Grow lights are expensive. Regular light bulbs are not. This could be a great way to save money…if regular bulbs work for growing plants.

People often assume you need expensive grow lights to make up for the lack of natural light, but they’re wrong.

You can actually use regular light bulbs to grow plants indoors. But should you use regular bulbs? In some cases, yes; in some, no.

Grow lights for weed create an artificial light source that is specific to a light spectrum to help support the chemical process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the chemical process in which light energy is converted within a plant to energy a plant can use to grow and produce. Grow lights are found in situations that require certain ranges of heat and light wavelengths to support vegetation both indoors, and out. They also are generally found within a specific set up or light panel that helps concentrate their light output, although certain types can be bought as individual bulbs.

Spectrum
Plants need light in the blue spectrum for leafy growth and the red spectrum for budding and flowering. For starting seeds, the lights that produce plenty of blue light are the most important. These include metal halide and full spectrum fluorescent bulbs. Incandescent bulbs don’t produce the light necessary in the required spectrum to be of much help to indoor plants.

Heat
Incandescent bulbs get very hot and should be placed no closer than 24 inches from a plant. Standard fluorescent bulbs stay much cooler and should be placed about four inches above the plants for most effectiveness.

HPS Grow Lights have been a common choice among indoor growers for many decades and are the most common type of grow light used in the commercial greenhouse industry still.

They emit lights mostly in the yellow to red range of the spectrum, 565-700 nanometers (nm). For reference, yellow light occurs at wavelengths between 560 and 590 nm, orange at wavelengths between 590 and 625 nm, and red at wavelengths between 625 and 700 nm.

LED grow light is perhaps one of the most fast moving areas of lighting with developments occurring on an almost daily basis. Some early panel LED fixtures entered the horticultural industry with grand claims that didn’t match up to reality. The marketplace has now matured somewhat and LED grow lights are finding their place. Many growers use LEDs to supplement the spectrum of their existing grow lights in order to steer plants into generative development (flowering and fruiting).

Fluorescent tubes come in cool, warm, or full-spectrum. Light from cool tubes has a blue cast, while warm tubes emit a pink/white light. Full-spectrum tubes closely approximate the color of natural daylight. Full spectrum LED grow lights are a bit more expensive but many growers consider them worth the price since the color of the light doesn’t distort the color of your plants.

Less light is emitted from the ends of the fluorescent tubes than from the center. Plants with lower light needs should be placed under the 3 inches of the tube at either end of the fixture.
Best Grow Lights for Sale 2020

Emperor Lighting DE 1000W Grow Light Kit

The Emperor DE reflectors are made from the absolute highest quality Alanod German Miro 4 anodized aluminum.
The aluminum is >95% reflective and diffuses the light to penetrate deeper into the plant canopy.
Our reflectors are thicker, brighter, and last longer than competitors.
The industry’s only 3 way adjustable reflector puts more light on your crop.

California Lightworks SolarXtreme 1000 LED Grow Light

The SolarXtreme 1000 is an easy to use full spectrum LED grow light designed especially for grow tents and smaller scale home growing.

The SolarXtreme series uses a revolutionary new generation of COB (chip on board) as well as new direct AC drive technology which eliminates the need for LED drivers. This offers high-efficiency LEDs at a much lower cost than traditional LEDs. This fixture puts out a full spectrum suitable for all phases of growth without the need for adjusting.

WHAT ARE WATTS?
Named after the Scottish inventor James Watt, a “watt” is a unit of measure that quantifies the total rate of power used by an electrical circuit. When it comes to light bulbs, the Watt has been used to measure the amount of light emitted by the source. An 80W light bulb is brighter than a 36W one. But things are not so simple when it comes to grow lighting.

Brands will often try to sell you on LED grow lights based on the Watt count alone. Newbie buyers will easily fall for this trap, thinking that a 1000W behemoth will definitely be better than a 600W LED panel. But in reality, you may end up supplying your plants with less usable light than you expected.

Anyone that has more than two 1000 watt lights in their home has probably run into the problem of how to supply power and turn them on and off. A standard 120 volt circuit in your home has a 15 amp rating, that means one light. Note: I will be using the term “120 volt” and “240 volt” to describe the two different types of circuits we will be working with only because that’s the term the ballast manufactures use. They are often referred to as “110 volt” or “220 volt”, actually if you measured the voltage with an accurate meter a 120 volt circuit often will be less than that an can vary. A 1000 watt light draws about 9.2 amps at 120 volts (1100 watts / 120 volts = 9.17 amps).

What is the difference between “LED Watts” and “True Watts”?
LED diodes are rated based on the amount of power (wattage) they can theoretically handle, if they are perfectly cooled. Some full spectrum LED grow light companies advertise their lights based on this theoretical wattage- we call it “LED watts”. However, excessive heat generated by running LEDs at this theoretical maximum causes LEDs to degrade (“burn out”) and makes them shift the color of light they are giving off, so in the real world LEDs are never run at their full rated wattage. This means that “LED Watts” is a completely useless number for comparing the light output from two different lights– for example, you can have two “500 LED Watt” lights, with one running 100 watts of actual power through the LEDs, and the other running 300 watts of actual power.
Do you really need 1000W leds for your plants?
Usually when we use traditional led grow lights: 30–35W/SF (draw power) will be needed for veg. 35–50W/SF (draw power) will be needed for flowering if you want to get good harvest, so when you choose led grow light, you can calculate how many watt led you need.

What’s more, PAR is also very important, 300–350umol/s will be needed for growth, 700–800umol/s will be needed for flowering. It can help you judge your light coverage and light efficiency.

Phlizon 2000W COB LED Grow Light

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The spectrum on this light is great for every stage of growth. It has two warm white and two cool white 50w COBs that combine with a mix of 10w red, blue, white, UV and IR diodes to give you a spectrum with two peaks in the red range and one in the blue, plus a large amount of green and yellow light.

Out of all the lights on this list, the Phlizon has a spectrum closest to natural sunlight. That said, the spectrum of the BestVA and the Kings Plus (next on this list) lights are a bit better, since they don’t contain quite as much yellow and green. Plants do need both colors, but not in large quantities.

ECO FARM 440W LED Grow Light – CREE

This is great bang for your buck. One of the lowest priced option of the bunch and great energy savings. The light is able to still give high PAR value which will allow for very valuable savings after a few months, so you should be able to get your $ back soon.

These lights deliver 12 bands including 2 IR and 2 UV through optical lens to maximize the PAR per watt. The ECO Farm grow lights are great for the veg cycle and you should see results quickly with the brightness of the light. The lights themselves are very powerful, but don’t give off the same kind of heat as some of the other more expensive brands/lights on this list.

What is the lumen in plants?
Lumen refers to a measure of the total amount of emitted visible light by a source. The total number of lumens varies according to the type of grow light, the type and number of plants, the total measurement of the area, the distance of the plants, and their height. If possible, you should also determine the current stage of your plant to know how much supplementary light you’d apply.

Moreover, if you have decided to continue the process indoors, it is a must to know the preferable amount of lumens every plant should receive. Determining the precise number of lumens prevents any damages on your plant. Thus, supplies the necessary optimal light for their productive growth.

What is a Color Spectrum?
Plants are genetically programmed to grow using sun light, which we consider to be white light, or yellowish-white light. This light looks white because it contains all of the colors of a rainbow, and when these colors are all mixed together they look white.

Scientists use wavelength numbers to refer to the colors instead of color names, which is a much more accurate way to measure the color. So a red might have a wavelength of 630 or 660. Both of these look red to us, but they are actually different colors.

Plant biologists define light in the 400nm to 700nm spectral region as “photosynthetically available radiation,” or PAR. The unit for measuring PAR, micro-mols per second (μmol/s), indicates how many photons in this spectral range fall on the plant each second. Inexpensive PAR meters use sensors that respond over the entire 400-700nm spectrum and have their own sensitivity curves that require different calibration for sunlight, fluorescent and HID lighting. All these systems are too broadly responsive to measure an LED’s narrow emission spectrum. They make HID grow light seem brighter by over-measuring yellow-green light and make LED light seem dimmer by under-measuring red and blue light.

lumens per watt
In terms of lumens per watt, today’s double ended HPS grow lights are quite efficient compared to other types of traditional artificial lighting, producing over a 100 lumens per watt.

However, when we consider LEDs, light output has already exceeded 300 lumens per watt in the lab. Like most electronics, LEDs continue to increase in efficiency and decrease in cost per lumen of output.

How to Measure LED Grow Lights?
So, how should we measure LED grow lights? The strength or intensity of the light can be measured by the total wattage of the LED grow lights. The higher the wattage, the more intense the light will be. The coverage area of a grow light is another good measure of its strength. Another measure is the photosynthetic action radiation (PAR) output of a grow light, which measures the effectiveness of a grow light for plant photosynthesis.

Best LED Grow Lights for Sale 2020
Spectrum King 600W LED LowPro Flower

Bring the intensity of the sun closer to your plants with the Low Pro Flower. Designed specifically for vertical and racking solutions at only 3” tall, this makes it the shortest, brightest LED grow light on the market today. Guaranteed to maintain 90% or better light output for 3 YEARS with regular use.

ECO Farm ECOX 650W Foldable LED Grow Light Bars

The New ECO Farm ECOX Vertical Farming LED Grow Light takes Vertical Farming into the new era. ECO Farm ECOX is the vertical farming LED Grow Light that is engineered to be superior and outperform all of the Vertical Farming LEDs on the market today.

Finding the commercial grow lights on the market doesn’t come easy. It takes countless hours of research and comparison — which I’ve painstakingly, but happily completed at your convenience!

If you’re wondering why you didn’t see other LED grow light brands or models on my list of the best LED grow lights — it’s not necessarily because they’re terrible, but because they were beaten out by the grow lights I did include.

What are T5 Grow Lights?
T5 grow lights are a type fluorescent grow lights wherein “T” represents the word “tubular” and “5” stands for a size, 5/8-inch in diameter. So T5 grow lights consists of fluorescent T5 tubes with a diameter of 5/8 inch attached to a ballast and a reflector.

The ballast aids in enhancing the lifespan of the T5 bulbs by eliminating the risk of electrical insurgence and also prevents flickering that are harmful for grow plants while the reflector helps in light distribution. These lights along with their fixtures weigh between 10lbs and 30lbs and can be of varied lengths for example, 2feet, 4feet etc.

T5 grow lights are one of the best types of lights you can use to grow any kind of plant, from vegetables to the most delicate flowers. This is because T5s are extremely efficient, allowing you to save money on electricity while still providing bright, powerful light. They also have features you can customize to build the perfect set-up for any size and type of indoor garden.

Many indoor growers are already familiar with the virtues of T5s, but even if you know your T5 fixtures and more or less know how they work, you might need help with some things, because specifics like color temperature, hanging height and light cycles might not be as easy to figure out.

In general, I recommend changing to stronger grow lights like LED grow lights or HIDs for the flowering stage because they will usually give you double or more yields/watt of electricity. Unless you keep your plants very small, they will need more light to produce buds than a fluorescent light can usually produce.

If you’re in a dire situation where your plants have grown too big and you can’t afford to get a different type of light, you can supplement your fluorescent tubes with additional light, for example you could supplement their light with a few CFL(compact fluorescent light) bulbs wherever you notice any “shadowy” areas. This is only a minor fix – the real fix is to grow very short plants or upgrade to a bigger light for the flowering stage.

HOW DOES A GROW LIGHT WORK?
Grow lights for weed use a specific light spectrum to support vegetative growth. Essentially they are artificial sunlight sources that provide the wavelengths utilized by plants to support the chemical process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the what occurs when plants convert light energy into energy they can use for growth and production.

Sun Blaze T5 Fluorescent Grow Light

The Sun Blaze T5 light strip is an easy lighting solution that can be customized to fit gardens of any size. It comes in both two foot and four foot lengths with between one and eight tubes for any size grow op. The ballast has an extremely long lifespan compared with other T5 lights, and the fixture comes included with all of the bulbs you need to get started right away. It also comes with a two year warranty just in case anything goes wrong.

 DuroLux T5 Fluorescent Grow Light Fixture

This DuroLux best T5 grow light is a very good mid-range grow light to grow marijuana indoors.

This 2-foot lighting system features an output of massive 10,000 Lumens. It has a total of 4 lamps inside it.

The manufacturer also claims that this best T5 grow light also produces 30% more light than other similar products on the market.

SO WHICH LIGHTS ARE BETTER?
If you’re looking to transition out of your old HID or fluorescent lighting system, you can’t go wrong with upgrading to either LED’s or T5’s. Which system you go with will largely depend on your budget. LED’s definitely outperformed T5’s in energy efficiency and life expectancy. This means that while the upfront cost will be more, the long term savings will add up.

What To Look For In An LED Grow Light?
Since many of our first-time buyers experience difficulty choosing the best LED grow lights for their plant’s particular needs, our team of experts offer these tips for choosing LED grow lights. Here you`ll find all the vital information for making an informed choice and selecting the right product and model.

What is wattage?
A wattage is a unit used to measure the amount of power/ energy consumed on lighting a bulb. Most people mistake wattage for brightness. Wattage doesn’t measure brightness but there is a positive correlation between the number of watts and the brightness of the bulb measured in lumens.

The number of plants
As much as you want to grow more plants in the marijuana grow tent one thing should be certain. Plants need breathing space and hence should be adequately spaced depending on the type of plants.

The number of plants in the growing area is also a variable essential that should never be ignored when determining the number of watts needed per square foot. The more the number of plants the higher the wattage requirement and vice versa!

Watts per square foot is the most common way people determine what size LED light(s) they need, but it is not the only way. It is also not the most accurate way, but it is a good compromise between accuracy and simplicity.

Because the truth is: determining how powerful an LED grow light to get, and how many of them you need, is the most complicated of all types of lighting. This is due to the huge variation in lights and to the fact that most manufacturers flat out lie about the specs of their lights.

Most LED grow lights usually be able to cover about 1- 6 plants. If you want to grow any more plans than this, I’d purchase multiple lights to hang side by side ( called daisy chaining ) to cover the canopy and ensure each plant is getting enough light.

Note: 1 sq ft grow space = 50 watts LED grow light

So you will need about 200W LED grow light for your 2×2 grow tent.

CANAGROW 200W CREE CXB3590 COB LED Grow Light

The Cree COB LED Grow light is one of the best in delivering an ideal light spectrum to your plants. The CANAGROW 200W CREE CXB3590 COB LED Grow Light makes use of this LED to provide a full spectrum light to your plants. The COB LED grow light has a longer lifespan, produce better light quality, and highly efficient than traditional grow lights. It can readily replace a 400W HPS grow light. The grow lamp uses high quality components from the top companies in the world. The parts are waterproof, ensure a stable voltage and a long lifespan.

Optic 2 Gen4 Dimmable COB LED Grow Light

The Optic 2 Gen4 by Optic LED features white-light technology via 2 x CREE CXB3590 chip-on-board arrays. Supplemental Cree and Samsung diodes surround each COB to further enhance the spectrum and increase intensity. Secondary lenses surround each COB and LED to further increase intensity.

Optic LED’s spectrum ranges from 380nm to 780nm, covering the entire PAR spectrum + UV-A and near-infrared (far red). The additional green light helps increase photosynthesis deep in the leaves and inside the canopy. Far-red light, when combined with red light, has been proven to increase the rate of photosynthesis.

Some Final Thoughts
Plants just like humans need some vital things to survive, but getting the best of what you need can only result in better quality. In other words, if you provide plants with the best LED grow lights that cover every aspect of lighting a plant needs then your crop can and will be the best it can be.

When it comes to growing weed indoors, one of the most important factors is the grow light that you use. If you choose the wrong light, then your plants won’t grow properly or they’ll grow more slowly than desired.

With the number of options available on the market, you can feel overwhelming to choose a reliable and well-suited grow lamp for your indoor garden. Depending on your budget and your preferences, you can choose one light from the list, or you can try out several to see which works best for your plants.

A full spectrum LED grow light will go a long way in terms of helping your plant growth. You’ll need red & blue spectrums, but also infrared and ultraviolet, depending on the stage. It’s important to have a powerful light, with different wave lengths to ensure maximum growth. The full spectrum yields are a bit newer to the industry, but they are certainly making headway to any good growers catalog.

Black Dog PhytoMAX LED Grow Light

Increase yield and quality, decrease costs- no matter the size or type of operation, we have a solution for you. Integration is simple- our lights offer a 1-to-1 replacement of existing fixtures and require no extra equipment, wiring or installation expertise; with the ability to be flush-mounted, they’re even ideal for vertical grows.

PhytoMax offers a faster path to profitability and an additional edge in an increasingly competitive market:

• Harvest more, so you can sell more
• Higher quality and higher potency flowers, so you can charge more
• Reduce electrical and infrastructure costs for lighting and cooling to save more
• Fast ROI- down to a single flowering period

Fluence SPYDRx Plus 685W LED Grow Light

The Fluence Spyder is definitely one of the most robust full-spectrum LED lights on the market. Providing an even light spread and delivering a PPFD of over 900, this light is ideal for nearly any grow operation. With its sleek, low profile design, this light is as much of a showpiece as it is a high-quality LED. Also, each Fluence LED is made to order! Think Fluence LEDs for your commercial cultivation or hobby grow needs!

Phlizon CREE COB 3000W LED Grow Light

The phlizon is a well-known manufacturer. They produce excellent and professional led grow light and lights for growing aquarium plants. The CREE COB 3000W LED plants grow light is one of the best products by phlizon manufacturer.

There are several wattage options like 1000w, 1500w, 2000w, 2500w and 3000w. You should choose according to your growing area and plant sizes. But comparatively this 3000w Cree cob led plants grow lights have the highest yielding capability. For maximum output results, we recommend to use it in 4×4 grow tent.

Conclusion
Thanks for reading the Commercial LED Grow Lights reviews. This is by no means a complete list. But we have done our best to hand-pick the best and proven LED lights for growing on the market. Whatever choices you make, we believe you’ll enjoy large results with your indoor garden.

Hydroponics systems for growing cannabis imply the growing without the use of soil. The plant root system obtains nutrients in a water-based growing medium instead of the getting them from the soil.

Hydroponic drip system helps you grow weed much faster than you would otherwise grow in a traditional soil system. It’s true that growing hydro weed is more difficult to deal with, but once you master it, you will be able to grow considerably larger crops with little effort.

Benefits of Hydrophonics
So why the use of hydroponics? This method of growing gives plants exactly what they need, when they need it, the perfect balance of light, water, and nutrients, which result in a plant that’s genetically perfect. Before we learn about hydroponic systems we must first understand how hydrophonics works. Water-based and nutrient solutions provide the plant with the ideal environment for these plants without the use of soil, they tend to use the inner growing mediums. Clay pellets, lava rocks, grow stones.

Ebb and Flow System
Basically, this is a sub-irrigation technique. The nutrient solution is pumped into a shallow growing bed to a depth of around an inch for about twenty minutes and allowed to drain back to the tank.

If you are a first time gardener, then this is the ideal choice for you because it is easy to set up. The number of times the pump is switched on depends on the specific plant needs.

The ebb and flow technique use a loose growing medium, which can easily get stuck in the pump, causing power outages.

ECO Farm Ebb & Flow Hydroponic System

The system works by pumping nutrient solutions from the reservoir into the water tray which allows a uniform distribution to all the crops. It is easy to use even for first time growers. It is also fast and fun and if you use it correctly, you can be sure of harvesting yields that are five times more than the standard yields from the same garden size. It boasts of an efficient drain pump irrigation mechanism that helps to ensure the roots get optimal moisture.

Oxygen Pot Systems 6 Site XL Super-Flow

It is by far one of the most encompassing hydroponic systems. Also, this is probably the best hydroponic system out there.

The pots have tiny holes in them that encourage the oxygen to reach the roots and also help in the draining process.

It also comes with a timer for easy regulation of the flow and filling of the system. This helps in avoiding any fungal growth and increases your hydroponic system yield.

Active Aqua Grow Flow 5 gal System

The key feature of the system is that you can grow up to forty-eight plants at the same time in the same system. Nothing to worry about the different systems for the different crops as all-in-one system is here.

This system comes with an external reservoir for all the different units. The ongoing flood and drain cycle increases the plant’s oxygen level.

The whole system is easy to use. The system comes with two pumps, which utilizes the system and gravity to flood and drain the plant a few time every day.

There you have it! Enjoy being a cannabis grower. It’s hard for newbies at first. But, once you see healthy weeds, your efforts will all be worth it. It depends on the hydroponic systems you want to employ. Most importantly, the attention and care from you as a grower also plays a vital role.

Are LEDs a Good Choice for Growing Cannabis?
LED grow lights are relatively new to the cannabis growing scene, but they have become wildly popular over the last few years with their ability to produce great yields while staying cool and using a reasonable amount of electricity.

Yields! With a quality LED grow light and an average-to-good grow, you can expect yields of about 0.5 to 1g/watt.

If you’re looking for the Best LED Grow Lights and full spectrum grow lights to fit your budget, let us help you choose one. We know it’s a big investment and researching all the different options can take forever, so we’ve done the research for you. We’ve painstakingly compared and hand-picked the best LED grow lights on the market to find the right ones for a whole range of different use cases. Whatever your growing needs or budget, you can find a light here to suit.

GREENGO 1200W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light

It is a large light that measures 17 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 2.2 inches thick. At 6 pounds, the light is pretty heavy and durable.

The heavy-duty construction features three base fans, upgraded heat sinks, veg and bloom switches, a power socket, and a daisy chain socket.

Triple-chip LEDs are more efficient and brighter compared to double-chip LEDs. The triple-chip LEDs are engineered to maintain a superior balance of PAR output and coverage.

The LEDs also feature a more zen diode design. This design ensures that one damaged LED does not affect the function of the rest.

King Plus 1200W LED Grow Light

This grow light has the highest number of reviews on amazon. More than 1130 buyers have rated this LED grow light at 4.4 stars. This is a huge number, and it signifies that this grow light is indeed a piece of awesome technology.

We will start out by stating that they have two ON/OFF switches to control the VEG and BLOOM modes. So, when your plant is in growing mode, you can turn the Bloom lights off to save power and make the plant focus on growing part.

VIPARSPECTRA 1200W LED Grow Light

Viparspectra is one of the most well-known grow light brands on the market. The price of the Viparspectra 1200w full spectrum LED grow light might make you do a double-take. As a popular brand, the lights tend to be more expensive than other lesser-known brands, but based on customer reviews from experienced growers, if you invest in the best, you’ll get your money’s worth. When you compare the cost of the light to the amount of energy efficiency that the light provides, as well as the long-lasting quality, you might find that it’s worth it to pay a bit more for a longer-lasting light.

Conclusion
The LED grow lights are the major investment in marijuana indoor farming. They are specially needed if you want a whooping growth of marijuana or cannabis.

A grow light for weed you choose should have all the quality features like full spectrum, IR and UV rays, fans, god coverage, and a good PAR value for maximum yield.