FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hello!

I need some help. I've been growing most of my plants in full sun or on a very bright sunny windowsill, but I would like to get into some grow lights to help out with my seedlings and even my other plants such as Cephalotus and Nepenthes. Maybe even Regia and Cobra Lily and some sundews?

I came across this one from reddit on Savage Garden and was wondering what are your thoughts on it? It's this one:
https://www.amazon.com/KINGBO-Spectrum- ... B07T1YG8BX

I'm open to all suggestions but would preferably like a grow light that won't break the bank. Thank you!

Kind of. I have that grow light so I think I can give you a decent review. How much growing space are you thinking about having?

PROS

1. decent amount of brightness. Fine for (small) neps, cephs, and sundews. Fine for seedling regias.
2. the color of the light is good for plants and relatively easy on the eyes
3. consumes about 14W
4. not outrageously expensive

CONS

1. the light extends over a small area. you can't use it to grow large plants or more than a few plants.
2. the instructions that come with the light recommend not turning it on for more than 6 hours at a time. The top of the light gets hot if you leave it running for too long. Depending on the timer you have, this may cause issues. I use one of these to turn it on and off several times throughout the day (6 on, 1 off, repeat as needed).

Overall: Not bad if you'll use it for a few plants. If you want to cover a larger area, get something else.

Thanks for a detailed review of this product! So far, it sounds great since my plants aren't overly large, but I think the problem is that maybe it won't cover enough grow space. I'll be needing at least 2’ X 2’ of grow space. But after reading some of the threads, MarsHydro seems to be the go-to grow lights.

Coco look into the white led panels from yescom on Amazon.

The price seems to be spot on for them. How do you like it? Do your plants develop a nice color from white led panels?

I just placed an order for the 600w MarsHydro.


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You have to use full spectrum to get white light so they are perfect for plants. I have white/blue panels in my nep tent and at over 20in away they were getting sunburned. For other plants you just move the plants closer.

Jeeper wrote:Coco look into the white led panels from yescom on Amazon.

Many people here have recommended these, but didn't get them because I wasn't able to find and PAR/PPFD measurements anywhere so am not sure how bright they are. What kinds of plants have you successfully grown under these lights, and at what distance from the plants do you keep the light?

mcgrumpers wrote:

Jeeper wrote:Coco look into the white led panels from yescom on Amazon.

Many people here have recommended these, but didn't get them because I wasn't able to find and PAR/PPFD measurements anywhere so am not sure how bright they are. What kinds of plants have you successfully grown under these lights, and at what distance from the plants do you keep the light?

Neps the light is 18-20" away.

Pygmy Drosera the light was 8" away.

Pings/Cephs about 12" away.

Coco wrote:The price seems to be spot on for them. How do you like it? Do your plants develop a nice color from white led panels?

I just placed an order for the 600w MarsHydro.


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The 300w mars hydro is sufficient for most CPs, and you'd get a nice 2x2ft growing area with strong light and a bit more with medium/soft light. I have one on a 4ftx1.5ft wire rack and take care to put plants that need more light closer to the middle. You'd get more usable growing space from two 300w vs one 600w since you'd be able to spread them apart more (or place them on different levels of a shelf/wire rack).

Both of these lights have good specs on amazon, so you can really see what you're getting:
mars hydro 300w vs mars hydro 600w
you can see that the mars hydro 600w has a PPFD of over 600 in the middle, which is more than what you'd need for even a VFT. You could compensate by hanging the light a bit higher (those charts were taken at 18"), but then the light would be too weak outside of the middle of the growing space. Light that is too weak is bad for plants and light that is too strong is wasted light.

I think for right now, I'll go towards MarsHydro where for some strange reason, I'm more comfortable with it. I think it has to do with the amount of reviews and results that I'm able to find in both the forums and elsewhere. As I progress more into grow lights, I'll dip into the white led panels from Yescom.

I'll admit, I was in a bit of rush of getting the 600w before work where I had the mentality that "bigger is better." But that does make sense of utilizing and maximizing the effectiveness of the PPFD just by spreading the two of them apart. With that being said, I'll go ahead and cancel the 600w and order two 300w's.

Thanks!

In my experience, plants color up quite nicely with that light. If you end up taking before and after pictures of your plants, please share them!

Another possibly irrelevant note: covering even one side of your growing space with reflective mylar will increase the brightness that your plants see.

I'm looking forward to them coloring up And will do!

I do want to maximize the amount of light that the plants will be receiving so I placed an order for some reflective material. Well, it's more of a pre-made grow tent. A DIY grow tent project sounds really fun, but unfortunately my time is rather limited this time of the year.