Horticulture Lighting Group HLG Scorpion Diablo LED Grow Light VS ECO Farm ECOH Samsung Horticulture
When it comes to marijuana – there are two types of people in this world. Those who support it and those who are against it. Those who support it can be further divided into those who smoke it and those who don’t smoke it. Those who smoke weed can be divided into those who grow their own weed vs those who buy their weed. Finally, those who grow their weed can choose to either grow it indoors or grow it outdoors. While growing your weed outdoors means you are leaving much to nature, growing it indoors gives you a much higher level of control over the quality of your cannabis, as well as the potency and the strength of your weed! Choosing a best HLG Led Grow Light can be your importance choice.
Buying Guide – Factors to Consider Before Buying
Now that you know what the different types of LED grow lights are and which are some of the best LED lights in the markets, let us take a closer look at some of the things that you must always keep in mind before you buy your grow lights. These are important because grow lights are quite an investment and one needs to ensure that they are getting what they pay for!
Here are some of the factors that you need to look at before you make the purchase:
Electricity Consumption: One of the best reasons as to why you should be purchasing an LED lights is that they do not consume electricity as much as the older types of lights do. Most non-LED grow lights consume as much as 30% more electricity than their LED counterparts. However, you must always take a closer look at the electricity consumption and the wattage of the light that you are buying! Given that the LED grow lights that you are going to buy have to run for about 8 to 10 hours every day, you need to make sure they don’t cost you a bomb in electricity costs.
Spectrum: Plants need ‘light’ to grow. This light can be of any type and can come from any source. However, there’s a difference between just light and optimal light. In order for the process of photosynthesis to happen at an ideal pace and rate, one needs to ensure that the lights that they are using are full spectrum LED grow lights, which can actually replicate the natural light of the sun. Plants need not only the red and blue spectrum lights, but also infrared and ultraviolet rays. Hence, it is essential that for a good growth of your plants, you get a full-spectrum LED grow light.
Heat Output: A pro-tip for those looking forward to buying new LED lights for growing marijuana indoors is that you must always look for lights which provide a low heat output. While heat is critical for the growth of your plants, you must not forget that too much of heat is the easiest way to kill your plant too! Even lights which have a low heat output need to be placed at an appropriate distance from the plants so that they do not provide too much heat. Lastly, a low heat output is good because lights with a higher heat output have a smaller lifetime as they ‘burn out’ rather quickly.
The Semiconductor Chips: Semiconductor chips form a critical part of LED grow lights. While their basic job is to convert electricity into light, they form the core of what provides the light to the plants and hence you need to ensure that the semiconductor chips that your LED panel is using is of a good quality. Brands such as Samsung can always be trusted to provide a long-lasting product which will not be easily burnt-out. Light panels that feature a chipset of at least 3 watts should be the minimum that you must aim for otherwise the light will be too weak for a suitable growth.
Growing Space: Another thing that you need to keep in mind before you purchase your LED grow lights is the actual grow space that you are going to make use of. If your grow space is large and your plants are well spread out, you would require a larger number of lights, or you would need lights which can cover a larger area – you also need to keep in mind that the larger the area a light covers, the lesser the heat it will provide to the plants – hence, all three things including the area your plants are spread in, the amount of light that the LED can provide and the heat need to be considered. A basic mathematical calculation here is that you require 32 watts of power per square foot of growing area for high-light plants.
Ease of Use: One of the most important things that people often do not consider is the ease of use! Especially the first-time growers need to ensure that the lights that they are buying are simple and easy to use. First-timers don’t need much more than a light which is as basic as plug-and-play and offers essential features like daisy chaining where you can plug one light on to another. You also need to ensure that your lights are flexible in terms of use and you can adjust the intensity of the lights so that it is easy for you to manage the different growth stages.
Durability: One of the biggest problems with older types of lights is that of durability. For those who have grown in the older setup, it used to be a common problem that the lights (especially the cheaper ones) would tend to burn out and sometimes even the glass would just burst because of voltage related fluctuations causing the chemical vapors to go unstable. However, an LED lamp built using good quality materials can last you for as many as 10 years! Another important thing that we need to talk about here is the lifespan of the lights – a good quality LED light can offer you anywhere between 40,000 to 50,000 hours of light. 50,000 hours is basically continuous usage for 5.7 years – and considering that most growers don’t need more than 12 hours a day, it would mean the lights can last your for as many as 10 years! This is a huge benefit over the older types of lights which used to burn out in as few as 8,000 to 15,000 hours.
Brand: While there’s an old adage in the markets that ‘the brand doesn’t matter’, that is actually incorrect because the brand does matter. It is not just the quality and durability of the lights but also the after-sales service and supports and companies which have a good reputation in the markets are usually better when it comes to repairing your lights in time and offering you proper refunds and replacements as opposed to a random company which you’ve seen off Amazon with like 2 good reviews!
Price: The money that you are going to invest is obviously important. A good LED grow light can set you back by a couple of hundred dollars but when you look at the fact that you need multiple such lights in order to cover your entire growing operation, you need to give it a serious thought that are the lights worth it – or would you rather work on traditional old-fashioned lights. However, the one thing that comes in the favor of these LED grow lights is the fact that they basically pay for themselves in terms of the savings that they make you when it comes to electricity costs when compared to older lights.
Warranty: Last but not the least, warranty services are pretty important and they are something that you must keep in mind before you purchase an LED grow light for growing marijuana indoors. The warranty is an essential element of after sales services and you need to ensure you get the most out of your brand with regards to this!
Horticulture Lighting Group HLG Scorpion Diablo LED Grow Light
ECO Farm LED grow light can be your great choice.
Using LED Grow Lights by Understanding the Growth Cycle of Marijuana Plants
By this point in the article, we hope to have covered everything that is essential for you to get hold of the best LED grow lights in 2020 for growing your marijuana indoors. However, there’s one last thing that we consider important for all growers to be aware about – the growth cycle of the marijuana plant. This is something that plays a huge part when you look at using LED grow lights. Based on the phase of growth your plant is in, you need to use lights in a different mode or you will need to adjust the lights to a different wavelength/colour. Let us take a closer look at all the phases of growth that the cannabis/marijuana plant has to go through so that you can understand how to use the LED grow lights in a better manner to get the most out of your plant!
The growth cycle of the marijuana plant is divided into seven stages:
Seed: Like every plant, the marijuana plant also begins its journey in the form of a seed. When you look at a seed there is no way to identify whether it is a male seed or a female seed. However, this is something that can be known when the seed is produced – if the seed is labeled and separated at the right time you can be sure of the sex of the seed. You can find packages of seeds available from various sellers which will ensure that only female seeds are being sold to you. When you talk about the growth cycle of the marijuana plant and the relation of light, there is absolutely no relationship between the seed and the source of light! Female seeds are important because only female seeds can bear flowers!
Germination: The next step in the process of the marijuana plant’s growth cycle is that of germination. Once you get hold of the female seeds, you need to soak them in water or put them wrapped around a wet paper towel. If you plan to soak them in water, know that they are going to float at first and sink as they absorb enough water after which they will begin to germinate and begin to sprout. In case of using the wet paper towel, you’ll know they’re germinating when they begin to sprout and the taproot begins to emerge. Make sure the place is also warm where you are germinating the seeds.
Seedling: The seedling stage is achieved when you plant the germinated seed in soil and dirt, the taproot facing downwards. It is then that the shoot will break the casing and start growing upwards and embryonic leaves will begin to emerge from the plant. The seedling phase is where you need to begin providing appropriate amounts of light to the marijuana plant. The plant in the seedling and the growth stages requires a lot of light – about 18 hours during the seedling phase. You’ll know that the seedling phase is ending when about six to eight leaves have grown. The seedling phase of the marijuana plant can last for 1 to 3 weeks.
Growth/Vegetative Stage: Now this is the phase of rapid growth. You will need to provide about 16 to 18 hours of sunlight and about 6 to 8 hours of darkness during the vegetative phase of the marijuana plant’s growth cycle. This is the phase where the height of the plant begins to grow and the stem begins to thicken and new nodes begin to develop. It is on these nodes that leaves and new branches begin to emerge. This phase will have a lot of growth and you will need to provide warm water, dry air as well as organic nutrients such as liquid fish or seaweed, which are essentially high on Nitrogen. This is a phase which can last between four to six weeks and will see the plant grow to a height of up to 3 ft. To halt the growth of the plant and to enter the pre-flowering stage, you’ll need to reduce the light to about 12 hours when you think the time is right.
Pre-Flowering: By the time you hit the pre-flowering stage, your plant would be somewhere about 5 months old. If sac-like structures begin to appear around the nodes of any of those plants, you will need to seperate those plants from the rest because they are male plants and if the sac opens the pollens will be released and the psychoactive properties of the female plant will be hindered. Hence, you will need to remove the male plants and then the female plants will produce resin and fake seedpods which contain THC which is the psychoactive substance in cannabis! You can then begin to decrease the light even more to enter the flowering stage. Up to 10 hours of light would be sufficient here.
Flowering: This is the phase in which the buds begin to emerge and you need to move the lights closer to the plants by about six inches than earlier. The light will be closer but the time of the lights would be reduced too! The plants will require phosphorus and potassium based nutrients at this phase of their growth cycle. This phase will last for eight to ten weeks. It is now that we move into the last stage.
Harvest: The final stage of the marijuana plant’s growth cycle is harvesting – the pistils that come out of the bud will develop a deep orangish look and feel and this is the time that you should begin harvesting your plant. Make sure the trichromes don’t fall off while harvesting. Cut the plant according to how you want it, and then hang it to dry in a room with humidity levels of about 50% – hang it to dry for about 5 days and your weed should then be ready!
Now that you understand the different cycles in the growth of the marijuana plant, it will be easier for you to ensure that you are able to give it the right type of light and from the right distance.
Final thoughts
Quality LED grow lights are the best solution we have today for growing plants indoors. They are more efficient that traditional forms of light, meaning they produce more output, while using less electricity and producing less heat.
They also last much longer. You won’t have to change bulbs for at least 5 years, and often over 10.
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