How to Use LED Plant Grow Lights in Indoor Plants?

Whether you're growing rare flowers or just herbs and vegetables for the table, LED Plant Grow Lights can help you grow a variety of plants indoors.

Growing indoors offers you several advantages over outdoor gardening. The most obvious is the ability to better control temperature. Most plants have a narrow range of temperatures at which they will bloom or fruit.

Another factor you can control in an indoor growing environment is the humidity level. While some plants prefer moist air, others are susceptible to disease under the same conditions. Or, many succulents and cacti prefer dry conditions, which you can provide in an air-conditioned space.

However, outdoor gardening has one distinct advantage over indoor gardening, and that is the surplus of sunlight that many plants need to thrive. Fortunately, LED plant grow lights can provide all the light your plants need - efficiently and inexpensively.

What is an LED plant light?

LED grow lights offer an energy-efficient option for indoor gardening. They are made using two different types of semiconductors inside a chip, one with a negative charge and the other with a positive charge. The two are separated by an "energy gap". When the chip is energized, the electrons are excited, and when they fall into one of the holes, they are compounded to produce photons. This is how LED Plant Lights work.

LED Plant Lights

Using LED indoor plant lights

But before you run out and buy some cheap LED bulbs, you need to understand how they can nurture your plants.

You need to know which type of LED plant grow lights are needed for different plant types. Depending on the species and your gardening goals, you need to know how many hours of light they need.

Most importantly, you need to know how the color of your LED grow lights affects your plants. Sunlight contains the right spectrum or color for healthy plants. When you see a rainbow formed by a rainstorm, the sunlight breaks down into a variety of colors. This range of colors is called the spectrum, and the colors you see are the colors visible to the human eye.

Advantages of using LED plant lights

For years, gardeners have used fluorescent, HID and incandescent lamps to grow plants indoors. But recent advances in LED technology have made them the preferred choice of many indoor gardeners. They offer distinct advantages over more old-fashioned lighting systems.

For starters, they are extremely durable and can last for years with little investment. LED plant grow lights can provide 50,000 hours - about 12 years of operation for 12 hours a day. While fluorescent tubes can provide up to 20,000 hours of life, their quality for horticultural applications begins to decline after only one year.

LED lights are cooler. They emit much less heat than conventional lighting. This means you can place them closer to plant foliage without fear of burning. It also means less risk of accidental fires and no need for increased ventilation. Many people who use artificial light for indoor gardening find that it can significantly increase the heat load in their homes. This means more stress on your air conditioning system and your wallet.

Finally, one of the most popular advantages of using LED plant grow lights is that they use much less electricity than other types. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, LEDs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent lights and last 25 times longer than incandescent lights.

Choosing the Right LED Plant Grow Lights

Now that you're ready to start your indoor garden, it's time to choose the right LED plant grow lights. You now know that it's critical to provide your plants with plenty of blue and red light. You also know that white light, infrared light and UV light can also affect your indoor garden production.

What color LED plant grow lights should I buy?

Look for LED plant grow lights that are color adjustable. When you first start your seedlings, you may only want to use blue light to get them started quickly. Once they mature, you can add red light to encourage them to bloom and provide fruit. Finally, for quick and easy placement of LED plant grow lights, look for lights that offer adjustable stands and hanging kits.

We also offer LED Aquarium Lights, so please feel free to contact us if you need one!