What I wish I knew about grow lights before I started gardening

Blurple. It's my new favorite word, but it's my least favorite color. What am I talking about, lovely people? This. This bluish-purple light color has become ubiquitous in the entry-level market for grow lights, but it's far from ideal for growing plants. In fact, it's missing a few critical ingredients. I'm going to tell you exactly what to look for in a good grow light. But first, a quick disclosure. The grow lights I'm going to be showing you were sent to me by Chilled Tech, who sponsored this video. They had zero editorial input in this video, which means they got no script approvals, and they did not get to preview this video before it was posted. They're seeing it for the first time, just as you are. Okay, now I've got to go turn this thing off. It's not good for my eyes. I'm serious. Prolonged exposure to blue light can damage your eyes. It's something to consider if you're starting seeds right in the middle of your living space, and you have young kids who can look directly up into the lights. Another problem with blurple light is that it's hard to monitor the health of your plants, because the light masks the true color of the leaves. You won't know if your green leaves have started yellowing from overwatering or disease. But the biggest issue with blurple light is that it doesn't use the full spectrum of light that plants need for optimal growth. Yes, red and blue light are the wavelengths most useful to plants, but that doesn't mean plants only use red and blue light. Okay, quick light lesson. Sunlight contains seven colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. All the colors of the rainbow, right? Blue and red light are the key drivers of photosynthesis. They stimulate leaf growth and flower production, while green light is what plants use the least. Instead of absorbing it, it's mostly reflected. And that's why most plants appear green to us. But I didn't say all the green light is reflected. In fact, green light is still useful for photosynthesis and plant growth. It can penetrate a plant's canopy better than other wavelengths, so that the leaves below the top ones still get light. Now, that may not be a deal breaker for starting seeds, but if you're planning on growing vegetables indoors, you definitely want to consider a full spectrum grow light. So last year, I used four of these lights to start my seeds. They were affordable in the $30 range, but as you saw, this is not a full spectrum light. It only has blue and red LEDs. There's no real craftsmanship here either. It's really light and flimsy. Not something that's going to last me very long. Also, this hook was really annoying to use. As the plants grew and I had to raise the light up, this thing is really kind of shonky. It kind of, see, it doesn't raise it correctly. It's not level. It was really difficult to get right. Since I was only starting seeds, I was able to get away with it. But if I was looking to grow food indoors, I would not recommend a light like this. Cut to 12 months later. I cannot tell you how many grow light brands have reached out since my series of home gardening videos last year. I've literally lost count. We're talking about mostly low budget lights of varying quality. The blurple brigade. But then I heard from the guys at Chilltech, and it was immediately obvious that what they were producing was of an entirely different pedigree when it came to production quality and light efficiency and using the fullest spectrum of light. Plus, if you dive into the education section of their website, it's clear these guys really like geeking out on the science of growing plants, which is right up my alley. Chilltech is a small family-run company out of Washington state. And the reason why I mentioned that is because it informs the quality control. They manufacture everything locally, so there is real oversight on the production process. So this is called the Growcraft X3 Mini. It's a 2x2 foot canopy light with 200 watts of power and an external power driver. That means the light fixture itself produces a lot less heat in the growing area. This is the most efficient constant current driver on the market and enables the X3 Mini to have an external dimmer, which can lower the light all the way down to 15 watts. Okay, let's plug it in. This is the lowest setting. Ready? That's bright. By the way, you might have noticed that I don't actually have the lights on right now because they're really bright. And that is actually the lowest dimmer setting. I want you to be able to see what the setup looks like instead of it being blown out in the background. Okay, back to it. The first thing I noticed about chilled lights is the build quality. These feel solid and well-made. They come without instructions, but I realized very quickly that the setup is very intuitive. From a design perspective, you can see a lot of thought has been put into heat dispersion. The frames have enough surface area to channel the heat away. Plus, there are these gaps that allow for airflow. And I like that there are these four rope ratchets with carabiners on the end that allow you to adjust each corner of the light individually. So when you're choosing a grow light, you want to keep efficiency in mind. Meaning, when you plug in your light, you want as much of that power being converted into light instead of being lost to heat production. You can buy a light that says it's 200 watts, but only say 20% of that energy is actually being converted into light. It's a big problem with HPS grow lights, high-pressure sodium lights. They use lots more energy than LEDs and pump out way more heat. Now, a grow light's efficacy is determined by how efficiently a fixture can convert power, the input wattage, into usable PAR. That stands for photosynthetic active radiation. Translation? The light wavelengths that activate photosynthesis. This X3 Mini produces 2.63 micromoles, which, as far as I've been able to see, makes it the most efficient LED grow light on the market at this price point. Something that genuinely impressed me with Chilled is their transparency. You can go to every fixture on their site and they will break down all the numbers for you, including the amount of light that will actually reach your plant depending on its position from the fixture. They'll also guide you to the precise spectrum you need based on the kinds of plants you're growing. So when you order, you can actually specify which spectrum you want optimized. If you're growing for only a vegetation stage, they can give you a panel with a little more blue in it. If you're growing all the way to fruiting stage, the panel can have a bit more red. And if you're not sure, you can just speak to them. Seriously, they'll get on the phone and talk to you personally. They really, really care about guiding their customers through the process of growing plants. Now, is this setup overkill for just starting seeds? Yes, if we're talking only germination. For that, you will be fine with this, Single Bar X1 Mini. But as you can see, I've got plants that are much more mature and they're benefiting from the great coverage that they're getting from this X3. And these X3s open up a whole world of opportunity to me. I can start growing my own food indoors, which means I could be eating heirloom tomatoes in the middle of winter. I want to show you some photos. This is the basement garden of Chilled's founder, Vitaly Drushinin, who literally invented these lights so he could do this. I mean, before he started manufacturing them as a commercial product. Look at these huge, healthy plants, lettuces, chards, cucumbers, tomatoes. If you want to get your hands on these grow lights, I've got links and pricing in the description below. There are other models too, including DIY kits where you can build your own customized lights. If you end up purchasing anything through those links, a small portion of the sale goes to supporting True Food TV at no extra cost to you. As you can see, I've got a bunch of very happy plants here that I will be transplanting out into the garden in just a few weeks. So the next time we talk gardening, I will see you lovely people outdoors.