How To Choose And Buy LED Grow Lights For Indoor Cannabis

Choosing Grow Lights for your indoor cannabis grow is probably the most important part of your whole setup.

Cannabis grow lights are for sale everywhere, for wildly varying prices.

It takes a LOT of reading, wading through different people’s opinions about draw from the wall, wattage, voltage, cost vs. benefit, lumens, heat output, how many watts an LED supposedly replaces, and so on.

Watch out for false claims: it is probably just ignorance, but double-check EVERYTHING. Trying to figure out if people are just selling their product, or if they are just pushing some light because it is the “most expensivest” and seems like a prestige light.

I have made some mistakes.

This blog site is basically “Growing Cannabis Indoors for Dummies” … and who better to learn from than a dum-dum (like me)?! I can tell you, it’s not that hard to grow cannabis, but if you want to grow top-shelf cannabis, you are going to  have to know a few things.

Let start with lights.

Are Blurple Lights Good For Growing Cannabis? For The Veg Stage, OK.

The first set of cannabis grow lights I bought was “blurple” and too small.

First of all, if you don’t know what “blurple” means, it is a blue-red, purple LED growing light; you can get a real definition for “BLURPLE” here; they don’t mince their words either: blurple LEDs are cheap and disappointing.

While I was still on my first indoor grow and I chose a 4 x 4 grow tent. I have major buyer’s remorse – would anyone care to buy some lightly-used burple lights?

Maybe they are OK for growing tomatoes or basil, but they are just not sufficient grow lights to cultivate top quality cannabis in a tent.

Everything about this light suggests It replaces 1000 watts. Just look at the description link below.

It says in the specifications that it draws 185 watts, which I find difficult believe after what I’ve seen with my own eyes.

BESTVA 1000W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum Dual-Chip Growing Lamp for Hydroponic Indoor Plants Veg and Flower (1000 Watt). 

I used this blurple BESTVA grow lights (above) throughout my entire Veg and it did what I thought to be a good job. I was feeling pretty good about my healthy plants!

Blurple Lights Are Not Really Sufficient For The Cannabis Flowering Stage

My 420Magazine.com Forum Friends Saved Me From A Big Mistake!

So then I posted photos of my tent and entire setup, showing-off my cannabis plants on the 420Magazine Forum.

It didn’t take long for people to chime in about my little blurple light, saying it wasn’t going to be enough  to flower my cannabis plants properly.

I immediately discovered by looking at other grows with my light setup that I would get a plant full of larf (larf is small, fluffy buds… not good!), no real dense flower at all… nothing which I’d be proud of growing, and not the kind of bud I want to smoke.

I think that was my worst fear after 8 weeks of growing “the girls:” to have invested all this time, energy, and money … only for a bunch of larf.

I suppose it only proved that I *could* grow weed, even with an under-powered LED light. It’s a weed. It will grow!!! Quality will take a little more effort, though.

Grow Lights Are The Most Important Part Of Your Indoor Cannabis Grow

Lights are the most important thing which you give to your plants, and getting the right ones for your needs should be your top priority.

Lights, Lights, Lights!! I can’t stress this enough. Go big or go home.

Grow lights are very expensive, so get out your credit card.

Yes, these $100+ Burple lights dollar lights are tempting, I know, but don’t buy one.  They are just too small and the blurple colour is old tech.

How To Buy The Right LED Grow Light For Cannabis

Don’t Make The Same LED Grow Lights Mistakes I Made!

I had to throw out most of the stuff I started with.

It was so confusing, and there was a major a lack of information which I received when I looked for what I needed to start an indoor grow.

My lights were too small. My exhaust fan was to0 small. My tent had light leaks. I bought Nutrients I didn’t need. I thought I was doing and buying all the essential things I needed to start a legal 4-plant grow… but I had to go back to the drawing board on a lot of things.

I will help make your first grow easy.

I read and tried to understand very technical articles, and YouTube wasn’t much easier to understand with its “light lectures.”

I really just wanted somebody to tell me which light to use in my 4X4 tent, a light which would work.

I got so many suggestions from people to buy high-end lights..

I’m talking $2000.00 and up. Hey, I’m sure $2,000 lights will have a great warranty and look awesome, but will it grow plants better? I personally think it might be the difference that most of us don’t really care about. I will leave this up to your budget.

I found Mars Hydro light to be a pretty good value for a powerful light.

No matter how you grow, you are going to need lights, and grow lights are – and will be – the most costly item you buy for your  cannabis grow.

You Need 30-50 Watts Per Square Foot

You need a MINIMUM of 30 Watts per square foot, but if you want “buds of the month,” you may need 50+ watts or more per square foot.

I’m talking watts that are pulled from the wall. When you are shopping online, you will need to look for this on the specifications and do your own math. Here, I’ll make it easy for you, if you are using a 4-foot x 4-foot indoor growing tent (hat is what I am using).

4×4 Tent Requires Minimum 480 Watts

For example, if you have a 4-foot x 4-foot tent ( which works out to 16 square feet), then your MINIMUM requirement is:

16 (square feet) x 30 (watts from the wall) = 480 watts from the wall.

4×4 Tent With 800 Watts for Prize-Winning Bud!

If you want some prize-winning buds, try multiplying that 16 square feet by 50 instead of your bare minimum of 30:

16 (square feet) x 50 (watts from the wall) = 800 watts from the wall for prize winning size buds.

For example, I NOW have a Mars Hydro TS 3000 in my 4′ x 4′ (16 square-foot) tent.

It only draws 450 watts, so I’m a little under powered, but if you look at my first grow journal I guess it is enough.

If I had it to do all over again I think I would buy two lights.

I would buy a pair of 250-300 watt lights for a total of 500-600 watts drawn from the wall for my 4×4 tent – something like this:

With two lights I would have options to move lights independently up or down.

This might help if you have different heights of growth in tent.

 

I Am Growing in Soil, All Organic

Everybody growing is doing something different and trying to get you to do it their way because of their success.  

• Some are growing hydroponically.
• Some are growing in coconut and other mediums that just hold water so you can control the nutrients.
• Some, like me, are growing in soil. I still believe it is the most basic and easy way to grow cannabis. 

My experience so far has been: plant it and water it. You need to know how to plant and water cannabis in a pot (mine are fabric).

This is a learned thing if weren’t born with a green thumb, but easy to understand and follow a few easy steps, even for Dum Dums like me!

It seems in all the other mediums people grow in there are all kinds of problems with too much or not enough nutrients.

You have to become an expert on deficiencies and irregularities by looking at the plant.

• Are the ends burning?
• Is the color of the foliage OK?
• Are the plants starving?
• Etc. Etc.

Over time people get good at it and are able to give the plant exactly what it needs.

I just like to keep it simple. I’m a ” Dum Dum ” and just want some great bud to smoke.

I don’t need to win biggest bud of the month contest.

I think most first-time growers are like me: they just want to grow some good quality cannabis for personal enjoyment.

Some of the really intense growing methods are what I like to think of as a giant pumpkin contest. It’s just the cannabis-growing community trying to get you to grow the biggest pumpkin LOL.

You don’t have to grow the biggest cannabis plant to get great yields.

You can quite easily grow great cannabis that you’re proud to give to your friends and family.

I just want what I could buy at any dispensary; I’ll continue posting my photos so you can see if my methodology is working! My fingers are crossed!

Thanks for reading and good luck with your grow. I’ll also be posting more blogs about how to grow and give you some product tips, and show you some of what I have learned so far.