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Best Grow Lights For Microgreens of 2024

Lorin Nielsen
  Mar 29, 2024 10:36 AM

 In this review, the Gilsons Lyceum Reviews Team researched the 11 best grow lights for microgreens to help you find the product that’s right for you and your garden. You can see some famous brands as Active Grow, VIVOSUN, LEOTER, ingarden, LBW, Juhefa, WAKYME, GHodec, Roleadro, AIGUMI, Brite Labs.


Overview

For microgreens, we've looked at the best lighting to use, as well as several methods of growing them. When growing microgreens for your own consumption, I believe that if you have access to a window sill or any other area with direct sunlight, you don't need any light at all. However, this all depends on what you desire. It's quite fine to do so. A variety of home-automated and non-automated tiny gardens were gathered for people who want to decorate their homes with lights. If this is your preferred method, we hope this post will be helpful to you.

As a result, if you're considering growing microgreens indoors on a larger scale, you'll want to think about your lighting options. Although it isn't the most critical aspect of development, it is definitely one of the more critical ones. Growing lights and normal lights were purchased when we first started to experiment with lighting. We noticed LED lights in the store, but since they had the same features as ordinary bulbs, but were more expensive, we decided not to purchase them. That was the situation at the moment. And when it came to testing, we were happy with the conventional ones because they appear to be the same as growing lights. There was no change in growth, only in the price of the products. It cost twice as much as a standard one. I'll get to them in a minute.


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1
  • SCORE
    9.2
    AI Score

    G Score is a ranking system developed by our team of experts (people love working outdoors with people and plants). It from 0 to 10 are automatically scored by our team based upon the data collected. This score has no relationship or impact from any manufacturer or sales agent websites. Learn more

  • Brand
    Active Grow
2
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    9.2
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    VIVOSUN
3
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    9.0
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    LEOTER
4
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    9.0
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    ingarden
5
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    9.0
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    LBW
6
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    9.0
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  • Brand
    Juhefa
7
  • SCORE
    9.0
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  • Brand
    WAKYME
8
  • SCORE
    8.8
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    GHodec
9
  • SCORE
    8.8
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  • Brand
    Roleadro
10
  • SCORE
    8.8
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  • Brand
    AIGUMI
11
  • SCORE
    8.8
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  • Brand
    Brite Labs

Last update on 2024-03-29 / Affiliate links / Images, Product Titles, and Product Highlights from Amazon Product Advertising API


Buying Guide

Type of lights

Incandescent Lights

These types of lights are extinct to the point where they're practically non-existent. As LED light bulbs take over the world, don't expect incandescent bulbs to remain accessible for long. Because of its high power consumption, high heat output, short lifespan, and poor spectral wavelength, incandescent bulbs aren't the best choice for growing plants.

Put them out of your mind.

Metal Vapor Lights

In an electric arc, a gas mixture is ionized to produce light. The intensity of color is determined by the presence of several metals, such as mercury and sodium. Powerful metal vapor lamps are a common fixture in commercial greenhouses because of their spectrum wavelengths, which are ideal for plant growth.

For both purchase and operation, metal vapor lights can be quite pricey. They're also really hot to the touch. This is why home microgreen growers should avoid using vapor lights.

Fluorescent Lights

Gardeners and microgreen growers frequently make use of fluorescent lights. LED lights, on the other hand, are now the norm. Even still, there are growers who insist that fluorescent illumination is the best option.

Fluorescent bulbs have advantages over incandescent and metal vapor lights, but they also have disadvantages. The bulbs are composed of brittle glass that is readily broken. Because of this, they must be appropriately disposed of.

However, the two most significant negatives are that the light dims and the ballast that powers it might interfere with electrical gadgets.

Growing place

Where are you going to cultivate your microgreens? That's the first thing to consider. The type of light you use on your trays will vary depending on where you place them in your home.

It is possible to use a grow lamp with clips if you want to move the tray around while still keeping it lit. In contrast, if you have a shelf system or growth rack, you may wish to utilize tubes or strips of tape instead. Grow Light Gardens are also available with everything you need, including shelves and light. Some are constructed of bamboo and have a beautiful design, like this one. As a result, there is something for everyone.

Budget

LED grow lights are available in a variety of price points. You'll be constrained by your budget, of course. While microgreens can be grown without a complex system, there are still several excellent and affordable solutions. Grow lights can cost anywhere from $30 to $150. Grow light gardens can cost upwards of $900 if you want a complete system.

In terms of lighting, you should also take into account how much energy they use on a regular basis, rather than just the upfront cost.

Light spectrums and the Kelvin Scale

The majority of lights will be branded as having a color temperature ranging from 2000K to 6500K. The Kelvin unit of measurement is represented by the letter K. International System of Units (SI) thermodynamic temperature units are measured in Kelvin (K), which is a magnitude equivalent to one degree Celsius. The color temperature of a light bulb is measured in Kelvin, a unit commonly seen in the lighting industry.

From 2000K to 3000K in color temperature, "warm white" appears orange or yellow-white, and is referred described as "warm white."

"Cool white" refers to the range of color temperatures between 3100K and 4500K. The light coming from this set will be a soft, warm white.

When the color temperature is above 4500K, the light is blue-white and resembles daylight.

The light spectrum is less significant for microgreens than for plants with longer growth cycles or that have reached a flowering stage because most microgreens develop for brief periods of time. Lights that provide a color temperature above 4500k are recommended when growing micro herbs or other plants for more than 20 days.

Lumens and Watts

This is a term you'll see a lot when it comes to comparing lights. Light output is measured in lumens per watt of electricity consumed. You should pay attention to this if you're concerned about how much money lights will cost to run and how much electricity they'll use, When Lumens and Watts are compared, it is clear that LEDs are the more energy-efficient option.


Faqs

How many hours of light do microgreens need?

Plants, like people, have a lot in common. They, too, need to take a break and recharge their batteries. To make it appear as if it's daytime, we employ this technique to simulate daylight. The lights went out when the night fell. Of course, you don't have to do this all the time. You can at least use an electric timer in this location. Because it meets our requirements, we're now employing something very similar to this.

You, on the other hand, are free to utilize any. As a result, we keep the lights on for an average of 12 hours each day (in summer longer, in winter shorter time).

How Many Lumens for Microgreens?

You've already decided which type of light you'll use to develop your microgreens based on the information presented above. There are a few things to keep in mind while purchasing lighting for your indoor garden:

Lumens are luminous flux units that are part of the International System of Units. In other words, a single lumen equals one candela of light shining in all directions at once from a single angle.

Confused yet? That's fine, thank you. A lumen is a measure of how bright a light source is, whereas watts are a measure of the amount of energy it consumes.

As a result, a 100-watt incandescent light produces 1,600 lumens. LEDs use 22 watts, but CFLs use 26 watts for a comparable light source. That's about 450 lumens if you're using an incandescent 40-watt bulb, which is the equivalent of 11 watt CFL and nine watt LED bulbs.

How many lumens do you need to illuminate your microgreen garden now that you've learned more about them? If you need 1,700 to 2,000 lumens, you'll need T8 or T5 fluorescents. As the size of your microgreen garden increases, this lumen number may also decrease.

What Is the Best Color Temperature for Microgreens?

When it comes to growing microgreens, you don't want to purchase grow lights just yet. What about the color temperature of the light you require for your indoor garden?

What's going on here? In the Kelvin scale, the color temperature, or light temperature, can range from 1,000 to 10,000. It is important to know the hue or light temperature of the bulb in order to get an idea of how the light will seem.

The light's color temperature is determined by the bulb's associated color temperature (CCT). The CCT's color can shift from blue to yellow to orange depending on the Kelvin temperature.

This is how you'd express the temperature of a color: 1,000K, where K stands for Kelvin.

Warm white is defined as having a color temperature between 2,000K and 3,000K. Color temperature increases from 3,100K to 4,500K provide a white tint that is cooler than normal. It's considered daylight if the light's color temperature ranges from 4,600K to 6,500K, which is bluer than white.

The CCT of your fluorescent light should be between 4,000K and 6,500K if you're growing microgreens under it. Your microgreens should be fine with a color temperature of up to 6,500K, as T8s tend to have that same range.


Conclusion

T8 lights, especially those with 1,700 to 2,000 lumens and a color temperature of 4,000K to 6,500K, are ideal for growing microgreens.

LEDs and sunshine can also be used to light up your microgreens securely. Keep in mind that you don't want to provide too little light, but you also don't want to leave your grow light on all day. Microgreens can burn and wilt if they receive too much light, which can hinder their growth.

To get the most out of your microgreens, you'll need to learn more about their lighting needs.


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