Some lighting recommendations please?

[Les Barstow]

That seems like it's taking things a bit far. Like selling specially doped gold wire for speakers; there *might* be some improvement, you'll likely never see it. The feeling from your wallet will justify the expense.

[varda.elentari]

Originally Posted by Andrew-L

From what I've read they can take more LED light than natural light.

Interesting! Because I read plants need artificial light to be less intensive than the maximum they can tolerate when it comes to natural light because artificial lights are full-strength for the entire daylength period.

I do question how strong the LED lights I got are though. I added two of these (Amazon.ca) to my existing 4-bulb fluorescent fixture and I can't discern any difference in leaf colour that might indicate the plants are getting significantly more light. They're temporary though. I'm hoping to get something like the SF lights later.

[estación seca]

Why don't you start with an inexpensive 4 foot double tube LED shoplight from a hardware store and see whether that meets your needs? Use a timer.

LED Shop Light, 4-ft Canadian Tire

Plants don't know what a photon is, can't read papers about ideal spectrum emission and you could have bought one a month ago.

[varda.elentari]

Well, that particular product seems to be discontinued actually. And shop lights are usually too dim even for medium light-loving plants. Why risk getting a light when it doesn't list any measure of how bright it is?

[estación seca]

I have read reports here on OB about LED shop lights working well for high-light orchids. I picked the first one I saw. This kind of fixture is still available. It says 4000 lumens,

[varda.elentari]

It does have lumens but how far from the light are they measuring that? I found umol/m2 at specific distances much more useful when I was trying to decide. And everything I'd read indicates that spectrum is important in the long-run so I felt more comfortable buying a dedicated plant light. I'm sure lots of people have had success with shop lights but I didn't want to risk it.

[Les Barstow]

Plants do care which wavelengths of light they get; I xan attest that they really didn't thrive with some home CFLs I bought whem starting out, even close up. A decent high-CRI LED bulb of any sort is a decent quality plant light (I'd choose closer to 3000k than 5500k), but most high-CRI units aren't bright enough. LED shop light quality is generally sub-par even for human use IMHO, and you're not saving much buying a shop light vs a modest LED grid light for plants.
The better white-light plant lights out there now are mostly mixed 3000k and 5500k high-CRI LEDs - the same LED styles you can get in a good home use lamp. The extra LEDs for deep red, IR, and/or UV aren't really necessary for solid growth, but I'll trust the commercial growers that they each add something to the mix, or they wouldn't be buying them.

[varda.elentari]

Yes, that corresponds to everything I've read about growing plants under lights. My plants didn't do too well when I grew them under fluorescents tubes alone either.

I think I'm finally seeing signs the addition of LEDs did help, especially in those plants that grow faster than orchids. The new growth is much more compact than it used to be.