The outlook of the government and citizens towards marijuana has witnessed a drastic change over the past decade. With almost all US states having legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes and some even allowing the recreational consumption of weed, the legalization movement is at its peak and marijuana is no longer a taboo. In these times, if you want some good weed you can get it from a licensed store and no longer need to ‘score’ it form hush-hush places. However, there’s another alternative: you can grow your own weed. Personal-scale growers are increasing with every passing day – and in this article, we shall be discussing the best small grow lights for growing marijuana.
We shall be addressing what lighting is and why it is important, but our focus here is on small grow lights which are important for small-scale growers. Not all growers want to grow weed in bulk – most grow lights suit the needs of larger growers but there are certain specialized products that are made for small scale growers too. In this article, those specific needs will be addressed.
Small grow lights are very important and growers who buy them need to understand the minute details about these grow lights which are often accidentally missed. These grow lights are created to serve a specific kind of purpose and are meant for a specific kind of grower. In addition to reviewing the best small grow lights in 2020, we shall also be talking about the features that you need to look up – as a part of a buyer’s guide.
Each of the products that we have reviewed are of high quality and will help small-scale growers grow their weed under the perfect conditions! Let us begin by understanding the role that light plays in a plant’s life cycle and what grow lights are:
Why Is Light Important for Marijuana Plants?
Marijuana plants need light all over their main stages of growth. While as a seed or a germinating seed they don’t need light, but right from the seedling stage all the way to the day of the harvest, these plants need a lot of sunlight. This is because light consists of rays of different colors and wavelengths – the blues (cooler lights) are needed for the vegetative growth of the plant and helps it mature into the flowering stage – seedlings and vegetative plants need a lot of blue light (up to 20-22 hours). As the plant matures into pre-flowering lighting is gradually reduced to about 14 to 16 hours and then growers trigger their plants to enter the flowering stage by reducing the light to 10-12 hours.
Besides this, lighting is also important for the process of photosynthesis, for the proper exchange of respiratory gases, for the proper breakdown of sugars, etc. Even the generation of chlorophyll is dependent upon lighting. The amount of THC and CBD also depends upon certain aspects of the light and the improvement of root mass and spacing of branches is also a function where light aids the plants. Hence, lighting is extremely important for marijuana growers.
Naturally, you get light from the sun when your plant grows outdoors. However, when you grow your weed indoors, you need to provide it with an artificial source of lighting which comes in the name of grow lights. These grow lights help growers recreate light very similar to natural sunlight inside their grow tents or grow rooms. These artificial lights help your plants grow under ideal conditions as you can move them up and about, or angle them at special positions – and turn them on and off at will, giving you control over the right kind of distance, angle, and time that your plants need for best possible growth. Let us now take a look at the best options we have when it comes to small-sized grow lights:
10 Best Small Grow Lights in 2020
‘Small’ grow lights basically refer to the area that is covered by the lighting. Large grow lights tend to cover large areas – these are grow lights which are either clip-ons, strips, or lights that cover below 3×3 grow tents.
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1. Roleadro 75W Grow Light for Indoor Plants Full Spectrum Plant Light
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One of the best and the biggest brands on this list, Roleadro is a credible name which has been known for making grow lights for the past several years. This is a rather small 75 W grow light from the company, which provides full-spectrum lighting to your marijuana plants. Considering the size of the panel, it is best suited to provide lighting to small-scale growers – especially those who are growing weed which is still in the seedling stage. If you are not growing weed, you can use this to grow succulents and small-sized flowering plants as well.
While the grow light features a number of plastic elements, the cooling is done via aluminum cooling plates, which ensure that all the heat gets dissipated properly. Each chip has its own small heat sink to ensure the heat does not get accumulated. These lights are very easy to use and can be installed with minimal knowledge, making them perfect for those who are just starting off their journey into the world of growing plants. Another thing which makes them one of the best small grow lights in the markets is that they come with a 30-month warranty! Lastly, these lights have been certified by the FCC as well as a number of other certification agencies proving that they are completely safe to use!
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2. Shengsite 75W Led Grow Light: Plant Grow Lights for Indoor House Plants Full Spectrum
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Another 75 W LED grow light, but one which offers a completely different and unique shape. This is a round-shaped grow light, which consists of a total of 250 LEDs in it. The breakdown for the lights is that there are 186 red lights and 64 blue lights, giving your plants just the ideal colours for their growth. The LED beads that are used here are pretty high-quality beads, manufactured by Gree and are known to not heat up easily. The lamp itself is made out of aviation-grade aluminum and ABS. This makes it much more durable and stronger than many other plants which are made largely from plastic.
Given the shape of this light, it ensures that your plants are getting a better-focused lighting and a better PAR score than regular shaped grow lights. Some growers have found the coverage to be a little too small but that’s the compromise you make for focused lighting solutions. Not only is this one of the best small grow lights for growing weed during the early phases, but is also a great option for growers who want to grow indoor ornamental plants and succulents! The manufacturer claims that this light can last for about 50,000 hours and it comes along with a 365-day warranty period and a 2-month return guarantee.
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3. GHodec Store’s Full Spectrum Dual Head Desk Clip Plant LED Grow Light
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The third name on our list is a clip-on LED grow light which is easy to fit into almost any place! This grow light comes with a big desk clip on its base which can attach itself to any surface which has the right kind of space and shape. It is a 360-degree flexible grow light which allows you to angle your light better and ensure that your plants are getting the best possible lighting. It is a double-headed grow light which means you can customize the lighting from multiple angles as well.
What truly makes it one of the best small grow lights for growing plants is the fact that it comes with a number of features while being priced in at a very affordable price point. The grow light offers dimmable lighting, meaning you could tweak the intensity of the light to ensure the best possible setup for your weed. Then there are three color modes in this grow light which can make sure that you can provide the right kind of lighting for the right phase, as the early stages need bluer shades of lighting while the late stages need red shades. There’s also an auto on/off timer that you can program to provide the lights to your plants as per their needs. Lastly, the light uses iron lampshades which are very durable compared to the plastic ones.
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4. Bloom Plus LED Grow Light BP1000 Sunlike Full Spectrum Led Growing Light
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Now this is a much larger grow light than what we have seen here so far (when you look at the size of the light), but when you look at the coverage that this grow light offers you would know why it fits in the ‘small grow light’ category. When you switch it on, it offers an ideal coverage of 2 x 2 ft during the vegetative phase and when you move the light closer during the flowering phase, the coverage falls to about 1.5ft x 1.5ft – hence this is actually a small grow light for personal-scale growers.
Going by the latest design styles, this grow light is not bulky but comes with a fanless heat-dissipation technology where high-quality Samsung LED chips are used to light up your plants! Apart from the full spectrum lighting that you get with this grow light, there’s also provision for IR lights which is pretty helpful for plants which are on their late-stage bloom. As mentioned earlier, this is a fanless light and hence there’s no noise that comes from operating it! When you begin to use it and if you’re not satisfied, you can return this grow light within the first thirty days and get your full money back! There’s also a 3-year warranty period.
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5. i-Venoya LED Grow Light for Indoor Plants Growing Lamp
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With a 2×2 ft coverage during the vegetative phase and a 1.5×1.5 ft coverage during the flowering phase, this grow light from i-Venoya ranks among some of the best small grow lights that we have found so far. There are a total of 289pcs of LEDs in this, which when put together, provide a 150W output for the growers. The design is very sleek, slim and quite modern. The manufacturers use aluminum and acrylic materials together, which make it quite durable and good-looking as well. Interestingly, this is quite a power-saving device as well as it consumes only about 45watt±5% of power.
The manufacturer promises about 50,000 hours of lifetime, which is good enough for a grow light its size. When you look at the coverage details of this grow light, you will notice that it offers a 2×2 feet coverage in the early vegetative stages and when you lower the during the flowering stage, the coverage footprint shrinks to 1.5×1.5ft. This grow light panel works on a fanless model of operation but it makes sure that it does not emit any sound while also keeping the working temperatures cool. This grow light can easily replace a 100-150W HPS grow light while consuming only about a third of the power – which is what truly makes it one of the best small grow lights in 2020. You also get a 24-month warranty along with this grow light.
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6. Melophy Triple Headed Clip-on LED Grow Light
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A triple-headed LED light from Melophy, this grow light offers the growers with a great option of aligning their lights at a different angles to give your plants an all-round growth. This is just the perfect grow light for those growers who want to grow small plants or succulents, or in the case of marijuana, very young plants in the seedling phase. Made out of a plastic and metal combination, this grow light is light in weight while also quite effective as it offers a lifespan of 50,000 hours. This is a clip-on grow light, which means you could just fit it anywhere as long as there’s a space to clip it.
There are some other great features in this grow light as well! You can set the timer in 4, 8, or 12-hour intervals to turn the light on or off. This is also a dimmable grow light – as it gives you control over the intensity of the brightness! There are 8 levels of brightness which you can tweak to give just the perfect kind of lighting to your plants. Each of the ‘heads’ of this grow light carries 6 COB LED grow lights of 2W each. This gives your plants a much better experience as other similar lights tend to have SMD LED lights which are inferior in quality compared to COBs and operate at just 0.5W and aren’t as effective. The safety standards are also all in place as this grow light is certified safe to use by the CE as well as the FCC. Lastly, it is priced under $30 which is very affordable for almost all growers!
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7. Yia Mia LED Grow Light Strips,24W 120 LEDs Plant Growing Light
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When we talk of the best small grow lights for plants, we really can’t miss out on the LED strips, which are an important part of these small-sized lighting systems. The ones here are manufactured by Yia Mia and are a set of 4 strips measuring 1.6ft each. There are 25 LEDs in each of these strips, featuring 5 blue lights and 20 red lights per strip. There are a total of 80 red lights and 20 blue lights which provide the best kind of combination for your plants during the vegetative as well as the flowering phase. Besides that, there are 10 dimmable options in this grow light which you can tweak as per the intensity of light needed by you.
There’s also a 3, 8, or 12-hour timer that can be used to tweak the kind of light that you want here. One of the best features about this grow light is that it makes use of a remote which controls the intensity of the light, the timing in which your light turns on or off, etc. It is very simple to use and even beginners can adjust really well to this grow light. This can be a great option for those growers who want to set the lighting around their plants in a way that all the parts of the plants (including the lower ones) get a proper amount of lighting!
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8. Mosthink LED Plant Grow Light Strips Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants
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Coming to our second LED grow light strip, this one comes from Mosthink and is a full-spectrum lighting solution for growers who want to provide a good lighting to their plants. The light provides your plants almost with a natural sunlight kind of an effect as it operates between the 380nm to 800nm wavelength. The light promises 50,000 hours of performance as per the manufacturer, and at just $20.99 we believe this is one of the best small grow lights available for the growers.
The grow light strip is USB powered and can be plugged in anywhere with ease. There are two bars that you get here where each of which carries 48 chips of 10W. Each of the bars measures 13.2 inches in length. An interesting feature here is these lights can be controlled by timers – you can set them in 4, 8, or 12-hour intervals. The maximum temperatures while using these lights can go up to 140F which aren’t really damaging. These are also certified safe to use by the FCC and the CE among other rating agencies. There’s also a double-sided tape which comes with this light which makes it easy for the growers to set up the lighting system.
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9. UFO Led Grow Light, Growstar 150W Full Spectrum Plant Light with High Par Value Cree COB and Switch for Indoor Plants
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Going by the design style, this is quite a unique light as it offers a round shape. Owing to the shape of the light, the growers can ensure that the light is better focused if not better spread. Priced in at $49.99, this is a UFO-shaped grow light which offers 150W of focussed lighting, along with a full spectrum ranging from 380-760nm. The light is quite compact too, as it measures only 6.9 x 2.4 x 2.6 inches. Instead of making use of SMD LED chips, we see Cree COB LED lights on this grow light, which are much brighter and more powerful than the regular chips.
The light is cooled by a powerful fan which is located on the backside. The light also goes through a ‘temperature test’ which certifies it safe to use. You also get UV and IR lighting in this grow light, which makes it perfect for growing marijuana through the vegetative as well as the flowering stage. Lastly, you get a 50,000-hour lifespan which is pretty impressive. The warranty details, however, are quite unclear.
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10. Amsuns Upgraded Auto On/Off Timing Function Grow light
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Moving on to the final product on our list, here’s the Amsuns grow light, which is essentially a clip-on lighting system that allows the growers to control various aspects of lighting such as timing and dimmability. Priced in at just $21.99, this grow light also allows the growers to control the red and blue lights as and when needed to provide the perfect light for their plants. There’s only one head on this light which you can swivel and move around based on your plants’ requirements. This is very easy to operate and quite simple to understand even for first-time growers. This is among the best small grow lights and a must-try for someone who is growing succulents or other similar small plants.
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Buyer’s Guide to Small LED Grow Lights:
There often is a lot of confusion about small-sized LED grow lights in the markets. While regular-sized grow lights are already an established commodity and growers know what they want, small grow lights can be quite a challenge to buy. To make this decision-making process easier, we have come up with a checklist of some questions that you need to ask yourself before you decide on which grow light you are finally going to buy. Considering that most of these grow lights are quite inexpensive, most growers don’t really go through this and end up getting the wrong lights! We hope this buyer’s guide helps you pick the perfect small-sized LED grow light for your marijuana plants:
1. How Much Area Does the Light Cover?
You must always know how much area the light covers because then you would know if it is the right size to cover your plants. A larger light is alright to buy but a light that provides a smaller coverage than the area your plants are spread out in doesn’t make sense unless you’re planning on buying multiple such lights.
2. Is it a Full-Spectrum Light?
Always try and get a full-spectrum light instead of a light that offers a dedicated wavelength. This will ensure that you will not need to change the lighting from time to time during the different phases of your plant’s growth.
3. Is it an LED Light?
Using an LED light is always better in comparison to using HPS or Fluorescent lights because they are much lighter in weight, consume very little power, and can last for a really long time in comparison to the other, older forms of lighting.
4. How Much Power Does the Light Consume?
You need to know how much power your light is consuming. If the light’s name states 150W in it, it does not necessarily mean it consumes so much power! LED lights tend to consume much lesser power and the exact details will be written on the packaging. You need to know what is the exact power draw. This is the biggest benefit of using LED lights that they consume so little power that you end up saving a ton of money in comparison with HPS lights.
5. What is the Expected Lifespan of the Light?
You must know what is the expected lifespan of your grow light – most LED lights can last for 50,000 hours. Some good quality lights even go till 100,000 hours or more. Do check this parameter before you buy your small grow light.
6. Does it Support Dimmability?
Dimmability and timers are two critical features which are present in almost all small LED lights. Do make sure that the one that you are choosing offers these features!
7. What are the Cost and Warranty Details?
This isn’t even something that we need to tell you but the cost and warranty do matter quite a lot and make sure you’re getting a good deal there!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About LED Grow Lights
We keep getting emails and DMs about these grow lights – hence we have picked up a set of questions that we get asked the most so that everyone can benefit from the answers at a single place. Going through them will help improve your understanding of these lights
1. Where can I buy small grow lights?
Small grow lights are easily available on Amazon. You can also find them in your local gardening stores or super speciality stores. Sometimes if you are lucky, you can even find them in a nearby hardware store which sells lighting equipment as well. Although Amazon remains the best option for buyers because of the variety that they get there.
2. Who is a small grow light really for?
A small grow light is meant for growers who are growing at a very small scale. These are mostly personal growers. However, if we ignore the marijuana part for a bit, these are also great for growers who are growing succulents!
3. Why is there no warranty on these grow lights?
Not all grow lights come with a warranty period. While you might find some of them offering you a two or even a three-year warranty, most of them don’t. This is because they are a very low cost and low margin product.
4. Are clip-on lights or LED strips as effective as a proper grow light?
Getting a proper panel LED light is always a better option in comparison to getting an LED strip or a clip-on light. We have provided you with all three options which you can buy based on your needs. Clip-on lights and strips are great for those growers who want additional lighting but don’t necessarily rely on them for the primary source. However, they might suit those who are growing succulents or other smaller plants with lesser lighting needs.
Conclusion
Not every grower wants to grow a lot of weed. Most marijuana growers want to grow it only for their personal consumption or for a close circle. Hence, for small-scale needs, growers need to have a very clear idea about the kind of grow lights that they can make use of! Most growers actually prefer to use these grow lights as additional lighting equipment to boost the growth of their plants. We hope that we have answered all your questions regarding the best small grow lights in 2020. If there are still any more questions that persist, feel free to let us know in the comments below or drop us an email about the same and we shall revert as soon as we can! Till then…
…Happy Growing! 🙂
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