LED Grow Lights - Cannabis Applications And Recommended Products

Cannabis growers everywhere seem to be getting more and more excited about LED grow lights. With the new technology out there, growers are finding these lights have not only reduced costs, but they are showing exceptional yield.

Now it is true, the adoption of LED grow lights into the cannabis industry has lagged, and many are reluctant to make the switch for traditionally more effective HPS grow lights.  My argument is that in the long run, if you really want to be serious with your hydroponic system, then LED lights are going to be essential to your equipment arsenal. 

With this hub, I will touch on some of the basics of LED grow lights, including hydroponic application, a comparison vs. HPS or high pressure sodium lights, and a review of some LED grow light products.

For starters, LED or light-emitting diode lamps work by only emitting specific color frequencies. This is what causes an LED light requires much less energy to light a room compared to a traditional fluorescent light. You are basically cutting off the energy drained from frequencies that are not necessary. In household applications this is easy because you only really need white light.

When applied to plants, LED technology is really categorized by the types of color frequencies the light applies.  There are two primary frequencies used, red and blue. These can be applied to different types of plants based on the best growth conditions the will result in the highest yield.

The drawback is higher production costs, but in the end implementing LED lights can save big time on electrical costs, and they will last practically a lifetime. The biggest challenge is that even with use of the best LED grow lights for cannabis the intensity of light radiation diminishes much more rapidly than a traditional grow light. This means that placing the light too far away gives you much less “light” so to speak and your cannabis yield will be much less. Much for this reason, few commercial hydroponic growers employ LED grow lights.

If you want to be serious about using LED for your growing, then you need to think about building some kind of custom panel with a series of LED lights. There are larger out of the box options, which will be touched on later, but building your own will save money in the long run.

What you need to do is arrange some kind of configuration of 64-80 lights, soldering the lights along a full panel that can be positioned at the proper angle for your crop. In total, if you do it right, your doing to be pumping nearly 300W of 6500 CFL light, which will give you really nice yields.

When using LED grow lights, cannabis can be grown highly effectively if you find a light that combines the red and blue color frequencies. This will cause a purple tinted emission of light that is ideal for facilitating photosynthesis. In short, your cannabis will grow well and produce a higher yield.

Without getting into the exact science behind it, one principle of growing is that you need as much “light” energy as possible, and this is why people pay a high premium for high output fluorescent lamps, such as HPS grow lights.  Metal halide and high pressure sodium lamps are also proven and effective sources for enough growing energy, and will substantially increase your cannabis yield.

With LED lights you sacrifice much of this energy through the design, and as I mentioned you will need a lot of lights to actually produce the same amount of growing energy as a HPS grow light.  It can be done, and as the technology continues to advance the savings, energy power and benefit of LED will only increase as well.

In my opinion, the adoption of LED grow light technology or the cannabis industry is inevitable.  As with most new market innovations it will take some time before the true savings are realized, but the cost savings is truly remarkable.  One golden rule of business is to always think five years ahead.  With LED technology you might take an initial loss, but in the end over five years I guarantee you will see positive results.

Aside from just electricity bills, which are obvious, here are a few other ways your LED grow lights will put some coin back in your pocket:

1. Turn down the heat! – The LED lights will emit much less heat, and therefore you won’t have any need for cooling fans or heat redirection system. Growers in the south will definitely appreciate this aspect of LED, and there is such a noticeable different in the temperature of the lamps you will be amazed.
2. No more burnt out light lamps – LED grow lights can last up to 20 years. Think about that, no need to even change out a light bulb for at least 10 years, and probably much longer...as long as one is careful I suppose
3. Get rid of the accessories – Don’t you hate the process of setting up the proper reflector placement in your growing area? Well, with LED you get a much more efficient output and there is not need for redirection or acceleration of your light output.  

First off, I want to highly recommend that you do some research before you go out and purchase an LED light. Remember, your going to need a lot of power with your LED growing setup, and the best out of the box lights are the 300W models.

Some pointers I can offer:

• If you are a serious grower, the smaller LED grow lights are usually weak and won’t give you the results you are looking for, particularly more advanced plants such as large vegetables or specific “herbs”
• Definitely avoid any colored lights that are not purple or blue, these are the only ones that I have seen work to this point
• If you want to experiment with an LED grow light in the house, for something such as flowers, then the small models are definitely an option
• Finally, and this is a shameless plug, but the prices on Amazon.com are way better than anywhere else on the market. (Please note, if you buy something listed below, then I will make a commission. Thanks if you do, but don’t feel obligated)