imaginesfromtheunderground

Choosing the best LED grow lights for marijuana (or any other plant) is impossible.

Different brands each have unique benefits, so the actual question is: "What's the best lighting for MY requirements?"

In this guide we'll consider the features that differentiate the LED grow lights for sale, so you can select one according to the features most important for you.

Don't hesitate to jump straight down to our popular comparison table for an overview of all our lights.

We are going to start our manual with price, but it is not the ideal method to decide on a LED light.

They're all expensive and you do not purchase one to save money on your setup. You buy them for quality yields and also to spend less on power and substitute bulbs down the road.

Nevertheless, you have a plant or two or if you're looking for supplemental light, a much light is going to do the job.

Listed below are our recommendations for various cost levels:

Best LED Grow Light Value Under $200 Lights within this price range will not be powerful enough to light if you don't only have a plant or two, your entire grow. You would get better yields with more powerful lights. These lights are for supplementing an present system, great.

The bar lights from Kind LED are the smartest choice in this budget. The two foot bars price $116.97 and also the 3 foot bars cost $170.97. Four foot pubs are also available, but they cost more than $200. Kind makes two main types of bars: you with a specialized range for floweringand one having a vegging range.

A alternative are LED grow bulbs. It only costs $59.99 and brings 24 watts. It plugs into any light socket that is normal and is a great supplemental mild, with two red three different wavelengths and one blue. As a standalone light, it is not powerful enough to blossom bud, but can get the job done for a small herb garden.

The SolarSystem 275 series from California Lightworks (pictured above) is the best sub $500 worth. Both attribute extremely high-quality OSRAM SSL LEDs and price $ 489.

The Advance Spectrum MAX 360 (pictured above) gives you the most power per dollar spent in this price range. It runs at 216 watts and costs $497.

Best Value Under $1000 The mild under $1000 is one which we, and our clients, are extremely excited about and just one of our brands. It's the Optic 6 and it has been selling like crazy ever since we added Optic LED lights to our catalogue.

The reason for that is simple: the Optic 6 is a powerful 1000 watt equal light which sells for only $749. It sells for such a low price, since it's made in China, unlike the 2 more expensive brands listed under in the "over $1000" class.

Even though the light is produced in China, the company is American, located in Seattle. This means you find American quality control along with an American warranty (five years). Plus you get a remarkably powerful light that comes in 2 versions: one with 3000K COBs that is a bloom specialist and one with a mixture of 3000K and 5000K COBs, which makes it perfect for every stage of growth.

This price range comprises the best LED fixtures cash can buy. We'll provide recommendations for fixtures utilizing people and all LEDs with multiple LEDs.

Multi-Color Full Spectrum Light

The brand new Dark Dog PhytoMax-2 line of lights will be the most powerful lights on the market and easily the best in this budget. We will concentrate on the PhytoMax-2 600 here, as it's equivalent to 1000 watts of HID power.

Additionally, it runs considerably cooler than the HPS mild, despite needing powerful 5w chips which penetrate deeper into the canopy than other LED lights.

The NextLight Mega is the best all-white LED light. It costs $1525.50 and is equal to some double-ended 1000 watt HPS light, but comprises more blue-spectrum mild, making it perfect for all phases of plant growth.

The NextLight Mega along with the Phytomax-2 600 made our record of those 4 finest 1000 watt LED lights. That guide has reviews of all four lights and is well worth a read if you are thinking about a watt fixture. We have a similar post for 600 watt LED grow lights.

Power

To increase bud, you want no less than 25 g per square foot of grow space. Obviously, more wattage will provide you larger yields.

Therefore, if you have four plants that each consume 4 square feet (2 by 2), then you want no less than 400 watts of true LED power (16 square feet x 25 watts/sq. Ft. = 400 g).

If you can afford it, go with more power. At least 600 watts for the 16 square foot area in the example.

NOTE: we're employing the actual power here (as well as in our dining table below), not the rated power. LED diodes are never run at full power, as this could considerably shorten their life. A chip for example, will run at approximately 60% of total power.

So if a fixture has two hundred 3-watt diodes, it's technically capable of producing 600 watts of power, but it is going to really only draw approximately 300 to 400. Most manufacturers will list the rated power (600 watts), but that is obviously a bit misleading.

If you're searching for the most powerful lighting on the market, that is the Black Dog PhytoMax-2 1000, however it is not cheap. The new Cirrus 1K is also a true 1000w light. Even though it is not as powerful as the Black Dog, it comes close and costs about a third of the purchase price.

Spectrum

We recommend a complete spectrum lighting in just about all cases, unless you are just searching for a supplemental light with a particular color spectrum.

The only time we'd consider a light tailored for you personally grow cycle is in case you're just cloning or vegging. Even after that, most growers will only use fluorescents because of their cloning space, however the brand new NextLight Veg8 may alter that.

Designed to replace a 8 tube 4 foot fluorescent fixture, the Veg 8 actually outperforms it and will save you money over the year. This light is a true game-changer.

White or Multi-Band? If it comes to full-spectrum LED grow lights, there are two options LED lights and people with colour rings.

Proponents of all-white LEDs, claim they best approximate natural sun and are a combination of MH and HPS light.

Proponents of all LED lights say white LEDs include an excessive amount of light from the green and yellow spectrum array. It goes to waste, making white LEDs less effective, as this light is not usable by plants.

We favor multi-band full-spectrum light, because they (the LED plant lights available on our website anyway) include white LEDs as one or two of the rings.

Nobody joins multiple LED colors better than Cirrus LED Systems. Unlike other brands which unite many diodes that each give one off color, EACH of Cirrus' mCOB LEDs elicits the comprehensive spectrum (pictured above), resulting in a perfectly even spectral distribution--every part of the plants get the exact same light, optimizing yield quality and quantity.

If you prefer all-white LED lights, then NextLight lights would be the best.

Coverage

Coverage is difficult to put into one number, as it depends on the distance from the mild to the top of the crops. And by moving the light back as coverage increases, you reduce the PAR output along with the canopy penetration.

For the values in the table below, we used the policy provided while the lighting is 18 inches to 2 feet in the canopy. This is where you need it in order to deliver power.

Throughout vegging, you can move the light back and receive a coverage area.

By moving the lights from the plants as you can increase coverage, the policy values supplied by producers are all around the area.

Whatever the claims, the most powerful LED lights will provide you a maximum coverage area of 4 ft (possibly 5 by 5), if you're attempting to provide sufficient power during flowering to maximize returns. The sole exception is Black Dog, whose biggest light gives you a coverage area of 6.5 by 6.5.

Since the PAR values (see following section) are substantially higher in the middle of a light's coverage than around the outside, the plants across the outside of the policy area will not get as much lighting.

Ensure that you rotate the plants to make sure every part of every plant appreciates the light intensity. You can overlap coverage regions if using multiple lighting.

PAR

PAR stands for Photosynthetically Active Radiation and is used to assess the quantity of light given off that is usable by plants. It differs.

PAR figures may be somewhat misleading, which explains why some producers do supply them. Those that do will usually measure the PAR worth under the light, right in the middle of the coverage area.

But having a PAR value beneath the light is good for the plant in the middle. The plants on the outside the coverage area may be getting less mild.

Do not be tricked by an amazing PAR value. The very best lights really have lower PAR values, since they don't concentrate all their power in the middle and instead spread it throughout the policy area.

NextLight LEDs are great at generating intense light during the coverage area, however they use only white LEDs. If you prefer a multi-colored LED fixture, then Dark Dog's new lights cover a large area with powerful light throughout.

Warranty

We included this here, since the length of the warranty generally signals how confident the manufacturer is all about their lights. All provide you with a minimal warranty or 3 decades to get their higher-priced products along with a minimum of 1 year for the lights.