I have no fewer than 40 houseplants in my home at any given time, as well as a fair number of grow lights, and what I've found to be important for a general consumer (i.e., someone not doing that kind of indoor grow) isn't necessarily certain colored light wavelengths but whether a grow light is easy to live with in your house. Many grow lights are more or less going to serve the same purpose, so what you really need to know is this: Is the light so bright that it's disruptive? Does it require complicated installation?
Is it easy for kids or pets to knock over? The grow lights recommended below are ones that WIRED staffers have lived with for months, if not years, and have found them both effective and easy to integrate into our lives. Also be sure to check out our guides to the Best Indoor Gardening Systems, Best Gifts for Plant Lovers, and Best Kitchen Composters.
Add us as a preferred source on Google to see more of us. Best Grow Light for Small Plants and Seedlings There are a lot of options out there for starting seeds and helping houseplants along in the winter, and many of them are bulky, fussy, or require elaborate hanging setups. This simple, 15-inch-long light from Vego sticks to its 3M adhesive mount with a magnet, so it's easy to take on and off and use with existing racks or, as I do, under a kitchen cabinet.
Up to four Vego lights can be daisy-chained together, and the five preprogrammed modes (Seeds, Leafy, Fruits, Herbs, Microgreens) have varying intensities and automatic built-in off periods to simulate nighttime. I have not found this light especially disruptive, especially since it's easy to turn on and off with the button on the back. WIRED commerce SEO director Stewart Savin used these lights to start her garden earlier this year and had 138 successful germinations across 144 seedling cells. ("The vast majority of those plants went on to have long lives in my garden after I hardened them off," she says.) Note that because this light can only go beneath a rack, shelf, or cabinet, it’s not inherently adjustable, and therefore is best for small plants (like seedlings) that aren’t going to grow especially tall.
PPFD at 18" 83 μmol/m²/s (in Fruits mode) App control? Yes, via the different modes Warranty 2 years Most Versatile Grow Light This do-anything light, with a broad 2 x 3-foot head, can hang from the ceiling or swivel on its included stand where you need it. (Up to 20 of these lights can be daisy-chained.) Note that while the stand is useful, the 1-inch-diameter pole and offset base aren't the sturdiest, and it's easy to knock over, so I'd recommend hanging it if you have pets and small kids. I learned this the hard way while trying to revive a corn plant in a dark corner at the top of my stairs.
While this light is quite bright and potentially disruptive, it's easily dimmable via the remote, which hangs on a cord. At first I thought this was weird, but I found it extremely useful when the light was behind plants or in another hard-to-reach spot. Also worth noting: While the stand height is supposed to be adjustable up to 72 inches, mine only goes up to about 64 inches, so it may not be the best option for extremely tall plants.
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