The Best Indoor Herb Garden Lights

Building a herb garden in your kitchen can be an exciting experience. But, there is a lot more planning that goes into it than what meets the eye. The plants need favorable conditions to grow and thrive, the most important condition being light.

The indoor environment may not meet your plants’ light requirements, requiring supplementation with grow lights [1]. The best indoor herb garden lights will provide adequate light that the plants need to grow, develop and flourish.

If you are in the process of setting up a herb garden, the reviews below can come in handy. They feature the best indoor herb garden lights that have proven to work well and suit the needs of most indoor growers.

Best Overall

1. LEOTER Grow Light For Indoor Plants

This is one of the top-rated grow lights for indoor plants on the market. It ticks off all the boxes a grower would have regarding meeting the light requirements of plants. If you are looking for a highly-efficient, economical light, this is a great choice.

This LED grow light comes as a broad spectrum efficient light to meet various light needs. It comes with 80 LEDs; 36 red ones, 16 blue ones, and 28 full-spectrum ones. This allows you to customize the light to meet the right conditions for growth without sunlight.

The best feature of this light is the upgraded on and off auto timer. It is equipped with a circular memory timer function that automatically turns the light on and off according to your settings.

You can dim and brighten the lights as you wish, thanks to the ten dimmable modes the light comes with. It features ten levels of light intensity and three spectral modes, which you can pair to meet the needs of specific plants.

For connectivity, the light comes with a USB connector for convenient plugging and use. The 4-head light has a 360-degree gooseneck to ensure flexibility and adjustments for practical use. And, with the metal clamp, you can position the light anywhere.

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Best For Single Plants

2. Grow LED Umbrella Plant Grow Light

Are you a beginner in indoor herb gardening and testing the waters with one plant? This light from GrowLED is the perfect choice for single plants. It comes in an umbrella design to provide adequate light to your favorite herb, promoting its growth.

The 5W full spectrum light is designed to promote photosynthesis of most indoor plants, helping them grow faster and better. It comes as a 4000k cool white light which works perfectly for an indoor environment.

The best thing about this light is the height-adjustable feature. This lets you set the light at an appropriate height, ensuring the plant gets adequate light without burning the leaves. It is easy to adjust, and you can increase the height as the plant grows.

The umbrella design stands out from most grow lights, creating a visual appeal in your kitchen. When it comes to controlling the light, the auto-on and off timer comes in handy. It keeps the light on for 16 hours and off for 8 hours, balancing working and resting time.

Thanks to the simple design, putting this light together is easy and seamless. You just need to attach the light and plug it in, a 2-step installation process suitable for beginners.

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Best For Small Herb Gardens

3.  Mindful Design Narrow Spectrum LED light

A small herb garden on your kitchen window sill is always a good idea, especially if you enjoy cooking. But, for the plants to grow and thrive, you need a compatible light to support their needs. This small garden indoor light is one of the best.

The Mindful Design indoor garden light can come in handy to provide light for a few herbs, promoting the growth and overall health of the plants. The light works well for any space, including the office, bedroom, kitchen, etc.

It is a bright, 850 lumen and 4000k light featuring red and blue LEDs, essential for optimal plant growth indoors. The lights work together to encourage better stem development, leaf growth, and flower production by mimicking the effects of sunlight.

The best thing is that it has an automatic smart timer that turns the light on and off simultaneously. The light stays on for 16 hours and out for 8 hours, ensuring the plants get adequate light while giving the light time to rest.

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Best for Large Herb Gardens

4. EZORKAS Grow Light For Indoor Plants

If you have an established large indoor garden, it would be best to find a light that reaches every plant in your collection. This 4-head grow light is an ideal option as it provides better coverage for many plants at once.

The light has an easy-to-use control panel featuring different light modes you can choose from. It has nine dimmable modes allowing you to adjust the light from 20% to 100% brightness, ensuring you set the right intensity for your plants.

It also has three timing modes, 3 hours, 9 hours, and 12 hours. These settings allow you to select the amount of time you want the light to run, giving you more customization options. And, with the automatic on and off feature, you do not have to worry about adjusting manually.

The grow light is easy to plug in and install; therefore suitable for beginners in indoor gardening. It comes fitted with a powerful clip that you can use to mount on any surface of up to 3 inches.

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Best Clip-on Light

5. GHodec Store Dual-Head Clip Plants Light

Clip-on lights come in handy to mount on your kitchen counter to position the light perfectly. The clipping design adds to the flexibility of the light, allowing you to place it anywhere around the house. If you are looking for one, this is one of the best.

This light is highly efficient thanks to the wide variety of options it comes with. You can choose from the five red lights or the 37 white ones to customize the perfect light balance for your plants. It is flicker-free and soft, therefore ideal for use indoors.

It comes with an automatic on and off feature, which eliminates the need for switching it on and off constantly. Depending on your plant’s requirements, you can choose from the three timing options, 4 hours, 8 hours, and 12 hours lighting time.

The good thing is that each LED bar can control its on and off feature separately for more customization. That means you can keep some bars on for specific plants and switch others off if the plants do not need as much light.

The clamp that comes with this light is sturdy and long-lasting, securing the light on any surface. It has a 360-degree adjustable gooseneck that allows you to place the light in any direction for practical use.

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How To Choose The Best Indoor Herb Garden Light

There are several things to consider when choosing LED grow lights for herbs. The right light will promote the growth and development of your plants, while the wrong ones will starve them of essential light, stagnate growth and eventually kill them.

Below are essential features to look for in indoor herb garden lights.

Features To Look For In Indoor Herb Garden Lights

Light Spectrum Output

The light spectrum output a light comes in dictates how efficient it will be for your plants. There are two spectrums that matter, blue and red. Blue light is ideal for photosynthesis and vegetative growth, while white is suitable for stem growth, chlorophyll production, and flowering.

Most LED lights will have a combination of white, red, and blue to meet all the light needs of your plants in every growth stage [2]. Therefore, consider lights with at least blue and white to ensure a full spectrum for optimal plant growth.

Light Intensity Output

The idea of growing lights is to mimic sunlight and provide light as intense as what the sun provides. Therefore, the intensity of your grow light should match that of the sun to facilitate photosynthesis.

Intensity is measured in lumens, so look out for that in the light you choose. Generally, herbs do well with 7,000-7,500-lumen lights for every square foot of plants. Herbs that need little light can thrive with a 2,000-lumen light.

If you are unsure of the intensity to select in lights, consider mid-range ones with 4,000 to 6,000 lumens.

Factors to Consider Before Buying an Indoor Herb Garden Light

With the key features in mind, there are a few things you should consider to ensure your indoor herb garden has the best conditions for growth. Below are factors to consider before buying an indoor herb garden light.

Type of Herbs

It is essential to consider the type of plants you want to grow before settling on a particular light. That way, you will ensure you pick one that meets the needs of the specific plants you have.

The plants you choose will impact the intensity of light they need, spectrum, and coverage. Certain plants benefit most from high-intensity grow lights, while others do well with low to moderate intensity lights [3].

Coverage

Your plants need to get the right amount of light; therefore, you need to ensure the light you choose provides that. Otherwise, your plants will stunt growth and deteriorate health. That said, the more grow lights you get, the better the coverage for your plants.

It is recommended to get 20 to 40 watts of coverage per square foot of plants. You can multiply this according to the number of plants you have to ensure each gets adequate light.

Height

The distance between your plants and the light is an important consideration to keep in mind. You want to ensure the light comes with an adjustable height allowing you to set it at the correct position as your plants grow.

Also, having a flexible light will help position it appropriately to ensure each plant gets enough light.

Budget

How much money do you have to spare for an indoor herb garden light? Grow lights are available at different price points, from economical under $20 models to advanced over $100 lights.

Cheaper options may not come with multiple settings and additional features, but there are pretty functional ones, especially for beginners. When considering your budget, consider the features you need first and work your budget around that.

The Bottom line

With the right indoor garden light, your herbs will grow and thrive, giving you a fresh supply in no time. Consider the factors above to ensure you get one that is right for your little garden. The ones reviewed above are a great starting point; hopefully, you find the most appropriate one for your herb garden.