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41 Comments
I just use shop lights I bought on sale. Works for seedlings.
Yep, my friend thought I was bonkers using regular lights in a hanging shop light for my rooting houseplants. But it worked.
I’ve had a couple mars hydro for 5-6 years works great
I've been doing nicely with some 5,000k, 5,000 lumens Walmart shop lights I picked up for about $20.00 a pop 3 or 4 years ago. They're current offering is a Hyper Tough unit at 5,000k and 5,500 lumens, for that same $20.00.
I can definitely confirm that if all we're doing is seed starting, basic shop lights will work just fine.
Your major box stores in the US carry a really good brand that starts around $20 for lights. They do have standard e26 bulbs as well. Look for the 24" 27w led vertical mount light bar, along with the 48" 54w version. Super good value for 25-45 bucks
Wow didn't know you can use LED in flourescent set ups!!! And coil bulbs and be used for plants too. Thanks Luke!!!
Hey Luke, would love a little info on good outdoor lights for growing. We have limited sun and would love to setup a good supplemental lighting option that is good for being outdoors. Thanks.
Thank for all this info.
I really enjoy your information/advice. As a newer smaller gardening channel. I deeply appreciate your time and effort it takes to keep putting out great information. 🙂
i agree you dont need much at all for seedlings t5's are the best thing ever or t8's but if your growing another type of plant you need the power but its not part of your growing you are talking about veggies and fruits so yes small cheap set ups are the best even the 100w leds now they are small but 1 you can cover 3×3 area easy with it even more depending on how far away you put it cause seedlings dont need much light at all
I live in a Northern climate and have to use grow lights for Citrus. There is no other way to keep them alive. Thanks for the information.
Good talk on lights. Did you mention how many hours of light for seedlings?
your talk is scattered, and all over the place. jumping from this to that, without properly describing any one of them properly. in short, it is largely useless. (and Kelvin is a measurement of heat not light)
From my experience:
– Any standard type LED (2700-6500K) with front facing diodes work well
– Don't go under 120lm/W. The good quantum board/barlights have 145-200 lm/W and that's sometimes including far red diodes which actually detracts from lumen/W.
– Sansi bulbs or board lights still don't break 100 lm/W. These are not good grow lights. They are terrible lights even in a vacuum. This is why they get so hot, and inevitably breaks. Does not explain why they cost as much as they do
– 6500K grows wide (leaves can widen to ridiculous degrees) and short plants (need light hour manipulation to make them stretch enough)
It's also cheaper to make a more efficient 6500K light. Blue is also easier to detect for plants. You'll need less lumens for a cloning machine since the light is so "visible" and the photosynthesis is very efficient in this range too, if still lacking somewhat in spectrum.
– 4000K grows stout plants but will not grow unrecognizably wide like 6500K can do. Less light hours = less stout. Best allround flexible choice. 3600K is good too. Below that, you'll have stretch that can't be manipulated with light hours and you'd waste electricity trying to prevent it if you need to stop plant stretch. 4000K grows everything well, unlike the extreme ends of the scale. 3600-4000K does well in all stages, 5000K in almost all stages.
– Lumen/W is decently correlated to PAR/w, and even stronger related to efficiency. Real grow lights will have a PPFD map, but any light will have a lumen/power spec.
– Diodes per watt is another decent clue to efficiency and temperature on the diode side. Unsurprisingly, my best garage light has many diodes per watt. In range with my better grow light even. You need to know the power factor to know how good the driver is (light bulbs usually have bad drivers), but often you can count the diodes at least, combine with lm/W. My 75W high bay bulb cost the same as a sansi 36W, but it has an efficiency of 140lm/W rather than 92-ish. Rated 50 000 hours of operation and IP65. Actually it was half the cost of that 36 watt bulb, on outlet. They are incomparable.
Okay, I heard both: “When I first started I didn’t have a lot of money so for a long time I used a shop light.” AND… “When I first started I spent a ton of money on grow lights when I didn’t really even know how to use them.” Luke has a split personality, lol
Uhhhhh you said in one of your seed starting video that filtered light is not the sun and we need a grow light to start seeds. Why the change. I just bought one
Last update to my system was old shop lights from work for free, took ballast out and put 5k 2000L lights. Each hold 6 lights and at 18 inches seem to be growing well.
the kelvin is a misnomer, The important thing is the nanometer, the wavelength, you can get great LEDS that produce the best Nanometer of 150 blue, Red in the 650 Nm range is what you want for flowering. Chanzon makes 'em that are 500 watt equivalents, they'll also sell you the driver for like $30 that'll drive plenty of honkin LEDs
Yah you can use any white light emitter, but try blue. It'll ensure you never have spindly plants.
Exactly the info I needed today
I’m a teacher and my class was going to start plants from seed. I was thinking of getting a 6000K LED light strip that would fit under some cabinets in my room. Waste of money? They’re only $30
I have the same hoodie, makes me feel like spring is getting closer just seeing those colors ❤️.
I paid around 260$ for a 640w phlizon growlight. Works like a champ. Donno why ppl buy 1000$ lights for personal tents. Crazy to me
Solar system 550 😎. 👍👍👍🤔
Where’d your new flat panel LEDs go? Or is this just a different grow space?
I've got a Spider Farmer light and a ceramic metal halide light. I can't wait to get growing again.
Thank you for this video !! I will grow most seeds outside direct sowing. I always have started seeds in my south facing sunny window. I will plant most garden seeds outside …maybe use plastic covers to protect my seeds. Any hints on how to kill cut-worms ?…my worst seedling pest besides birds. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing! Lighting is an easy issue to overthink. I’ve had great success with just a couple of 16PPF bulbs in clamp sockets..
Thank you for making things simple. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by some gardeners. I always feel encouraged after watching your videos.
I appreciate you, MIgardener. The best to you as you are growing a successful business!
Great video on the myths. I've been building and growing under LED lights for 20 years. I recommend that beginners only use LED lights. If a person has the older shop lights the LED conversion bulb is a great way to go. Color temp for a grow light is the muddiest part of the equation. Not a myth as much as not knowing the technology. For a beginner I would say get any white LED lights you can get cheap. If the beginner wants something a much better then choose LED lights with a color temp of 3000K to 4000k or warm white to day neutral. A beginner won't be disappointed using warm white LEDs. I've used LED bulbs from the Dollar Store to start seedlings.
U ate not grow no plants with those lights hurt yur feeling your lights are leak Kevin in winter summer fall Kevin is important
Big difference u don't know nothing about lights
I try to discourage new veggie growers from putting seedlings in a window. Most people don't have anything other than a small window that doesn't receive enough light duration or intensity to grow successful seedlings. And honestly new LED shop lights at 5000K and above 2500 Lumens with a simple PVC light stand do much better. See page 26 of our University of Maryland Master Gardener presentation on how to build an inexpensive PVC light stand for your LED shop light.
https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/2025-02/CCMG%20GIEI%20Starting%20Vegetable%20Seeds%20Indoors%20presentation%20020125_0.pdf
How long do you keep them on when starting seedlings?
Great grow light information, thanks for sharing!
With growing in a window you need to consider how much daylight you get in your area some places only get 8 to 9 hours of daylight so getting the amount you need may not be possible for most it's probably best to just get a light at least a shop light.
Great video!!
Clarifications…. Compact fluorescents are the small spiraled or bent bulbs that can be installed into the normal light bulb socket. The long tubes are just linear fluorescents.
Fluorescent lights contain mercury that is energized to give off UV light which then causes an internal fluorescing coating to output a pseudo-continuous white spectrum.
I got a few grow lights for free, just driving around on trash day. Can't beat free 😁
That one bulb falling out of the housing vexes me
Love yer stuff. ************************ CFL and FL ************************ there is a diff.
The point about the bright window I'd add a caveat to, which is that a grow light would help a lot with extending the daylight hours the plant receives this time of year, triggering more robust growth since it thinks it's later in the season. However, I'm getting by fine with a couple 100w equivalent daylight LEDs on timers to be on from 5:30a to 9a and 3:30p to 8:30p, since the sun is providing a pretty good DLI for my seedlings even at this time of year to not require continuous supplementation at midday (weather permitting).
Do I need grow lights before my seeds sprout?