Cheap LED light to start seedlings?

[Safe Gardener]

KPT,

This is looks like a nice option. I only know about it what the description says and that many of the reviews suggest that it’s a great value. I just ordered one today, I’m going to try it out for a small veg area 12”x24” footprint.

I’ll make sure to post up if it turns out to be junk or runs really hot.

SG

 

[f-e]

alright yeh I see that was going nowhere haha mybad, I looked for those e27 bulbs you were talking about and found a phillips one, 17 watt gives off 2400 lumens, 6500 kelvin, will that be any good? and would more lumen be better or overkill?

For three seedlings just two weeks old, 2400 will be more than ample. You just need somewhere to screw it. If you like the clip light idea, that is certainly an option.


Give me a second... those Philips are about 1.7 ppf/w like a sodium. 1.7 x 17 is 30 spread over a meter. Over a 30cm x 30cm you should see 300 ppf/w (umol) which is good veg light. Twice what a little seedling needs. You will loose half your light though, unless you start using reflective surfaces.

Remember you might want to saw that dome off, as in the thread I pointed to. It will give better control of where the light goes, and give about 25% more perhaps

 

[exploziv]

It just seems, but yeah. If you plan on growing more seedling into the future I would recomend you a mars hydro ts1000. It is dimable and at least we know those work great for plants. I even did a full grow under one, so I for real if you feel its in your budget, qnd need a lamn in the future as well, for sure you will be happy with it. Some stuff on amazon and aliexpress exagerate the wattage and specifications a lot, so you may buy something that is really worse for your plants than a 3 usd led bulb.
Even mars hydro ts6000 would be a better option, but that isn't dimmable so I would prefer the ts1000 personally.

 

[goingrey]

This year I'm going with a 50W LED floodlight but it will be some months before I know if this is a good idea or not.

Doesn't provide the most lumens per watt but should be more than enough and the benefits are:

• IP65 rated - safe to spray the plants with water
• No extra luminaire or even power cord needed, everything built in
• If it turns out to be unfit for the purpose, at least I have a floodlight

 

[exploziv]

Don't worry bro I used daylight osram floodlights before for veg and they were great compared even to some SIL's. Get them at the right price and they are a easier to use piece of kit than sil's, and you don'thave to modify it in any way, just add a mains plug on the wire to be able to power it on. A thing that any electrician can help you with, or maybe even the shops guy that sells it to you might take 1 min of his time to help if you ask nicely, in case you have no.ideea on how to mount the plug. Actually not a bad ideea for less diy savy guys! And great peace of mind that you can even pressure spray them and it's no risk.
One thing I may add, if budget and pricing allow it, get 2 x 25W instead of one 50W. They are too intense upclose even at 20W, I only used 10 and 20W, the 50W needed to be kept too far away and seemed inefficient in my opinion. 2 of them you can keep closer, get morw uniform lighting and more happy plants, less lumens wasted. Also, if one breaks, you have one left. My osrams survived even in an aquarium, with water dripping from it!

 

[goingrey]

Don't worry bro I used daylight osram floodlights before for veg and they were great compared even to some SIL's. Get them at the right price and they are a easier to use piece of kit than sil's, and you don'thave to modify it in any way, just add a mains plug on the wire to be able to power it on. A thing that any electrician can help you with, or maybe even the shops guy that sells it to you might take 1 min of his time to help if you ask nicely, in case you have no.ideea on how to mount the plug. Actually not a bad ideea for less diy savy guys! And great peace of mind that you can even pressure spray them and it's no risk.
One thing I may add, if budget and pricing allow it, get 2 x 25W instead of one 50W. They are too intense upclose even at 20W, I only used 10 and 20W, the 50W needed to be kept too far away and seemed inefficient in my opinion. 2 of them you can keep closer, get morw uniform lighting and more happy plants, less lumens wasted. Also, if one breaks, you have one left. My osrams survived even in an aquarium, with water dripping from it!

This one came with the mains plug attached so no electrician needed. €15 / $17.

 

[exploziv]

The brand stuff usually has no plug. But yeah, good to know there are options for everyone!

 

[KPT]

For three seedlings just two weeks old, 2400 will be more than ample. You just need somewhere to screw it. If you like the clip light idea, that is certainly an option.


Give me a second... those Philips are about 1.7 ppf/w like a sodium. 1.7 x 17 is 30 spread over a meter. Over a 30cm x 30cm you should see 300 ppf/w (umol) which is good veg light. Twice what a little seedling needs. You will loose half your light though, unless you start using reflective surfaces.

Remember you might want to saw that dome off, as in the thread I pointed to. It will give better control of where the light goes, and give about 25% more perhaps

alright so that lamp is good then? kelvin, watt and lumen wise? would putting aluminium foil on the sides of the closet help with reflection?
if the lamp is good ill get it and mount it with sum like this

 

[goingrey]

Lumens and kelvins are fine yeah.

White paint (which you may already have on the walls of your closet) reflects light better than aluminum foil.

 

[KPT]

Lumens and kelvins are fine yeah.

White paint (which you may already have on the walls of your closet) reflects light better than aluminum foil.

alright cause I was reading up on the kelvins and a lot of people say 5600k would be better, but I digress. as for the paint, I don't think that'll be an option since I shouldn't even be growing with lights, would need something that I'll be able to get off after the grow. should I just stick some white paper on the walls then?

 

[goingrey]

Anywhere from 5000-7000 kelvin is fine for veg.

The reflectiveness (gloss) of paper depends on the paper but it's not a great option because it can ironically both burn and get wet.

Before the tents got popular a lot of people used to use "panda plastic". A poly film that is white on one side and black on the other, used as packaging material.

 

[exploziv]

Used as antiweeds mulch layer on soil as well.

 

[RockinRobot]

This is my veg setup. These are 6500k LED t5 replacement bulbs. They cost me less than $6/bulb and are more than sufficient for veg. 18w/bulb

Don't waste money on high priced commercial LED fixtures for veg. It's a waste of money.

 

[f-e]

While some reflective surfaces will increase light, it's more of a technique than a requirement in this case. Nothing really happens in two weeks, but if you go a bit longer then you might want to put things around them. That light is fine for a dinner plate, but not two dinner plates.

I didn't look at colour. I still haven't. You are not really doing a veg period, but consider a sodium lamp is 2200K. Truth is, colour isn't as important as quantity. If you use an outlier like sodium they will stretch a bit, but no LED is going to be that bad. I'm vegging under 3000 or 3500, I don't remember which. I don't remember, as I don't really care. My plants are squat enough. In bloom where I'm pushing hard I care.
Some of the Philips soft tones are 2700K which I might avoid, given the choice. They are decorative lights, and cost a bit much for the privilege of cave dwelling ambience. Both price and colour makes them a poor choice. Still work though.

 

[KPT]

sorry for keeping this thread going for so long, I just cant figure out which lights would be best, I've narrowed it down to a few but I'm not sure if some of them wouldn't be overkill, seeing as the plants will only be there a couple of weeks. I could either get a simple lightbulb like this one:

which has 18 watts 2000 lumen,

or a panel like this:

which has 50 watts and 5000 lumen

my question is, will the panel be worth it? seeing as maybe the plants won't get the full benefits from it.

another option would be to get 2 of those lightbulbs instead of the panel? lmk what y'all think

 

[goingrey]

Not a fan of the bulb shape for this purpose. It's really for lamps that were designed to use old incandescent bulbs. Backwards compatibility.. And designed to spread the light in every direction rather than just one.

If you want to use the e27 socket a LED spotlight would be better. Something like this:

But the bulb will also work just fine if that's what's available.

What's good about the floodlight/panel is how everything is built in. No need for any extra fixture. You can also get them in lower power than 50W, which is much more than you need for the first two weeks. But what if the weather isn't on your side and you need to go longer? Of course, if you go with the lower powered ones you could add more when/if you need them.

And while this discussion is from one point fascinating and we're happy you're keeping it going.. at the end of the day it really doesn't matter. To get young plants started you can pretty much use any halfway decent LED, fluorescent (including CFL), HPS, or MH light. Just avoid the incandescent or halogen lights as they create more heat than light.

If you start late enough you might not even need anything. More than once I have had great results with nothing else than a south-facing windowsill.

I say do what I did and just go to some local hardware store and see what they have a good deal on.

 

[KPT]

Not a fan of the bulb shape for this purpose. It's really for lamps that were designed to use old incandescent bulbs. Backwards compatibility.. And designed to spread the light in every direction rather than just one.

If you want to use the e27 socket a LED spotlight would be better. Something like this:

But the bulb will also work just fine if that's what's available.

What's good about the floodlight/panel is how everything is built in. No need for any extra fixture. You can also get them in lower power than 50W, which is much more than you need for the first two weeks. But what if the weather isn't on your side and you need to go longer? Of course, if you go with the lower powered ones you could add more when/if you need them.

And while this discussion is from one point fascinating and we're happy you're keeping it going.. at the end of the day it really doesn't matter. To get young plants started you can pretty much use any halfway decent LED, fluorescent (including CFL), HPS, or MH light. Just avoid the incandescent or halogen lights as they create more heat than light.

If you start late enough you might not even need anything. More than once I have had great results with nothing else than a south-facing windowsill.

I say do what I did and just go to some local hardware store and see what they have a good deal on.

reason I linked this one is cause its fairly cheap (4 dollars), and I was planning to take the plastic cap off so it would basically be a led spot no? but seeing how the fixture would be around 5 dollars as well I'm thinking the floodlight would be better, although I just read that they tend to get fairly hot, and since imma be keeping them in an enclosed closet that may be not the best option? also, how much watt/lumen would be sufficient for that time according to you

 

[goingrey]

reason I linked this one is cause its fairly cheap (4 dollars), and I was planning to take the plastic cap off so it would basically be a led spot no? but seeing how the fixture would be around 5 dollars as well I'm thinking the floodlight would be better, although I just read that they tend to get fairly hot, and since imma be keeping them in an enclosed closet that may be not the best option? also, how much watt/lumen would be sufficient for that time according to you

18W/2000 lumens sounds great if you can get it directed and distributed across the area sensibly. I have my doubts removing the plastic would be enough to accomplish that, but only one way to find out. An 18W bulb and an 18W panel will create the same amount of heat.

 

[Koondense]

Also the bulbs can get hot, so it's good to have some passive airflow, some small holes at top and bottom.
Get what is easier to find, a 20-30w floodlight will be enough in my opinion.

 

[KPT]

Also the bulbs can get hot, so it's good to have some passive airflow, some small holes at top and bottom.
Get what is easier to find, a 20-30w floodlight will be enough in my opinion.

hmm will have to think how I'm gonna do that, it's in my closet so idk if making holes in it would be the best lmao, will def go for a 30 or so watt floodlight in that case