Your Exclusive Indoor Marijuana Grow Lights Guide

If you’re looking to grow marijuana plants indoors, you need to choose the right grow lights. Without adequate light, you won’t get a decent harvest. The best lighting usually equals the highest quality THC, so it’s essential to get the best ones you can afford. There are so many different types of grow lights available that finding the ideal ones for your needs is challenging.

This article provides a handy list of some of the best marijuana grow lights for indoor weed currently available. Some of them are cheap; others are a little pricier. Regardless, if you use them correctly, they’ll get the job done.

You Have the Lights, Now Buy the Seeds!

Once you know the right lighting to use, it’s time to start growing with Homegrown Cannabis Co. This brand offers a fantastic array of products whether you’re a cultivation king or are just starting. They sell seeds, nutrients, mix packs, and much more, and if you head to the official website right now, you can get a Homegrown discount code, too.

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Why Should I Use Indoor Marijuana Grow Lights?

The uninitiated may believe that house lights are sufficient for cannabis plants. However, even if you use LED lighting, it is almost certainly too weak to help a marijuana crop in a grow room. Remember, your home’s lights are designed for your eyes rather than plants. The light spectrum required to help us see is very different from what plants require for photosynthesis.

There are plants like microgreens that can flourish with a basic lamp. However, marijuana plants require fairly strong and consistent light to help them into the blooming phase. Remember, when you grow cannabis indoors, you’re competing with the sun in terms of light! This means you need high-power lights in your plants’ grow space.

These days, cannabis growers are spoiled for choice with grow lights. There is an incredible array of options, providing better safety, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency than ever before. Simply put, if you want a decent yield, you must invest in specific marijuana grow lights.

Factors to Consider Before Buying Grow Lights for Weed

Before we reveal the different grow lights for weed, there are quite a few factors to consider. Therefore, we condense them into a handful of handy categories below.

Сost

First things first, what is your budget? If it is under $100 or $200, it is still possible to grow budget buds. However, you won’t get anywhere near the yield of what a $1,000+ high-quality LED system provides, for instance. Also, bear in mind that you need different lighting for the various stages of the growth cycle.

It is best to calculate how much cannabis you need each year. MMJ patients and regular recreational users are best served by making a one-off investment in decent standard lights. Also, the more harvests you intend to have, the quicker you ‘pay off’ the cost of lights. If you only plan to grow cannabis occasionally, HIDs may fit the bill because of their cheaper initial cost.

Ventilation

Certain lights run significantly hotter than others. HIDs, for instance, run extremely hot and need an air conditioning unit. Otherwise, the temperature of your grow room could become excessive and harm your plant’s growth. Please note this is an extra expense to add to the ‘cheaper’ HID setup.

Space

How big is your grow room going to be? If you don’t have much space, you should steer clear of ‘hot’ lights, or else the room’s temperature will increase rapidly. You also won’t have enough space to install an AC unit.

Safety

Check your breaker board to ensure there are plenty of outlets and enough power to handle your lighting easily. Next, go through your full list of equipment to determine its power usage. If you don’t have enough power capacity, the risk of electrical fires increases markedly.

Growth Cycle Stage

The lighting required by cannabis plants varies according to their stage in the growth cycle. Young plants require a different light spectrum from their mature counterparts. For example, Metal Halide lights are associated with plants in the vegetative stage. In contrast, HPS lighting is frequently used in the blooming phase.

The Best Indoor Cannabis Grow Lights: What Types Are There?

There are various light types, with different pros and cons depending on what you’re looking for. We offer a rundown of the most common options below. Are you stuck for time?  Check out the pros and cons of each at a glance.

LEDs – Long Lasting and Energy-Efficient

Short for light-emitting diode, an LED is a simple form of light with an efficient energy signature. Due to how the light is generated within LEDs, they use a meager amount of electricity for the same amount of light compared to other sources.

However, LEDs have a pricing problem. The lights you need for cultivating cannabis are costly. If you try and use the cheap, Christmas-style lights, your weed harvest will be smaller than the LED’s carbon footprint. If you want to invest in your bud correctly, prepare to spend a substantial amount of money.

One great benefit of LED grow lights is that they create comparatively little heat compared to other types of light.

This ensures you don’t overheat your grow room. Marijuana plants like a warm environment. However, excessive heat damages them and may also cause a fire in your grow room.

LED grow lights can also distribute a fuller light spectrum due to how the light is created through electroluminescence. This can result in a better, higher-quality yield from your bud.

This benefit is somewhat counteracted by the fact that the average LED light board is quite low-powered. As a result, you either require multiple boards or a huge, single one. Also, you only get the best results with LEDs that offer a full spectrum of light.

HID Grow Lights – The Traditional, Energy Hungry Choice

HID grow lights, short for High-Intensity Discharge, are large light bulbs that emit a tremendous amount of heat and light. They usually require a full exhaust fan to remove the excess heat, and electricity consumption is enormous. Also, they generally need a decent amount of time and space to set up a properly working system.

HID Lights are typically divided into a few different varieties or sub-categories:

Metal Halide Grow Lights

Metal Halide or MH grow lights are primarily used during the vegetative stage. This is the part of the cannabis plant’s life where growth takes off and leaves begin to flourish. MH lights produce a strongly blue-tinged light, which the plants prefer at this stage of growth.

It might sound strange that a plant prefers a type of light. However, different colored lights are mostly just different wavelengths and intensities. Due to this difference in wavelength, the plant prefers stronger or weaker lights at various stages of its development.

For the early vegetative stage, the blue glow from the metal halide lights is best.

High-Pressure Sodium Grow Lights

High-pressure sodium, or HPS, grow lights are far more efficient than other forms of HID. They emit a gentler, yellow light that cannabis prefers when it is in the flowering stage. This yellow light helps encourage intense bud production. In addition, it allows you to configure the eventual size of your harvest more precisely.

You can buy HPS lighting in a variety of strengths but don’t use 1000W. It is far too powerful and is only suitable if you have created a vast underground field of cannabis plants! Instead, a pair of 400W or 600W HPS lights should suffice.

Light Emitting Ceramic Grow Lights

Also known as ceramic metal halide lights, this type of lighting features a collection of ceramic heating elements inside the lamp. Manufacturers use ceramic because it has a higher arc tube temperature. Arc tubes help create the lighting within MH lights. The result is enhanced efficiency and color rendering.

The choice of whether to use LEC over the standard MH grow light is a personal preference. However, it’s also tied to cost. LEC grow lights represent a higher initial investment. Yet, they also are more efficient over the long haul, lowering your overall electricity bill.

HID grow lights are old school and can produce a vast harvest but use a considerable amount of electricity. However, they’re still widely considered the standard for indoor marijuana cultivation due to their efficiency and power output. They are also cheaper to buy before electricity costs enter the equation.

Fluorescent Grow Lights – Best Used for Small Grows

Fluorescent lighting works through a chemical reaction inside the bulb. Mercury vapor reacts with various gases to create an invisible UV light, which then illuminates phosphor powder that creates light. For this process to take place, you also need electricity; the current is what triggers the reaction. As a result, you often end up needing a socket for each bulb.

There are two types of fluorescent lights: CFLs and T5. A CFL bulb has a twisted, coil-like shape, whereas T5s come in straight tubes. Let’s take a quick look at both options.

CFLs

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) have varying wattage, with some almost rivaling HIDs. Since CFLs are so common, you can find them at most household stores and even grocery stores. This is a blessing, but the downside is that you’ll need a separate socket for each CFL bulb.

Another great thing about CFLs is that they can be positioned in innovative ways. Some people place them horizontally, while others dangle them vertically over the plants. Since they can fit into a small space, they’re pretty good for stealth growing.

The downside of CFLs is that they are less efficient than more powerful lights. Furthermore, you may need to keep moving and repositioning the bulbs for the best results.

T5s

T5s, meanwhile, get their name from their tube shape and 5/8” diameter. T5 bulbs usually come in a set, where multiple tubes are placed side by side in a panel. As a result of this setup, T5s provide more even light coverage. You’ll need to hang T5s from a fixture, but don’t worry, as they’re often very cool and won’t cause heat damage.

T5s are the preferred fluorescent bulb of choice for more experienced growers. However, CFLs definitely work, too. Bear in mind that you’ll have to put up with a smaller yield with both types of fluorescent lighting.

In general, one of the main benefits of fluorescent lights is that they don’t require the investment of an additional setup like with HID. You also don’t need to include a particular ventilation system to keep the room’s temperature down.

They are ideal for newbie growers who are experimenting with cultivation. While they are pretty useless for big growing operations, fluorescent bulbs work well in a small grow space.

You Have the Lights, Now Buy the Seeds!

Once you know the right lighting to use, it’s time to start growing with Homegrown Cannabis Co. This brand offers a fantastic array of products whether you’re a cultivation king or are just starting. They sell seeds, nutrients, mix packs, and much more, and if you head to the official website right now, you can get a Homegrown discount code, too.

Visit Official Site

Final Thoughts on the Best Grow Lights for Indoor Marijuana

When growing marijuana indoors, you have to decide what takes top priority. Do you care about your energy bills, the environment, secrecy, or efficiency?

If you’re looking for discretion, LED grow lights and fluorescent grow lights are the likeliest options. However, if you’re after efficiency, HID is probably the best grow light for marijuana available. That is, as long as you don’t mind the increase in your electricity bill.

Then again, if you have a grow space of less than five square feet, fluorescent light is enough when your plants are small. You can upgrade to a 250W HPS as the plants get larger. If you have space, an MH light for plants in the vegetative stage and HPS for the blooming phase works well. Using MH lighting throughout is fine, but your plants will have fewer flowers, more foliage, and a lower yield.

Different options work best for different solutions, so pick the one that’s right for you and work to its advantages. Once you have selected the right light for your needs, you can start growing cannabis. After choosing the soil type, your fertilizer preferences, and a few other things, of course!