If you are a beginner grower, preparing for the grow room is what steals the show. You have to be mindful of the strains you are getting, but you also need to ascertain the accessory elements are in place.
Choosing the best LED grow lights for 2022 is key to the optimal growth of your cannabis strains.
This post will explore the best types of LED grow lights that you need to know before installing them.
1. Look at Your Budget
The budget is an important factor you must keep in mind when choosing the right LED grow light for your plants. Don’t focus on searching for the grow lights with advanced features that are out of your budget. Once you set a specific budget, it would be easy for you to choose the perfect light to fulfill your needs. Never purchase the cheapest grow lights because they will not guarantee the desired output.
2. Consider the type of strain
Cannabis strains are available in a variety of options. You have your standard and more common strains, and then you have the unique auto-flowering strains. Irrespective of the type, remember that each strain comes with its own requirements. So, when choosing the LED grow lights, ensure that you check the variability and the optimal growing needs of the different strains.
3. Which Color to Use?
Photosynthesis is a key process to the growth of every plant, and it occurs in the presence of enough light. Therefore, an LED grow light must have a proper light spectrum. Before you buy a light, don’t forget to check its color spectrum. If you want to purchase an ideal grow light for your indoor plants, there is nothing better than buying a full-spectrum light. This is where an LED light lends a helping hand.
The red light promotes budding and flowering. It comes with a spectrum range between 610 and 720 nanometers. In comparison, the spectrum range of violet-blue light is 400 to 520 nanometers. The violet-blue light is ideal for plant growth, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll absorption.
As stated earlier, a full-spectrum LED grow light will be perfect for ensuring the smoother growth of your plants. Each wavelength in a full-spectrum light plays a unique role.
4. Reach and diversity
Despite what you think, LED lights come with limited reach around the room. So, you have first to ascertain how diverse the strains will grow. Also, check how well the LED light spreads across the room. This is a very crucial factor that you have to be mindful of. You can’t expect every individual plant to grow if they grow light and are focused on one part only.
5. Efficacy
Considering the wattage is important because it determines how much power it will consume or dissipate. But it doesn’t give an idea about the output power. Compared to wattage, efficacy is more important because it is linked to the power conversion into light. The lights with the same wattage may have different efficacies. An LED light’s output is higher than a 1000-watt HPS grow light. Interestingly, the LED lights (with the same electricity consumption) may also have different outputs depending on the type of diodes used. Therefore, always look for a grow light having higher efficacies. It will help you get the maximum out of every wattage you pay the bill for.
6. Amount of Space Available to Grow Plants
Before you choose a grow light, it is necessary to be familiar with the amount of space available to grow indoor plants. A single LED grow light would be enough to get the desired results if you intend to grow small plants in a small space. But if you are on a mission to grow large plants or multiple small plants, you will have to install multiple grow lights. Instead of installing more lights, choosing a few with higher efficacies or output is better.
7. Plant’s Growth Stage
Young plants and seedlings require less light compared to matured ones. So, it would be better to make the decision based on the stage of growth your plants are in. Similarly, the light requirements for flowering plants, vegetative plants, and seedlings differ. It is a clear indication that different types of plants need different light output.
8. Mobile and portable
When you start a grow room for your cannabis strains, it is quite common to expect that you’d change the set-up eventually. You aren’t the only person who changes the position of their grow room. However, what you need to do in that case is invest in mobile and portable LED grow lights for easier movement as per your requirements. Doing so ensures that you won’t run into the risk of damaging the lights during transportation. Also, the portable choices are easy to travel with, yet another benefit to them.
9. Installation
Not every grow room features a separate section or wiring for the LED grow lights. In such cases, you’d have to individually go around and install strong structures to ensure that you can easily sort out the placement of the grow light inside the grow room. So, being mindful of the installation process is necessary to ascertain ahead of time. You don’t want to leave things for the last moment since that will make it difficult to install them inside the grow room without breaking things.
10. Choose a reliable brand
There are hundreds of available brands of LED grow lights in the market. So, always conduct thorough research to ensure that you bag the best product in the lot. This is crucial and not an option you can brush aside. Choose a brand that also fits into your budget.
Final Words
How many of these pointers were you familiar with? Buying good quality grow lights can make or break the quality of your cannabis growth, so choose wisely.