Propagation Lighting Comparison – Traditional vs LED Fixtures
We welcome you back to The Greenhouse Effect grow room! 🌱
Have you tried LED propagation lights yet? – We take a closer look…
Over the last few weeks, we have been running a comparison in our grow room between traditional propagation lights and LED propagation lights, which had a very interesting outcome, which we will explain in more detail below.
The lighting units we have used for this particular experiment are namely the highly popular Sunblaster T5 Propagation Light unit and the relatively new Root!T Propagation Light. Let’s see what happened when we put them to the test.
Early Stages of Propagation
In the early stages of propagation, the initial growth was very similar between chilli seedlings grown with a traditional propagation lighting unit and those grown with the LED propagation lighting unit.
During these early stages, our seedlings have germinated at the same rate and are of equal proportion.
We would say both lights are perfectly fine for use and stood up against each other equally during the early stages of propagating seedlings and cuttings.
Later Stages of Propagation
During the later stages of propagation the differences in the two propagation lights became more apparent.
After initial rooting, the seedlings we observed under the LED light displayed stronger leaf and stem production than those under the traditional light, as demonstrated by the noticably wider stem, see fig 4.
Our Final Thoughts…
While both lighting units worked perfectly well when rooting cuttings and bringing up seedlings, the growth rate and structure of the plants after initial rooting (after about 7 days) was far superior under the Root!It LED light, showing stronger leaf and stem production and tighter nodal spacings.
– Richard
It’s up to the grower if they prefer to use traditional bulb-based grow lights or LED lights, but from this experiment you can see there’s some evidence to show that LED grow lights might be worth a try if you haven’t yet.
Side by Side Comparison
Buy Propagation Lighting from The Greenhouse Effect
Here are the two lights we used in our comparison, we do highly recommend both fixtures…
Root IT 26W 50cm LED Propagation Light
Propagation Lighting Accessories
Sunblaster T5 to LED Conversion Lamps
If you want to continue using your Sunblaster T5 fixture, but instead use an LED lamp… you can convert your Sunblaster T5 to an LED fixture with these handy conversion lamps…
SunBlaster T5 to LED Conversion Lamps
Sunblaster T5 Replacement Bulbs
We stock replacement bulbs for your Sunblaster T5 units, so instead of having to buy the entire fixture again, you can simply just buy the replacement bulb from us here…
GHEDirect LTD, 
