GE Grow LED Light Bulb, PAR38 Flood Light, Indoor LED Grow Lights for Plants, Seeds and Greens, Balanced Light Spectrum, 25,000 Hours Lifespan, 50 PPF, 1 Pack (Packaging May Vary)

Seeing as how popular indoor container gardening has become - and, accordingly, how lucrative it now is to sell indoor grow lights - it is a bit difficult to find a light that you feel at all confident will actually be effective for your indoor plants. I’ve scrolled through what seems like countless products that purport to emit awesome spectrums that are totally sweet for plant growth (and, oddly, seem to feature the exact same “wavelength graphs”), or that tout their (sometimes slightly deceptively calculated) wattage - despite the fact that a fixture’s wattage tells you near to nothing about how useful a light will be in aiding a plant’s growth (wattage is, put simply, a measure of the amount of electricity used to run an electrical device, not a measure of that device’s energy output). It’s been a confusing and sometimes demoralizing search (well, as demoralizing as online shopping can honestly be), and I’ve felt very much in over my head I’m trying to choose a product that won’t be a waste of money or harmful to my plant friends. I am reviewing this particular product very positively, not simply because it works and is bright and has seemed to be very helpful in my attempt to keep a fussy dwarf orange tree alive over the dark cold winter, but also because I appreciate having been given the kind of information a consumer actually needs when trying to find a good, effective grow light. You’ll see the term “PAR” right in the title of this product, front and center; PAR, or Photosynthetic Active Radiation is essentially a measurement of light emission within the photosynthetic range of 400-700nm, which is the area of light that plants use for photosynthesis, or to grow. This is a really valuable specification to have in selecting an effective grow light, and I can’t imagine why so many of the other (often even more expensive) grow light fixtures for sale here don’t include this information in their listings. Hopefully, I haven’t come off as overly pedantic, I don’t mean to lecture anyone on the science of plant grow lights (admittedly, I know very little myself!), but I do remember my first searches for a good, solid grow light fixture and how frustrating it could be to feel that I wasn't getting any really useful information from so many of the products I found. I spent quite a bit of money on fancier-looking, often more expensive but ultimately less useful lights before I found this one, and I hope that this information is helpful to you, prospective buyer! I wholeheartedly recommend this bulb to anyone who needs some bright, direct auxiliary light for their indoor plants. One last point: this bulb is quite heavy (not really suitable for gooseneck/clip on task lamps), so keep that in mind while making your decision.

Hey there, just wanted to share my excitement about this awesome product I've been using for about a month now – it's seriously amazing! My plants are loving life and thriving big time. I mean, within just a week, I noticed new growth popping up all over the place. Even my indoor orange tree, which was craving some good light, started sprouting new leaves after just a couple of weeks with this bulb. Sure, the bulb itself is a bit on the heavy and bulky side, but pair it with a cool light fixture, and it works like magic. The light it gives off is bright and white – perfect for my little green buddies. Mine's tucked away in a corner, yet it throws enough light to keep all my plants happy. I've tested out different brands and lights before, but none have given my plants the same boost as this one. You bet I'm gonna grab another one when the time comes! 🌱✨

I think I didn't actually need a new bulb as it turns out. My Black Knight was developing green in the new center growth but I believe it was actually just being blocked by one of my taller Pachyveria. Regardless I don't have a lot of space to create a strong or efficient light set up for my table of succulents and I learned in my first go around that most single bulbs or wands on Amazon seem to be advertised unfaithfully to their real life performance. There's only so much a single bulb under $40 and under 50w can output so your expectations must be realistic for what can be achieved in this range. There's a lot of fancy looking multi-colored LEDs claiming extremely high PPFD beyond their capabilities. This bulb claims PPF 50 with no PPFD claim, which is the more important measurement. At 6-12 inches it seems to have a reasonably good PPFD based on the condition of my succulents after 3ish weeks. I am running it for ~14 hours a day because I get little to no natural sunlight in my house or even in my yard for that matter. My last bulb also had no PPFD measurement but advertised " about 1000umol @12" ". It was one of the pink/purple type LED supposedly optimized for non-vegetating plants. It kept my plants in decent color and not stretching but the coverage area wasn't great. This one so far seems to be a little more effective than that one was, possibly due to being full spectrum daylight. My Black Knight is looking a little more dark and all the green is gone, still nice and compact in the center, wish I thought about taking pictures before. Also the other bulb had a cooling fan while this one does not, so that's a big plus in my opinion. I got a new succulent in the mail that was poorly packaged and bent. I have it on the edge of the light area and it's beginning to stand up normally after being watered. I'm happy with the purchase, it works for my limited space and it's nicer to have the daylight color over the pink/purple. There's no outrageous claims for output beyond the wattage capabilities. Update 8/31/22 I'm struggling to find the right height for this one. I don't think it's actually any better the one I had before, which leaves me to be of the opinion that all bulbs in this similar price range probably have similar output. My variegated Platyphylla has turned from green with red stripes to almost solid red. But my most compact echeveria (some Laui hybrid) that has done the best for me so far has lost some of its form at a 8-12 inch height. The bent succ never corrected but I think that's because the shipper actually killed it, I'm not certain there was anything I could do in this case. But I do rotate all my succs on a regular basis and they aren't straightening up very well.

I decided to go with this grow bulb because it was the only one I could find that listed it's ppf value in the specs. I had also been previously using the GE BR30 LED grow light (16 micro miles/second) for about 7 months prior to receiving this one and I felt like my plants were doing really well, but I wanted to see if they could do better, grow faster, and produce larger leaves. I don't yet know if 50 micromoles is ideal for my indoor plants and environment (I have them on a shelf next to my western facing window in southern California where it's always sunny), but I will give an update when I see the results. The bulb is heavy, weighing in at 1.2 lbs on my scale. However, fortunately, my lamp can handle the weight. I'm using the Ranarp Ikea work lamp. I have it positioned to give as many plants a boost as possible while prioritizing my FLF, but I could position it to prioritize the top shelf no problem. I've taken a few photos with the footcandle readings at different positions of my setup so you can get a visual of the amount of light you'll get at different distances. My FLF is 26" away and gets ~758 fc. Bottom shelf 44" away gets ~558 fc, second shelf 32" away with the light directed at it ~997 fc, third shelf 24" away gets ~222 and top shelf 22" away gets basically nothing from the light. Hopefully that makes sense... The bulb gets pretty hot but I can keep my hand on it for about 15 seconds, not comfortably though. It's bright, but not harsh and a little on the warm side, much like the BR30 but a bit brighter. Gives my plants the beautiful spotlight they deserve. 👌

I really like this light for how bright it is. It does get hot after long periods of us and it is heavier than I expected. I have only had it a few weeks so I haven’t seen any immediate results but I did notice my rubber plant would sunburn if too close. I suggest distance from the light to avoid overexposure.

I was able to use it with a ceramic "screw in piece" on a typical dome bulb product. However, I did not search for that specific term, on Amazon. I tried searching, to purchase something that would not, maybe get on fire. But, everything in the search results for as long as I could search, seemed weak. The part where the bulb, goes into the lamp, or half-dome device, was always plastic, from my normal search results. But, with this bulb or anything like it, that may heat up, I would recommend not risking it, and maybe buy from a local store, for the device to plug this bulb into. Or, use the term ceramic? I am not sure, as I did not try. Good bulb, and works well, after three weeks. Need a second though or, a different version. As, the total main focus is in the middle, and not dispersed as I had expected. I would need a second one anyways. I was just checking after many years of using in-door lighting, to "see" if this one worked. It did, for my needs at like twenty four, to thirty inches, and maybe a range to at the ground of mainly 18 inches. Good product, and happy with the purchase. But, wondering if, aside from the "numbers", if two of these are as good as one of the same brand with the long type versions for a little over $60. Either way, two of these can be more helpful, than one great one. Tried before, many years ago with one tiny plant bulb, and got massive results. Not sure of the brand. But, at that time I used just one regular tube light, for fun. Massive, results. Gave to college friends, with big lights, and brains, and came back after a couple months to "tears". Little lights, can be your "friend".

Pictured are just a few lettuce plants currently growing under this light. (Young mini romaine and the lighter one on the left is an old 3-1/2 month old mini butterhead called Tom Thumb from Baker Creek that's finally ending it's growth after many many pickings - an overachiever for sure.) This light has been such a phenomenal success for me growing indoors - just outstanding. I've grown various types of lettuce, bok choy, and arugula in the last several months. All have flourished. I've got it somewhere between 13 and 17 inches from the plants - it's on between 10-12 hours a day at max. For a while I was only running 8 hours and that worked fine too - but I might have gotten a little better results, bigger leaves, with 10 hours. The plants keep producing - I pick outer leaves so the plant center keeps growing. Before this, I tried Sansi lights and had abysmal failures. I thought I was doing something wrong. Did the same things with this light - and had massive success. Will be using these lights all winter so I can grow my own raw greens - and not rely on potential recall-lettuce from grocery stores. Love love love this light. I can fit about 6 plants under it at a strong enough coverage to grow well. While it might seem that 2 lights would then cover 12 plants, I think it might be more like 15 plants under 2 lights - because you'll have overlapping coverage that might be bright enough to do another set of plants. Hope that makes sense - to restate it: the fringe of the light coverage might be too weak on its own - but two lights overlapping the lower zones might turn into a full power growing zone. I will definitely be buying more! (My indoor plants grew stronger than my outdoor plants this year. My indoor plants didn't have to contend with the summer heat waves, outrageous humidity, and bugs. They seem to like my indoor climate better.)

I have a few of these lights and they perform really well. When I first started growing indoors I saw great reviews for the gooseneck LED lights so I thought they must be really good. They weren't. I have to wonder if some of those reviews were disingenuous. That's neither here nor there, but I would say these GE grow lights are the real deal. Things to keep in mind though is that they are relatively heavy, so your light fixture or clamp light has to be strong enough to hold some weight. Also, these lights run pretty hot, so you've got to keep some distance from the plants to avoid burning leaves. The advantage that lower powered bulbs have is that they're lighter and don't generate much heat, so no worries about leaves being too close, and no fire hazard if you're away for a long time. Personally, I stick with the GE brand 9 watt and 30 watt LED, and Philips 15.5/16 watt LED bulbs (I think the 16 watt bulbs are probably about the ideal bulb if I had to choose just one type, because they are in that happy medium range of not weighing down the light fixture too much and not getting too hot, while still having enough power to do the job. I wish I could find a GE LED bulb that is about 16 watts because the quality of their lights is excellent). I added the last part in parentheses because I had an adjustable drafting light, which was cheap and I knew I was pressing the limits, give out and collapse with the 30 watt bulb and ever since then I never leave the house with the 30 watt bulbs on, because if I hadn't been home when the fixture came crashing down I don't know what would have happened. If you have strong fixtures that you know are sturdy, then of course this wouldn't be a problem. I just wanted to share what happened with me, being a relatively new grower myself, and learning along the way.

Actualización: Tras dos años y muchas plantas más después he decidido comprar un segundo foco ya que las plantas del lado derecho tienen uno de Amazon Basic (que como lo dice su nombre) es muy básico pero no suficiente ya con tanto y comparando con el GE. La verdad recomiendo mucho el producto y agrego una foto de cómo va todo por ahora. Me ha servido tanto para plantas de ornato como carnivoras así que con toda confianza, la calidad es muy buena, no se arrepentirán. Original: La verdad la potencia de la lámpara es más de la que imaginaba, no es algo malo si lo que buscas es ayudar verdaderamente a tus plantas. El peso del foco es bastante, aproximadamente medio kilo pero la garantía que ofrecen es debido a la calidad e ingeniería detrás, ahora veo que lo pude comprar por unos 200 pesos menos pero ante la urgencia no quise esperar, una planta comenzaba a enfermar por la temporada y la escases de luz. Estoy satisfecho con la compra y en unos meses procuraré actualizar la información, pero de momento lo considero un gran producto que cumple lo que promete y esto con apenas haberle dado quince días de uso.

I haven’t had this for very long, but I feel a lot better knowing that my expensive houseplant now has some supplemental light as we enter into shorter days. I’ve read multiple reviews on the GE grow lights and all positive. It is heavier than a standard light but I had no issues hanging it.

Very bright! Using it for a calamondin orange tree, which is growing great.

La luz es muy intensa sin ser molesta, la acabo de implementar para mis plantas de interior que tienen poco acceso a luz solar y al parecer se encuentran bien espero tener mejoría con el uso continuo

Para el desarrollo rápido de mis plantulas