The review I wish I had when researching lights (Hours of research in a 2 min read)
If you were like me you are probably looking for simple, cheap, but effective grow lights. This is it, look no further! Stop pulling out your hair. I spent countless hours trying to find something cheaper, something better, something that only a clever person could find that wasn't this—but I just ended up with this. These are quite literally THE entry grow lights. So start here. - Don't bother with traditional LED, they aren't full spectrum like these "grow light" LED's are. - Don't get confused about all the blue, red, green waveforms. This is the one that you want, it's closest to the sun for budget lights that isn't pink, and gives you plenty of what you need from each. RGB tweaking and knowing which one you want for what is, highly niche stuff for people that weren't searching for plug-and-play that does not apply to majority of the population. - Sure, pink lights are great to have for plants. But nobody likes looking at them. Studies show people have a tendency to hide them away and they lower sexual arousal. You will hate owning them and anyone glancing through a window that has pink lights will assume "drug dealer". - Don't bother with fluorescent and putting them in old housing units, they don't work as well as LED and aren't "Full Spectrum" AKA "like the sun", which is what you want. - Fluorescent housing units are expensive unless you trash ones thrown out by someone upgrading to LED and require wiring. But these are plug and play and can be daisy-chained. - T8 > T5. - 42 watt (more power) is what you want; unless you don't care about peak efficiency with plants and your electricity is expensive. Then you want 20 watt (less power). Which is a tradeoff between cost and performance. Your plants won't be as deep a green, nor as crunchy, but it's not a huge difference. The plants won't get all of what they want but it will get you to seedling status so you can put them in your garden. Don't bother with 10 watt / T5 unless you're dirt poor. - 42 watt for most people is like $0.25/day, 20 watt is like $0.09/day. - Their customer support is great. I had some missing cables in the box I ordered and they set me straight right away. Very polite folks! - Plants sleep the same as you, remember people saying "8 hours is the ideal amount of sleep"? Same for plants. I do 16/8. That means, 16 hours lights ON, 8 hours lights OFF. Advanced DIY setup: - You want a 5-tier "Brightroom" metal shelf from Target. Chrome is more reflective than black. Cheapest, highest quality shelf you'll get for this. Fits the lights great. - These Stainless Steel trays (no plastic, easy to clean, last forever): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YWWXK7G They are 20" x 14" x 1" and they come in a two pack so $15-17 each. 1" depth is great for trays, better than deeper trays. - This digital timer for your lights: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Z3F8L4C (Nearpow digital timer) two pack so $10 each. - Attach the lights to a board that can be raised/lowered. Glue reflective mylar to the bottom side. - Use metal bobbins as tiny pulleys for the string and metal fly fishing rods to raise/lower the lights. - Make a mylar-covered box that goes around the shelf with airflow using two PC fans. - Attach water jugs and use capillary action / gravity wicks to bottom water the seedlings so you never have to do it. - For storage on top of the shelf, get "apple boxes" from your local grocery store for free. They fit perfectly on top and will store a ton of stuff in them. Lazy DIY setup: - Same Brightroom shelf. - "Adjustable rope hangers" to raise/lower lights. - Cheap plastic 1020 growing trays. - Same digital timer. - Budget: cheap string and/or hose clamps to hold the string to the sides of the shelf to hold the lights in their position. Use a ratchet or screwdriver to raise/lower them. (Psst, pennies are cheaper than washers) This post likely helped you so click the "helpful" button and pay it forward next time you do an insane amount of research on something so we don't collectively waste thousands of hours of time that could be spent growing plants that make the world a better place. ------- P.S. Get your neighbors to start growing. Teach them Green Beans, Malabar Spinach, and Sweet Potatoes. These are highly nutritious, ridiculously easy, and you can give them endless seeds / cuttings and slips that they can plant and it's practically impossible to mess them up. And they can teach it to others as well. Many of these people never had the 'seed' planted in their mind that you did that made you get started. They need someone to do it, and you need it too, or all your knowledge will mean nothing if things get rough. It's not enough to know how to grow food, they need to know it too. Read more
