Different Grow Light Options for IKEA Milsbo Cabinet
As many of us are flocking to get IKEA cabinets and use them as mini-greenhouses, we are similarly flocking to Amazon to buy grow lights for them. But between the most popular choices - The Barrina T5 grow light, and the Monios T8 grow light, which ones are the best for me?
I frequently visit the IKEA Greenhouse Club group on Facebook because it’s full of great information on how to setup an IKEA cabinet - the Milsbo, Fabrikor, and Detolf units - to display and grow your plants. As more and more people are setting these up, we pose the question — what’s the difference between all these lights that I find on Amazon and which ones are the best for me? I, like many of the group members, either bought the Barrina or the Monios versions - likely because it’s the most heavily advertised and purchased lights on Amazon, and coming in at 2 feet, they are the perfect size for these cabinets. But what’s the difference in the light output? Many users cite the visual differences - Barrinas run more pink, Monios is more yellow. Recently some were reporting in the Facebook group that their plants had leaf burn with the Monios T8 lights and switched over to the Barrina T5. I am a Monios T8 light user, and I have similar observations on a Philodendron Birkin. Being a nerd, I wanted to dig in more to understand the differences between these four lights - The Monios T5, T8, and the Barrina T5, and T8.
Before we dig in deeper, we have to break down some terminology and how lights are measured.
Measurement Terminology
1. Photon - a particle of light.
2. PAR (Photosynthetic Active Radiation) - wavelengths of light within the visible range of 400 to 700 nanometers (nm) that are critical for photosynthesis.
3. PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) - measures the amount of PAR that actually arrives at the plant, or as a scientist might say: “the number of photosynthetically active photons that fall on a given surface each second”.
So to break it down, think of your grow lights spewing out tiny little balls of light (photons) and it's raining down on your plants. The PPFD measures how many of these particles of lights land on your plants.
Other measurements such as lux, we don't really care about because they measure the intensity of the light, and does not really tell us how much of this light matters to our plants in terms of photosynthesis. Most light meters you get that are app-based will measure in lux. You can only measure PPFD using some pretty expensive equipment. So if you are buying grow lights, make sure you can find the PPFD chart for that specific light. This is a really good way to figure out if a light is "good" or not. Without going into all of that info, a high PPFD is a really good thing because it takes in less wattage to convert to a particle of light. Most of the measurements in grow light technology cares about how much power goes in to produce light (think about large-scale cannabis farming operations, vertical farming, etc. It's all about money spent for yield.)
The Comparison
So we have 4 lights that are popular with the IKEA cabinet crew - likely because of the length and affordability. These are the Barrina T5, T8, and Monios T5, T8 lights. The chart below is a comparison of each light and their PPFD measurements in units of umols / m^2s. Note here that PPFD for a light isn't just one number. It's not even just 3 numbers. Think about the light spewing photon particles again - the amount of light particles landing directly below the light at 8 inches will be a lot higher than the amount of light particles 10 inches below and 6 inches over. Most grow light manufacturers will publish at least a 3-tier PPFD chart, and the really good ones will publish an entire grid. For the sake of this comparison, we used the 3-tiers measured at 8", 12", and 20".
| Light | 8in | 12in | 20in |
|---|---|---|---|
| ................................. | ..................... | ..................... | ..................... |
| Barrina T5 | 91.1 | 59.3 | 31.2 |
| Barrina T8 | 210.7 | 132 | 69 |
| Monios T5 | 260 | 203 | 109 |
| Monios T8 | 181 | 136 | 83 |
| ................................. | ..................... | ..................... | ..................... |
Source: Amazon.com and Barrina.com. When writing this article, the PPFD information was difficult to find. Monios measurements were available on the amazon product listing, however the Barrina ones were difficult to find. The T5 was hidden on their product listing and the T8s were not available, and I found them via another FB group member who took a screenshot from Amazon Canada. After the writing of this article, the Barrina PPFD information became available on the amazon product listing now.
What does this chart mean? It means all of our observations make sense! The Monios T8 lights are stronger than the Barrina T5 lights.
From weakest to strongest:
Barrina 2' T5
Monios 2' T8
Barrina 2' T8
Monios 2' T5
Does this mean you should replace all of your Monios T8 with Barrina T5? Not necessarily. It depends on what you're growing, and how your cabinet is configured.
Plants!
So let's talk plants for a second. Wouldn't it be great if we knew what house plants need in terms of PPFD?
Low-Light Plants: 40-80 PPFD - African Violets
Moderate-Light Plants: 80-150 PPFD - Most aroids like anthuriums, Pothos
High-Light Plants: 150-350 PPFD - Most Philodendrons, Monsteras
Very-High-Light Plants: 350-600 PPFD - Vanda Orchids
Full-Sun Plants: 600-2200 PPFD - Cannabis, Lemon Trees, Cacti
For example, if you are growing a philodendron that needs about 150 PPFD, and you put it 8 inches under your Monios T8 light at 181 PPFD, those leaves will burn! However, if you rearrange your cabinet and put that philodendron 12 inches away from the light, it should be ok. Those that say "my Monios T8 are just fine" - their cabinets are either configured in such a way that sensitive plants aren't that close to the light source, or they are growing things like Hoyas that loves the high levels of light.
If you are mounting 2 lights to a shelf, I don't exactly know the math for it. I can't imagine it's 100% additive and I can't find any information about this for these 4 specific lights, neither manufacturer posts the grid PPFD measurements. Likely if you have the PPFD grid information, you can calculate by putting one grid on top of another and adding the PPFD values but I'm not entirely certain that math is correct. All I know is I have 2 Monios T8s mounted to a shelf and my hoyas LOVE it, they get the sun stress but none of the burning.
Color Spectrum
Another really important thing to understand is the color spectrum the light puts out. On the blue spectrum it helps the plant grow bigger leaves but if exposed to too much blue light, plants may get leggy. On the red spectrum it helps the plant grow more vigorously and helps with flowering and fruiting. More importantly in the last couple of years, there's been a lot of science around the infrared spectrum (or far red). In combination with the wavelengths from blue to red, infrared actually helps a ton in promoting photosynthesis. One of the best grow lights out there is the one made by Jeff Young over at the orchid hobbyist. The PPFD of those lights (around 67) is even lower than the Barrina T5, and it's recommended that 2 are mounted together. I have 2 sets of these and they are amazing.
Footnote: Why was it so hard to find the information for Barrina? Most grow light buyers are not in the houseplant world and they are looking for high PPFD to grow seedling starts or a cannabis operation. When you look at the PPFD of the Barrina T5, it's actually a really crappy grow light for that purpose. The output of photon, when compared to the amount of energy / wattage it sucks up, is not good at all. From all of the videos I watched, that is one sign of a crappy light - misrepresentation of wattage, and not publishing any PPFD information. So what does this mean for Barrina T5 owners? You are probably paying a bit more in power consumption for the light output, but the lower PPFD is actually awesome for a space-constrained, small area.
Lastly I have to stress that these are PUBLISHED PPFD ratings from the manufacturer. One thing you learn about grow lights is to never trust a manufacturer if they are not "reputable". There are a few good brands out there like mars hydro and spider farm, barrina and monios are not "reputable" brands so you can always assume that the PPFD is LOWER than the published value.