Today I want to share something that I’ve been working on recently with Fine Gardening that is really cool! So you know all of those lights you can buy to get your plants started over the winter? Did you ever wonder which of those lights really work? I’m going to leave the final answer for my article, but let me tell you, there’s a world of differences between the lights. The best seem to be some LED lights that aren’t available yet, but are made by a company called Heliospectra. Mostly they make high end lights for commercial producers and researchers, but they will be entering the home market soon. Man, these lights are SWEET!
Interestingly, the other LED lights fail miserably because their light is so columnated (in other words the light doesn’t spread out), as you can kind of see in this picture (there’s another pic on facebook that shows it a bit better):
Most of you are probably using fluorescent lights, and, in terms of bang for your buck, I’d say those are pretty good. We tested a bunch of different fluorescent, as well as incandescent lights. Be on the lookout for the article in about a year!
Hi Jeff,
Very interesting article. I operate a lawn maintenance company in Euless, TX and I had never heard of these lights.
Do you know when Heliospectra is expected to get in to the home market? I wonder if the cost to market will be too high in the near future.
I hope you write a follow up to this article.
Thanks
Frank K.
http://www.greentoplawncare.com
Wow, those are some crazy looking lights. Very very cool, thanks for the interesting article, I’ll be sure to check back.
Frank, I don’t know exactly when it will be on the market, but hopefully in about a year. The target cost will be about 200-300 dollars. A little more expensive — but dang!
A year! But I am looking to upgrade to LED now! And reading vendor claims makes my brain hurt…
These led lights are out, but the cost is very high. Better off with MH or cfl’s unless money is not an issue.
Let me guess, the best fluorescents are t5 triphosphor tubes with an electronic ballast?
Hi skr, we thought they would be — but nope. Actually the best fluorescents were a T12.
ooh now I’m intrigued.
Hi Jeff,
Do you know if and when they got into the home market and if you could please point me in the right direction?
Elaine
If you go to our Garden Professors blog group on Facebook you’ll get a quick answer from one of the thousands of group members there.
Thanks Linda!
Thank you, Linda, for sharing this! Looks like I’ll wait a bit longer with the planned upgrade to LED…seems like I’ll be sticking with the true and tested fluorescent lights for a bit longer:)