Grow Lights
Fluorescent Grow Lights for Indoor Plants: LED Grow Light Review
Hydrofarm FLC0125D Fluorescent Grow Light System
Living in Maine, we have cold, dark winters which last a very long time so it was pretty obvious that I would need some grow lights for indoor plants that I like to grow. When I first moved to my current house three years ago, the garden was very nice but many of the plants looked in pretty bad shape. Some were withering, while others had no flowers (the orchids, for example). At the time, I was just moving in so I had so much to do with the house itself (getting settled in, etc.) that I didn’t get round the tending to the garden, which was in desperate need of my attention. The next winter, however, I refused to let the miserable weather ruin the plants outside, so I set about looking for an artificial way to provide them with proper light. I knew that the Maine winter was to blame for the plants’ poor health – they simply weren’t getting anywhere near sufficient sunlight for them to grow and develop properly.
I’d like to say I know a lot about how to grow plants but to be quite honest, I just went on amazon, read a LED grow light review or two and bought the hydroponic lighting system that I thought had good reviews, and that was within my budget. I chose the Hydrofarm FLC0125D Fluorescent Grow Light System (get it from amazon here) because it had a lot of data for me to go on i.e. lots of reviews for me to pick apart, and it was discounted by over 40%, so it wasn’t going to break the bank.
I must say, I was expecting a lot of complex setup but it was pretty much ‘plug and play’. I turned it on, hung it up and it was up and running. It weighs around 10 pounds so it’s also pretty light – another positive. The 125W bulb does use a bit of energy (obviously, lol) so that’s a slight negative but I’m not sure it’s possible to get a decent bulb which doesn’t use any power. My average electricity bill didn’t really go up at all, or at least, I didn’t notice any difference. If there was any increase, it was in the cents not dollars. I’ve used the Hydrofarm FLC0125D Fluorescent Grow Lights (get it from amazon here) for indoor plants for 2 winters now and it’s still going strong. I haven’t had to replace the bulb yet but I would expect that I am going to have to do that soon, since the instructions say the bulb lasts for 10,000 hours, which is just over 416 days assuming you run it 24 hours a day. One restriction this bulb has is that you may need more lights if you need to provide light to an area over 3 x 3 feet. Luckily there weren’t too many plants in my garden so I could set up a small plant ‘clinic’ in the greenhouse at the back. Just a quick note for any of you with massive estates!
Ok, the results. Well, basically, my plants look like they do coming out of summer, if not better! I almost feel like I have ‘cheated’ nature, haha! And for under 100 bucks, it was totally worth it to see my garden full of bold and bright colors against the bleak backdrop of our Maine winters. I put the plants out in the garden at the start of spring and they have already flowered or grown fresh leaves and shoots. One small piece of advice: if you have any pets, make sure you put any fluorescent grow lights for indoor plants in an area which is not accessible to them as they can easily fall with a crazy cat jumping all over them.
