LED Grow Light for Germination and Early Seedling ONLY ?

This inquiry is being repeated in this forum, since I am not sure how to transfer it here.

Greetings and hallucinations to the indoor grow fraternity. I am here to ask a rank beginner question about LED grow lights, since I have never thus far tried any indoor growing at all.

I have ordered these two grow lights specifically because of their low cost, low power output and thus low heat signature indoors.

This first light consumes a very small 10 watts while emitting 700 lumen of light.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Full-Sp...72.m2749.l2649


The second LED light I have ordered consumes 150 watts, with an unspecified lumen output.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Grow-Li...72.m2749.l2649


My sole purpose for acquiring these lights, is to germinate my connoisseur grade seeds, and then grow them to about six inches of height, at which point they will be taken outdoors under the Equatorial sun, for the rest of their life cycle.

With this very limited time-window of indoors LED lighting, my question to the indoor grow meisters, is whether there might be any disadvantage to my having selected very low power LED lights, since they will only be required to get the plants past their delicate germination and early seedling stages.

Again, I have zero indoor growing experience, but I just came back from inspecting the disastrous outcome of trying to germinate nearly $200 worth of high-end seeds, inside a DIY greenouse set out in the woods. While the makeshift mini greenhouse was a dismal failure as an germination shelter, it may yet come into use for further protection of seedlings that I first sprout under these lights indoors.

So, to cut a long rambling story short, would the experts in the house regard the above two lights I just ordered as adequate for the first couple of weeks of growth after germination and no further, despite their cheap cost and low power rating ?

Any thoughts on this lighting question would be enormously appreciated. I have a few more priceless seeds inbound by mail, and I want to ensure they do not suffer the same fate as the very costly batch of beans that I foolishly tried to germinate in a small outdoor greenhouse on stilts.
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Double thread, why?

Those lights are garbage and you wasted your money. They're just about the worst lights you could have bought in the year 2020 and they're not even worth the paltry sum you paid for them.

Mr. J said:

Those lights are garbage and you wasted your money. They're just about the worst lights you could have bought in the year 2020 and they're not even worth the paltry sum you paid for them.

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I take it you aren't kidding about this. I must stress that I only intend to use these lights to germinate seeds, and grow them to say 6 inches height over the initial couple of weeks, before hastily transplanting them outdoors when they can withstand the tropical storms we're having right now.

Cutting to the chase, are you suggesting that these lights aren't even capable of popping seeds and growing them for say 2 weeks ? That initial couple of weeks is the only time-window during which these lights are needed, before I revert back to familiar turf of outdoor growing till harvest, as in the past

Please forgive my limited knowledge in these indoor grow matters. The recent very dramatic failure of my attempts to germinate seeds inside a mini outdoor stealth greenhouse, got me to thinking about popping the seeds indoors with low-power lights that won't generate too much heat, hence these two cheap purchases.

I'll go ahead and delete the other duplicate of this post now.

Almost any light will germinate seeds and veg the plants for a couple weeks, a regular led bulb would be a better choice.
The largest nks don't work gor me but from basic specs those lights look garbage.

Cheers

Swamp Thang said:

I take it you aren't kidding about this. I must stress that I only intend to use these lights to germinate seeds, and grow them to say 6 inches height over the initial couple of weeks, before hastily transplanting them outdoors when they can withstand the tropical storms we're having right now.

Cutting to the chase, are you suggesting that these lights aren't even capable of popping seeds and growing them for say 2 weeks ? That initial couple of weeks is the only time-window during which these lights are needed, before I revert back to familiar turf of outdoor growing till harvest, as in the past

Please forgive my limited knowledge in these indoor grow matters. The recent very dramatic failure of my attempts to germinate seeds inside a mini outdoor stealth greenhouse, got me to thinking about popping the seeds indoors with low-power lights that won't generate too much heat, hence these two cheap purchases.

I'll go ahead and delete the other duplicate of this post now.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry but yes, I'm being serious. I mean, they'll do for sprouting seeds but personally I would have gone with a simple 2 bulb fluorescent shop light type thing. $15 and perfect for seedlings and a lot nicer light to look at. You really can't go wrong with old school fluorescent lights when starting seeds or rooting cuttings.

Mr. J said:

I'm sorry but yes, I'm being serious. I mean, they'll do for sprouting seeds but personally I would have gone with a simple 2 bulb fluorescent shop light type thing. $15 and perfect for seedlings and a lot nicer light to look at. You really can't go wrong with old school fluorescent lights when starting seeds or rooting cuttings.

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Well I'll be dipped. I never heard of a regular florescent light being capable of germinating seeds, until now. I might have to ask for a refund on my University of Youtube diploma he he.

Reminds me of the words uttered by a football coach when his team lost yet again : " I should of stood in bed" , meaning in my case that I shouldn't have been in such a hurry to buy those LED lights, until I had done a little more homework.

I suppose my haste was partly due to the total loss of pricey seeds that I just discovered today in my flawed outdoor seed nursery, and then wanting to make sure I devise a more reliable indoor system to germinate seeds, despite knowing next to nothing about the equipment needed.

So, I'll see how these lights do, and with a little luck I might turn out to be the guy whose crash tests of bargain basement disposable LED lighting, wind up recording measurable success germinating seeds in the safety of home, and hopefully then growing them up to that 6-inch height when they are ready for the great outdoors.

I will definitely report back here with the results of this experiment. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying to any Ganja Gods there may be in attendance.

Swamp Thang said:

Well I'll be dipped. I never heard of a regular florescent light being capable of germinating seeds, until now. I might have to ask for a refund on my University of Youtube diploma he he.

Reminds me of the words uttered by a football coach when his team lost yet again : " I should of stood in bed" , meaning in my case that I shouldn't have been in such a hurry to buy those LED lights, until I had done a little more homework.

I suppose my haste was partly due to the total loss of pricey seeds that I just discovered today in my flawed outdoor seed nursery, and then wanting to make sure I devise a more reliable indoor system to germinate seeds, despite knowing next to nothing about the equipment needed.

So, I'll see how these lights do, and with a little luck I might turn out to be the guy whose crash tests of bargain basement disposable LED lighting, wind up recording measurable success germinating seeds in the safety of home, and hopefully then growing them up to that 6-inch height when they are ready for the great outdoors.

I will definitely report back here with the results of this experiment. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying to any Ganja Gods there may be in attendance.

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AAMOF, get a soft white and cold white tube (for a duelly)

Soft white and cold white bulbs are new terms to me, Switcher56, and I thank you for giving them a mention. Since I've already paid for those cheapo LED lights, I might try using them along with regular bulbs, to cover all bases, as it were.

One thing I won't try again is attempting to germinate seeds in any kind of outdoor setup, particularly when tropical rain storms lash the area this time of year. So, I am hoping my brief indoor seedling growth, followed by transplanting to the great outdoors as robust seedlings, will be my tried and tested seed popping method in years to come.

Swamp Thang said:

Soft white and cold white bulbs are new terms to me, Switcher56, and I thank you for giving them a mention.

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If they were good enough to grow tropical bonsai indoors, (16 hrs/day) they were/are good enough to grow seedlings.

• soft white = red spectrum
• cool white = blue spectrum

Switcher56 said:

If they were good enough to grow tropical bonsai indoors, (16 hrs/day) they were/are good enough to grow seedlings.

• soft white = red spectrum
• cool white = blue spectrum

Click to expand...

This explanation is much appreciated sir. So it looks like having one of each bulb will cover the entire spectrum those seedlings need to get started on a strong footing.

Since these don't cost that much, I'll get a couple of each and rig em up with the LED lights. When I think of the number of seedlings I could have saved using an indoor nursery setup, I realize that all the tools for an indoor grow starting phase, were pretty much right under my nose the whole time.