Grow Lights

Really great. Update on the cherry tomatoes and a fresno chili mentioned below. It’s November if the following year today. I’m transitioning the mature plants out for new starts. Indoor hydrogarden tomato yield was 9 lbs. (predominantly Gold Nugget). Fresno chili yield was 3 lbs. The flowering beauty and delicious fun of plucking vine ripe freshies right from the kitchen all year: immeasurable. Microgreens are a cinch, really flourish fast, 10 varieties so far. Setup details: • Smaller pantry shelves: 10 x10 no hole tray with 4 - 5x5 inserts with holes on AC Infinity seedling mat set on ‘low.’ Microgreen shelves are set 10 inches apart making the Barrina lights about 6-8 inches away from tray tops when mounted above. These shelves are mounted with 4 - 12 inch Barrina T5 strips per shelf. • Larger dining hutch shelves: 2 to 5 10 x 20 Bootstrap Farmer trays with no holes inset with trays with holes (either 10 x 20, or 10 x 10 or 5 x 5 - possible to mix and match like a 10 x 10 and 4 - 5 x 5 in one 10 x 20 bottom tray). Did I make that confusing? I’m just saying the trays have insert configurations to grow more varieties in one 10 x 20 tray. These shelves have 8 Barrina 24 inch T5 LED lights chained together on a timer 15 inches from the shelf below. The grow capacity is 5 - 10 x 20 trays. I often do 2 or 4 depending. I increase the height of this 1890s Edwardian built in shelf by adding an upside down tray below them - if necessary. It’s scalable to many varieties and easy to grow beyond true leaf phase for pea shoots and chard and beet greens (any I like slightly more mature than ‘micro’). Deep Water Culture, indoor: I’m at early flowering phase for my first DWC déterminant tomatoes and chili pepper indoor grow from heirloom seeds. Setup detail: Two compact 10" x 11" 3 gallon DWC units with air stones contain 1 Tiny Tim (plus 3 new clones), a Cherry Maskotka and a Gold Nugget tomato plus one Fresno chili pepper. That’s 4 plant sites and 3 baby clones in a possible 10 sites (for spacing purposes) on a chrome ‘ton’ rack in my kitchen pantry! I haven’t done anything difficult - just monitor nutrient level and pH in DWC and a dilute colloidal PureCropI foliar spray (corn oil, soy oil, vanillin, soap, glycerin, citric acid, guar gum) to prevent fungus or pests. Then, I added 2 additional Barrina T5 24" LED light strips in 2 phases as the plants entered a booming late vegetative phase and this promising early flowering phase. That’s 4 Barrina 24 inch T5 strips horizontally above and 4 vertically on the support posts to reach more vegetation below the canopy without ‘burning’ the plants. I estimated 40 watts of T5 per square foot of actual plant grow space within this rectangle shelf ‘grow area.’ That’s 8 x 10 watt T5 LED 24" strip lights. The lights all connect together on 1 convenient timer plug (16 hours on, 8 hours off). I can manually switch off any if I notice light intensity problems - but they seem to thrive so far in these stages. They’re so easy to connect several in or manually switch off. The chrome rack shelf they’re mounted to is set at counter height 36" from the floor. The lower shelf is the lowest bracket just above the casters that the DWC units and air stone compressor are on. This leaves a few inches below the buckets to ‘drain’ reservoir water or remove fallen leaves below the units. It’s possible to add grow fabric or screening to this rack (but I haven’t yet). My pet isn’t interested in tomatoes and pests are few indoors. A few utility hooks and the racks themselves with a soft plant tie fabric have made support and cord management a cinch. I may add a lower T5 LED strip because one of these tomato varieties, Maskotka, is a dwarf trailing determinate and has flowering branches that drop below the DWC unit’s top. It seems very happy as is though. Maskotka flowered in impressive whorls just after Tiny Tim. The Tiny Tim is blooming with a less prolific but steady regularity, not all at once. Tim isn’t actually ‘tiny’ - though smaller than indeterminate varieties, it goes anywhere light is and vegetation is surprising, reaches upward mostly. Gold Nugget is an ‘in-between’ variety, it will trail toward light, but also reach upward., prolific, but a little slower on blooms. The flowers are just beginning, but buds are visible - just tiny and springing all over the end of branch nodes. This means placement is: Tiny Tim toward the back inner corner for support and some room to sprawl toward the shelf center and forward Gold Nugget to the opposite side - the back outside corner for upward support and trailing space toward the side and Maskotka toward the front for maximum trailing space. Fresno chili is a reasonable size, planted toward an outside corner in the second unit, it grows bushy and upward - it luvs the light, but can tolerate a little less intensity as well as a slightly different nutrient PPM and pH condition to the tomatoes, although these can grow together well being in range with each other. Fresno chilies just required space away from all the tomato canopies and trailing that would otherwise shade it. It’s in the second DWC with clones from the tomatoes (being small they generally require less intense nutrient PPM and light PAR closer to the Fresno levels with increased humidity in proximity to more developed plants). I haven’t ‘pruned’ these determinate varieties, but I did remove any funky leaves and ‘trained’ a few lower and into supports. The 3 shortened stems became the clones. Apparently the tomatoes liked this trim of the leggy tops growing past the ‘grow light shelf zone’ because flowering increased on lower branches after that snipping, dipping in root hormone and the cloning of those cuttings seems magically fast. They’re small but I see flower buds on them. I just don’t know where I’ll put them yet, yikes, lol. It’s nice to have these clones for a tomato plant ‘staggering’ - longer determinate tomato harvest. I luv all these varieties for different reasons from color to flavor to ease of cultivation for indoor hydroponics. I just mean, who knew all of this extremely long and meandering review is possible indoors, in a kitchen, in the city, by a newbie with these Barrina T5 LED lights. How great is that!? I have 2 small ebb and flow units for herbs and lettuces, but those have their own light panels and pump. I’m happy to have them as a nursery for the DWC with Barrina setup or Kratky offshoots. I’m very happy with my Barrina T5 LED purchases so far and give them high recommends. 2 sets of 8 T5 24 inch 1 set of 8 T5 12 inch I did add: Stainless utensil hooks from IKEA and a soft tie material for support (since trailing tomatoes like Maskotka are very ‘trail-y’ and fruits on all varieties get heavy later). I also purchased several female to female LED 3 prong plug connectors so that I could extend the 4 vertical pole lights from the 4 horizontal lights above on one plug. Add one small circulation fan, a few continuous spray misters for foliar applications, 3 seedling heat mats for microgreens and easy germination, two timers for auto on/off, a set of pipettes for easy nutrient measuring/mixing, a pH and EC meter, the 2 DWC units from Lawnful, nutrients from TPS (also tried Humbolt’s Secret - both seem aces), a great pair of nippers. a box of compressed coco coir (and some grow mats), a swell ergonomic 1 gallon watering can with targeted spout, the Bootstrap Farmer trays and True Leaf Market seeds. End list. Hee. I think these lights and indoor setups are low maintenance and attractive. I wanted to commandeer my laundry/utility room as a grow room, but I’m enjoying seeing the plants in the kitchen and dining areas - tough call. Lol. Currently, this produces a lot of produce and culinary herbs. Enough for a small family to enjoy - plus a few neighbors and several catnip and oat grass loving pets. My grocery bill has decreased by 1/3rd, so everything has paid for itself already and I haven’t even harvested the tomatoes and Fresno chilies (which are rarely available here recently) yet. There’s no way to quantify the enjoyment and stress reduction. It’s just Hundo P fulfilling and miles of great feeling more food secure with increased nutrition. And interesting, so interesting! I wish we had this in school curricula - kids just thrill on these projects and learn valuable life skills, respect for food and themselves. Overall, high recommends on Barrina T5 from me. I got the white (full spectrum leaning pink but not pink) ones. Giggle. Granted, I don’t have a lot to compare them to. I’m a beginner and just started these urban indoor farming projects in November 2022 to present. It’s exceeding expectations so far. It’s a lifestyle now. I couldn’t be happier - however newbie I am. Thanks for reading! I hope this helps, everything works out to set fruit and getting through this LED grow light saga isn’t as boring as I suspect. Lol. Happy sowing and growing!

Excelentes luces, trae todo lo necesario para su instalación y eso lo hace muy fácil, la luz es radiante, recién las instale y espero mis suculentas estés más bellas 👍🏼❤️

I have used these lights pretty much nonstop for the last year. I love the plug and play. My plants have definitely grown towards them, especially my cacti and oxalis. EXTENSIONS/PLUGS...They have what I will describe as a female end (hole) on both ends of the light. Therefore, you can plug in the extension cord that hooks to the outlet or the extension cords that hook one light to the other, onto either end of any of the 8 lights. Other lights that interconnect will have one male end and one female end, therefore if you put the light up in the wrong direction, you have to take it back down and rehang it, in order to plug it in where you want to. This light is different (except one of the lights has an end without any connection point for some reason). ON/OFF SWITCHES...They have a simple on/off switch on each light and on the main cord that plugs into the outlet. Because of that you can have some of the lights on and some off at the same time, despite the fact that all of them are getting power from one plug (They do give you two outlet plugs in the kit though which is awesome, in case you want to have two lights in one part of the house and the rest in another spot, for example.). To explain more, to have every light on (if you have all eight attached to one outlet), you need to flip the switches on each of the eight lights to the "on" position, and then switch the switch on the main outlet cord to the "on" position. Then if for example, you have a bunch of plants die, you can turn off any of the eight lights that don't have plants under them any longer. Say you want to third and fourth lights off and the rest on. Just flip the switches on the actual lights (third and fourth) off and there you go. I attach the main cord to a timer that is plugged into my outlet and leave all of the switches to the on position. They turn on and off by themselves then according to a schedule. With these lights, I would definitely recommend you avoid doing this... I have them connected to the underside of different shelves on a larger metal shelf unit. The shelving has metal bars (and thus openings in the base of each shelf). If I water the plants on the top shelf and they leak water from the base of their pots, the water will drip down to the shelf below it. I suggest if you have that set-up to find a sort of hood/guard to cover the garden lights with. If you have water drip onto the back of the light, it will not hurt the lights easily because they are sealed well. I know because I have yet to prevent the pots above these Barrina garden lights from leaking water onto the lights. The lights are still fine. I wouldn't recommend it of course. An easy solution would be to put a catch tray underneath the pots (I just haven't found a tray that fits in my shelf well enough). Overall, I have no complains about these light. I greatly recommend them. I just recently got another Barrina garden light and it was not as well made as these. Unfortunately, that one doesn't connect to these either. It has some little features that these lights don't but one main flaw of that lights is that the plastic that covers the diodes is very cheap and thin (it would break very easy). This eight pack of lights has solid plastic and backing making up each light. I recommend them for sure. If I wanted more garden lights, I would get this exact kit and link them up with my older lights.

First the good. Relatively well made, and well design. Switches on all light bar as well as a main switch on the wall plug in. All hook together either cable or solid plug. Comes with screws with metal clips or you can zip-tie them, also included, lastly some double sided tape. It is infinitely easy to hook the pieces together with all the items that came with the kit. Also it’s s bright, picked light pink, look fairly white. The not so good, packaging was really beat up with one of my boxes having visible puncture one of the light bar had a long dent, but they all worked. It ordered a second one and the box still looked beat up, ut the seller placed it inside a huge amazon box. My other grow light have dimmer and timer this set do not, its minor, but it is super bright. If I look into them I get spots in my eye. Overall I keeping one point, just in case it fails in the next year, if it goes beyond two year I will give it a 5 stars. My other grow light are pushing 2 1/2 years. My final assessment is it is relatively inexpensive, despite of this, it’s well design and flexible.

Arrived quickly, exactly as advertised. Seems to be working well thus far.