Low wattage LED seed propagation

The above photo shows my 13.5 watt LED grow light being used for seed propagation.

As the LEDs produce hardly any heat I can lower the unit to a few inches above the seedlings. The normal recommended operating height is six to twelve inches above the plants, however when it comes to light intensity, I feel more is better. I have changed the photoperiod to 14 hours to give the seedlings a chance to use the protein accumulated during the lighting cycle. My thinking is by lowering the lamp the increased intensity will compensate for the shorter photoperiod.

While surfing garden sites I find a lot of gardeners asking: "what kind of light should I use for seed propagation?" The most frequent response I see is 48" shop lights with warm and cool tubes. A 48" shop light with two tubes is using approximately 80 watts of electricity, compared to my LED grow light's 13.5 watts.

Hopefully, at some point gardening suppliers will make LED grow lights more available to gardening enthusiasts.