. Find out which are the best full spectrum LED grow lights for growing kale, that are also within your budget. You can shop online or at local stores. Don’t be afraid to ask store employees for assistance, because if they’re knowledgeable about grow lights, their expertise can help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
Which Light Spectrum Should You Choose for Your Kale?
You can use any light spectrum when growing kale indoors with your full spectrum lights for plants, but for the absolute best yield, you might want to opt for blue light. Blue light is essential for the establishment of the root system of your kale, and the blue light spectrum also promotes healthy stems and greater density. However, you must use green, red, and other light spectrums as well, if you want your kale to turn out optimally.
The green light is necessary to encourage photosynthesis in addition to making the plants stronger and heartier overall. The red light spectrum contributes to the growth of kale and other plants by:
- Promoting long and strong roots
- Promoting photosynthesis, so the plants can grow stronger via the use of chlorophyll for sugars and carbon
Far-red spectrum enables plants to benefit from greater exposure to light, which increases the size of the leaves. Ultraviolet light is especially important for growing your indoor kale garden. This spectrum of light contributes to the health of the plants by enhancing the nutrient content, by promoting great root growth, and more.
How to Position the Lights Above the Plants
If you’ve never used grow lights before, then the entire process might seem confusing. You might have no idea how to properly position the lights or the plants. It’s imperative that you place the LED light strategically when growing your kale inside your home. If you place the LED too close to the plants, you risk damaging the kale plants. On the other hand, if you place the plants too far away from the lights, the plants will miss out on the benefits they should be deriving from the lights. Therefore, you should ensure that you place your kale plants between two and five inches away from the lights, for the best outcome.
Getting Started: Step by Step
To get started with planting your seeds and growing some delicious and nutritious kale, you need to first gather all your materials. You will need:
- Soil (potting mix is superior, as it helps the plants to retain the moisture they need to thrive
- Whatever variety of kale seeds you prefer
- Timers (for switching between the different light spectrums)
- A seed tray for starting seedlings
- Larger pots to transfer seedlings into (be sure they allow sufficient drainage)
- A watering container
- Fertilizer or plant food
Once you’ve gathered all the supplies, you can start setting up your lights and plants.
Step 1 – Choose an adequate area for your indoor garden. Set up your lights and place a small amount of soil in each section of the starter tray. Add 1–2 seeds per tray. Water. Fertilize approximately every 2 weeks.
Step 2 – Choose the right bulbs for your plants. Full spectrum florescent is best.
Step 3 – Rotate your plants because the heat is most intense in the center of the grow lamps, and you want to ensure that all your plants have access to all levels of heat. You also want to make certain that your kale plants never receive too much direct heat.
Step 4 – Clean your bulbs regularly, as debris-covered bulbs don’t emit the full amount of light that the kale plants need to grow strong and fast.
Step 5 – Harvest your kale when it’s ready. Kale reaches maturity at different times depending on the type you plant. Most kale is ready to harvest when the leaves are about the size of your hands.
As you can see, it is very possible to grow a healthy and fruitful indoor kale garden that can flood your body with plenty of nutrients. As long as you purchase the best full spectrum LED to meet your needs, your garden can be a true success.
