LED SHOPLIGHTS?

C. Nesbitt

C. Nesbitt

Well-Known Member
lusidghost said:
Sweet, thanks. I’m mostly going to use it for bonsai moms. What kind of coverage? The racks will have roughly 4x2 ft shelves.
Click to expand...
Lusid, I’m late to the convo here but I’m using cheap Wally World led shop lights for seed starting too. I have one of those adjustable 5 tier wire shelving units with two lights per shelf.
I like them better than T5s only because they don’t dim noticeably over time like fluoros do and because the price of LED shop lights finally came down to where it’s close to fluorescents over the last couple of years.
For LED shop lights, I found the sweet spot to be about 4” above the tops of the plants. Tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, and pot plants all liked that spacing, stuff stretched a bit with the lights further away. YMMV.
I had some tomatoes grow into the lights last year and that did burn the leaves a little, but nothing like getting too close to an HPS, MH or even a nicer LED QB. For your bonsai mother rack, they might be worth a try, especially if the cost of replacing lamps is an issue.
Obviously I’m not using them for vegging monsters or flowering out plants - just for seed starting.
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
C. Nesbitt said:
Lusid, I’m late to the convo here but I’m using cheap Wally World led shop lights for seed starting too. I have one of those adjustable 5 tier wire shelving units with two lights per shelf.
I like them better than T5s only because they don’t dim noticeably over time like fluoros do and because the price of LED shop lights finally came down to where it’s close to fluorescents over the last couple of years.
For LED shop lights, I found the sweet spot to be about 4” above the tops of the plants. Tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, and pot plants all liked that spacing, stuff stretched a bit with the lights further away. YMMV.
I had some tomatoes grow into the lights last year and that did burn the leaves a little, but nothing like getting too close to an HPS, MH or even a nicer LED QB. For your bonsai mother rack, they might be worth a try, especially if the cost of replacing lamps is an issue.
Obviously I’m not using them for vegging monsters or flowering out plants - just for seed starting.
Click to expand...
I originally wanted to upgrade my T5s because they are old and clunky with some broken clips and a bunch of dead bulbs. I figured it would be better to get the single bulb fixtures and spread them out since I never use all 8 t5 bulbs at once. Then I noticed the LED types and thought about going that route to match the rest of my grow along with all of my house lights. I love LED, but I love the properties of a T5 bulb. I think I need to do some experimenting.
 
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