5 LED Grow Light Features To Know
Commercial LED grow lights are an excellent way to get your garden seedlings started early in the year. Early seeding leads to stronger and healthier plants that also produce earlier. When choosing your lights, there are some things to keep in mind.
1. Available Spectrum
Plants use nearly every part of the light spectrum except for green light to help them grow, so it's ideal to find grow lights that provide a full spectrum. With LEDs, you will notice that there are red and UV purple lights intermixed with the more common white light LEDs on many fixtures. This is because plants can utilize light from the red and UV spectrum quite well, but the light isn't so intense that it burns young seedlings.
2. Light Spread
How far the light spreads out is important, otherwise, the seedlings in the middle of a grow tray will grow straight stems while those along the edges will reach and stretch toward the light in the center. If you opt for LED bar lights, you may need several per greenhouse shelf to prevent leggy seedlings. Another option is to purchase LED panel grow lights, which cover a much wider area. Panel lights come in sizes designed to fit the average size of seedling trays in order to ensure better light coverage.
3. Dimmable Options
Young seedlings can receive too much light, particularly early season vegetable and flower varieties that germinate in nature before spring sunlight becomes more intense. Standard LED grow lights can burn these tender young plants. If you are growing more tender seedlings, look for grow lights that come with a dimmer or lower light intensity setting. Once the plants are germinated with plenty of leaves, you can increase the light's intensity.
4. Integrated Timers
Few plants require that their lights are constantly. In fact, leaving on grow lights for 24 hours a day can weaken or even kill some plants, as they need a darker rest period. You can turn lights on and off manually, although that increases the chances of human error. Look for fixtures that come with integrated light timers so you simply set it and forget it.
5. Mounting Styles
Light fixtures come in a range of mounting styles. Some are meant to be affixed to lighting stands, so they can be used on a tabletop. Others are hung from chains, so they require a shelf above them or a ceiling hook for hanging. Make sure the lights you choose can be mounted in a way suitable for your growing location.
Contact a commercial growing lights supplier to learn more about this topic.
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