My simple guide to getting started with grow lights.
When taking care of houseplants became basically my main hobby, I knew I had to start learning more about grow lights. I live in the UK - We don't get a lot of sunlight. Many of the plants I was very interested in have high light needs. But at the beginning it all felt really confusing, overwhelming, and intimidating.
I've since done a lot of reading, and learned a lot. I love sharing that with people and helping them get started with their first proper grow lights. Seeing plants thrive and grow faster than you thought possible, once they're receiving good light, is absolutely the best feeling ever!
We're not going to get into $300 panels, specialist fixtures, etc here. I am keeping it very simple. The main thing you need is a full spectrum LED grow light, and we are going to be focusing on two brands that are reliable, quite widely available, and fairly affordable - SANSI and Barrina.
But first, a warning. Do not get any of this style of lights, with the long wands and often, purple colour. They are very weak and not worth the price. If you already have some, I recommend using the white light setting for plants recommended in my low light guide, or sprouting seedlings, while keeping them literally as close as possible and in the longest timer.
Also, if you want a clear explanation of light measurements, actual units, and light strenght recommendations for different types of plants, I absolutely love this page - However we're not going to get into the numbers here today. It would be a good read after this post if you'd like to know even more though.
We are going to start with SANSI options:
The clip-on SANSI lights were a really great way to get started with grow lights for me. They have their own timer, and they're very versatile. They're available with one, two, three, and four bulbs. They're nice and bright, and kept several succulents happy during the UK winter. The picture at the top of the post shows how I am using mine right now.
I'll say I personally don't love cold white light, and you might struggle to clip them onto thicker surfaces. This is part of the reason why I haven't gotten any more of them.
Another great SANSI option is this standing tripod light.
This is the light I am personally going to upgrade my avocado plant to once it's too tall for its current set up. It is a good fit for taller plants that have high light needs, like fiddle leaf figs and other types of ficus, yucca, or bird of paradise. It also has its own timer.
Moving onto Barrina now, the Barrina T10 is a standing, vertical grow light.
It is good to illuminate a small open shelf like in the picture, but in my opinion it's especially perfect if you want to have a very nice monstera deliciosa. This is a very popular houseplant, but they need a lot of light, and ideally something to climb, or they grow leggy and messy, with small leaves lacking the characteristic fenestrations (those splits and holes in the leaves). I've only recently given mine this light and it's already making a much bigger leaf!
It does not have a built in timer, but it comes with a free mechanical timer. You can set it up and connect it to the plug, and it will automatically repeat the on/off period every day. They do make a faint mechanical noise, so if you're sensitive to that, plan to get a digital plug timer or smart plug. I use digital ones.
Then we have the Barrina options that are best for shelves. If you have the space for it, setting up a plant shelf is really my favourite option.
Here's my first plant shelf as an example, on a built-in shelf.
Here I was using 1ft Barrina T5 lights, installed with the provided sticky magnets.
These are really great lights. They are available in warm white / yellow light, which is my favourite and easier on the eyes. There are 1ft and 2ft versions. You can connect them to each other, and use a timer connected to the plug, but you need to buy that separately.
I'd say they have a medium light output, and ideally plants wouldn't be more than 20cm away from them.
Once I moved to a new house at the beginning of this year, I bought a dedicated shelf, which you saw above. That one is a garage shelf, which works okay and is pretty cheap, but I had to drill them to hang the lights.
The next shelf I got was a wire shelf, which I highly recommend. You can basically just hang the lights using zip ties, which Barrina does provide.
You can see my wire shelf set up here.
I got this one when my chilli pepper plants got way too big for the other shelf. They need a lot of light, so I use the stronger Barrina T8 lights here.
Two of them per shelf should give you excellent results for most houseplants, but I have three for my chilli peppers and succulents. Yellow T8 lights are definitely my favourite! They are really well worth it.
The included reflectors direct the light downwards and shield your eyes from the intense brightness a little, which I really appreciate. They come in a 2ft version or 4ft version, in a pack of 4. You can connect them to each other, and use a timer connected to the plug, but you need to buy that separately.
Speaking of timer plugs, these are the best type to get in my opinion.
Now for some general grow light advice - Never introduce a strong grow light suddenly, or you risk burning your plants. Reduce the intensity, increase the distance, or keep the timer short at first. Then you can build up over a week or two. You could do 6h for the first few days, then 8h, 10h, 12h or even 14h.
Always keep distance from the lights in mind. Even 10cm / 4 inches can really affect how much light your plant is getting, because light decreases very rapidly with distance.
If your shelf is too tall, or some of your plants need more light than others, you can use boxes to raise them closer.
And that's all from me! Let me know if you have any questions :)
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