November 25, 2021
When you want to grow indoor plants, you need the best light to help the plant grow. Natural light is an option, but a lighted bulb at the top of a tree allows the tree to grow.
Over the years, indoor LED grow lights have moved from incandescent to fluorescent and, eventually, greenhouse LED grow lights. LEDs are short for light-emitting diodes, these light-emitting diodes emit light from solar energy, so they are generally considered the best option available.
There are many LED grow light source options on the market, but they are not all the same. Quality, durability, longevity, warmth, price, and durability should be considered when choosing accessories. If you are growing a home lawn and looking for the correct type of lighting for your indoor garden, the LED grow light guide will help you find the best option for your project.
There is a distinction between LED lights and LED grow lights. While both use LEDs, the latter is designed for plants and includes features like:
Full-spectrum light: This refers to the color range that each diode emits. These different wavelengths allow for photosynthesis in plants.
Higher energy diodes: A full-spectrum diode can emit more infrared and ultraviolet light, stimulating growth for both seedlings and harvest-ready plants.
Near UV diodes: These are used during flowering to encourage the formation of buds.
Higher wattage diodes: Grow lights need to be bright enough to cover a large area, especially if you’re growing in an open space. This is why it’s essential to look for a light with high wattage diodes, which allow them to emit more energy and cover a larger grow area.
Standard LED lights are only designed to light up a room or area and won’t work well for your plants.
Blue spectrum
Blue is the 400–450nm wavelength, the low end of the visible light spectrum. It’s used in the vegetation and growth phase of younger plants and seedlings. This is the main spectrum found in fluorescents and Metal Halide bulbs and the reason they’re used early in the growth phase of plants.
The blue spectrum helps to reduce the stretching of younger plants leading to a thicker and stronger stalk. This is important to supply the water and nutrients to the canopy and support the weight of the fruit and foliage.
Green Spectrum
The 500–550nm wavelength is closer to the centre to the visual spectrum and is mostly reflected by the plant rather than consumed, that’s why plants appear green in colour. Though the effect of the green spectrum on plants isn’t totally understood, the main character is the vibrant look of the leaves and foliage under the light.
Red Spectrum
At the other end of the visible spectrum is the red wavelength. 650–700nm is the wavelength that most influences flowering. The red spectrum is often used to finish off the fruiting or flowering of plants but also has benefits to the growth phase as well.
Red is the dominant spectrum associated with HPS lighting which is commonly used later in a plant’s life cycle. It mimics the sunlight found later in the growing season when many plants focus energy on flowering to seed the next year’s crop.
LED grow lighting is designed to incorporate all of the most beneficial wavelengths for the growth and flowering phases of a plant’s life cycle. Because a variety of colors can be used in a single fixture, full spectrum grow lights have a big advantage over traditional bulbs.
Loriflux 320W Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
Features:
The Loriflux grow light is the perfect solution for the home gardener utilizing tents and or smaller environments that do not implore the use of CO2 but still require a full-cycle solution. Constructed from aircraft-grade aluminium and top brand LEDs and Drivers, the low profile, durable and sleek design of this grow light allows our product to be utilized in ANY growing environment whether it be large scale commercial, vertical, or hobbyist. LEDs are mounted to Passively cooled extrusions that dissipate heat up, not down towards the plants, allowing lights to be placed closer. Optimized spectrum has been proven by growers for veg and flowering. Scientifically engineered to maximize photosynthesis, growth, and yield. Using only 630 watts, the full cycle fixture exceeds the output of any 1000W HID and is field-tested at 2.0 Grams per watt and climbing.
Rapid LED FM320 LED Grow Light
Features:
The Rapid LED grow light is Rapid LED’s easiest-to-use fixture perfect for those that want a reliable, affordable lighting option ready to go out of the box. With system-level efficiency between 2.5–2.7 umol/J and a choice of either 3200K or 4000K color temperature this fixture is great for either full-cycle/veg/rooting (4000K) or flowering (3200K). This is a full spectrum grow light: Yield Max Spectrum and Secondary Optic Reflective Bars, Increase Your Yields & Profits 50% Without Any Extra Energy Costs. Speed up Blooming & Fruiting, Perfect for Density Buds. This indoor grow light is a Scalable Solution for Commercial, Home, Grow Tent, Grow room, Hydroponic, Soil full-cycle growing. The first choice for beginners and professional growers, Easy to Install, Ideal for High PPFD Cultivation with Single or multi-tier racking.
The main selling point behind LED lights is that they produce a powerful light spectrum without generating a ton of heat. Depending on how powerful your LED bulbs are, you might not have to invest in a fan exhaust system (although it’s highly recommended that you do it in closed settings so your plants have sufficient airflow).
Another positive for LED lights is that they are simple to set up. Most often, all you have to do is plug these lights into an electrical socket, place them above your plants, and turn the unit on.
Unlike fluorescent lights, however, LED lights can be extremely harsh on cannabis at a close range. For this reason, you need to have a fair amount of space to avoid damaging your precious plants. How much space you need depends on the intensity of your LED lights, but stronger models might require a minimum of 30’’.
Also, since LEDs aren’t as powerful as HIDs, don’t expect huge yields. With proper training, however, you will get respectable yields without spending an arm and a leg for electricity.
If you are seriously considering LEDs, make sure you get a full-spectrum model. These setups emit all the wavelengths of light within the visible range of 400 to 700 nanometers (nm) which drive photosynthesis.
As we mentioned above, you’ll need to consider your plant’s specific needs and go from there to use artificial lights for houseplants. With that said, thinking about the following will get you off to a good start.
Determining How Much Light You Need
When it comes time to select lights, you’ll need to look at the light requirements of your plants. Plants that require low light won’t need to receive as much light as plants that require direct light.
However, you can use the same light for both plants that require bright and low light. The key is to move the light further away from plants that require low light and closer to plants that require bright light.
Setting Up Grow Lights
As we’ve mentioned above, the distance between your artificial light and your plant depends on the light’s intensity as well as your plant’s light needs.
It’s best to position a light directly above a plant to encourage straight, upward growth.
Determining How Long to Leave Your Lights On
Let’s get one thing clear: you should not leave your lights on for 24 hours. Just like plants need light, they also require periods of darkness. The hours of darkness, rather than the hours of light, are responsible for triggering plant processes such as entering dormancy and producing flowerings.
When you’re determining how long to leave your lights on, you’ll need to consider the following factors.
Plant preferences: Look to see how much light your plant requires. If it requires 10 hours of indirect light, leave your light on for 10 hours.
Time of year: When you’re using artificial light on long-lived houseplants, you want to mimic nature. That means decreasing the amount of light in the winter and increasing the amount in the summer.
Plants love light, that’s a well-known fact. Even though it might be very easy to believe that environmental factors such as temperature or nutrition might play a more important role in the growth and well being of a plant, light actually has a major job, helping with photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is the process used by plants to turn light energy into chemical energy, so everything related to growth starts from there. In a greenhouse, hydroponics grow light is oftentimes essential since natural light penetrating inside is too weak to handle the demand.
In the end, I sincerely hope you can find a suitable grow light to make your indoor plants grow better!
October 20, 2023