ECO Farm Z6–600 Samsung LM301B LED Grow Light VS Optic LED Slim 650S Dimmable LED Grow Light

 LED grow lights can be a life saver if you want to grow plants but don’t have a yard.

They give you an option to grow them indoors and you will be surprised how quick plants can grow with the right grow lights.

For a better idea take a look at our best LED grow lights of 2022.

What are the light requirements of plants?

We all know that plants need light, right? In kindergarten we all put our seed in a dixie cup and place it in the windowsill. Add the other magical ingredient — water — and up comes the sprout, always moving towards the light.

Plants seem to instinctively “know” that without sunlight their growth will be stunted.

You can’t just use any light you find, however.

We’ve already covered some of the differences in the lighting options available to indoor gardeners, but how do we know which is better? First we need to know what makes light helpful to a plant in the first place. There are three factors that have substantial impact on how the light a plant receives will affect its growth. These factors are:

Light Quantity — Historically, light quality has been expressed in units called lumens. While useful to scientific research on light affecting human sight, the term did not accurately account for measuring the photon particles of light coming into contact with a plant. Botanists and horticulturists now prefer to use Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD); an explicit measurement used to calculate the number of photons hitting a given surface — per sq. meter, per second.

A second term of value to plant science is the Daily Light Integral, which is simply a measurement that includes the photon density (PPFD) and the number of hours that a plant spends exposed to that rate of photon contact. Generally speaking, more light is required for flowering than for vegetativce growth.

Light Quality — As I mentioned earlier, not just any ‘ol light will do. We need special kinds of lights to grow plants. Why? When we talk about quality of light, particularly as plants determine it, we are really referring to spectrum — or color. All plants have photoreceptors that are triggered by photons of their respective spectrum entering the plant’s system. When taking light quality under consideration in your own project, ensure that your lights are either full-spectrum or that you have separate lamps to account for the spectrum of light needed at the different stages of growth.

Photoperiod (Light Duration) — The photoperiod is simply the amount of time the plants spend in the light or the dark. It can get a bit more complicated than that, however, as these light/dark cycles can be controlled to manipulate growth of indoor gardens. A popular example is found in applying large doses of light for 18–20 hours/day throughout the vegetative stage, then cutting the light down to ~12 hours or so to trigger the flowering stage. This is known as photoperiodism and is used to optimize growth and yields.

ECO Farm Z6–600 Samsung LM301B LED Grow Light

Features:

This ECO Farm LED grow light adopts Samsung LM301B Full Spectrum White Light Diodes, 660nm Red Diodes, IR+UV Diodes on independent controls, boast the market-leading efficiency to 2.7µmol/J, high PPF output for high intensity 1501µmol/s, perfect coverage for 4x4ft. This grow light is easy to install, easy swap out for any potential defective individual bars or diodes, just swap out single bars instead of entire systems. This grow light consists of 3500K warm white LEDs, and 660nm deep red LEDs, infinitely close to natural sun light, excellent spectrum applies to the whole stages of indoor growing plant; It can be freely adjusted lighting intensity as plants need of growth at different stages. Aluminum heat-sink, no fans no noise, Robust thermal and electrical design allows LEDs to run cooler and retain 90% of output beyond 50,000 hours.

Optic LED Slim 650S Dimmable LED Grow Light

Features:

Optic LED’s Slim650S is designed and built to be one of the highest performing LED grow lights on the market. It uses Samsung’s new LH351H version 2 660nm deep red LED chip, 3.75 umols/j and LH351H 450nm royal blue LED with Samsung white LM301H LED, over 3.0 umols/j! Pair it with a 3-way dimmable system running 3,096 LEDs and you get breakthrough efficiency and tuning capabilities. When combined with our touchscreen master controller, the Slim 650S allows growers to recreate nature with precise control. The Slim 650S can be called the most advanced LED grow light ever.

Things To Consider When Buying an LED Grow Light

Power
The first thing you need to look at is the power the LED fixture provides.

When it comes to power, this aspect does not just cover wattage, but other specifications, such as Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF), the efficacy, and average Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD).

PPF vs PPFD

PPF
PPF refers to the amount of light produced by a source, in this case, an LED grow light, per second; measured in umol per second.

Now, if you have a grow area that measures 36 square meters, and your strain needs around 500 umol per square meter, you need 1,800 umol/s of light for the growing area.

Thus, you will need an LED grow light that produces 1,800 umol per second. You can use several in tandem to get the required PPF.

Note that PPF does not automatically equate to the amount of light a plant receives, but rather how much is produced by a source.

PPFD
PPFD, meanwhile, is how effective your plants can use the photons from the light. You would want something that distributes something evenly across the grow area.

If you run a commercial-sized facility, you will need a PPFD of around 1,500 to 2,000 umol/s per square meter per second, which can be supplemented by a CO2 enrichment system and other environmental controlling systems.

But, if you only have a small grow area, 1,000 will be too much, as it would be a waste of energy, since small-time or personal growers rarely use control systems for environment and CO2 enrichment.

Lastly, Efficacy deals with how many photons you can get on the same power consumption.

Spectrum
Some LED grow lights are full spectrum, which gives it adjustable properties to adapt to different phases of growth.

Ideally, you would want to get a full spectrum, which includes UV lighting. That will help you save more, as you can have one set to do most, if not all, the growing phases.

Full-spectrum LED grow lights have both red and blue spectrums, as well as infrared and ultraviolet lighting. These light colors matter, as they help in different stages of growth, inducing photosynthesis, and blooming of buds.

Choosing an LED Grow Light
LEDs are the most crucial components of the grow light. These produce the light itself and help stimulate the growth of your plants.

There are many options for LEDs from different grow lights. That is one of the most advertised specifications of a grow LED, as it says a lot about the quality of light it can produce.

Some of the notable LED manufacturers used by leading LED grow lights are Samsung and Cree. They have been known for their colors, often producing deep reds to stimulate photosynthesis.

Cooling Systems
Having an efficient cooling system onboard your LED grow light is crucial, as well.

While LEDs are much colder than traditional lightings, remember that growing plants emits more heat than other kinds of plants.

That is why a lot of manufacturers of grow lights emphasize heat-dissipating systems built into their products.

For the most part, modern LED grow lights have built-in passive cooling. There are a lot of good options for LED grow lights that boast of superb cooling designs.

Conclusion

I hope you have found this rundown of some of the best LED grow lights of use.

If you do have any questions or are uncertain about anything please feel free to drop me an email and I will do my best to help you.

Just because you don’t have a garden don’t think that means you can’t grow plants and vegetables. As well as using LED lights there are plenty of other alternatives such as vertical gardening.

Enjoy!