Growing marijuana can be as easy or as hard as you’d like to make it. If you’re growing a couple of plants for personal use and you live somewhere relatively sunny, you can simply place your plant outdoors. You should pay more attention to grow lights for indoor plants. However, not everyone has the luxury of growing marijuana outdoors. In that case, you’ll need to bring your plants indoors and ensure they have enough light.
Another reason why you might need lights for growing weed is when you grow multiple plants. A single plant in a sunny room or discreetly placed on a balcony can grow just fine with sunlight and perhaps a small LED, such as what we sell on A Pot for Pot’s website. However, multiple plants will need more substantial lighting.
The wattage of light that you require for growing weed depends on two things:
1. How many plants you are growing- Each cannabis plant requires at least 1 square foot of space to grow in. This allows the plant room to grow to its full potential without being impeded by the plants around it.
2. The size of your grow space – For LED and HID grow lights, the minimum recommended wattage per square ft of space is 50w. It jumps to 150w for fluorescent lights.
Therefore, to calculate the wattage you require, you need to calculate the square foot of your grow space and multiply it by 50 ( the minimum recommended wattage per 1sq ft of grow space )
The following table shows how the wattage required increases with the size of your grow space.
| Grow space size | Minimum wattage required ( HID & LED ) |
| 1ft x 2ft | 100w |
| 2ft x 3ft | 300w |
| 3ft x 4ft | 600w |
| 4ft x 5ft | 1000w |
Cost is not the only reason to make the switch to LED lights. Experienced growers know that seedlings and plants in the vegetative stage benefit more from blue light, while flowering plants need red light to thrive. Before LEDs, growers would have to purchase two different types of lights: metal halide for the vegetative or blue light stage, and high-pressure sodium bulbs for the final flowering stage.
With LED cannabis grow lights, this is not the case. Different color LED bulbs give a grower the ability to manipulate the color spectrum, thus allowing you to use the same light setup for both phases of growth. This not only eliminates the need to purchase two different types of lighting setups, but you’re also guaranteed the best results in your plants!
The benefits of using LED cannabis grow lights are many. The next big question is how to grow marijuana using only LED lights. A good rule of thumb is one light per every 1.5 square feet. This generally will yield you up to 6 ounces per plant, which ends up covering what you spend on the light and will definitely end up saving you money in the long run. If you are growing only 1-2 plants, our single 75 watts LED light supplies plenty of light for your plants.
Even if you’d like to grow more than a few plants, you don’t have to go for the more expensive HID lights. Simply add to your setup with either a few larger LED bulbs or several of the smaller ones. If you opt to go for the latter option, make sure that your plants and your lights are spaced out correctly, as you want to make sure that each plant gets adequate amounts of light. Using too few lights can cause stretching, whereas using too many lights leaves you at the risk of light burn, as well as energy overconsumption.
If you are willing to step up the quantity of your grow, that is, really take it to the next level, you should be prepared to spend a little bit more cash. A large scale 350-400 watt LED operation that will outdo the average 600 watts HID lighting system is not going to come cheap. However, a larger LED light setup will still be more cost-effective than an HID setup of the same size.
How much wattage do you need to grow indoors?
The simple answer is: it’s not really about wattage.
Wattage is a measurement of electricity consumption, and while it’s helpful to know how much wattage your grow light uses (so you can make a more economical, energy-saving choice) it actually has nothing to do with the amount of energy your plants need to grow.
Instead of looking at how much wattage a grow light uses, it’s far more important to understand the grow light spectrum, which is measured in micromoles (?mol). You need anywhere from 180 to 1300 ?mol to grow plants with grow lights, depending on how light hungry your plants are. The Cannabaceae family of plants are on the higher end of the spectrum: they need 800 ?mol to grow up to 85% of their natural potential, or 1300 ?mol to grow to 100% of their natural potential. Kitchen herbs,salads and other leave plants on the other hand only need 180-380 ?mol.
You can use a PAR meter to determine your grow light’s intensity in ?mol for light spectrum between 400-700 nanometers (nm) – in other words, for any light spectrum that’s suitable for growing plants.
THE WATTS PER SQUARE METRE RULE: HOW MANY PLANTS CAN YOU GROW?LED systems produce higher PAR than MH, HPS, and other kinds of lamps. Despite that, your plants will need about the same amount of watts per square metre to achieve a harvest similar to that of traditional HID bulbs. Also consider that LED light systems are often advertised as being more powerful than their actual electrical power draw, but this doesn’t mean that a 480W LED grow light can cover the same square footage as a 1,000W HPS bulb. Here are some general charts of the power needed to grow vigorous cannabis plants using different lighting systems. During the early vegetative stage, they will need around half the power. If you want to harvest more fields, 600W LED grow light can be your good choice.
Can you use too much light to grow indoors?
Yes. Much like a human sunburn, your plants can burn or bleach if you use too much light.
More wattage may mean more light output, but it also means more heat output, which can lead to burned plants. If your grow light has an output that’s higher than 1300 ?mol, your plants can go into what’s called photoinhibition, when plants start spending more energy on getting rid of excess light rather than growing to their fullest potential. As a result, you’ll be left with wilted, brown leaves and dying plants.
Some growers counteract this by feeding their plants with more nutrients and introducing carbon dioxide into their grow spaces. This is a costly way to grow indoors. Not only are you introducing the costs of CO2 and added nutrients, but a 1300 μmol grow light also needs almost double the amount of energy as an 800 μmol grow light. You would also need additional cooling systems to get rid of extra heat to prevent your grow room from overheating. At the end of the day, you’re spending a lot of money only to produce 15% more yield!
Final thoughts
Although wattage is an important factor in deciding what grow light to purchase for your weed, it’s important to consider the PAR output too.
The best grow lights combine high wattage, lumens, and PAR with a full spectrum of light wavelengths to maximize your yield. So a full spectrum LED grow light is best!
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It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets.
The major regions included in the report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa.Companies are increasingly using Li-fi (Light Fidelity) networks to manufacture general lighting equipment.
The Li-Fi bulbs are equipped with a small chip that modulates the light used for data transmission with speeds up to 224 gigabits per second.
Keeping up with the trend, in 2018, VLNComm, a USA based provider of Li-Fi technology, launched its LumiNex LED panel.
High-Intensity Discharge (HID) grow lights provide a cost-efficient light source for indoor gardening.
There are two types of High-Pressure Sodium lights: Single-Ended and Double Ended.
The nitrogen atmosphere allows the bulb to operate at a higher temperature, which increases its efficiency.
Therefore, DE bulbs do not tolerate air blowing directly on them like in active cooling setups (aka “cool tubes” in which the SE bulb sits inside of a tube with a fan housed in the luminaire or lamp hood).
Double-ended bulbs are 25-30% more efficient than single ended bulbs, meaning they produce higher PAR ratings for the same wattage.
Finally, reflector options are more limited, with only a few styles available for double-ended bulbs.Growers find that double ended grow lights emit more powerful light, and in a larger quantity.
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LED pole lights are one of the most efficient ways to light large areas at night, replacing traditional technology which used either metal halide or high-pressure sodium (HPS).
The led pole lights are able to produce light that is of comparable intensity to the traditional metal halide but with significantly less energy usage.
