A seedling grow light can be used to reduce grow cycle time and improve the efficiency of your indoor garden.
Buy the ARAY 1 seedling and clone grow light here: ARAY 1 grow light
A small grow space for seedlings or clones reduces electricity consumption
The addition of a small grow area or grow tent to start seedlings and clones is more efficient. It will enable you to improve your productivity and reduce your electricity bills.
Putting a few small plants into your main tent is inefficient. Most of the light is not absorbed by the small plant canopy.
A more efficient setup is to grow your seedlings or clones in small pots under a small grow light. This setup uses a higher percentage of the total light energy. You also use a smaller grow light and therefore less electricity.
Once the young plants are 4 or 5 weeks old you can transfer them to larger pots in the main grow tent.
Reduce your grow cycle time using a seedling light
A lot of growers have one grow tent. The same tent is used to grow plants from young seedlings through the vegetative and flowering cycle to harvest.
The chart below shows you can reduce the time to harvest in your grow room by the use of a main tent (green bar) and a seedling or clone tent (blue bar).
Fluorescent vs LED seedling grow lights
In the past growers typically used a low wattage T5 or T8 fluorescent grow light for seedlings and clones. However, fluorescent grow lights are being phased out in most countries as they are inefficient and contain mercury.
Small LED grow lights are now used for growing small plants in dedicated seedling and clone grow areas.
LED Vs fluorescent grow light spectrum
The ideal spectrum for young plants is a white light so you can inspect plant health easily. It is also beneficial to have at least 10% blue in the spectrum. Blue regulates the plant height. Over 10% blue in the grow light spectrum will result in short and dense plants. If the percentage blue in the grow light spectrum is lower than 10% and the young seedlings will stretch.
Both LED and fluorescent grow lights have sufficient blue for short and dense growth in the seedling stage.
LED Vs Fluorescent seedling grow light PAR output
LED grow lights are a lot more efficient than fluorescent grow lights.
The Fluorescent grow light delivers an average of 157 µmols/m²/second PAR to the plant canopy.
The 58 watt MIGRO ARAY 1 seedling grow light delivers an average of 437 µmols/m²/second PAR to the plant canopy. This is 3 x times more than a 48 watt T5 fluorescent grow light.
The LED grow light also delivers a more even light distribution across the plant canopy.
The LED grow light can also be dimmed from 20% to 100%. Dimming is used to adjust the PAR intensity to exactly suit the requirements of the seedlings or clones.
