do led grow lights work reddit - Brave Search

Do grow lights actually work?

reddit.com › r › IndoorGarden › comments › 14qfl46 › do_grow_lights_actually_work

The answer is it depends, but a good grow light used properly will 100% work. Answer from DoctorBlazes on reddit.com

reddit.com › r/indoorgarden › do grow lights actually work?

r/IndoorGarden on Reddit: Do grow lights actually work?

July 4, 2023 - It’s my first grow light and I was hesitant to get the more powerful and expensive ones, as I didn’t know what I was looking for. They definitely did help get my seedlings growing well indoors before I got them outside. So they certainly do work...

reddit.com › r/houseplants › do grow lights actually work?

r/houseplants on Reddit: Do Grow Lights Actually Work?

March 2, 2025 -

I live in a house with little light so my indoor plants have never really thrived. I have tried grow lights in the past but found they didn’t actually work. I have done research, but when it comes to buying a good grow light there are so many misleading advertisements that straight up just lie about the light. It is also difficult finding a light that looks pleasing in my home (warm colours) etc. I’m not too worried about price as I understand quality generally will cost more, but I really need some suggestions for grow lights that you have actually noticed a difference with. Particularly looking at something for my Monstera Thai Constellation, which I want to put in this corner of my bathroom (maybe attach the light to the ceiling?)

I use barrina T5 lights from Amazon. They’re super affordable and they have different light colors. I use the warm white ones because they have a cozy feel and don’t look pink or bluish like hospital lights (hard to tell in pics). The plants in this pic haven’t seen real sunlight in years! The only thing I’ve found that don’t do well under them are succulents/cacti. They’ll survive, they just won’t thrive or grow particularly fast.

yes. here’s all my plants grown with ZERO natural light replying w more plants. proof is in the pudding…but also all the science that makes grow lights work too succulents are under barrina T8s. aroids are under Viper Spectra 200. 12-14hrs of light a day

Videos

LED Grow Lighting for Horticulture Education

Grow Lights That Make Your Home Beautiful (No Grow Tent ...

February 26, 2025

Comparing All My Grow Lights 💡🌱 What’s Actually Worth It?

October 10, 2025

Watch This BEFORE You Buy A Grow Light (Guide For Beginners) - YouTube

January 8, 2024

Ignore These MYTHS About Growlights as a Beginner! - YouTube

February 26, 2025

DON'T BUY Grow Lights - YouTube

October 28, 2023

reddit.com › r/indoorgarden › do regular led lights do anything for plants? my rooms doesn’t get enough light. i’m looking for a real grow light but this is the set up for now.

r/IndoorGarden on Reddit: Do regular LED lights do anything for plants? My rooms doesn’t get enough light. I’m looking for a real grow light but this is the set up for now.

January 12, 2021 - Then two 45 watt craftsman LED work Lights that are 3500k, and two 18 watt T5 Florescent lights which are 4200k. It is very effective for the growth of the plan, and through the entire life cycle from seed through flowering, as well.

reddit.com › r/houseplants › can i use regular leds as grow lights? even the cheap ones is a little expensive for my liking…

r/houseplants on Reddit: Can i use regular LEDs as grow lights? Even the cheap ones is a little expensive for my liking…

February 6, 2025 - I do. I use cheap 60cm, 6500k LED battens from the hardware store. Before that I just used bulbs of similar light colour in lamps. My plants grow perfectly fine. Grow lights do work better however.

reddit.com › r/indoorgarden › does regular led lamps work for plants?

r/IndoorGarden on Reddit: Does regular led lamps work for plants?

September 9, 2024 -

Hi! I am currently working on a plant shelf and was wondering if i could use my home led lamps for m'y babies? I have a propagation shelf, classic exotic plants like monsteras but wanna also put a chamber for Peppers! (I suppose Peppers will need crazy lamps 😄) Most of my lightbulbs are 2700-3000K and have an average of 1500lm for 12w. Do you have any advice for m'y setup? 😇

You can use these, they’ll grow stuff well as long as they’re not too far away (within 1-2 feet) You also have to be careful to not let them get humid or wet at all, unlike using a DC LED instead The colour temperature will be fine, you can mix 3000k and 6500k together to get a pleasing sunlight colour

"Work" is a wonky term. Jump on the Wikipedia page for photosynthesis for specifics, but plants use 2 general wavelengths for photosynthesis. Grow lights tend to shine in these important wavelengths and not in other visible ones, thus the odd red-purple lights you see. Some grow lights appear white by shining other visible wavelengths, but those are for you, not the plant. The issue is you are wasting energy pumping out light that isn't used by the plant and basic led grow bulbs are only $3 per bulb on Amazon. Now i do believe science now says that plants appear to use many more wavelengths for other natural processes, but not photosynthesis per se. Tl:Dr maybe I just confused things but the right tool for the job will cost you $6 usd and last almost a decade

reddit.com › r/plants › can i use regular leds as grow lights? even the cheap ones are a little expensive for me…

r/plants on Reddit: Can I use regular LEDs as grow lights? Even the cheap ones are a little expensive for me…

February 6, 2025 - They might keep your plant alive, but not help it thrive. If you're on a budget, look for full-spectrum grow bulbs which are often more affordable than full setups and work better than regular LEDs.

reddit.com › r/gardening › anybody knows about the led grow light? is it good for plant growing?

r/gardening on Reddit: Anybody knows about the LED Grow Light? Is it good for plant growing?

November 28, 2018 - Look for full spectrum light that use 5w leds with at least 80 per panel. ... There is a lot of parameters to take into account if you want to buy a led grow light. But generally speaking, led grow light are good for plants.

reddit.com › r/houseplants › do led grow lights work through glass, more details in the comments?

r/houseplants on Reddit: Do LED grow lights work through glass, more details in the comments?

February 12, 2021 - Glass absorbs IR and UV light, which is irrelevant for normal LED grow lights. But it also reflects some visible light and that is going to reduce the efficiency of the grow lights. So yes, it will work, but it would be better without the glass.

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

reddit.com › r/indoorgardening › what's the difference between grow lights and just getting led lights?

r/indoorgardening on Reddit: What's the difference between grow lights and just getting LED lights?

September 22, 2020 -

New to indoor planting and my friend asked me this question and I didn't know how to answer her.

LED grow lights come on two flavors. Full spectrum white or red and blue. The red and blue correspond to the photosynthetic peaks. It's what your plant needs to live. The rest of the colors don't mean a whole lot. White full spectrum LED grow lights contain those red and blue peaks but they look white. Regular LED light bulbs only contain blue and yellow. When blue and yellow are mixed together it appears white. Yellow light also corresponds with the lumens, which is the measurement of how bright light is. Basically, yellow light is how bright our eyes think light is, but has nothing to do with plants. It makes sense that regular LED bulbs mix blue and yellow and mostly leave out red because why use it? plants need it but we don't. The next topic is power an efficiency. Plants need a lot of ppdf. To keep it simple PPFD is the amount of red and blue in the spectrum. Regular LED light bulbs won't have much PPFD. Grow lights are also typically 15 watts or higher with a very focused spectrum that has high amounts of PPFD. Your regular LED light bulb from Lowe's is probably only 3 watts, And the spectrum is mostly yellow So it has very little PPFD (only what is there from the blue). that means even if you find a regular LED light that's 15 watts it won't be nearly as efficient as a grow light that's 15 watts. Now if you have a houseplant, I would recommend a white grow light. You want something to match your decor. The trade-off with a white grow light is slightly less PPFD efficiency compared to a red and blue light. but you're talking only about a 10% difference if you're going with a high quality company. It could be a lot more with low quality brands. If you're growing plants in your basement or in a greenhouse, go with the red and blue based lighting. Those produce higher amounts of PPFD for the same amount of power consumption so they have much higher efficiencies. You wouldn't use regular white light for plants. Some old school greenhouses still use high pressure sodium or similar bulbs. These typically start at 300 watts. They aren't efficient by any means, but so much power is bound to grow anything. That high amount of power also penetrates leaves deep into the canopy for massive, crop producing plants. Hope that helps. A lot of bulbs have exaggerated numbers and are made really poorly. It's truly a market that's starting to be flooded with low quality Chinese products. Plant lights are on for 12 to 16 hours a day, and LEDs and the electrics have to stay cool or they fail quickly. Lastly, you should really find photos or a video of the product. A lot of bulbs that claim to be white are still extremely blue or pink And will look terrible in your home. Good luck! If you have any other questions, let me know.

I use an LED light as a grow light. From a functional standpoint, I don’t think there is a huge difference if your goal is simply to keep your plants alive. this video from Betsy Begonia helped immensely . I suspect that marijuana growers tend to dominate a lot of the grow light information available online and that’s just way too much for most of us.

reddit.com › r/houseplants › are led grow lights bad?

r/houseplants on Reddit: Are LED grow lights bad?

March 13, 2024 -

I saw a post over on the cj subreddit that had LED grow lights (full spectrum red, purple, and blue options) and was wondering if those are bad? If so, why they are? Im relying on one for about five plants right now that are otherwise in a darker corner, and hope they arent starving for sun !

LED grow lights are fine conceptually. Seems that most grow lights produced these days are LED. The problem is that white LED lights are not necessarily full-spectrum (though they can be), which is a problem when you order cheap grow lights from some weird named all-caps company on Amazon. Amazon has so much Alibaba grow light trash that the sellers can get away with because it’s impossible to tell if what you got will be effective just by plugging it in and looking at the light it puts off. Technically, any light would be better than nothing, but you can be sure you’re getting the light with the advertised specs if you accept paying the premium for a trusted brand like GE or Barrina or Sansi among many others.

Also, just get full spectrum, that’s what your plant needs, and plus, the blue and red shit gets old real quick. And you can’t even see the true colors of the plant if a colored light is shining on it.

reddit.com › r/houseplants › overwhelmed by information about grow lights

r/houseplants on Reddit: Overwhelmed by information about grow lights

June 7, 2024 -

There’s a lot of info out there that is probably really helpful but that i don’t actually understand. Like you need growlights because they have wavelengths that ordinary lights don’t have. But also that any light with about 65000k should be good so what i am wondering i guess is can i just use whatever floor lamp with a 24W CFL globe that has a colour temperature of 65000k. Or do i have to use a special growlight. If so what growlights do you guys use because when i search online i can only really see temu ads which i don’t want so i don’t know where to buy from and what’s reliable and on top of that, what is actually available in Australia… I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the different things that need to be considered… help…

Give me a sec I'll edit this comment, I've made a superb one some time ago I just need to find it Edit 2 coming, answering your questions more specifically. I don't know what's available in Australia, but try to find the brands I mention below if possible, or similar ones in terms of how they look. The bottom line is that most of them are knockoffs of each other... When you see color temperature, and I'm guessing you mean 6500k, not 65000k (I'm not sure if that exists). These numbers relate to the warm to cold color spectrum: cold (blues) is the higher numbers, and warm (reds/yellows/oranges) is lower numbers. The blue spectrum relates to vegetation (roots, leaves, stems), the red relates to blooming (quantity and quality of produce and flowers). In the bottom line white is the combination of all visible light wavelengths. It's important to keep in mind that plants want all light wavelengths, ultra violet to ultra red, including the green wavelengths. Any article that claims differently isn't trust worthy. Same goes for any product that's blue/red/purple and the like, you want a proper full spectrum light. Fun fact: I learned a lot of the above during my military service (I was a tank technician, I handled optics among other things). Special Grow Lights? Yes. I'd say so. Get a proper grow light and some way of making it automatic (smart or timer based plugs are awesome for that), and you won't have to think about it, or worry about leaving them on when on vacation, etc. Edit: I made this comment in the context of adeniums. They need a lot of light. If you want pictures, let me know, I'll post some. So this part is far more technical, and discusses hardware rather than lightware (I'm puntastic like that) To measure light, download an app similar to Lux . These apps are usually within ±5-10% of the accurate measurement, depending on the light sensor in your specific phone (my Samsung 20 plus is about 3% off from my light reading device when I point them at the same source). If you want a professional device, they run from pretty cheap to holy crap. I'm using this Btmeter Light Meter. It's decent, nothing special though. I've had mine for a 4 years, I think it's starting to show its age but only slightly. If the app says anything short of 10,000lux, you need more light. EDIT: I accidentally mixed up the inches and feet symbols! All of the below is in inches, NOT ft!!! My grow lights recommendations, based on the ones I own: Distance is an estimate, lux is based on the app above. Mars Hydro - SP150. Best one I have. >20k lux @ 8'-10'. Good light spread. Good color spectrum. Strongly recommended. I bought it over 3.5 years ago, and excluding one panel dying about 6-8 months ago, it works amazing. SpeePlant LED Grow Lights 1.4FT - I have two. 15k lux @ 8'. Ok light spread, good color spectrum. Got em a month 3 months ago. So far so good, and good value for money (so far). CANAGROW 300W COB LED Grow Light - very concentrated light, measured it at >30k lux @ 15'. Good color spectrum. Used for about 18 months, works well in the specific spot it points at. Good for 1 or maybe 2 mature adeniums. SunBlaster 12" Prismatic Lens LED 12W HO Strip Light 6400K - 7000 lux @ 6'. Low light spread, reasonable color spectrum, but a bit heavy on the blue). Not dis recommended, but I won't be getting another. Kihung LED Grow Light, 2FT LED Grow Light , Barrina LED Grow Light, 2FT LED Grow Light . Measured: ~8k lux @ <6' when they work together as a large group and placed close together. Low light spread. Ok-ish color color spectrum. Not recommended at all. The same manufacturers with different brand names. LED Grow Light for Indoor Plants measurd: <8k lux @ 8'. Ok-ish color color spectrum Not recommended at all. All of my lights are used 13 hours a day. I use smart plugs to turn them on and off, I really recommend doing that, or timed outlets if you prefer, that's also a good idea. Reputable brands I know are considered good: Mars Hydro, Spider Farmer, and Horticultural Lighting Group (Sometimes they go by HLG) are all good. There are other similar brands around as well. When it comes to meeting your plants' need for photosynthesis, just remember: follow the light! ;)

Horticulturalist here with a lot of experience with grow lights. Here’s the deal, as long as you’re not running an indoor farm and trying to maximize yield, they’re all going to be just fine. If you want to get more specific, you need to be concerned about what wave length a light puts off, basically what colours is the light emitting. You want red and blue light. But seriously just about any grow light is going to be fine. For my house plants I usually use white grow lights because I find the red/blue ones harder on my eyes.

reddit.com › r/indoorgarden › do grow lights actually work for indoor houseplants?

r/IndoorGarden on Reddit: Do grow lights actually work for indoor houseplants?

April 15, 2025 -

I want to exclusively grow my indoor plants with grow lights, but don’t want to spend a fortune. My friend has a degree in agriculture. He says I shouldn’t even really start because it’ll be too expensive. I need to know if it is possible and what brands do you recommend?

About 90% of my collection survives solely off grow lights. They work great

Yes. I have extremely poor lighting and long winters. My plants only survive cause of grow lights. It’s not exactly breaking my light bill either. I estimated it went up about 10$. I do not personally have a recommendation on which to use. I just bought those cheap Amazon white full spectrum ones, which I know aren’t exactly recommended.

reddit.com › r/vegetablegardening › is grow light is a thing or no?

r/vegetablegardening on Reddit: Is grow light is a thing or no?

November 27, 2025 -

I always thought grow light is different and essential to plants but recently watched a video for a guy on YouTube and he seems to be a pro. I think his channel is gardening like the viking or something.

Anyway, he is saying any bright light should work and don't spend money on grow light.

Who is right here?

Edit: I'm germinating seeds for herbs, onion and tomato.

grow lights have never been cheaper

There will be strong opinions around this...and I too have seen people on youtube grow with old fluorescent shop lights, professional growers who sell. I bought high bay, daylight spectrum LED fixtures that I can dim and they work excellently. I bought a full spectrum as some will call you names if you don't as a control. No difference. Started 68 tomato plants, 20 peppers, herbs, lettuces, beets, etc... And some tomatoes I started early enough and they started fruiting, no difference between my very strong LED fixtures and the full spectrum, except I get more light for less $$ on the former.

reddit.com › r/houseplants › let’s talk grow lights!

r/houseplants on Reddit: Let’s talk grow lights!

May 3, 2020 - Most LED bulbs out today are full spectrum and therefore sufficient for plant growth (you can buy a cheap spectrometer and test LED bulbs you already have). I have a NE facing apartment that gets almost no direct sunlight and very little indirect ...

reddit.com › r/vegetablegardening › help with grow lights?

r/vegetablegardening on Reddit: Help with grow lights?

February 18, 2026 -

Hey all! I'm hoping for just a lot of general advice.

I have a bad habit of killing my seedlings, which is not exactly new. (I have killed SO MANY plants in my life! 😅) But one of the issues I've noticed is that I've been crowding them into the windowsills to try to get them enough light, and a) that puts them out of sight, so I forget about them--I'm adhd af--and b) they get just really leggy.

I figure setting them up with grow lights in my bathroom is a potential solution to both. Space and cost are both issues, but also just general ignorance: I've never used grow lights in my life, and I don't know where to start.

Any general guides, product recs, advice, do's and don't's, etc that y'all can provide me would be very helpful. What do you know?

I love LEDs, for efficiency. You want "full spectrum". You want to pay attention to the area the light covers, try to fit that well to your space, like a 4' long fixture that looks like fluorescent lights covers two standard trays the narrow way well. You'll want to be able to raise the light because the light doesn't travel far and you'll put it very near the starts and raise it to make room. You'll want a timer, not necessarily as part of the light because you don't want to get stuck turning it on yourself. A dark period and consistent light cycles are important, and a better use of power. Humidity domes or a cover is preferred. And I have been pleasantly surprised by how helpful seedling heat mats can be for germination.

You can use led shop lights or barrina bar lights or something similar. 15+watts of LED per square foot is a good start. Research par and ppfd. Stay away from purple lights, they are usually weak and you will hate looking at them.

reddit.com › r/gardening › do led grow light strips work?

r/gardening on Reddit: Do LED Grow light strips work?

January 17, 2022 -

Got some of these for Christmas and just wondering if they are actually any good. I got two different strips, the ones linked above show that they are 12W and the others that I already have hooked up are only pulling 8W. Is that enough to accomplish anything? 8W seems like it's not gonna do much to get seedlings to grow. Maybe if I cram both strips onto my one board for 20W total?

My desire is to have a space to grow starts from seeds so I also got some warming mats. Are these LEDs good for this? I'm not trying to indoor garden, just get some starts going so I can transplant to my garden outside. I have basically no good windows where I can do this indoors without some extra light.

I'm not trying to indoor garden, just get some starts going so I can transplant to my garden outside. I'm not sure if the lights you posted will work but all you need for this is walmart shop lights. I grew tons of veggie starts with these last year 5000 lumens and Daylight 5000 k is plenty of light for seed starts. If the lights you have come close to these ratings you'll probably be OK.

You cannot get these lower power light strips into a small enough space to effectively grow anything. These are fun nightlights and that's about it. 12W just isn't enough to do anything interesting. Any attempt to grow anything with it will be an exercise in frustration. Seedlings require a good quantity of light and quality is not all that important. Straight shop lights work fine. For each 1020 tray (standard 10" x 20" tray) of seedlings I would suggest about 25W to 30W of draw on an LED shop light that's 2 feet long. Make sure you look at actual wattage, many "wattage" specs are "watt equivalent." Those get confusing. Look directly at the specs for wattage draw. If this is your first attempt at growing seedlings indoors, it is not terribly difficult, but there are a lot of basics you need to get right. Lighting is just one. Heat mats are good for veggie germination. Still, go search online for seed starting and read/watch the materials out there. It will save you some frustration.

reddit.com › r/vegetablegardening › grow light advice

r/vegetablegardening on Reddit: Grow light advice

January 19, 2026 -

Seed starting indoors. What are the details I need when getting a grow light? Just lumens or more? Can I use a led light from a hardware store?

u/californicarepublic has it correct. You want a color temp of 5000 Kelvin or higher and as many lumens as you can get with 5000 being fine. LED is HIGHLY preferred if you can since it's cheaper to run and much cooler. I just got the Barrina TX36 lights which are 4 for $60 or so on Amazon (they're 2ft wide, if you have wider shelves get something wider)

I use two 4ft led shop lights for my seed starting shelves. They are 5000 lumen, 5000 kelvin. And seeds start just fine under those. I can also grow lettuce hydroponically under them in the winter. You don't need specialty lights for seed starting. With tomato seedlings they will start to get leggy between 4 and 6 weeks old, so you'll want to move them outside into a greenhouse, or find them more light by then.

reddit.com › r/explainlikeimfive › eli5: can plants get their needed "sunlight" from artificial (e.g. normal led room lights) source? whats the difference between artificial light and sunlight from the point of view of the plant?

r/explainlikeimfive on Reddit: ELI5: Can plants get their needed "sunlight" from artificial (e.g. normal LED room lights) source? Whats the difference between artificial light and sunlight from the point of view of the plant?

March 26, 2019 -

So my house is "north facing" and doesnt get much light in some rooms but I like to have plants around (and be able to keep them healthy). I'd like to understand in simple terms whether they can survive and thrive with normal artificial light most of the time (e.g. there are a few windows but not always much light through them). If I'm at home during the day I would usually have an overhead light on, in order to have enough light to work at my computer (or whatever). Other than in the height of summer.

Bonus question, can I use "colour adjustable" (e.g. Philips Hue which allows choosing any colour of light using its 'app') to help the plants?

edited to add: I'm primarily asking about normal household lighting with possibly some additional lamps, rather than an "intensive growing" scenario.

Yes, the plant cannot tell the difference, as long as the light includes the colors (wavelengths) that plants most need, basically red light and blue light.

The plant's photosynthesis cells expect a specific frequency to power their chemistry. Sunlight is quite universal, it's broadband with a wide spectrum, all colors are present in sunlight. Other sources work differently.

Thermal lamps, incandescent or halide, are also broad band. This way, you can make a "grow light" without needing to ask "to grow what plant?".

LED lamps are very, very narrow band. Particularly the Hue lamps. They can internally make 3-4 specific frequencies. They can fool your eye into seeing the color you want by mixing these colors. That may not be sufficient to power the chemistry in the plant in question.

reddit.com › r/hydro › do grow lights make sense for a hobbyist at home? (economically and functionally)

r/hydro on Reddit: Do grow lights make sense for a hobbyist at home? (Economically and functionally)

September 2, 2022 -

I've started researching grow lights and I was wondering if they make sense for a hobbyist home hydro system, economically mostly, I'm scared of how much they will consume and cost. Also, what benefits will I get from a light? Faster growth? All-year harvest?

If they do make sense, what do you guys recommend?

Financially it makes 0 sense. Why would you pay for something thats free outdoors?? Or you could buy the end result cheaper in a supermarket.. Its hobby. It doesnt need to make sense. Forget the monetary calculation. It gives you satisfaction. Thats what you invest in. But. What do need to do is justify the spend. "Will buying this bring me an advantage I otherwise would not have, but have a need for." Growing year round. Being able to cultivate crops that you would not otherwise. Achieve light levels beyond normal. Increase the quality or quantity of your crops. Be able to more efficiently use your resources (e.g. dimming, scheduling). Make it more easy. These type of questions..

You bought a car, insurance and gas to drive to the store to buy shitty chemical laden factory produced floppy lettuce that tastes like shit. Of course it makes sense to be self sufficient and feed your body healthy food. It is priceless. No monetary comparison.