Best LED Grow Lights of 2021

As a farmer, you won’t have the luxury of providing your crops with the balmy warmth of natural sunlight all the time. But you could use artificial lighting, of course, if you have the budget for it.

Whether you are a hobby cannabis farmer or a commercial hemp farmer, you must have heard of grow lights. Artificial lighting that can efficiently substitute natural sunlight.

Any proud farmer or horticulturist these days knows that LED grow lights are a much better choice over the traditional options, such as the High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights or the Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL).

It’s true that LED grow lights are relatively new to horticulture, although NASA has been putting their efficiency to the test for years. But what makes LED grow lights better than the rest?

Well, even though a lot depends on the type of crop and the economics involved, some of the main reasons why LED grow lights are better are…

1. LED grow lights offer the WIDEST RANGE OF LIGHT WAVELENGTHS needed for healthier crops and HIGHER YIELD – just like natural sunlight.
2. A good investment for a farmer, as it offers more efficient lighting conditions, with better intensity than other options.
3. LED lights are more DURABLE, and despite their high initial costs, are more cost-effective in the long run (for your power bills!).
4. An LED lighting set CONSERVES ENERGY as it requires much LESS POWER.
5. LEDs emit very LITTLE HEAT, and can, hence, be installed closer to the plants without harming them.
6. LEDs have a LONGER SHELF-LIFE than traditional grow lights.
7. LEDs DO NOT leave behind ANY chemical contaminants in the soil or the air – even after they’ve been discarded!

These factors do tend to influence the success in your horticultural endeavors, right? But wait, there is more!

Unlike traditional grow lights that give off a bluish-purple hue, or “blurpuple” light as many would call it, LED light system makers have incorporated green lights into the purple and blue spectrums.

This has proven to improve and accelerate plant’s natural growth process.

A full-spectrum lighting system, especially that which contains lights of all wavelengths, including those of the invisible kind (UV, IR, and far-red), are far more effective for your plant’s overall growth and yield, without hurting the eyes, your crops, or your pocket.

But how do you know how to choose a good lighting system?

We will get into that later.

Best LED Grow Lights – 2021

#1. Horticulture Lighting Group HLG 650R – Best Overall

Horticulture Lighting Group’s HLG 650R is among the best LED grow lighting systems in the market, particularly for commercial indoor horticulture.

Some of its recent upgrades include:

• Stronger light intensity (1770 μmol/s)
• Light’s efficiency, i.e., converting electrons into photons (2.81 umol/j)

Now, let’s talk specifics…

Spectrum & Lighting Efficiency:

Originally designed to replace a double-ended 1000-watt High-Intensity Discharge (HID) lamp, HLG 650R uses four of the brand’s custom-designed, high-efficiency, full-spectrum, white-light quantum boards. These boards comprise Samsung’s LM301H full-spectrum white diodes and LM351H V2 Deep Red 660nm diodes.

When it comes to the LED’s efficiency, overall light output, and intensity, they’re currently the best in the market.

What’s more, this lighting system is dimmable, with wattage output ranging from 60 to 610 watts.

Unlike most budget LED grow light sets, HLG’s 650R doesn’t give off “blurple” light, which comprises only blue- and red-spectrum lights. Instead, it gives off the perfect full-spectrum white light, which covers the ‘photosynthetically active radiation’ (PAR), including green and yellow wavelengths, apart from the usual blue and red, and beyond, which includes deep- and far-red wavelengths.

How does this help?

Well, the deep- and far-red spectra are thought to trigger the ‘Emerson effect’. Theoretically, it combines the effects of both the deep-red spectrum (680 nm) and the far-red spectrum (680+ nm) to enhance photosynthesis and electron transport, particularly during the plants’ flowering stage.

Yes, deep red makes flowers bloom!

This full-spectrum light also helps shorten the cannabis plants’ flowering cycle by 3 – 4 days when compared to the standard 3000K-Spectrum lighting systems.

When compared to HPS lighting, LEDs reduce the flowering period by at least 12 – 15 days.

Moreover, research shows that plants placed under HPS lighting systems may grow taller and yield higher dry weight of flower than those under LED treatments (AP673L and NS1), but NS1 treatment produces the highest CBG content, while treatments with either LED types (NS1 and AP673L) yield higher CBD and THC concentrations than the HPS treatment.

In other words, an optimized light-spectrum has a positive influence on the value and quality of cannabis growth.

The HLG 650R’s LM301H diodes are currently among the best growing light chips for their PAR-coverage and light-intensity. Besides, they also help save a lot of money – in the long-run, of course.

While the COB LED technology, which is quite popular among indoor farmers and horticulturalists these days, is as efficient as this for PAR-spectrum coverage, light intensity, and PAR/PPFD efficiency, besides providing a high-quality yield, COB LEDs pinch the pocket – hard!

Thanks to HLG’s Samsung LM301H diodes, you can worry less about that as well.

Although the initial cost of these lighting sets may seem a bit much, it pays to buy them, as you’ll soon figure out within a matter of a few successful growth cycles.

Coverage: HLG 650R’s perfectly designed boards and diode placements ensure your crops them the best canopy light penetration, improving their yield while keeping the utility bills down.

In other words: Energy-efficient lighting and higher yield.

Cooling: This product, like all of Horticulture Lighting Group’s quantum boards, has an impressive passive cooling mechanism that is designed with heatsinks. Usually, you won’t require any active cooling system. Nevertheless, the brand offers suggestions on its website on how you can go about doing that!

Key Specs:

• Voltage Range: 120VAC – 277VAC
• Power: 60-630 Watts
• Flowering Footprint: 5’ x 5’ at 30”
• Veg Footprint: 7’ x 7’ at 48”
• Dimensions: 26” x 21.5” x 2.75”
• Commercial UL/ETL/CSA Listed: YES
• Light Efficiency (PPF/W): 2.8 μmol/joule
• Total Light Output (PPF): 1770 μmol

Website Experience: The brand’s official website is quite helpful, as it contains complete product specifications, manual, output, and efficiency report, Watts to BTU calculator, cooling requirement calculator, etc.

Lab testing & Certifications: Certified by London-based multinational product testing and certification company Intertek, the product has been verified by UL standards and CSA certifications. Every batch of this product is lab-tested by Light Laboratory Inc.

Other Key Features:

• Samsung’s Quantum Board® QB 648
• Reliable passive-cooled design along with cooling instructions on the website
• Wider light penetration with diffused light
• Dimmable power options
• An innovative auto-sensing power supply works on 120VAC, 240VAC, and 277VAC
• Weight 23 lbs.
• 3-Year Warranty

Since we have explained the little nitty-gritties of lighting conditions while elaborating on HLG 650R, let’s get on with the other brands that made it to our ‘Best LED Grow Lights’ list.

#2. Gavita Pro 1700E – Most Reliable & Longest-Lasting

LED equals to most efficient lighting conditions with the least expenditure towards utility bills. That is particularly true with all the new advancements in technology.

Gavita Pro 1700E’s LED lights may not be the most advanced but are still driven by one of the most powerful and most efficient LEDs, the Samsung LM301B diodes.

Samsung’s LM301H diodes, which power the HLG 650R, are surely the most advanced, but when it comes to efficiency and light output, the LM301B diodes aren’t all that different.

Admittedly, this grow light set is expensive. But that cost carries its weight alright.

The intensity and quality of this light set are probably the best in this category. Its 1700 μmol/s output and 2.6 umol/j power efficiency place this product right on the top (almost at least) of any list of the most reliable and efficient LED grow lights.

As with any premium-quality LED grow light, Gavita Pro 1700E offers excellent build-quality that is very durable.

Besides, Gavita’s technology doesn’t put too much pressure on its diodes, pushing up their lifespan higher than most other LED grow lights. So, you won’t need to replace those diodes as many times as other products.

Spectrum & Lighting Efficiency: What Samsung’s LM301B diodes leave out on the deep-red and far-red coverage, the Osram deep-red LEDs more than make up for them to produce one of the best and most balanced, full-spectrum LED lights.

Its other light component includes Philips AdvanceDrivers, which is one of the most reliable light sources.

Its overall light efficiency is 2.6 μmol/s¹/watt.

This technology is better than most other LEDs working on “white-only” LEDs, making it the closest to natural sunlight.

Gavita Pro 1700E is best suited for greenhouses, climate rooms, and wet environments, but not suited for outdoors.

The device works best at an ambient temperature of ~20 – 40°C.

Coverage: This product offers even light coverage, with equal intensity all over the plant canopy.

Cooling: Gavita Pro 1700E has eight passively cooled LED bars that provide a light output with an even intensity across the whole canopy, without producing a lot of noise or heat. Most customers don’t need to add a separate cooling device with this product.

Key Specs:

• Light efficiency: 2.6 μmol/s¹/watt
• Input wattage: 645 watts
• As high as 1700 μmol/s output for high intensity
• Input voltage: 240VAC
• Input current: 2.7A
• Product weight: 12.9 kg
• Dimensions (LxWxH): 112 x 111 x 8.5 cm
• Operating Temp: 0-40°C
• Power inlet: Wieland RST 16i5 connector
• External dim: E-series adapter

Website Experience: Simple, well-guided, and informative website, where you can easily place an order or pre-order (in case it’s out of stock).

Lab testing & Certifications: DLC-Listed, FCC and UL8800-compliant, IP66 wet-rated, CE and CB compliant, IP56 wet-rated in Europe.

Other Key Features:

• 8-bar configuration; for use in low rooms, vertical racks, over benches, and tents
• Dimmable power (up to 50%; if used with Gavita E-Series LED Adapter)
• Eight passively cooled LED bars requires no fans or moving parts
• Reduced cooling requirement (30-40% less)
• Compatible accessories and products include controllers, E-series adapters, power cords, interconnect cables, sun grips, and a crimp tool.
• Can be safely and effectively used in wet environments.
• In-built protection from dust, oil, and water, allowing mounting in low rooms, on vertical racks, over rolling benches, and tents.
• Can connect up to 500 – 1,000 LED fixtures, as per controllers used, using daisy-chained splitters.

#3. Spider Farmer SF – Best Budget Light

With Spider Farmer SF, you get the power of Samsung LM301B diodes, without spending as much as the products by HLG or Gavita.

Admittedly, the built-quality isn’t as good as the Gavita. But its light intensity and efficiency are almost as good as the first two, making SF the most cost-effective product in this segment.

When it comes to indoor cannabis cultivation, Spider Farmer SF’s most leading products are:

• Spider Farmer SF1000
• Spider Farmer SF2000 
• Spider Farmer SF4000 

The Spider Farmer SF series create better canopy light penetration than most other big brands.

• SF1000 consumes 100w; Veg footprint is 2.5 x 2.5 ft; Flowering footprint is 2 x 2 ft.
• SF2000 consumes 200w; Veg footprint is 3 x 4 ft; Flowering footprint is 2 x 4 ft.
• SF4000 consumes 450w; Veg footprint is 5 x 5 ft; Flowering footprint is 4 x 4 ft.

Spectrum & Lighting Efficiency: With a promoted lighting efficiency of 2.9 umol/j, it is one of the best products in this segment – even better than Gavita Pro and HLG.

Its LM301B diodes’ white light covers a much wider spectrum of the PAR than the ‘blurple’ light. Still, it falls behind on the deep- and far-red spectra of PAR. To make up for that, the Spider Farmer lights are supplemented with LM301B diodes with deep-red LEDs and infra-red chips.

The SF series also has a dimming knob and light switch to make it more power-efficient.

These place the Spider Farmer SF LED lights right up there with the Gavita Pro 1700E and the HLG 650R!

The SF series have excellent full-spectrum white, blue, red, and IR (3000K, 5000K, 660nm, and IR 760nm) light. 3000K diodes offer a more reddish hue and the 5000K the bluish. The 660nm red and IR 760nm lights are useful during bloom, speeding up the flowering phase and boosting yield.

Cooling: Separate cooling fans are required during the hot summer months.

Key Specs:

• Light efficiency: 9 umol/j (as advertised)
• View Angle of LED: 90°-120°
• Spectrum: 660nm,3000K,5000K and IR 760nm
• Multi-light dimming daisy chain
• 100,000-hour lifespan
• Par Value: 250.43umol/s (SF-1000); 527umol/s (SF-2000); 1217umol/s (SF-4000)
• Lumen: ~16350Lm (SF-1000); ~34,500Lm (SF-2000); ~79,260Lm (SF-4000)
• Input Voltage: AC100-277V
• Power input: ~100W (SF-1000); ~200W (SF-2000); ~450W (SF-4000)
• Frequency: 50-60Hz
• Humidity: ≤90%
• Work Temperature：-4°F ~115°F (-20°C ~ 46°C)
• Input Voltage: AC100-277V
• LEDs: 218pcs (SF-1000); 606 pcs (SF-2000); 1212 pcs (SF-4000)

Website Experience: Informative and easy-to-navigate website with convenient shopping experience.

Lab testing & Certifications: No information available.

Other Key Features:

• Cheap initial costs (compared to other LED grow lights) and yet premium-quality light efficiency and intensity
• Low running costs and yet high-quality yield
• Noise Free
• The aluminum LED board frame is thick and sturdy and keeps the lights cool
• High safety performance
• Fairly water-resistant
• High-quality protective covers for cables
• User-friendly packaging
• Quality components
• 3 years’ after-sales service and free components
• 30-day return & replacement guarantee
• 90-day warranty + Free components, repairing, and service

Choosing a Good Brand of LED Grow Light

A good set of LED grow lights will typically last for around 10 years, without shedding any of its effectiveness. But you still need to be careful while choosing your LED lights.

Not only is an LED set costly in itself, but it will also be in use for around 10 hours a day, every day, especially if you’re into indoor growing, and, that accounts for your utility bills.

Here are some of the key factors that you should look into before choosing the most suitable LED lighting system for you.

Product-Specific Factors:

Spectrum: As we’ve mentioned earlier, “blurple” lights or HPS lights have their drawbacks. The main drawback lies in their spectrum. Full-spectrum white light emitted by most good brands of LED lights ensures better light coverage when it comes to growing plants under artificial lighting conditions, as they closest resemble natural sunlight. Check out the brand’s PAR and PPFD coverage from the brand’s lab test reports. Most reputable brands would publish this on their website. [We will elaborate on this in a bit.]

Coverage area & Lens angle: Depending on how big your farm is, you would want to choose lighting systems that can serve each and every plant with equal efficiency, i.e., light spectrum, coverage, intensity, heat, etc. Besides, the angle of the LED lens also determines how direct or diffused the light’s rays will be and how intense and hot or cool they will be. There are quite a few types and variations of what you may require in the market. Read up on these on the brand websites and choose wisely.

Wattage: Check out the light’s wattage before you buy. Even though lighting sets are available up to thousands of Watts, they don’t necessarily serve the purpose. Often, a 300-Watt set produces ample enough lighting conditions for your horticulture farm.

Heat output: Be careful about where and how you place the lighting systems. While choosing the right grow light sets for you, find out about their heat output and added cooling systems, and also whether you need to add on anything extra. We mentioned about coverage area earlier. Well, depending on how big your farm is and how close you’d like your lighting to be, you will have to select the safest and the most effective heat output, without harming the plants.

Lab Tests: Most good brands would inform customers about what their latest lab results have yielded. The point for them is to display their honesty and earnestness about their products’ usability and effectiveness. The results help to build the brand trust and loyalty of the customers. These give you information relating to how efficient and safe the products really are.

Warranty & Return policy: Brands that offer warranties trust their products to work optimally. This ensures brand trust. So, if something goes wrong within that period you know you can return it for a refund or get it replaced. Again, if your purchase doesn’t suit your purpose, you may also need to return it. in any case, make sure you know and understand the return and exchange policies properly. You will need them should you discover that your lighting system doesn’t work as well as you expected.

Cost: There are a variety of LED lighting systems to choose from in the market. But not all costly ones would necessarily be beneficial in the long run. While your power bill is definitely a concern, you need to make sure the overall cost is not higher than your expected earnings in the long haul. To gauge that you must take into consideration all the factors mentioned above and below. To make sure you have a budget-friendly option that is good in quality and built as well as in light output, efficiency, and coverage, you need to study each and every facet of these systems before narrowing down on which system pays to pay high. And only when you’ve found the right option should decide to place an order.

General factors:

Type of plant/strain and its growth phases: Different types of plants and their strains require different wavelengths of light for their different growth phases. If you’re a cannabis planter, you may want to add far-red (750nm-780nm) to the blue light to help stimulate cannabis stem growth and flowering. While blue light is needed in minimal amounts to prevent uneven elongation of stems and leaf shrinkage, different variants of red lights deliver better cannabinoid yield.

Research shows that UV-B light (280nm – 315nm) leads to higher THC levels, while a higher proportion of blue and UV-A wavelengths cause high CBG and THC content in the plants. Cannabis plants, which rely heavily on longer periods of darkness, require the far-red light wavelength (730nm) at the end of a light cycle for flowering. Many growers experiment with intermittent bursts of red light during the dark cycle to boost healthier growth and flowering.

Indoor and outdoor requirements: If you are an indoor planter of cannabis, you have to depend heavily on artificial lighting conditions. Outdoor planters have the luxury of getting natural sunlight for at least a few hours.

So, while choosing your LED lighting sets, make sure the product you choose is optimized for your lighting condition. What indoor planters could benefit from may well be redundant, or even illogical, for outdoor planters and vice versa. Depending on how many hours of natural sunlight your plants will have access to, you must select your artificial lighting conditions.

Types of LED grow lights to choose from: There are Traditional Panel Lights, Spider LED Lights, Quantum Board LED Lights, and COB Grow Type Lights. Each of them has its advantages and downsides.

Traditional LED Panels (board-type sets) come with compact lamps and diodes of low to medium wattage, offering customers some of the best aspects of other types of grow lights.

While the spider LED lights are much like quantum boards, they feature small-sized, single diodes, spread out and held on arm-like extensions, like a spider’s feet, instead of being placed on a solid board. These sets are usually a bit on the higher end, but most users find them to be the most effective.

Originally developed by the Horticulture Lighting Group, the quantum board style is a combination of the spider and board styles of lighting sets, which is now increasingly growing in popularity. Quantum board lights usually feature low wattage diodes, spread out on a board-type design.

COB or Chip-On-Board light systems, on the other hand, feature large LED bulbs, each of which contains several LED chips in high concentration within a compact space, emitting extremely bright, intense rays. Each bulb also contains powerful lenses to focus the light directly onto the plants. This ensures higher penetration, speeding up the growth cycle and increasing the dry-weight volume. But you must be careful how close you place them. Besides, they also push up your power bills more than other types would.

Light Spectrum & Its Significance in Horticulture

To assess the effectiveness of your grow light sets, you must know how to ascertain their quality and efficiency. To do that, you should have an idea of the products’ range and proportion of the light wavelengths it produces, their light’s intensity, and their light’s efficiency. When it comes to LED grow light’s efficiency, it is not the wattage or the lumens that matter. What matters is the light’s wavelengths or color and the density of light particles that touch the plants. What actually come into play are PAR, PPFD, and PPFD/Watt ratio.

Now those are a mouthful, aren’t they?

Let’s simplify them for you.

When cannabis grows outdoors, the sun provides the full spectrum of light that the plant needs to grow naturally. Sunlight gets absorbed by the plant’s pigment molecules for photosynthesis (plant growth). Now nature always provides what is best. For Man to replicate that effect, we must understand what is it in sunlight that promotes healthy growth and flowering of plants.

And that brings us to PAR and PPFD. Below, we’ve tried to explain them in simple terms.

PAR and its Significance

LED grow lights are the best as they are designed to provide the optimum light wavelengths needed for plant growth and flowering – almost light natural sunlight. These wavelengths or colors of light compose the PAR or photosynthetically-active radiation.

The PAR spectrum includes light’s wavelengths, ranging from 400nm to 720nm. This range is required for photosynthesis – the plants’ way of producing their food from the soil, air, and water. But then, that is not enough for us humans to be growing them. We need them to grow in a healthy way, tall, and strong and bear healthy flowers (cannabis) and/or fruits (in the case of most other types of plants).

Within this range, the most important ones include:

• Blue wavelengths, i.e., 400nm – 500nm, for vegetative growth
• Orange/red wavelengths, i.e., 620nm – 700nm, for the flowering process.

Most LED manufacturers understand this, and, so, design their products such that they produce most of these light wavelengths. That is why we have kept that in mind while creating our list. All these products have specific settings to promote vegetative growth and flowering that can be controlled by the farmer/horticulturist by simply flicking a simple switch.

The reason why LED light sets are so much better than high-intensity discharge (HID) lights, such as HPS and MH lights, is that the latter emits all the different wavelengths at all times – quite counterproductive – if you come to think of it. HID lights cause more waste of power than needed, as they are constantly using up power for all the wavelengths (which includes even those that fall outside the purview of PAR)!

With LED lights, you have control over exactly what you need, when you need it. LEDs also provide lights outside PAR that are also needed for healthier and higher-yielding plants. But that they do selectively. For instance, the deep- and far-red spectrum are essential for the Emerson effect. This way, very little electricity is wasted.

But PAR isn’t everything when it comes to growing plants. You still have to consider the light’s intensity to get strong plants with bountiful yield. Besides, the light’s intensity or penetrability also determines your placement of the grow lights.

That is where PPFD comes into play.

PPFD & Its Significance

Remember, we mentioned earlier that the amount of light or the density of its particles that ultimately make contact with the plants is important. That is why some plants need to be planted in shade, while others need direct sunlight.

Unlike sunlight that has far-reaching abilities, artificial lighting needs to be arranged and intensified optimally to ensure maximum output, without scorching the plants. This needs to be remembered while determining the proximity of the lighting system’s placement.

And that brings us to Photosynthetic Photon Flux. Photosynthetic Photon Flux, in short PPF, is the number of light photons that hit the plants per second. It is measured in micromole (µmol; 10^-6 of a mole) per second. In the case of grow lighting sets, the light wavelengths considered lie within the range of 400nm to 700nm.

A derivative of PPF is PPFD. PPFD for Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density is the number of light photons that reach per square meter of the plant’s surface per second (i.e., µmol per m^-2 m^-1. It is also designated as µmol/m²/s. This is what is known as micromoles or “uMoles” as slang. A product’s PPFD is the measure of the density of its light’s units (photons) that hit a square meter area in a second. In effect, PPFD is the measure of the light’s intensity, as the density of light’s particles determines its intensity.

Here is a general idea of the PPFD needed for cannabis plants to grow and produce a decent yield:

• 255 μmol/m²/s¹ to 347 μmol/m²/s¹ PPFD on a 24-hour light schedule
• 383 μmol/m²/s¹ to 520 μmol/m²/s¹ PPFD on an 18-hour light schedule.
• 510 μmol/m²/s¹ to 694 μmol/m²/s¹ PPFD on a 12-hour light schedule.

As per their intensity, these are a few general instances of how far to place the lights from the plants for optimum growth and flowering:

• 600 – 1000 µmol/m²/s: High-strength light; best for developing growth and flowering.
• 400 – 600 µmol/m²/s: Medium-strength; best for early vegetative growth and spreading its branches.
• 200 – 400 µmol/m²/s: Low-strength light, good for the development of seedlings and clones.

If you’re wondering how much is too intense for plants, then you can say 1500 μmol/m²/s¹ is the threshold. However, several other factors influence the ultimate effect, such as CO₂-level, crop strain, and temperature.

Light Wavelengths Explained

Red Light: Red (620nm – 720nm) is good for the overall growth and flowering; red-heavy grow lights promote heavier budding and flowering, but only red is no good if it doesn’t get to have normal overall growth, especially early vegetative growth. For that, you need blue wavelengths.

Blue Light: Blue (400 nm – 500nm) essentially guides the plants to grow, giving them direction, strength to grow, and become adults. Without the blue spectrum, the vegetative parts of the plants become short and stunted, giving them a squat look, with short and under-developed branches and leaves.

Some brands make grow lights are designed for farmers to adjust boosting of red and blue in different phases of the plant life.

If you are a cannabis farmer, you may not want to crank up the blue too much, particularly during the flowering phase. That could lead to longer, leaner buds, which amounts to low cannabinoid strengths.

Ultraviolet (UV) Light: UV light (under 400nm) mainly includes UVA (315–400nm), UVB (280–315nm), and UVC (180–280nm). The latest LED grow light models usually include a few UV range bulbs/diodes.

They help boost up the cannabinoid production. Interestingly, like human bodies produce melanin to protect from the sun’s rays, cannabis produces trichomes filled with cannabinoids (like THC and CBD) to do the same job. Can you guess what triggers this reaction in both these species of life forms? UV light. UV is bad for the health of all living species.

But all life forms are naturally designed to protect themselves from harmful UV radiation. But you need that for the natural protection to be triggered. While the cannabinoid trichomes protect the plant, we get the much-needed cannabinoids.

Infrared (IR) Light: Infrared (IR) and near-infrared light fall under wavelengths above 700nm. Although invisible to the human eye, these wavelengths produce intense heat. Like all animals (and humans, too!), plants, too, need a bit of heat to flower and bloom! Sounds cheesy, but it’s true!

You must understand that photosynthesis isn’t the only photo-sensitive system in plants. Phytochrome, a photoreceptor, responds to infrared and far-red wavelengths, regulating plants’ other photo-sensitive changes, like the blooming process.

Using LED Lights for Growing Cannabis

During the cannabis plant’s flowering and budding stage, red, far-red, and infrared colors of the spectrum boost the health and development of the plant and all its components, especially the flowers. The manufacturers of the LED light systems we have mentioned in this guide have created specially designed features to focus the light directly on the plant, instead of letting them spread all the place, leading to their wastage. This ensures deeper penetration of the light and greater yield from the plant.

Nevertheless, horticulturists and farmers need to ensure the LED lights are used correctly for the best results. To choose the most suitable lighting option for your situation, you must know what you are doing and what to expect from your lighting system.

Most lighting systems come with some special built-in feature features, such as cooling or heating, etc. Your ability to make the most of these features also influence your choice.

Cannabis plants, grown under high-quality LED lighting systems, give you highly potent and aromatic buds that are great for business.

To wrap it up, we leave you with this ready reckoner of the Top 6 LED Grow Lights of 2021!

And That’s A Wrap: Best LED Grow Lights: Why They Are THE BEST!

Sr. no.	Brand	Manufacturer/Owner	Best features
1.	Horticulture Lighting Group HLG 650R (Best Overall)	Horticulture Lighting Group	·       Perfect full-spectrum with additional deep red diodes ·       Dimmable power settings (60-630 Watts) ·       Light Efficiency (PPF/W): 2.8 PPF/W ·       Total Light Output (PPF): 1770 ·       Passive cooling facility
2.	Gavita Pro 1700E (Most Reliable & Longest-Lasting)	Gavita International BV, Hawthorne Gardening Company (Scotts Miracle-Gro subsidiary Hawthorne Gardening Company owns major stakes in this concern)	High efficacy (2.6 μmol/s1/watt) High output for high intensity Dimmable power (up to 50%; with Gavita E-Series LED Adapter) Less cooling needed (30-40%) 8-bar adaptable configuration for low rooms, vertical racks, benches, and tents
3.	Spider Farmer SF (Best Budget Light)	EPIC Spider Farmer	Low Initial Cost + Low Running Cost + Higher Quality Yield 2.9 umol/j light efficiency (as promoted on their website) Customized Dimming Design Ideally designed for all growth phases 3 years of after-sales service at local maintenance center (US /CA /UK /DE)