what you will find in Lithuania if you decide to try it

LED plant lights are designed to compensate for the lack of light for plants, which is especially important now when growing seedlings on the windowsill. Have you ever tried these lamps? There is a crazy amount of information, the prices are high, the matter seems very complicated. Well, now we have gathered, we have understood everything and we want to share with you the basic information about LED plant lamps: how to choose them, what you can find in Lithuania and how much it costs.

Do the plants need additional lighting?

We grow vegetable and flower seedlings on the windowsill because our warm season is too short. There is enough heat in the room, but too little sunlight. Some plants are sown in February and will not be brought outdoors until the end of May. No matter how wide and bright your windowsills are, unfortunately the days in March are too short and the nights too long, so the amount of light received is too little for the young seedlings. Plants show this:

• The seedlings are elongated and long;
• They are light, pale green in color;
• Thin, fragile, it begins to bend under its own weight.

To obtain a good harvest, your seedlings must be firm, deep green and with a well-developed root system. In the meantime, it will be difficult to grow a nice healthy plant with outstretched shoots…

Why are ordinary household lamps not suitable?

Growing plants require a large amount of light. Powerful lamps consume a lot of energy and emit heat, which is why they are expensive for users and the risk of burning delicate plant leaves is high. Not effective at all.

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For growing seedlings, fluorescent or LED lamps that emit warm white light are often used. However, it has too little blue light in its spectrum, which is the most important for protecting shoots from stretching.

What do the different colors of LED plant lights mean?

LED plant lamps with many colored diodes look really playful. However, they are not designed for beauty, here each individual colored diode performs a certain function:

• Red: Provides the main energy for growth;
• Blue: inhibits the growth of plants, determines the color and strength of the leaves, promotes the formation of the root system;
• Green – important for photosynthesis within the plant’s foliage;
• White: is composed of red, blue and green, therefore integrates their functions;
• Far red: regulates plant development.

At first glance it may seem that most LED plant lights emit purple light. And indeed, most of these lamps are dominated by blue and red diodes, so the light flux appears purple. The explanation is simple: plant leaves absorb most of the rays, the spectrum of which is dominated by red and blue rays. Green-yellow rays also play a smaller, but still important role, so higher-quality LED plant lights have more colored diodes.

Where can you find LED lamps in Lithuania?

Now it’s time to plant vegetables, so we asked where in Lithuania you can buy LED plant lamps to illuminate vegetable seedlings on the windowsill. After looking at the websites of large shopping centers where you can buy products for growing seedlings, unfortunately the situation is not encouraging: you don’t see a single LED lamp for plants.

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Several options are offered by IKEA, both at 29.99 euros. Both of these proposals would be perfect as interior accents: flower pots illuminated with an individual LED lamp. It would be nice to grow some aromatic herbs like this in the kitchen, or some valuable houseplant that needs extra lighting in winter. However, these LED lamp pots are not very suitable for growing seedlings.

We are interested further. Fifteen minutes of internet research and here we have 3 suppliers offering a variety of LED plant lights. Some suppliers deal with landscaping products, others with lighting products. After seeing which LED lamps are offered for growing seedlings at home, it is obvious: first of all we will have to decide how many seedlings we want to grow.

How much do LED plant lights cost for amateur growing seedlings?

The easiest and fastest option for a home grower who only needs a small amount of seedlings (up to 10-12) is a special LED plant lamp that screws into a standard E27 socket – that is, any household floor or hanging lamp. It is extremely convenient: just screw it into any household lamp and turn it on. I found two sellers offering these LED plant lights, their prices range from 35 to 60 euros. The power of such lamps is not high, from 6 to 18 W, but it is enough to provide additional lighting to a small number of seedlings or cuttings in spring. The price is quite high, so it’s worth taking a closer look.

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We have sent requests to companies to lend us lamps for experiments and comparisons, and here is one of these lamps we already have, which is Hortiled LED lamp (12W). We will compare the same plants growing directly on a bright windowsill and those growing under an LED lamp and will present the results to you soon.

Our bulb is already screwed, the seedlings are already sprouting, the cuttings are taking root. You can decide for yourself how valuable this difference is: we are preparing a video!

However, if you consider yourself a serious gardener and want to grow dozens of quality seedlings, or want to grow vegetables and flowers indoors, you may want to invest in a professional LED plant light, suitable for both home and greenhouse use. After examining information on the Internet, we found that three sellers offer such lamps in Lithuania and their prices start from 170 EUR.

At first glance, this is a much more expensive solution. However, such lamps are more powerful (from 30 W and above), much larger, therefore they illuminate a much larger area. Furthermore, you can choose an LED lamp with an optimally selected light spectrum required for certain plants, while most E27 LED plant light spectrum is universal, i.e. balanced to suit most plants.

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Buy in Lithuania or send from abroad?

Naturally, interested in having information, we evaluated the prices of lamps for LED systems also abroad. The results were not surprising: many of these lamps are cheaper abroad. So it is not surprising that many amateur gardeners are preparing for the seedling growing season in advance, and diodes and LED lamps are sent directly from China.

But if you resort to organizing such a purchase now, keep in mind that the parcel can travel for about two months and it will already be too late for sowing this spring. Furthermore, when downloading you don’t have the kind of guarantees that Lithuanian providers can provide.

However, I still want to remind you that it is not easy for a simple home gardener to understand the information found on the Internet in Lithuanian. I wish LED plant lamp suppliers would put in the effort and prepare simple and understandable instructions for their LED plant lamps for those who want to grow quality seedlings.

How long should the seedlings be illuminated?

When growing plants indoors, you should try to mimic light cycles similar to those that occur in nature. For most plants, not only a light period, but also a dark period of the day is necessary. Changes in the length of the day give the plant a signal that it is time to move on to the next phase of growth. Therefore, depending on the growth phase, experts recommend the following light/dark cycles:

• For seedlings: 16 hours of light, 8 hours of darkness;
• For plants in the vegetative phase – 18 hours of light, 6 hours of darkness;
• For plants in the flowering phase: 12 hours of light, 12 hours of darkness.

However, it should be remembered that not all plants respond positively to disturbances in the light cycle. For example, if you start turning on the lights during the dark phase to check the appearance of the seedlings, the development of some plants could be affected.

How far apart are LED plant lights hung?

LED plant lights are a much safer option than other traditional artificial light sources, but be careful. Part of the energy is still converted into heat, so you should carefully read the manufacturer’s recommendations and, depending on the power of the plant lamp, hang the lamps at an appropriate distance from the plants.

And another important detail: it is necessary to change the location of the seedlings under the lamp every week. The light in the center of the lamp is brighter, so plants at the edges of the growing area may remain dim.