Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

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arnorrian
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#41

Post: # 8833Unread post arnorrian
Tue Feb 04, 2020 8:17 pm

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lee53011
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#42

Post: # 37097Unread post lee53011
Tue Dec 29, 2020 11:03 pm

Any opinions on these?

friedgreen51
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#43

Post: # 37163Unread post friedgreen51
Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:23 pm

I have been very happy with my Jump Start Grow Lights. I have both the 2 foot and the 4 foot lengths.
I really like them because it is so easy to adjust the height of the light as you seedlings grown. Both of mine are going into the third season and no problems whatsoever.
https://www.agriculturesolutions.com/hy ... gIQAvD_BwE

Gardadore
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#44

Post: # 37167Unread post Gardadore
Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:21 pm

I like the Jump Start as well. They use the T5 bulbs. I actually made two more sets using PVC piping copying the design and just bought the bulbs separately. They give off adequate light and my seedlings do fine. But they are warmer than the shop lights so I have to be careful not to let the plants grow too high before raising the lights. My older lights are the shop lights which use either T12 or T8’s bulbs. They work just fine as well. But I am also open to finding something better so appreciate the info and recommendations in this thread.

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AZGardener
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#45

Post: # 37382Unread post AZGardener
Sat Jan 02, 2021 7:31 am

I use a shop light type set-up.
The fixture is similar to this one:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lithonia-Light ... 1000410159
Bulbs: https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-32-Watt-48- ... k/50328569
Shelving I used for the lights: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-Chrome- ... /204466874

These have served me well. I did try some LED replacement bulbs and found my plants had what looked like burns on the leaves.
I switched back to the fluorescent bulbs and haven't had the issue since.
That being said, others have great results with LED but I haven't got how to use them dialed in enough to have good results.
When shopping for bulbs the recommendation is 3000 lumens and 6500 kelvin (daylight).
Lots of great options in this thread.
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JRinPA
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#46

Post: # 37614Unread post JRinPA
Mon Jan 04, 2021 5:54 pm

I have to recommend a setup for my brother. I am frankly tired of growing all his seedlings. I don't mind starting them, the first week, but babysitting for the next 3-5 weeks got old a couple years back already...

Looks like the simplest setup is to just tell him to get 4 ft linkable LEDs in 5000k to 6500k. For starts only.

I still use the 4ft 4 bulb T5HO that I've had for maybe 5 seasons now? I make it work - I can squeeze 8 trays under that one fixture with rotation - but it gives off a lot of heat with 4 bulbs going, so is not great for cool weather seedlings. Also, when a fan is run across the plants, the inner set of bulbs dim. I have not figured the reason for that...the fan is not on the same circuit, so it definitely seems to be the air blowing across the tubes or the housing that causes the dimming. Direct the fan away from the grow light, and in a few minutes the bulbs brighten up again.

Vanman
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#47

Post: # 37616Unread post Vanman
Mon Jan 04, 2021 6:07 pm

I received this for Christmas 2019: BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum Dual-Chip Growing Lamp for Hydroponic Indoor Plants Veg and Flower
My daughter ordered it from Amazon.

We started tomatoes and peppers with it this past Spring in our basement and were amazed at how well it worked. We had better, larger, and stockier plants than ever before.

I suspended it from an HVAC duct over a 27x60 inch plastic table. When the plants started to lean towards the light a built a reflector out of 1 inch blue board (foam insulation) covered with heavy duty aluminum foil. The plants straightened out in a couple hours. They grew so fast and tall we had to plant them a couple weeks before I really wanted to. Of course we had a later than usual frost and had to cover them all.

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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#48

Post: # 39342Unread post Traveler
Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:58 pm

I see a lot of lights such as this one on Amazon that are described as "Daylight" and have significantly higher Kelvin than my T12 3,000K fluorescent grow lights. However they don't describe the light spectrum. Are these really full spectrum grow lights?

https://www.amazon.com/Hykolity-Linkabl ... EA4BMVQ9R5

bjbebs
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#49

Post: # 39361Unread post bjbebs
Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:44 am

These tubes are bright white light, not full spectrum. The same as a screw in LED in daylight with 5500-6500 K.

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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#50

Post: # 39461Unread post Traveler
Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:09 pm

Thanks for the reply. I'll continue my hunt for a more modern 4 ft hanging grow light.

Switching gears, I picked out the attached grow light with tripod to have something very portable with a timer. It is listed as 4000K which I believe to be adequate for seed starting, seedlings and supplemental lighting for house plants. I'm posting this in case anyone has a better recommendation.
4000K is the highest I could find with tripod.

Apologies as my link appears not to post. The key takeaway is that it is full spectrum, 4000k with a tripod


zeuspaul
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#51

Post: # 39462Unread post zeuspaul
Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:29 pm

I can see your Amazon Grow Lights for indoor plants link complete with an image. In a different thread I posted a few Amazon links and I was informed that some could not see them. Is it something to do with Amazon links or ??

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GoDawgs
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Re: Grow lights -- what do you use; are you happy with them?

#52

Post: # 39463Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Jan 26, 2021 4:48 pm

AZGardener wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 7:31 am I use a shop light type set-up.
The fixture is similar to this one:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lithonia-Light ... 1000410159
Bulbs: https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-32-Watt-48- ... k/50328569
Shelving I used for the lights: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-Chrome- ... /204466874

These have served me well. I did try some LED replacement bulbs and found my plants had what looked like burns on the leaves.
I switched back to the fluorescent bulbs and haven't had the issue since.
That being said, others have great results with LED but I haven't got how to use them dialed in enough to have good results.
When shopping for bulbs the recommendation is 3000 lumens and 6500 kelvin (daylight).
Lots of great options in this thread.
Wow, I have the exact same set up that you have, including the shelving unit from HD and the same two different bulbs in each fixture! A few of the fixtures are Lithonias and two are some other brand. Lithonia is an old company right here in Georgia although part of a bigger corporation now. I get really good results with my set up too.

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