I was pricing LED t5+t8 bulbs for florescent fixtures I found at a garage sale – but noticed these LED Panels and thought they'd suit the grow space better –
I only have experience growing perennials/herbs/veggies outdoors –
Would either of these options work to keep container plants going through winter? Would it be enough to get plants flowering?
by freebietofu
5 Comments
Your plants won’t be so vigorous but they should be good 👍 maybe used a flowering fertilizer as well if the plants a mature they may just hang on til they come out again
Not really. Good for seedlings. That’s about it
4k lumens is really low, 6k would be a lot better.
1. Plants just want light. 4000 lumens (while probably not a real number) is a decent amount of light, but if this was a grow tent, you would want ~2000-3000 lumens **per square foot.** Hopefully that give you an idea of where you are at.
2. If it’s designed to light a room, it’s probably going to spread quite a bit, which means only part of that light is getting to your plants (depending on how far away the light is)
3. Check the wattage. That will give you some basis for comparison to other LED lights, but useless comparison to fluoro tubes.
4. You’ll lose some power to the diffuser, so assume it’s not as efficient as a raw bulb.
Finally, I just wouldn’t use fluorescents unless it’s really cheap and you don’t have to look at it (color temperature, flicker rate, etc.). LEDs are a lot more convenient, and more likely to be useable in a room that you are also in.
You didn’t mention what plants. Your standard indoor tropicals can be very resilient to different amounts of light, but are you talking perennials/herbs/veggies? They need a lot of light.
Other comments here have explained it well.
My only concern is the advertised 3000 lumens (photo 2) vs the advertised 4000 lumens (photo 4). Either way, you’ll have maximum 1000 lumens per square foot. Not very ideal, unfortunately.
I got [these 2500 lumen Sansi lights](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071P95X5Q?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) and already have sprouted seeds. They cover a little over square foot per bulb and it’s a 4 pack for $30, so if you only have a 2sqft garden you’ll have a backup set! I got some E26 (bulb thread size) bulb holders from Temu for $10, so now I have a 2500 lumen 2sqft garden with a backup. Gooseneck lamps work too.
Also, be cautious of lights with a soft white filter in it. Plants love the most direct light possible and the diffuser will scatter the light and make it more of an indirect light. Unsure how this will affect plants, but it wouldn’t be great to grow high sun stuff.