Limited-time deal: Grow Light, VIPARSPECTRA Newest P2000 LED Grow Light 4x2ft Coverage Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights with Samsung LEDs(Includes IR), Dimmable Plant Light for Indoor Plants Seeding Veg and Bloom https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085W3LY4Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_dl_23ZE3PG57SCBGY7FPHH7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
These seem to be very powerful for the price I’d honestly say it is as good as the sf2000. And it’s about the same price as that antique in the pic you can see the 2000 running I was using this one for the seedlings on the side but centering the light more than covers the girls so much in fact 12 inches slightly bleached them at 80 percent not I hover over the older girls at 100% and it leaves me 36or so from the seedlings and all the plants seem to love it
I recommend scrapping that $135 KingLED. For just $25 more you can upgrade it to a quantum board with dimmer, which should utilize the same 200 watts more efficiently with a better color spectrum. Amazon has the Viparspectra P2000 for only $160 at the moment. Lots of choices in terms of quantum board lights that perform similar or better near this price-point.
Don't forget to buy some Hydroguard or Hydrogen Peroxide, depending on which style you're gonna go with. Sterile or beneficial bacteria to prevent root issues.
Go on amazon and look at your light. If you scroll down it should show an image of seedling veg and flower. Different percentage and height. I have a vipraspecta 2500 and it shows 60% seed 80% veg and 100% flower. All different heights. Hope this helps!
Edit:
About half way down
this is their budget full spectrum led don’t get the blurple
Good question - They're full-spectrum (two of these), and more than bright enough (my pepper plants that I completely defoliated a few weeks ago are already full of green growth and budding). However, this elm was under much lesser-powered fluorescents for several weeks (along with my jade cuttings) when it started to get cold, and before my grow tent setup was ready. I wonder if this period did some damage.
Next round manifold it in veg, work on training and let it ride 2-3 months before flipping if you looking to upgrade lights these are the best in terms of price and light penetration and spectrum Vpar P2000
I grew with this Vioarspectra 4 plants and 2 separate grows very successfully. So idk why OP would struggle with two under their light
Thanks I think so too! here is the link of you wanna check it out
Thanks I think so too! Here’s the link if you wanna check it out
LED Grow Light, VIPARSPECTRA P2000 LED Grow Light 4x2ft Coverage Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights with Samsung LEDs(Includes IR), Dimmable Grow Light for Indoor Plants Seeding Veg and Bloom 700PCS LEDs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085W3LY4Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_HS4YA7ZE3C5KM6XQPK3V?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Are you able to adjust the intensity of the light? If yes, that may be something to check too.
I have this grow light. It is definitely an investment, and I have had success with the clip-on red/blue/white lights—though now my collection is so big that it doesn’t fit under one or two of the clip-on lights. I like that this light has a dial to adjust the brightness. It doesn’t come with a timer, but I bought a wall outlet that has a timer.
Grow Light, VIPARSPECTRA 2020 Pro... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085W3LY4Q?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
This is the light I have and there are three other plants following the same diet and they are thriving. I figure it's just this strain that's strange ...... I ordered the CalMag and we will see how that goes. Resevoires get changed tomorrow
I love my Viparspectra. Grow Light, VIPARSPECTRA Newest Pro Series P2000 LED Gro... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085W3LY4Q/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glc_fabc_MGGbGbHGW10EJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
I used those lights I have two set up. Grow Light, VIPARSPECTRA Newest... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085W3LY4Q?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Close to where you worry about light. I would think canopy in your case. It's hard to say what that light is doing in reality. It's quite a long rectangle lighting essentially a circular area, or we could treat it as a square.
An interesting problem in estimating light distribution. They claim 5' x 2' coverage at 18 inches. What that means is sometime pretty loose. They generally use beam angle. but they can't really do that with this light. Beam angle is the angular spread between the far points that get 50% of the maximum intensity. There is also field angle, which is the same thing but out to the 10% points. But field angle used to be used for beam angle for some things, so a sly operator might try to use it to make a light seem more powerful over a wider angle. Plus, LED growlights aren't functionally point sources, like lightbulbs. Each LED has it's own beam angle, so all those beam angles overlap and combine in ways that you would probably need a computer to model.
So, I don't know how they get 5'x2'. About all you can say is that a lot of light is falling outside the 2' square and essentially getting lost. Reflecting material isn't all that efficient. But that's inevitable with the shapes. But it's not all lost, because the beam angles are still high enough that the LEDs on the ends are contributing some light to the 2' square.
I don't know much, but I know this. When a substantially rectangular LED array, actually not quite such a long rectangle as yours, has its intensity mapped onto growing surface, and we look just at the square center of that area, the edges that lie out from the short axis get a good bit less light than the point the same distance out in the long axis direction.
Another thing that happens is that as the light moves upward, the difference becomes greater. And as the light moves lower, the difference becomes less, because as it moves lower, more of the LED's bear more directly on those points. This benefits the points in the cross axis more, because the points in the long axis already have additional LEDs at the ends of the rectangle. When the light moves up, all differences become less, because it becomes a more uniform field, although the total intensity does become less with the light farther away.
Look at this light.
https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Spectrum-Upgraded-Dimmable-Seeding/dp/B085W3LY4Q
It's rectangular. Not so rectangular as yours, so the effects of what we're talking about will be greater with yours. Look at the PPFD maps for different height. Look only at the middle 2' squares and see how the differences between the edges change.
You can observe this with the PPFD maps of any rectangular lights. The point is that all the edges of your square foliage area do not get the same light. In the directions across the short side of the light, the edges get a lot less. It's inevitable.
But you're not doing badly. It's likely just a measurable difference in light intensities on the different areas. I doubt the effects are linear, so small difference in light might make larger than expected differences in growth.
If it was troublesome, one approach might be to raise the light. The intensity at the foliage will drop, but the ultimate measure of plant lighting is DLI, which you can control with timing. DLI is linear. Doubling or halving intensity doubles or halves DLI. Same for hours. So if you halve intensity, you can get it back by doubling time.
But intensity isn't linear with height. Doubling the height doesn't halve the intensity. It's complicated by the array of LEDs with individual beam angles and the reflecting walls. So relative intensity would need to be measured. It may well be that in this situation, doubling the height approximately halves the intensity. Raising this light makes it move closer to bringing all of its output to bear on your growing area, losing a lot of that waste off the long ends.
That's where the lux meters can be used to measure relative intensity as a light distance changes, so long as it's the same light. Doesn't give you PPFD, but it tells you what happens when you raise the light.
I watched the video on the maker web site. While the guy says there's a map on the site, I couldn't find it. But he dies at least give center point readings at different heights. 18" - 1160. 24" - 840. If at 18 inches, the center meters 1160, I would guess that one foot out, at the edge of a 2' square, it's probably about 900 in the long axis and somewhat less in the short axis.
You can use the DLI chart, the 900 column, to see DLI for various times and compare that to recommendations.
For three of four buckets, assuming it fits your space, it may be easier to light if they are arranged in a line, as on a shelf. It is generally cheaper to buy light bars than squares of the same power, and with bars, they can run down the center and lose less light in the typically wide beams.
But there are also long rectangles.
For each plant, there is a minimum DLI, daily light intervals, a combination of light intensity and hours of operation. The intensity is measured as PPFD, which simply put, is a measure of the intensity of the light falling on a target square meter.
Many sellers offer PPFD maps, and those can tell you what DLI you can achieve with them.
For instance.
https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Spectrum-Upgraded-Dimmable-Seeding/dp/B085W3LY4Q
Look at the PPFD map for 18 inches mounting and look down the center line. PPFD values from 900 to 500. The variation is inevitable, since the center gets light from both ends. But let's use 500. It's better to exceed minimum DLI than to fall short.
So we look at the DLI chart:
https://www.amazon.com/VIPARSPECTRA-Spectrum-Upgraded-Dimmable-Seeding/dp/B085W3LY4Q
That gives us DLI's of 16 to 23 for 9 to 13 hours. Lettuce wants more than 12. Tomatoes and peppers at least 20 or 22. But 18 inches is pretty close for working on the buckets, and tomatoes will soon grow into that, and you will have to raise it. There's no cure for having to raise them except buying much more expensive powerful lights and mounting them very high. But we have enough slack in time that we could raise the light some and run for 13 hours and be in pretty good shape.
Note that we can't easily extrapolate the PPFD maps for higher mounting. There's are beam width and light angle that sends some light off the target area, and raising the light doesn't smoothly change the distribution across the target, and for a while it makes little difference at the center, because previously lost light comes on target.
But DLI requirements are also approximate, so it will work out if you get close.
We could approach this another way. There's a very rough rule of thumb that says 35 watts of actually LED consumption should light on square foot of growing area when mounted at 18 inches. That light consumes 200 watts. So call it almost six square feet. That means it will cover four 12" bucket staggered in a 2'x4' space and still has some slack for mounting a bit higher. So we're confirmed both ways,
You don't have to use that light. But it will work well, and the price is not bad. There are plenty of competitors. You can expect to pay about the same for any of them of that power and a bit more for the premium brands and even more for the commercial brands, which you will not often find on Amazon. Just beware. Some grow light sellers are anything from shady to crooked about shouting high wattage when they are not. They are not using the equivalent in some other lighting technology. You should always at least be able to find the actual consumption somewhere. If it sounds like an astounding bargain, it's not.
You can choose conventional red and blue LED's grow lights or "full spectrum." Full spectrum fills in some middle wavelength once thought to be useless but now known to have some value. Either type will work fine to grow. Conventional are more electrically efficient. Full spectrum appear white to human eyes, so they are more pleasant to work around, and the light makes it easier to spot disease signs and pests. There used to be a considerable price difference, but that has mostly evaporated.
Note you're probably spending more for lights than for everything else, unless you buy a $100 Bluelab E.C. meter. That's normal. Over the life of a LED light, you will spend more operating it then its cost, so don't fret of the purchase cost of a long-term asset.
That lights Mars light is for a 2' x 2' area, two will work.
Check out the ViparSpectra P2000 on Amazon:
ViparSpectra® P2000 200W Infrared Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
【High Efficiency】With the newest SMD LED technology, ViparSpectra P2000 LED grow light provide high PAR output, high energy efficiency and long lifespan while improving light penetration.
【Sunlike Full Spectrum Light Indoor Growing】Consists of 660nm of red led, 3000K and 5000K of white led and IR led, optimal full spectrum led grow lights.
【Sosen Driver】200W Sosen Driver helps achieve high PAR output and longer lifespan. Boost yields and save electric costs.
【Dimmer Function】Flexible dimmer allows you to adjust light intensity from 5% to 100% brightness.
【Friendly Design】Large heat sinks ensure an ideal cooling system. No fans zero noise.
【Coverage Area】Perfect for 4’x3’ vegetative coverage at 24” and 4’x2’ flowering coverage at 20” height.
【Worry-free Warranty】36-Month US Local warranty and 30-day money-back guarantee.
You can apply a $20 coupon off Amazon making it $139
You could also run with 2 x P600's @ $49 each
I couldn’t find your model online to take a closer look at the specs. Do you have the light close enough to the plants?
This is the one I’m using currently. (It was a splurge because my husband is building me shelves for all of my succulents.) I like it because you can adjust the brightness for other plant types, which I don’t need because I am hopelessly addicted to succulents only. 🤣 My husband set up the light for me so that it’s the proper distance from my succulents and also the proper brightness. I have the grow light on for almost 13 hours/day and my echeverias don’t complain.
Last winter, I used this grow light. I like that light because there’s a timer on it (3, 9, or 12 hours/day). My new light doesn’t have a timer, but I bought a wall outlet with one—so that fixed my problem.
The light I recommend:
LED Grow Light, VIPARSPECTRA P2000 LED Grow Light 4x2ft Coverage Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights with Samsung LEDs(Includes IR), Dimmable Grow Light for Indoor Plants Seeding Veg and Bloom 700PCS LEDs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085W3LY4Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_BDMNXZ2KHPVVDXCDRJED?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
The temp/humidity controller I recommend:
Elitech STC-1000Pro-TH Temperature Humidity Controller Thermostat Pre-Wired Outlets 110V 1200W https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C7G4NP1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_WVJCX64FAGF10EZ3RT6X
Those were probably the most useful words he could have told op.
Here’s my light. It’s the tits.
Lights - VIPARSPECTRA P2000
Tent - VIVOSUN 2x4
Carbon Filter - VIVOSUN 6 Inch
Clip fans - Genesis 6-Inch
Nutrients - General Hydroponic
PH - General Hydroponics
Light Timer - BN-LINK
Seedling Pots - VIVOSUN 1 Gal
Flower Pots - VIVOSUN 3 Gal
Trellis Net - VIVOSUN 3x4
Irrigation Kit - PATHONOR
Water Pump - AQUANEAT 50-160 GPH
Water Timer - Nearpow