coleman.jade•27d agoProlific Poster

I was dead wrong about grow lights being a waste of money

I used to swear that natural sunlight was all my balcony tomatoes needed, even with a north-facing setup in Seattle. After 3 months of leggy plants and no fruit, I caved and got a $40 LED panel. My cherry tomatoes went from zero to 60 overnight and now I'm a total convert. Anyone else fight the grow light idea and end up loving it?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese_bell27d ago

Grow lights are just a bandaid for picking the wrong spot or wrong plants honestly. I've got a north facing window too and just grow shade tolerant stuff like lettuces and herbs, works fine without extra gear.

mason_ward26d ago

@reese_bell I mean yeah, you're not wrong that a lot of people grab grow lights before they even try shade plants... but I think there's more to it than that. Some of us live in places where even a south facing window only gets good light for like 3 hours in the dead of winter, you know? So even "right spot" plants struggle unless you're lucky with your setup. Plus I've found that herbs and lettuces get real leggy without some supplemental light, especially if you're trying to start seeds early indoors. So it's not always a bandaid... sometimes it's just the difference between having a plant that survives and one that actually thrives. But I get your point, people do over-rely on them sometimes.