Grow lights don’t have to be utilitarian anymore – with so many screw-in E26 base plant lights available, you can buy any lamp you’d like and turn it into a grow light! And with full-spectrum bulbs, you can have a more traditional white light as well – no more red or purple necessary.
How do I know which grow light bulb to get?
Most E26 grow light bulbs don’t have a very high PPF or PAR rating – don’t expect that one of these bulbs will let you grow plants in a closet or room with no light – but they are great options if you want to supplement the light your plants receive.
Although the plants in the front of my living room get bright indirect light during the day, I have grow lamps set on a timer to give them some extra light in the middle of the night.
To figure out how much light a bulb will give off, you’ll need to look at the PPF and PAR ratings.
What is PPF?
PPF stands for Photosynthetic Photon Flux and is the amount of light in the PAR zone that is produced by a light source each second.
E26 grow light bulbs with higher PPF usually don’t look like a traditional light bulb – they’re designed with fins or a base structure that helps the bulbs stay cool – but you might want to make sure your lamp has more of a cone-shaped shade to disguise the sides of the bulbs if aesthetics are important to you. Bulbs with a higher PPF might also be larger than a standard lightbulb – so it’s important that you measure your lamp shade to make sure it will fit!
What is the PAR rating?
PAR stands for Photosynthetic Active Radiation and is the light that’s actually usable to plants, not just all of the light a bulb gives off.
The higher the PPF and PAR rating, the more light you can expect your plants to receive.
Check out this post on the science behind PAR ratings to learn more >>
Regardless of a bulb’s PPF or PAR rating – how far away your light is from your plant makes a big difference. Most bulbs will include a diagram that will tell you the ideal distance or show you how PPF changes at different distances.
The best screw-in E26 grow light bulbs
SANSI Full Spectrum 65.6 PPF Grow Light Bulb
- 36W LED
- Full Spectrum
- PPF 65.6
GE Balanced Spectrum Grow Light 50 PPF
- 32W LED
- Full Spectrum
- PPF 50
SANSI Full Spectrum 16.8 PPF Grow Light Bulb
- 11W LED
- Full Spectrum
- PPF 16.8
MiracleLED Wide Angle Grow Light
- 12W LED
- Full Spectrum
Canagrow Full Spectrum Grow Light Bulb
- 36W LED
- Full Spectrum
SOLTECH Vita LED Grow Light Bulb
- 20W LED
- Full Spectrum
- PPF 25.9
SOLTECH Small White Aspect LED Grow Light
Paragraph
- 20W LED
- Full Spectrum
- PPF 23.7
I created this list of E26 plant light bulbs based on my own research and experience (I own several of the bulbs from this list myself) but if you’re interested in a really in-depth comparison, focusing on PPF/Watt or PPF/$ this article from Urban Leaf is really educational.
