Grow Light

[DaveW]

Anybody used one of these? Scroll down to bottom of link for details. I only want it for a bit of supplementary lighting over my small Stewart seed propagator:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201773661564

Amazon seems to be selling them too.

[Chris L]

Seems very expensive for the size of the lamp.

[Jim_Mercer]

This "bulb" has extra LEDs with different colour outputs https://www.amazon.co.uk/Haichen-Greenh ... l+spectrum the UV LEDs may help with high altitude plants.

[esp]

Agreed, 5W isn't much.

I think the main problem will be the spotlight nature of this. It will produce a narrow, intense beam, with very quick light fall-off from the edges. As per the description "3.The product is mainly designed for small plants, one light suitables for 1-2 small plants". It's not suitable for providing uniform lighting over a even quite a small area.

I use something similar to this, for seedlings in an area of around 15"x18":http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282164118114
This suffers from the light-fall of described, partly mitigated by using silver relective material (spare underlay for laminate flooring) on all 4 sides, which reflects quite a bit of light back into the edges. I still need to use local shading (sheets of paper etc) in the centre, unless I have more mature light-tolerant plants there. Overall, it works well, with sufficient illumination at the edges, but is not perfect.

For any further experiments, I would buy something like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251741192220 for 12"-15" sq areas of seedlings
This should give good uniformity of lighting, and seems excellent for a set of small, very low plants, like cacti & most succulents in their early months or even years. It would be possible to rest it on top of the (flat-ish?) propagator top, raised up slightly along the sides to allow air flow over the LEDs.

[esp]

Re Jim's post, for a similar light to my post, it is described as:
"Wide Bean Angel:120 degree wide angle beam covers more efficiently over 10 feet diameter, which is five times larger than ordinary lamps. Light beam spreads evenly without hot spot. "

Unfortunately it's not (readily) possible for a 120 degree beam to be uniform. It will have a very pronounced hot-spot. A 10ft diameter circle of light from this would be rather dim, as it would be over 4 feet from the light.

[jfabiao]

IKEA's grow lights (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indo ... ltivators/) are fairly inexpensive and are surprisingly intense (a light meter phone app read something like 9000 lux at about 20cm from the unit). Coupled with their "cultivation units" they make nice displays for plants that will look good in your living room, I must try one of these someday. As anyone tried them?

[DaveW]

Thanks All.

Had a look on the Web and most sites dealing with LED Grow lights are for Cannabis growing (wonder if the police do a public auction for cheap grow lights from cannabis raids?) .

There is also virtually no scientific research quoted for LED lamps, all the claims seem to come from the light makers own sites. Most are also for permanently growing plants in cellars or dark rooms to flowering size rather than just providing a little extended daylight to a small seed propagator in order to sow earlier in the year.

This first links may be a little out of date now:-

http://www.growell.co.uk/blog/2012/07/l ... ually-work

http://www.growell.co.uk/blog/2015/11/l ... not-to-use

http://www.hg-hydroponics.co.uk/blog/20 ... ur-review/

http://www.ledgrowlightshq.co.uk/led-grow-lights-uk/

[esp]

If you are only after some supplemental lighting, why not just give it a go? Either your initial option or one of the others suggested. Any broadly sensible lighting set-up, LED or otherwise, will almost certainly help.

[purzo]

Anybody used one of these? Scroll down to bottom of link for details. I only want it for a bit of supplementary lighting over my small Stewart seed propagator:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201773661564
Amazon seems to be selling them too.

Yes I have one, I got it from Amazon for slightly less than the ebay price. I use it on my Pinguicula which are in a shaded greenhouse to supplement natural light during Winter. I intend to add reflective foil to the glass when I get round to it to maximise the use of the light. As others have mentioned the light has a spotlight effect which isn't a problem for my need and I move it around every now and then. At that price I feel it was a worthwhile addition to my lighting and I am considering buying another or something similar at some point.

Judging by the responses you got there are some other options for me to have a look at as well so thanks for posting the question in the first place.

[jfabiao]

Had a look on the Web and most sites dealing with LED Grow lights are for Cannabis growing (wonder if the police do a public auction for cheap grow lights from cannabis raids?) .

Back in the days when I grew orchids, HID and HPS lamps were in fashion for indoor growing and there were some anecdotal stories of the police keeping an eye on whoever bought them in the US.