Nobody wants spindly seedlings and leggy houseplants. Here are the best ways to avoid these sad situations with the help of artificial lighting.

While many houseplants do just fine indoors with whatever natural light comes in your windows, certain ones can be coaxed to bloom more reliably or will grow more healthy leaves with additional light from artificial sources. And if you're starting vegetable and annual flower seeds inside, they often need the help of lights to develop properly. While the amazing power of sunlight is tough to completely replicate indoors, using grow light fixtures fitted with simple fluorescent or LED bulbs can come close.

Why Should You Buy a Grow Light?

If you live in a location where the winters are long or the sun is scarce, you'll need a grow light to keep your plants healthy and flourish. If they don't get enough light, most plants will begin to deteriorate and look unhealthy.

You have a great deal of affection for your plants. Because we care so much about our plants, we know this. Because of this, it is important to treat your plants well and ensure their success by using grow lights.

Types of Grow Lights

Depending on the type of grow light, their characteristics, use, and installation vary greatly. Three of the most popular types of grow lights are outlined above.

Fluorescent Grow Light
Fluorescent grow lights have been around for a long time. A new bulb is needed every two years for these lights, which have a 20,000-hour lifespan.

While fluorescents tend to be blue, they can be found in full-spectrum light, making them ideal for the vegetative stage and promoting bushy plants.

In order to use T5 fluorescent lighting in your garden, ballast may be necessary; this is because you can't simply plug the light into an ordinary bulb. Because of this, the T5 system has additional expenditures.

It's possible to get a starter kit that contains the ballast, so you only have to hang the light and plug it in. They may be a touch expensive, however.

HPS Grow Lights
When it comes to flowering and fruiting, many indoor gardeners swear by HPS grow lights, another popular option for grow lights. It's not ideal for seedlings or the vegetative stage, though, because HPS provides a warmer light.

You'll need a well-ventilated grow environment if you use these lights. Because these lights aren't energy-efficient, you'll have to budget for more electricity costs. As unexpected as it is to see a device that costs so little to run, they're antiquated and will certainly become obsolete in the near future.

LED Grow Lights
The best LED grow lights is one of the most recent innovations in the lighting business. LEDs initially appeared to be unable to create enough light for plants to develop at all, but it turns out that LEDs can offer a whole spectrum of light to aid in the growth of plants from seed to harvest.

LED bulbs are more expensive to purchase than other bulbs, but they are also more energy-efficient than any other light source, making them a better investment. Because of their low energy use, they also generate extremely little heat.

You don't have to be concerned about burning your seedlings if you place them close to this light source. As your plants mature, lower the light intensity. White, red, and blue will cover you from seedlings to mature plants, and eventually to flowers.

MAXSISUN MG3000 300W LED Grow Light

Features:

This MAXSISUN LED grow light uses top components with Samsung diodes and MeanWell driver with a bar light design. It is our most professional LED grow light that fits perfectly into a 3x3 ft space from seeds to harvest. The MG3000 consumes only 300 watts, offers a truly high efficacy rating of PPF per Joule 2.4 μmol/J, empowering plants with plentiful and evenly PAR distribution without hot spot. Keep the same distance between plants and the MG3000. Adjust its brightness for different growing stages. We provide a PAR map including brightness, hanging height, and power draw. A smooth rotary dimmer offers flexibility to reduce the amount of energy while reducing your electricity bill. It helps you master light levels from normal daylight to super bright.

SideKing SK3000 300W Foldable LED Grow Light Bar

Features:

SideKing LED Grow Light, upgrade 300W Foldable Grow Light with OSRAM diodes & Sosen Driver Dimmable Lights Sunlike Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants Hydroponic Veg and Bloom (648pcs LEDs), has infinite close to natural sun light, full spectrum (3000K,5000K) + Red 660nm + IR 760nm. Excellent spectrum optimizes the whole stages of indoor growing plant from seed to flowering. Great blue light makes plants grow faster, and the Red light is more than other LED grow lights to enhance growth at the flowering stages and get higher yields. SK3000 grow lights has High Efficiency Rating of PPF per Joule (2.7μmol/J ) with OSRAM SMD Diodes, consuming only 300w with 648 LEDs, achieving equal or better results than 600 watts HID grow lamp or other plant lamps with 50% less power consumption, and still has 50% more harvest than HPS lamp light. Added 0–10V dimmable knob, more flexible to obtain perfect growth performance.

Things to Consider When Buying Grow Lights

Here are some things that should be considered when choosing the right grow lights.

Size
Many people make a mistake when buying grow lights and often buy those that are too small or too big. This is especially common If you are shopping online.

When choosing adequate grow lights for your plants make sure they will fit into your indoor garden and that it will cover all of your plants.

In case your grow lights don't cover all the plants, many of them won't get the opportunity to develop and grow healthily.
Make sure it won't get in touch with other furniture in the room, or things like clothes and drapes because it can destroy them, or if you're using a very harsh light, cause a fire.
Also, If you know you will be moving your plants grow lights often, make sure you get the ones that are easily portable and don't take too much time to set up.

Type
There are different types of grow light for different kinds of plants. When choosing LED light make sure you always read everything about them and be 100% sure they will be a good match for your plant.

Some grow lights are made specifically for houseplants or some tropical plants, while some of lights give off pretty harsh light that can harm sensitive plants like herbs or vegetables.
Most of the plants will also need enough red and blue LED light to grow healthily, so purchasing lights that don't emit these colors may be a waste of money since it won't do anything for your plant.

Heat
Some types of grow lights tend to emit a lot of heat, which can be very harmful to some plants. Before you decide to buy a grow light, make sure it won't emit too much heat and potentially ruin your plant.

Features
In case you don't have much experience with grow lights, or this is your first time purchasing them, you might need some features like timers to ease your experience, or you can opt for a grow light with an automatic system.

There are also many great and cheap grow lights that come with many different features which will both ease your gardening experience and provide you with many useful tools for a small amount of money.

Conclusion

As you could see, there are many different grow lights available on the market which can be pretty cheap and super-efficient at the same time.

You should always take into consideration what kind of plants you will use them for and choose ones that will fulfill all of your plants' needs