Tried those cheap LED grow lights from Amazon to start seedlings indoors

Spent $18 on a set of 4 purple LED strips last March and my tomato seedlings turned into leggy, pale sticks after 3 weeks. They just didn't have enough actual PAR output for anything beyond lettuce. Anyone else get burned by those bargain bin lights before?

3 comments

3 Comments

scott.miles29d ago

Watched a YouTube guy test those with a PAR meter and they barely hit 50 umol at 12 inches.

ryan36929d ago

Pulled the same specs on those Amazon strips and ended up with basil that looked like it was reaching for a fire escape. I kept one of the power supplies though, found it works alright for running a small USB fan on my mushroom fruiting chamber. The lights themselves are basically purple paperweights now.

patriciah5129d ago

My buddy Jake bought two of those purple Amazon strips for his tomato starts last spring. They turned the leaves this weird pale yellow color and the stems got all long and stringy before he finally ditched them for a pair of cheap shop lights from the hardware store. He kept one of the power bricks too, uses it to charge his phone by the workbench. The other strip he gutted for the little wire and LEDs, he made a tiny nightlight for his dog's crate out of the pieces. Still works better than the original thing ever did.