I bought sooo many sets of those red/blue lights when I first started! For the first month or so they seemed to help a lot but in reality, it was just a very small boost from my north facing windows. After that month, my plants started to slow in growth and my succulents were etiolating so much even though it was in the middle of the summer. Five out of the eleven red/blue lights died within about 6 months, some of which died before the 1 month mark. None of them lasted a year. After roughly 3 months of having those lights (so a little over a year ago) I bought the Cholas Full Spectrum strip lights which have been a MASSIVE boost for my plants! Growth sped up a ton, my succulents started to thrive again, variegation became much more prominent. And then in August of this year I bought my first rare plants and bought a Spider Farmer grow tent along with the SF2000. It's my new favourite light and now I just want to absolutely scald my corneas by putting them everywhere in my room. 😂
Any video you make is a video worth watching! How about "A Day in the Life of Tate"! Wild Fern makes these and they are great! Also, I just would love to see more of New York and New England! :) (Also next time you and Katie go climbing...)
You are adorable Tate, you have a genuine warmth that comes through and makes your content so enjoyable to watch. I would definitely watch your non planty content. A day in the life of would be fun :)
I’ve been using the same GE bulbs for a year now and have had no problems with them! Lumens are what matters more, I think (my old roommate was an electrician).
Watts and lumens are different. Watts=energy. Lumens=light. So you want low wattage with high lumens. My husband got upset at all my grow lights thinking our energy bill skyrocketed. After showing him the bill I explained how my current lights are under 10 watts a piece so 7-8 grow lights equal one regular bulb. Tape over the blueness on your buttons with black tape.
I remember when I was looking into grow lights the wattage bit was very confusing to me too. I find that the wattage on led lights is sometimes shown as what it would be in an equivalent old style bulb if that makes any sense? For example a 10w led bulb might put out the same light as an 80 watt incandescent bulb so can show either wattage. You just have to pay attention to which one it’s telling you 😊 x
I'd watch any content you post planty or not. You have a great bubbly personality! P.s. I also have the same clip light with the same bulb and knew nothing about the wattage difference or that it even mattered until this video lol.
Hi Sweety, love your videos, so about that clip light you have that after it turns off the blue light stays on by the on and off switch, well I have the exact same problem so what I did was wrapped a black ankle sock 🧦 around it and problem solved. Lol….
It's for growing weed. That's why the vegetative growth vs. bloom settings. I use 2 above my propagation table, but I have a separate room. I mostly propagate outdoor plants and succulents with it. They make grow light protective glasses. Too intense and colorful for your bedroom. These simulate direct sun, and you'll need to keep them away from your plants a couple of feet at least. They are much less intense the farther away, of course. That one you got did not seem very powerful. Mine are 1500 watt rated. Remember that 8 watts of LED can simulate much higher wattage of incandescent. Don't compare apples and oranges. Lumens are the constant measure. Maybe a little more reading and then "Lesson 2" on grow lights.
For the Barrina lights, and any lights that you use sticky stuff for- The Command Large Picture Hanging Strips work really well! I had the same issue with my Barrina (I've only used them for props so far so not a big deal since they were covered) and I just replaced the strips. Also I've found the sticky strips that come with *most* grow lights are very hard to get off of surfaces, meanwhile the Command ones come right off when you go to remove them.
That's what I use. The velcrow command strips to mount my non grow light barina shop lights lol. They didn't come with sticky stuff so I use the velcrow command strips
Don't worry about the wattage. Wattage really only tells you how much energy the bulb uses. For example 100W old school incandescent bulbs are considered 11 W for cfl energy efficient bulbs, because that's how much energy it expends for the same brightness output. The two numbers you should look into for grow lights is lumens (which tells you how bright the light gets) and kelvins (how cool or warm the light is). I looked up the GE bulbs you have but couldn't find the lumens or kelvins. I try to stick to 5,0000 - 6,000 kelvins (cooler bright white) and 1000 + lumens which is pretty bright. This to me helps replicate daylight. Having said that do not worry that you wasted your time, all light is beneficial to plants, it's just that some are more efficient and effective but it's never for naught. Even an incandescent bulb is better than no bulb. LEDs are known to be better mostly because the spectrum of light output is most conducive to plant growth and most energy efficient. Unfortunately since GE doesn't give more detail on their lights, you'll just have to trust them that they work as well as they say. If your plants are growing and healthy, they are working for sure, just not sure if they are the most effective out there (which also can mean you're paying way more $$$). I also take all the numbers for the lights on amazon with a grain of salt, I have a few and I don't question it too much because again at the end of the day they kept my plants alive during winter. Whether they are actually as efficient and effective as listed may be another story. AND if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, plants need blue and red light that the human eye cannot detect, and the amount of blue or red light can vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer despite reporting the same lumens and kelvin. TL;DR version: your plants are alive and growing, don't sweat it stick with your bulbs if you're happy with them.
9 watts is fine if the bulbs are close enough/your plants are happy. I have a 15w I use for just a few plants under a reading light. It works well. The lumens are more important than the watts when you are looking at LED bulbs. If your plants are happy, leave it alone. Also, if the plants in your case are getting too much light you don’t even need to move anything, just have the case turned off a little longer every day. I had sun stressed succulents under a light so I changed my timer for 2 hours less a day and it fixed it.
So LED lights are generally lower wattage, which is what your 9 watt bulbs likely are. Your other lights that are over 100 watts are probably incandescent bulbs (this is why theres that whole push to switch old bulbs for energy efficient ones, LED can be 10 times more efficient!) The important part with lumens than to wattage with grow lights :-)
My theory is if the plants like what lights you are using then you are doing it right. I have a variety of grow lights. I have been using the ones you showed first in my bed room and my plants have been flourishing. I like that light in that room bc it will not interrupt my sleep if I take a nap lol. My plants love that light and I have been using that one for over a year.
The larger Ge bulbs are bright and work great for succulents and cacti. I use the haus bright for my tropical plants and use one of the smaller ge grow lights like yours all my plants seem fine. I forgot I also, have a day light clip on light which the timer doesn't work which is annoying the rest of my lights are on a timer which is a time saver for sure.
Also, I use the plug in timers for all mine. They alllll are on timers. I never have to touch a light. They pug into the wall and have two outlets to plug into. If I need more unplug a long extension into the timer. Then I never worry about it. Allll my lights r on plug in cheap timers lol, that ud use for Xmas lights
Wattage isn't equivalent to brightness. You can get apps on your phone that check lux/footcandle levels so you can compare brightness between your lights. Those apps aren't 100% accurate but you should be able to get a rough estimate of how your low wattage lights compare.
Wattage with LED lights can be confusing because they sometimes list two different wattages on the packaging. LED’s are much more efficient than other lights so they usually have a lower wattage, but sometimes it will say a higher wattage that it’s equivalent to in other light bulbs. My guess is that your bulbs are technically 9 watts, but they are of equal strength to an 100 watt bulb. Go back and check the item descriptions to distinguish what they really are, but if your plants are growing then your lights are fine! I use similar clip lights for my plants and honestly I have no idea what the wattage is lol
Wats are not a big deal. Wats are just how much energy use they use. I use the ge bulb and my plants grow great under it. And then I use non grow lights, just light bars that are led strips, they r 6000 kelvin color and they were cheap for how much I got. barina is the brand. And my plants have absolutely thrived under them. I don't even look at watts when I pick lights out. I look at kelvins
