Are White LED Lights Good For Growing?

If you’ve ever practiced indoor growing, you know that the LED grow light market offers a wide variety of brands that employ different color spectra to deliver an indoor grow light. As such, there have always been continuous debates among indoor growers on the best grow lights that produce the highest yield. 

A common debate subject for growers recently has been the effect of white LED lights on indoor cultivation. While they have traditionally been used for lighting purposes, white LEDs can actually be employed as an indoor grow light as well. 

But are white LED grow lights good for growing? In this post, we look at what exactly full-spectrum white lights are and try to establish their effectiveness when it comes to indoor plant growth!

Yes, white grow lights can be crucial for plant growth! They form part of the absorbable spectrum that plants need for healthy growth but they can’t nurture plants on their own. They need to be combined with other spectra such as red and blue light for the best results.

That brings us back to our original question. And the answer is a resounding “yes.” White LED lights are great for growing plants.

But isn’t it true that plants want mostly red and blue light and that green and yellow light goes unused?

Doesn’t that mean that white light is less efficient than a “blurple” LED?

It does not.

As we’ve been learning more about the effects of different colors of lights on photosynthesis, we have come to realize that green light is not as useless as we thought.

Green light actually penetrates deeper into the canopy of plants than other colors. This means that a fixture with a healthy amount of green will stimulate growth further beneath the canopy than a light that does not contain green wavelengths.

In the end, white light has a great effect on plant growth. Because it contains a lot of green wavelengths, it results in stronger growth. It also results in great yields, if it is a warmer white light with a healthy amount of red wavelength light.

And if you add additional red diodes to the mix, you get a light that flowers even better. This is exactly what many of the most popular LED manufacturers are doing these days.

If you look at the best LED grow lights on the market today, they all use mainly white diodes (in some cases COBs). But they no longer use only white diodes.

HLG Quantum Board LED Grow Light

Pros:

• Produce less heat


• Ideal for beginners


• Works extremely cool and quiet lighting system


• ETL, RoHS, and CE Certified


• Release high PAR value with 450 μmol at 18 inches


• Provides deep penetration to ensure your plants’ growth

Cons:

• Doesn’t come with an additional control switch for an easier operation


• Doesn’t offer separate bloom and veg lights for a more efficient effect

Phlizon LED Grow Light

Pros:

• Easy to set and to operate


• Offers a bloom and veg setting for convenience


• Produces low heat compared with other lighting solutions for indoor plants


• Promotes faster and bigger amount of yields


• Energy-efficient and doesn’t need any extra ballast

Cons:

• Too bright to be looked at directly an eye protection


• Some units still emit a small amount of light even when turned off

Spider Farmer  LED Grow Light

Pros:

• Includes a timer to save energy


• Ideal for growing all indoor plants even on hydroponics


• Operates with a quiet cooling fan with 20-30% speed


• Helps boost the plants’ defense mechanism with an expensive IR UV lamp


• Perfect for winter with warm white light

Cons:

• Not powerful enough to help tomato plants grow tall and healthy


• Too bright to be looked at directly without an eye protection

Although there are various grow lights currently available in the market, there hasn’t really been enough discussion about the benefits that using white LED grow lights can have on plant growth. According to research, white LEDs can be great for plants, especially when used in conjunction with other color LEDs. 

Traditionally used high-intensity bulb lamps may not be as effective since they utilize more energy, so the light is released at a lower quality. Using high-intensity bulbs for indoor planting can result in a hot environment that will be difficult for you to manage.

This has always been a common grievance among indoor growers. Due to this, there has been an increase in plant light analysis, including the use of white LEDs. Part of the motive to establish this comes from their low use of energy and their ability to function for longer periods safely.

In the end, we can conclude that a high-quality grow light should include a white spectrum. That is why some of the latest produced grow lights are starting to incorporate it in their full light spectrum.

While white LEDs can provide good response and growing power in very young/immature plants, the most efficient, powerful way to fully grow plants is to tailor the spectral output of best LED grow lights to the Absorption spectrum by use of narrow banded LEDs in a perfected balance.  White LEDs by nature are and inefficient and wasteful when used as the primary source of light in an LED grow light.  This inefficiency goes against the very core principle of the concept of LED grow lights which is producing 100% usable light by way of a perfected spectral output as it pertains to the rate of spectral absorption by green chlorophyll.  Not only has scientific research shown this, but actual results of growers worldwide have proven this time and again.  Not only this, but due to the very nature of how “white” LEDs are actually a phosphor coated blue LED, they will never reach the same intensity level as a quality narrow banded LED.  When you filter light, you lessen it’s intensity.  Since intensity spectral output are what actually grow plants, these are not only the most important factors in an LED grow light’s power, they’re the only factors with regards to growing power.