Grow Lights for House Plants

[dean]

Im guessing that house plants will grow under any artificial light like our aquatic plants do

Im not that keen on the colour they give off id much prefer a 6500k led bulb

So is it worth buying the special “Grow Lights” or is that just another marketing ploy ?


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[Disaronno]

Which "grow light"? There's so many The ones that look purple are terrible for color rendition 🤣. The cheap ones may as well be tossed aside for normal household bulbs. The real horticulture lights are pretty great for their spectrum and efficiency.

Normal 6500K bulbs will work okay for growing plants unless you're after certain growth characteristics (like flower buds).

 

[tiger15]

You don’t want purple grow light for houseplant as you grow houseplant for the natural look, not to appear like in another planet. Most houseplants are low light forest canopy plants, demanding even less light than aquarium plants. I’m able to grow lucky bamboo and pathos in dim room light Java fern will not survive. Exceptions are succulent, bonsai and a few flowering plants that demand high light. So any 5000 to 6500k led will be fine and look natural. Don’t worry about the brand name as they are all made in China, just select light with high lumen rating.

 

[dean]

Normal 6500K bulbs will work okay for growing plants unless you're after certain growth characteristics (like flower buds).

Im not growing them in my loft although I recently visited a hydroponic place for some leca
There was a strange smell in the place

I have a very dim hallway and thought plants would be great there under a wall light


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[dean]

[QUOTE="tiger15, post So any 5000 to 6500k led will be fine and look natural. Don’t worry about the brand name as they are all made in China, just select light with high lumen rating.[/QUOTE]

Yes my idea was just to get an LED bulb and a wall light as theres no direct light where i want to have plants


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[Simon Cole]

The Sansi LED E27 grow bulbs are some of the best ever developed. They have ceramic heat dissipation and come in a range of wattages, but do check reviews of the model you select because some bulbs get slightly hotter than others. The better models have lenses or donut-shaped light diffusers, and I believe that some of them are fairly water resistant too. They are also far safer than generic brands, many of which risk electrocution (Big Clive on YouTube has reviewed a few from a safety perspective). The brand has a massive following worldwide, and this has been well-earned in my opinion. They do a 20 watt version and a 36 watt, both with the lens/donut feature, and are highly popular with houseplant enthusiasts. They also do gooseneck clamped lamps with multiple bulbs that sell-out rather rapidly. They are hard to get in the UK, but you can buy separate E27 gooseneck lamps and team them up with the Sansi bulbs.

 

[BenR24]

I use the sansi LED 36w, have it attached to a long chord, has worked fine for over a year or so now. they’ve always worked well enough , do get quite warm though.

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[zozo]

So is it worth buying the special “Grow Lights” or is that just another marketing ploy ?

When it comes to spectrum and aesthetics than you are best of with a white light source because this will be most pleasing to the eye. Thus the K value is actually totaly up to you and how you see its colour... The plant doesn't mind that much it will grow anyway from 2700K up to a 10.000K.

A plant will also still grow under only blue end red light that's the spectrum it uses the most, but that will look rather awful. Special grow lights in a special spectrum and made in te high intensity range are made for optimal harvest production and not for aesthetics.

So yes, the low wattage low intensity special colour grow lights with a lot of red and blue are another marketing ploy that usually doesn't look very good and doesn't add that much value to the proportions or health of the plant.

 

[tiger15]

When it comes to spectrum and aesthetics than you are best of with a white light source because this will be most pleasing to the eye. Thus the K value is actually totaly up to you and how you see its colour... The plant doesn't mind that much it will grow anyway from 2700K up to a 10.000K.

A plant will also still grow under only blue end red light that's the spectrum it uses the most, but that will look rather awful. Special grow lights in a special spectrum and made in te high intensity range are made for optimal harvest production and not for aesthetics.

So yes, the low wattage low intensity special colour grow lights with a lot of red and blue are another marketing ploy that usually doesn't look very good and doesn't add that much value to the proportions or health of the plant.

10000k looks good in aquarium, but too ghostly blue for living space. 2700k is similar to incandescent, too warm light for aquarium, but looks fine for living space. Natural sunlight lamps are typically between 5000 to 6500k.

 

[zozo]

10000k looks good in aquarium, but too ghostly blue for living space. 2700k is similar to incandescent, too warm light for aquarium, but looks fine for living space. Natural sunlight lamps are typically between 5000 to 6500k.

I can't confirm nor deny without the approval of the spectator... You decide what looks most natural and most pleasing to you. It's all about colours and personal taste. K value is very unreliable and can't guarantee a real colour rendition. There are tons of images like this out there and no 2 look the same.

Then if you are after real colour you need to look into the higher-end light manufacturers that upgraded their standard into CRI instead. And that's the Colour Rendition Index # the closer this index is to 100 the more real colour the light reflex. 100 would be perfect and I don't know if it's out there but have seen CRI 90 lights. Most art galleries use lights with a high CRI standard nowadays...

But then still, real colour or not... What is real anyway? Real is what you see then if CRI 60 looks better in your eyes then whom I to say it's unnatural and unreal. I can say what I want, you are the one looking at it and the one liking it or not. Whatever I say would be sharing my opinion with you about what I see.

And then we can have a nice never-ending discussion about what's real and what's not... Or come to the agreement that it doesn't matter.

 

[tiger15]

Natural or not is not subjective based on the eye of beholder, but has been measured in actual sunlight. In a living space, how human face looks like is as important as plants and surrounding. Only in halloween display do we want to see human faces appear ghostly blue.

​

What color temperature best approximates natural sunshine? | Waveform Lighting

Find resources, help guides, specifications & photometric reports.

www.waveformlighting.com

For those who spend lots of time indoors, installing LED lights that mimic natural light may be a top priority.

The color temperature of natural light can be difficult to pinpoint as it can range from 4000K to 6500K or higher, depending on the time of day, weather, latitude and season.

If you're after the warmer feel of natural sunshine (as opposed to daylight), 4000K may be a great option for you. 4000K can be described as early-morning or late-afternoon sunshine that comes in through a south-facing window.

5000K and higher color temperatures are also close approximations of natural light, but they are more aligned with natural daylight, rather than natural sunlight. Think of a more neutral, white light coming in from a north-facing window on an overcast day.

 

[dean]

Natural or not is not subjective based on the eye of beholder, but has been measured in actual sunlight. In a living space, how human face looks like is as important as plants and surrounding. Only in halloween display do we want to see human faces appear ghostly blue.

​

What color temperature best approximates natural sunshine? | Waveform Lighting

Find resources, help guides, specifications & photometric reports.

www.waveformlighting.com

For those who spend lots of time indoors, installing LED lights that mimic natural light may be a top priority.

The color temperature of natural light can be difficult to pinpoint as it can range from 4000K to 6500K or higher, depending on the time of day, weather, latitude and season.

If you're after the warmer feel of natural sunshine (as opposed to daylight), 4000K may be a great option for you. 4000K can be described as early-morning or late-afternoon sunshine that comes in through a south-facing window.

5000K and higher color temperatures are also close approximations of natural light, but they are more aligned with natural daylight, rather than natural sunlight. Think of a more neutral, white light coming in from a north-facing window on an overcast day.

Personally in my home i prefer bright white 6500k bulbs so whites look white
The 4000k end give it a yellowish tint so a white wall looks dirty
But the golden hour (before dusk) is a great time for taking landscape photos


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[zozo]

The 4000k end give it a yellowish tint so a white wall looks dirty

That is because white and black aren't true colours Our eyes don't always see it and it depends on the light source to see the true colour or not.
White is theoretically a reflection of all colours in the spectrum but still, the whitest white paint ever invented only reflects 98.1% of all sunlight the other 1.9% is a different colour that could be any colour in the spectrum. This paint was invented relatively recently and is not yet available in the trade.

Paints come in RAL colour code and AFAIK is RAL 9010 (Blanco Puro) the whitest wall paint colour available in the trade and still not pure white.

Black is also a mix of very dark basic colours in the spectrum that make it appear to absorb all light and is black to our eyes. But in reality, it's an extremely dark mixture of the primary colours red, blue and or yellow.

Take for example coal that once was lignite. (red, blue and yellow mixed make brown). In certain light conditions, you can see the blue in coal.

Here is a nice podcast and an interview with Cara Wade, a lighting expert working for a manufacturer of horticultural light systems.
They used to build light for aquariums in the past but discontinued this trade for financial reasons. She also talks about light and colours how people see them and what you should look for.

Lighting the Planted Aquarium with Cara Wade | ScapeFu059 - ScapeFu

Cara Wade , a lighting expert from Build My LED , tells you exactly what you should be looking for when thinking about lighting your planted aquarium.

scapefu.com

 

[tiger15]

Personally in my home i prefer bright white 6500k bulbs so whites look white
The 4000k end give it a yellowish tint so a white wall looks dirty
But the golden hour (before dusk) is a great time for taking landscape photos


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3000 to 4000k has been standard lamp color for centuries since Edison invented incandescent bulbs. It makes human face looks blush, saving make up for ladies (and Trump). 6500k led is not white but blue hue white. White is not a spectrum color but created in our brain by perceiving all visible light spectrums in equal quantity from 400 to 700 nano meter. Only sunlight at noon can get you true white light.