The spectrum of light, both visible and invisible, is measured in nanometers. Visible light, sometimes referred to as photosynthetically active radiation, has a wavelength that ranges from 400 to 700 nanometers (PAR). The light wavelengths that plants can really employ for photosynthesis are known as PAR.
You’ve probably heard the terms “blue light” and “red light” when referring to grow lights. These two kinds of light refer to various divisions of PAR that plants use for particular purposes during photosynthesis. Red light, which exists in the 580-700 nanometer range, aids in blooming and fruiting, whereas blue light, which exists in the 400-490 nanometer range, aids in vegetative growth.
Many of the grow lights on the market right now are “full-spectrum lights,” which means they cover the entire PAR spectrum as well as a little bit more. However, you may also come across grow lights made expressly to cover the blue or red light spectrums, which can help you adjust the light to meet your intended growing objectives.
Light Output
Lumens are used to quantify light output, which is the power and intensity of the light emitted from a light source. The brightness of the light increases with the lumen rating. A grow lamp that is adequate for succulents has a brightness rating of 2300 to 9300 (about equivalent to full daylight) per square foot.
Power and Efficiency
A grow light’s power consumption is expressed in watts. You must grasp lumens (light output factor) per watt in order to comprehend a grow lamp’s efficiency. The light is more energy-efficient and uses less energy when the number is greater.
Which type of grow light is ideal for succulents?
Since I bought my LED grow lights five years ago, the technology for grow lights has advanced significantly. Additionally, prices have significantly decreased. For succulent gardeners, a full spectrum LED grow light that looks to generate white light may be the best of both worlds. The red and blue spectrums, which are the ones that benefit your succulents the most, are still highlighted by the LED lights while producing a wider spectrum of light that appears white.
The left-hand YGROW LED Full Spectrum 600W light is 13 x 8 x 2, lights a 3 x 3 space, and is 24 inches above your plants. It has a two-year guarantee and a 50,000 hour life expectancy. It comes with a hanging kit of its own. The SANSI 30W LED Plant Light Bulb on the right may be screwed into any common fixture because it has a standard E26 lightbulb base. This would look fantastic with a single-bulb lamp shining on a beautiful specimen plant.
Do succulents benefit from grow lights?
Succulents grown indoors generally don’t require grow lights. Your succulents can thrive even in the winter without grow lights if your window receives direct sunlight throughout the day. However, because they frequently receive little sunshine throughout the winter, succulents frequently experience etiolation and fading color. Investing in a good grow light will help one avoid those problems.
What size grow light do I need, in watts?
Following your choice of plant grow light, you must determine the size of bulb required for the available space. To start, figure out how much room you need to light. Aim for 20 to 40 watts per square foot as a general guideline. Divide the wattage of your light bulb by 20 (400 watts divided by 20 is 20), then by 40 (400 divided by 40 equals 10).
Is it possible to use any LED light as a grow light?
You want to give your indoor plants a boost, but it doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of money on plant lights when standard LEDs would do. However, can plants be grown using standard LED lights?
While standard LED lights may emit some of the wavelengths required by plants, they cannot be utilized as grow lights. Regular LED lights don’t produce as much light as what plants need. LED grow lights are made to enhance red and blue light, which is what plants mostly need for growth.
The reasons standard LED lights are not the ideal for growing plants are covered in the next article, along with how much growth you may anticipate from your plants if you solely use regular LEDs. We’ll also offer advice on what to look for in an LED light that you plan to use for plant growth.
Can my grow light be left on continuously?
A: My plants will develop more quickly if I give them light all day, am I right? I believe that all I need to do is leave the lights on for them to transform into monsters!
A: Generally speaking, grow lights shouldn’t be left on all the time. For optimum growth, plants require a cycle of light and darkness. They supposedly do “rest during periods of darkness, and possibly utilise this time to transfer nutrients into their extremities while taking a break from growth,” according to theory.
Knowing that basic truth, keep in mind that most plants require at least 12 hours of light each day, of varied intensities. Your hydroponic plants’ precise requirements for sunshine as they develop and bloom can be found in your plant manuals.
Of course, you can place the lights over your hydroponic garden on a timer to ensure that your plants always receive the proper quantity of light. You never have to stress about forgetting to switch things on or off when you have a timer.
How much electricity should I give my houseplants?
Each plant has different needs in terms of light. The majority of home plant lighting options make it virtually hard to provide too much light for most plants.
The three broad kinds of plants that may adapt to interior environments are those that prefer low, medium, and high light intensities. (These three classes are mentioned when discussing specific plants in the publication’s last section.) The categories generally show the minimal amount of light needed. At the higher end of these recommended light ranges, growth is frequently at its finest.
Foot-candle A foot-candle is a unit of brightness or light intensity. It is described as the amount of light that a surface of 1 square feet that is 1 foot from a light source receives, which is equal to one candle of a certain kind.
Low-light plants
Low light intensity plants typically need between 50 and 250 foot-candles per square foot. A handful of the plants in this group can be kept alive with as little as 10 foot-candles of artificial light. Ten to fifteen watts of fluorescent light per square foot of growing space should be provided for low-light plants. Only plants in this category need more light than a single fluorescent tube, such as a 2-foot 20-watt tube or a 4-foot 40-watt tube, without any supplemental lighting (Table 1).
How can I make the best grow light selection?
For indoor gardening, good full-spectrum lights should have a CRI rating of at least 85, ideally closer to 100. Make sure to get enough fixtures so that the light is distributed evenly around the space. Seedlings in the periphery should get the same amount of light as those in the center for them to grow well.
Which light bulb is ideal for plant growth?
For plants like African violets that need low to moderate amounts of light, fluorescent lighting is appropriate. They work well for indoor vegetable seedling starts as well. These lights often come with long, tube-like bulbs in T5, T8, and T12 diameters.
Due to the smaller surface area, a narrower bulb is more effective and brighter. Additionally, compared to incandescent lights, fluorescent bulbs use 75% less energy. Thus, a 25-watt fluorescent light bulb, for instance, produces roughly the same amount of light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb. T5 systems produce roughly twice as much light per tube as traditional fluorescent lighting. They are full spectrum, 6500 Kelvin light, which is very powerful light.
The color temperature scale’s fundamental unit of measurement for whiteness is the kelvin, which expresses how warm or cool a light source appears to the eye. Therefore, the bulb seems bluer or more “cold” the greater the degree of Kelvin. The color seems redder or more “warm” the lower the Kelvin degree.
Use light bulbs between 4000 and 6000 Kelvin to grow the majority of houseplants, as their color temperature will draw from the entire spectrum of cools and warms. You may truly simulate the growth that would occur outside or in a greenhouse with the help of these lights. You may grow starter plants, culinary herbs, and greens all year round with them. Succulents, carnivorous plants, and cattleya orchids are just a few examples of indoor plants that thrive under full-spectrum lighting. T8 or T5 bulbs should be positioned two to four inches away from seedlings and starter plants to simulate the sun. Place established plants, such as herbs or houseplants, a foot or two away from the source of light.
How many lumens is required for a grow light?
These days, LED grow lights are really popular! Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are incredibly effective and can be fairly powerful. However, some vintage gardeners insist on using their original fluorescent lighting instead.
The term “fluorescent” refers to a variety of lighting types, including basic fluorescent tubes, high-output T5 fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), and more. T5 fluorescent grow lights are regarded as the ideal option for plants. T8 tubes can be used to light indoor seedlings or lettuce plants adequately even if they are less effective and bright than T12 tubes.
In general, a typical 45 or 60 watt incandescent light bulb (or LED equivalent) used in a home lamp fixture won’t produce enough light to sow seeds or grow other plants that need a lot of light.
Differences between fluorescents and LEDs
- LED lighting often uses less energy than fluorescent lighting, which results in cheaper electricity costs.
- Although they normally cost more up front than traditional fluorescent tube lights, LED lights may last longer.
- LED lights have a larger range of shapes and sizes because they are composed of several diodes. T5 fluorescents are long, thin tubes with one or more tubes fitted in a ballast fixture (such as “shop lights”).
- LED lights produce more lumens of light per watt. So, depending on the specs of each light, a compact LED fixture may be able to produce more light than a comparablely sized T5 fixture. Some LED lights are not as strong as T5s.
- LED grow lights are typically suspended several feet above plants, compared to T5 fluorescent lights, which can only be kept a few inches above plants. Fluorescents are therefore more suitable for shelf systems with small spaces. Read the individual instructions for each light!
You’ll see different ratings for light temperature, Kelvins, watts, lumens, and other factors when you look for grow lights. I’ll do my best to keep it as easy as possible because this subject has the potential to become difficult (and frequently does)!
What color grow light should I get?
Select a grow lamp that is referred to as “full-spectrum or broad spectrum” for indoor seedling growth. The same is what I advise for indoor plants. You receive the most like natural sunshine possible when using a full-spectrum light, which has a healthy combination of blue and red light. That makes logical, no?
Cool blue light is wonderful for developing leafy green foliage but also limits plant growth, keeping plants short and stocky, if you’re really curious to know the difference. Although this is excellent for seedlings and microgreens (or plants in the “veg” stage), too much blue can eventually cause plants to become stunted. Warm red light promotes vegetative development as well as flowering, but too much red light can cause plants to become tall and lean. The majority of the light produced by standard household incandescent light bulbs is warm and inviting but is not good for plants.
Look for the grow light’s Kelvin rating if the temperature isn’t indicated explicitly. That will reveal the hue of the light it will produce. A full-spectrum grow lamp with a Kelvin level of 5000 to 6500K will closely approximate natural daylight. Warm or reddish lamps have even lower ratings, about 3000K, whereas cooler blue grow lights have a rating around 4000K. A “cool white light” (4100-4500K) will also work well for germinating vegetable seedlings, growing microgreens, and rearing young transplants if you can’t find a full-spectrum light in the correct Kelvin range that also matches your other demands (price, size, availability, etc.).
A source’s output of visible light is measured in lumens. The light gets brighter and more powerful the more lumens it has. The minimal amount of light needed per square foot of growing space for vegetable seedlings and other “full sun plants” is between 2000 and 3000 lumens. So utilizing a grow light that emits 3000 lumens is adequate if you’re only growing a single normal tray of seedlings. If not, scale up to a brighter light using math. Alternately, use several light sources to cover a larger area with a strong canopy of light.
Consider a grow area that is 3 feet by 3 feet, or the equivalent of 9 square feet, for illustration. The average of the suitable range multiplied by 9, or 2500 lumens, shows us that a 22,500 lumen light would be suitable (or several lights that add up to cover that space). Don’t worry if math isn’t your strongest subject. The majority of grow light manufacturers list the square footage that each light is intended to cover.
Finally, remember that brightness is not determined by watts! A low wattage LED (let’s say 20 watts) may emit an even brighter, more brilliant light than a 60 watt incandescent or fluorescent bulb because, as we briefly covered earlier, LED lights emit more lumens per watt.
When determining the appropriate size for grow lights, take into account two factors: the size of the light fixture itself and the size of the surface area that the grow light is intended to appropriately illuminate. (Also see the section regarding square footage and lumens above.) The size of light that will work for you directly depends on your growing space, ideal setup, and number of plants.
Are seedlings or trays of microgreens being grown on a shelf? Try hanging LED strips or fluorescent tube lights from the shelf above. Do you have a dark spot in your living room that you’d want to use to keep one or more indoor plants? Use a single powerful LED bulb or a modern lamp fixture that complements your interior design. In a grow tent, beginning seedlings on a table in your garage, or other larger area, panels or boxy light lights are excellent.
Some grow lights cast light over an area that is much larger than the light source itself. Only the plants directly beneath the lights are sufficiently supported by the others. Your plants will tell you if you’re unsure. Around the edges of the light canopy, seedlings frequently tilt inward toward the brighter light. You could then require a larger light. Or, to ensure that every plant has an equal amount of time in the spotlight, you’ll need to regularly rotate the seedling trays that are below the light every day or two.
Also keep in mind that before transferring seedlings from small seed-starting cells to larger containers for outdoor planting, the majority of gardeners pot them up at least once and perhaps twice. The plants will now take up more room beneath a light as a result of the switch to a larger container size. In other words, when you first start out planting seeds, you could need bigger (or more) lights than you think!