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In this side-by-side product review Outside Pursuits leads you through everything you need to know in order to pick the best LED grow lights for indoor plants. These are the top-rated most powerful plant grow lights that can take your indoor plant growing yields to new levels because of the newest LED bulb technologies.
We’ll take a look at who makes the best led grow lights for the money and what to avoid. Also see our LED grow lamps buyers guide, How To Choose An LED Grow Light For Vegetables later in the article.
Best LED Grow Lights
Phlizon 1200W LED Plant Grow Light | MARS HYDRO 600W LED Grow Light | King Plus 1000w LED Grow Light | |
---|---|---|---|
Intensity | 1200w | 600w | 1000w |
Dimensions | 15.8 x 8.3 x 2.4 inches | 20.5 x 11.8 x 3.1 inches | 12.2 x 2.4 x 8.3 inches |
Special Features | Full spectrum; thermometer; humidity monitor; hanging kit | Full spectrum; steel hanging kit | Full spectrum; hanging kit |
Customer Ratings | 4.4 / 5.0 Stars | 4.4 / 5.0 Stars | 4.5 / 5.0 Stars |
Also see: LED Grow Lights Comparison Table
Quick Answer: The 5 Best-Rated LED Grow Lights For Vegetables
- Phlizon 1200W LED Plant Grow Light
- MARS HYDRO 600W LED Grow Light
- King Plus 1000w LED Grow Light
- BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light
- HOMENOTE 1000W LED Plant Grow Light
LED Grow Lights Reviews
#1 Phlizon 1200W Plant Grow Light LED
Phlizon 1200W Plant Grow Light LED at a Glance
- 8 x 8.3 x 2.4 inches
- Full spectrum
- Hanging kit with adjustable rope
- Timer
- Humidity monitor
The Phlizon 1200W Plant Grow Light LED comes in as my first recommendation for an all-around, high quality LED grow light.
It will easily cover a 5 x 5 to 5 x 8 (about 20-40 square foot) grow space with your light hanging at 24 inches from the top of the plants. Fortunately, the height is easy to adjust with the hanging kit and rope system, so you can keep making adjustments to your plants as they need them.
Overall, the Phlizon 1200W LED Plant Grow Light LED is one of the top LED grow lights on this list because it’s a full LED grow light kit, meaning less hassle for you during setup.
Most LED grow lights on the market will come with growing equipment like a timer, but the Phlizon 1200W Plant Grow Light LED has some extra equipment, including an adjustable hanging kit and a humidity monitor.
Not everyone will need to check the humidity of their grow space to have a successful yield, but if you’re interested in precision or simply like to nerd out on pH, soil quality, and home grower gadgets, you’ll want to invest in a grow light kit like this one!
#2 MARS HYDRO 600W LED Grow Light
MARS HYDRO 600W LED Grow Light at a Glance
- 600 Watt
- 5 x 11.8 x 3.1 inches
- Full spectrum
- Timer
- Steel hanging kit
Next up we have the Mars Hydro 600W grow light. Perfect for a small indoor plant garden, the Mars Hydro 600W LED Grow Light has the ideal coverage for a 3 x 5 to 4 x 5 foot area, about 12-20 square feet. This works great for four large plants or even five smaller ones.
The Mars Hydro 600W LED Grow Light uses a reflective frame that keeps light uniformly spread over your growing area, helping increase your yield and maintain consistent growth in your plants.
The timer is easy to set and the fan is quiet. It won’t overheat, but it also won’t overwhelm the room with excess noise and distract you when you’re just trying to enjoy some peaceful gardening.
Mars offers accessories as well that allows you to assemble full grow light kits. Mars’ grow equipment comes with a steel hanging kit which is light enough to easily mount, yet study enough to last and hold your grow light in place.
For a few extra dollars you can add the Mars Hydro Rope Hanger to more easily adjust the height and distance of the grow light to your plants throughout their different growth stages.
If you’re just looking for cheap grow lights to get by on, this probably isn’t the one for you. However, if you’re looking for a high quality light perfect for a smaller home growing space that won’t keep you up at night, you’ll definitely like the Mars Hydro 600W LED Grow Light!
Coverage: Core Coverage: 2ft x 3.1ft
Max Coverage: 3.6ft x 5.5ft
#3 King Plus 1000 Watt LED Grow Light
King Plus 1000W LED Grow Light at a Glance
- 2 x 2.4 x 8.3 inches
- Full spectrum
- Timer
- Hanging kit
If you’re in the market for a bigger LED grow lamp that looks and feels natural in your growing space, you and your plants will love The King Plus 1000W LED Grow Light.
This grow lamps’s higher wattage efficiently covers a 4 x 5 to 5 x 6 area (approximately 20-40 square feet) for all of the growing, fruiting, and flowering stages.
As a result, 1000W LED grow light gets hot, so be sure to keep it at least 24 inches away from plants when they’re in their germination stage.
Despite that drawback, this light encourages straight, natural growth, so seedlings will stay happy and sprout quickly and vertically.
To make any height adjustments you can use the included hanging kit, which makes the process easy and user friendly.
It has a simple hook system to help you make the right adjustments for your type of plants or plant stage, helping you ensure the best yield.
#4 BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light
BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light at a Glance
- 2 x 8.26 x 2.36 inches
- Full spectrum
- Timer
- Hanging kit
Let me assure you; you’re going to love how bright this light is!
The BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light covers a 4 x 5 to 5 x 6 (approximately 20-40 square feet) workspace beautifully at 24 inches, so your plants will stay warm and happy even if they have a bigger footprint. This 1000W LED grow light can help you bring struggling plants back to life while keeping your healthy plants happy.
Many full spectrum LED grow lights are hot to the touch when you get too close, not only burning your plants but possibly you as well! Fortunately, the BESTVA 1000W Grow Light maintains a bright, warm feel, without burning your hands when you go to adjust its height or check on your plants.
The included fan works excellently, making sure your LED grow light maintains a safe temperature for your growing area, while the included hanging kit is simple to use and easy to adjust.
#5 HOMENOTE 1000W LED Plant Grow Light
HOMENOTE 1000W LED Plant Grow Light at a Glance
- 5 x 10.9 x 4.9 inches
- Full spectrum
- Hanging kit
- Timer
- Humidity monitor
- Goggles
The Homenote 1000W LED Grow Light might just be the grow light that provides the best bang for your buck. Coming with more features and equipment than many comparable LED grow lights, Homenote offers great customer assistance too!
Your Homenote 1000W LED Grow Light is guaranteed to have been tested right before shipping to you; Homenote doesn’t ship from storage without checking the quality of their product first! Considering the low cost of this LED grow light, that’s an impressive dedication to customer satisfaction.
Additionally, this LED grow light comes with an array of growing equipment in the Homenote 1000W LED Plant Grow Light Kit. In addition to a temperature meter, this light also includes a humidity meter, and both are easy to set up and adjust throughout the growing cycle of your various plants.
The Homenote 1000W LED Grow Light also comes with a convenient rope hanger kit to keep it at the right distance from your plants for optimum yield. A cool safety feature for this light is the goggles.
If you like to change out or adjust the LED panels on your lights to experiment with different color and radiation gradients, you can wear the included goggles to protect you if you need to look more directly at the lights to make adjustments, helping protect your eyes throughout the process.
LED Grow Lights Comparison Table
Best LED Grow Lights | Price | Intensity | Dimensions | Special Features | Customer Ratings | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phlizon 1200W LED Plant Grow Light | [amazon fields="B075SSV6C1" value="price" format="linked"/] | 1200w | 15.8 x 8.3 x 2.4 inches | Full spectrum; thermometer; humidity monitor; hanging kit | 4.4 / 5.0 Stars | |
MARS HYDRO 600W LED Grow Light | [amazon fields="B0773LNCNX" value="price" format="linked"/] | 600w | 20.5 x 11.8 x 3.1 inches | Full spectrum; steel hanging kit | 4.4 / 5.0 Stars | |
King Plus 1000w LED Grow Light | [amazon fields="B0185OLBPK" value="price" format="linked"/] | 1000w | 12.2 x 2.4 x 8.3 inches | Full spectrum; hanging kit | 4.5 / 5.0 Stars | |
BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light | [amazon fields="B01871AHTC" value="price" format="linked"/] | 1000w | 12.2×8.26×2.36 inches | Full spectrum; hanging kit | 4.5 / 5.0 Stars | |
HOMENOTE 1000W LED Plant Grow Light | [amazon fields="B07C9CQH8N" value="price" format="linked"/] | 1000w | 17.5 x 10.9 x 4.9 inches | Full spectrum; hanging kit; humidity monitor; goggles | 3.7 / 5.0 Stars |
How to Choose An LED Grow Light For Indoor Plants
In a perfect world, our seedlings would be exposed to the just the right amount of natural sunlight and warmth in our yard or window box. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever attempted to grow plants and veggies outside, you already know that controlling temperature and light exposure is tricky.
Advantages of LED Grow Lights
Growing indoors is a great alternative to having an outdoor garden, because an indoor garden gives you more control over every stage of the growth process. But there’s a problem; how do you provide the kind of light your young plants need to thrive?
That’s where LED growlights come in to save the day!
LED growlights are the best option for growing indoor plants, flowers, and vegetables. LEDs gives off full spectrum light, the closest to natural sunlight, making them the best grow lights LED for young plants.
Better yet, they only use half the electricity of fluorescent bulbs, last years longer, won’t shatter, and won’t burn your plants’ foliage. Full spectrum LED grow lights can last for up to 100,000 hours as opposed to fluorescent lights, which only last around 25,000 hours.
To get started on your own indoor gardening adventures, you’ll need the right LED grow light kit! I’m here to help you narrow down your options with my top five recommendations for the best grow lights for plants in today’s market.
So you’ve decided that an LED Grow Light is right for you. Great! But how will you decide which one is best for your specific plants and their specific growth stage?
Light intensity
As an indoor gardener you’ll find that, in the germination stage, it’s hard to get enough natural light to your seedlings if they’re simply placed in a window or spare room. You’ll need intense, bright light to help your seedlings sprout, so choosing the right LED grow light is crucial to getting your plants started.
Intensity can be controlled through wattage and how close your light is to your plants. As a general rule, you’ll want about 32 watts per square foot. So a 600w led light will work for about a 3 x 4 to 4 x 5 foot (12-20 square feet) workspace, and a 100w led light will work for about a 4 x 5 to 5 x 8 (20-30 square foot) workspace.
Additionally, you will definitely want your light to be adjustable. Each germination stage calls for different light intensity and different plant types will thrive under different intensities, so a flexible, easy to adjust mount is key.
Additionally, you’ll have to be careful not to burn your fragile seedlings, so keep a careful eye on them when you first install your new LED growlight. Adjust the light farther or closer to the plants as you see them either wilting or thriving, until you reach the perfect set up!
Do some thorough research on your specific plant type and their growth stage to find what works best for your specific situation. Just make sure you invest in a LED growlight with ample room for adjustment, so it can continue to serve you even as you branch out into other plants later on!
Light duration
The amount of time plants need under your LED grow light will also vary from plant to plant and based on their germination stage.
You’ll definitely want to invest in an automatic timer on your LED grow light so you don’t have to worry about over or under-heating your plants. Much like us humans, plants need consistent periods of sunlight as well as consistent cycles of rest.
In general, vegetables will require a longer amount of light exposure than flowers or herbs—usually around 14-18 hours of full spectrum light is needed for heartier veggies.
However, plants and seedlings still need time to cool down and rest, so be sure to set your timer to turn off and give your plants around 6 hours of “nighttime”, or darkness.
Of course, each individual plant type will have slightly different needs. Make sure to research your specific plants, and adjust the duration your LED grow light is on based on that information.
It’s also wise to carefully monitor your young plants when you first begin using your new LED grow light.
If you find your plants wilting or becoming overly leggy, try increasing the duration the LED grow light is on, as well as it’s intensity. On the other hand, if they are becoming yellowed or soft, they may need a shorter period of light.
Overall, I’m sure you’ll find that LED grow lights are simply to best option for today’s indoors gardener, and that the five options above will all be great candidates for your next indoors gardening project!
In the germination stage, it’s hard to get enough natural light to your seedlings if they’re simply placed in a window or spare room.
You’ll need intense, bright light to help your seedlings sprout, so choosing the right LED grow light is crucial to get your plants started.
Intensity can be controlled through wattage and how close your light is to your plants. As a general rule, you’ll want about 32 watts per square foot.
So a 600w led light will work for about a 3 x 4 to 4 x 5 foot (12-20 square feet) workspace, and a 100w led light will work for about a 4 x 5 to 5 x 8 (20-30 square foot) workspace.
Additionally, you will definitely want your light to be adjustable. Each germination stage calls for different light intensity, and different plant types will thrive under different intensities, so a flexible, easy to adjust mount is key.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What color light do I need?
Answer: There is one main rule when buying grow lamps: natural is best.
LED grow lights should give off full spectrum light for your plants, though LEDs primarily give off what’s called red and blue light. This is as close to natural light as you can get for your seeds when keeping them indoors.
Fortunately, plants only need exposure to red and blue light to grow, so LED lights are perfect for increasing indoor yields, when weather or season prevent outdoors growing.
Question: Are LED grow lights better than other types of lights?
Answer: Simply put, yes.
Standard incandescent and fluorescent lights give off many colors of light that your plants simply don’t need and often can’t take full advantage of. Additionally, they use more energy and are harder to control in regards to temperature and intensity.
LEDs will save you money and produce higher quality flowers, plants, and vegetables in the long run. If you’re serious about indoor growing and want to be successful, then you want the best grow lights LED for your plants. LED grow lights for plants are the only way to go.
Question: What about Incandescent Row Bulbs or even sunlight? Won’t a sunny window sill suffice?
Answer: Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about growing plants indoors. Many believe a decent sunny windowsill will be enough to support the fragile seedlings they’re trying to nurture. In reality, you’re likely denying these young plants vital nutrients for a few key reasons.
When dealing with sunlight for indoors growing, you likely aren’t working with a large, entirely glass greenhouse.
When growing plants from a windowsill, you have to realize that, not only does the glass lower the intensity of the light, but the natural movements of the sun mean your plants are only getting the light they need for a few hours a day.
This may be fine for grown houseplants, which are hardy enough to survive in low intensity light, but for your seedlings it simply won’t do.
Incandescent Row Bulbs pose a similar problem, but in their case it’s a lack of control over the intensity that lets LED grow lights beat them out as the best option for the indoor gardener.
While Incandescent Row Bulbs were popular for the last few decades, they produce an excessive amount of heat (often burning young seedlings), are highly inefficient, and are hard to control in terms of temperature and intensity.
Unfortunately, they are simply too financially wasteful and uncontrollable, and with full spectrum LED grow lights for plants becoming more affordable than ever Incandescent Row Bulbs are becoming harder and harder to justify for the indoor gardener, especially one who plans to raise fragile seedlings indoors.
Thanks for reading The 5 Best LED Grow Lights For Indoor Plants. We hope this article has helped you to discover the best choice for your needs when selecting a full spectrum led grow lamp to grow many types on indoor plants.
And if you’re shopping for other gear take a look at these related review articles from Outside Pursuits:
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How We Researched
To come up with the top LED grow lights for vegetables, we researched a variety of sources for reviews such as Home Depot, Lowes, Target and AcmeTools along with our own personal experience.
We also consulted online magazines for product research and reviews to get as much unbiased information as we could. To help weed out fake reviews we used Fakespot.com to make sure we only looked at genuine reviews.
With so much quality gear available, we had to narrow it down based on what we felt were the best options were for the price. The staff authors have a wide and varied background in yard maintenance and home repairs.
The authors have decades of experience and are eager to share their knowledge with readers.
To help narrow down the selection we used personal experiences along with recommendations from landscapers, bloggers and contractors.
After extensive research, we came up with our list to help you choose the right one for you.