How to Choose a Grow Light for Seedlings

If you're looking to get into starting seedlings indoors to get a jump on the gardening season, you're in the right place.

Let's talk about how to choose a grow light for seedlings. I've found there to be roughly 2 main categories of indoor grow lights:

-Cheap ones that will do the trick for young seedlings
-Expensive ones with a refined spectrum which can flower and fruit plants

Using Cheap Grow Lights

I find that the cheap lights are more cost-effective for the first 3-4 weeks of plant growth, whereas the expensive lights will give the plants a huge boost after that and prepare them for life out in the sunshine.

One mistake I made was trying to rely on cheap lights to raise my plants up for multiple months indoors.

Instead, I now use cheap lights for germination and early growth, and then switch over to much better lights to really help my seedlings take off.

A consider here is that the cheap lights tend to need less room above them for heat dissipation, and also generally run just 1-2 inches above the plant canopy.

Cheap lights are less efficient with energy usage, and cost substantially more over time. The up-front investment is cheaper though, so it's worth factoring this into your grow light decision.

Using Expensive Grow Lights

Expensive lights tend to need a minimum of at least 12" above the plant canopy, and perform best when they have 24"+ of room between them and the plant canopy.

This means the expensive flower & fruit lights will use a lot more vertical space, which is something to think about if you're building seedling starting racks or shelves.

Despite the increased vertical space needs, however, a good flower / fruit light will make all the difference in the world compared to the cheap bar lights, T5's, or blurples.

If I could only buy one light, it would be a full spectrum Spider Farmer light that can take plants from seedling stage all the way through fruit.

If you prefer a domestic brand and are located in the US, HLG is a great option that's comparative to Spider Farmer at a slightly higher price point. Either of these lights are incredible and will revolutionize your indoor gardening game completely.