Do Artificial Light Help Plants Grow And What Is Artificial Light？
What is artificial light? Does artificial light help plants grow?
Growing plants in artificial light is on the rise. It’s not just because of the legalization of cannabis. Garden vegetables, fruits, flowers and green plants all thrive on it, but how?
You also might wonder what natural light is and whether artificial light can even come close to it. The short answer is that artificial lighting sources can provide much of what natural light can provide.
You have much to learn about the best types of artificial lights for plants, however. Most of the time you can use them, but sometimes, you may need to just stick with natural sources.
Some situations also may call for you to use both. You can sometimes grow plants with artificial light next to an open window, for instance.
So what is artificial light?
A standard artificial light definition will tell you that it’s a lighting source that comes from an electric lamp. More specifically, it’s any source of illumination that doesn’t naturally occur from the sun, moon or stars.
Types of Artificial Light for Indoor Plants
Just about any kind of bulb that shines bright enough can work for growing indoor plants. People have even used standard household lamps as a source of artificial lights for interior gardening.
These four common indoor plant artificial light types would most likely serve you the best. Notice that each one has its advantages and disadvantages.
LED (Light Emitting Diode) Lamps
We typically recommend LED artificial lights for indoor plants over most other types. Their overall efficiency level surpasses that of fluorescent, incandescent, and HID (HPS or MH) lights.
For the amount of light in contrast to the amount of heat emitted from LED lamps, they’re quite efficient. You don’t have to use as much energy to run them or the cooling fans you would need when setting up your grow room.
The major bummer about LED lights is that they do cost more upfront. Still, you will find out soon enough that they’re worth the investment. Besides, you won’t have to replace them that often, with them lasting about 8-10 years on average–sometimes up to 15 years.
Fluorescent Lamps
Before there was LED, there was fluorescent. The development of fluorescent lamps started in the last 1800s on throughout the 1900s.
To be fair, earlier experiments also were conducted on LED lights. There’s maybe a two- or three-decade difference in public release for certain LED versus fluorescent lamps.
You can expect almost as effective light for your plants using fluorescent lamps as LED. They’re almost as efficient as LED lamps too and cost less. For that reason, you can jumpstart your artificial light gardening experience before you purchase your first LED lamps.
The disadvantage of the fluorescent light is that it can sometimes catch on fire easily. You can take proper safety precautions, however. For instance, keeping them on the ceiling out of reach would help.
That also does make them a little tougher to replace, but at least you won’t have to do that for at least two years. The newest types of fluorescent bulbs can even last at least four to six years.
HID (High-Intensity Discharge) Lamps
High-Intensity Discharge bulbs run using a gas-discharge system and electricity. You can use one of two primary types of HID lamp bulbs: HPS (high-pressure sodium) and metal halide (MH).
The HPS bulbs contain some mercury and other chemicals, such as xenon and sodium. Its aluminum oxide tubing helps prevent sodium corrosion. The MH bulbs have an arched quartz tube that has metal halide in it.
It’s tough to explain how the HPS and MH HID bulbs work. Heat activates a reaction that creates light.
The HPS lights provide quite a bit of the yellow, red and far-red light waves useful for plant flowering stages. The MH provides cool, blue light waves, which activate photosynthesis, and this is what growers often use when plants first develop.
HID bulbs can offer you an indoor growing experience similar to what you would get from sunlight. However, this type of artificial light for plants can burn hotter and cost more to run than other types of bulbs.
Incandescent Bulbs
Believe it or not, even incandescent artificial lights give off the light waves that plants need. They’re the least efficient of the common bulbs used, and the growing process may take longer. They’re not as bright or intense as other types of artificial grow lights for plants.
The hugest disadvantage of incandescent bulbs is how hot they get. They usually only produce about 10% light to 90% waste. We recommend them for supplemental lighting or just for times when you want to turn off your other lights while maintaining your plants.
Does artificial light help plants grow?
You can grow plants with artificial light. However, you have several factors to consider that determine how well they will work.
1. The spectrum of your lights
You can choose a single-spectrum light or a full-spectrum one. The most common single-spectrum lights used are red and blue.
The red typically works well for helping plants develop during the flowing stages. The blue can provide a fuller plant with richer leaves.
If you want to invest in LED lights and lower your growing budget, you could start with a full-spectrum light. It has all the colors of the visible rainbow in it, including red, yellow, green, blue and more. You can also adjust your lights to provide you with the ideal growth spectrum setting.
2. Plant growing stage
Plants need more light as they begin to grow. Keep this in mind as soon as your seeds begin to sprout. It’s even more important to provide enough light if using starter plants that you more than likely will have to transplant.
3. How long you run them
Most plants require an average of 12 hours of daylight. In this case, it would be artificial light that mimics daylight. You might get away with using less light and less electricity if you plant your crops near a south or east window.
4. Day versus night cycle
Plants don’t usually require more light at night, so you can turn your lamps down for at least six hours. Using artificial light for plants that have a dimming switch helps with this. Determining how long or how high and low you run your lights comes easier if you set timers.
5. Placement of plants and light
Not all lights need direct light. However, you’re better off placing your artificial lights over the top of your plants. Make sure they fit underneath the lamps as well as possible.
6. Number of plants you have
One way to maximize the space you have with the number of plants you have is to install ceiling grow lamps. This will allow for light exposure to all your plants with minimal effort.
If you want to use individual lighting for smaller groups of plants, make sure you plan ahead for space. A minimum of a between them will prevent overcrowding.
7. Size of grow room
The size of your grow room (or greenhouse or tent) works hand in hand with the number of plants you have. You’re going to have to put thought into measuring for the amount of space you need between plants.
You also need to take into account the space you would walk through to care for your plants. This will determine the size as well as the placement of your grow lights. It also will determine the type of artificial grow light you plan to use.
8. Types of artificial lights for plants you install
You can use the ceiling lights. However, you don’t have to. On the other hand, if you use bar lights or versicle growing lamps, remember to make room for them. They will operate differently than overhead lamps.
9. Nutrients you provide your plants
Using artificial lighting alone isn’t usually the only consideration when growing an indoor garden. You also have to choose carefully the type of food, fertilizer or compost you use to feed your plants.
Note also that hydroponic gardening uses water-based fertilizers. It’s usually different from if you were to plant in soil.
10. Type of gardening you do
Sometimes, making artificial lighting work for you depends on the type of gardening you do. For instance, you may find that a TSDG toplight works well for greenhouse gardening.
What is Natural Light?
If we’re trying to answer whether artificial light helps plants grow or not, why mention natural light? We figured it would help to compare and contrast using natural light as opposed to or along with using artificial light.
We already mentioned the sun, moon and stars as sources of natural light. That’s where your natural light usually comes from. Photographers also may use reflectors, such as mirrors, to bounce natural light at an angle that suits them when creating the most optimal picture-taking scenario possible.
Just for fun, we’ll tell you that we also looked up firelight, which is naturally occurring—at least without the use of electricity to generate it. It turns out its visible light hues of red to blue range from about 450-750 nanometers, some of what you would get from sunlight.
Of course, using firelights for growing plants indoors is hardly practical. It’s more what you would use in the vein of outdoor plant development, such as the way Fire Poppies grow after a California blaze.
Should you use natural or artificial light for plants?
Anytime you have the opportunity to take advantage of natural light, use it. For instance, you may have an unused sunroom at one end of your home. You may have the chance to turn it into a greenhouse.
Even a bedroom, kitchen or breezeway that offers plenty of light is an excellent source of natural light. Take advantage of that if you have it. If you don’t have that, you can use artificial light for plants, but it does call for a bit of a learning curve before you “get it right.”
Concerning the Use of Artificial Lights for Plants
How successful you are at growing plants with artificial light depends on how well you set up your grow room. This part of the project may not feel as enjoyable as working with the plants may be.
If you have the means, you can make the task of preparing your growing room less overwhelming. Ask us for tips or perhaps turn to a professional who knows how to design them.
No matter what, make sure you consider the factors of preparation we already discussed. How much room you have for your plants will probably be the most important of these. This also includes making enough space to set your lights.
When to Use Natural Light
Use natural light anytime you have enough of it to make a difference. If it’s not direct sunlight, it still can provide supplemental brightness for plants along with artificial lights. If you have enough space to place your plants indoors –or even outdoors for that matter–use natural light.
When to Use Artificial Light
Use artificial light for indoor plants anytime you want to speed up the growing process. It’s also helpful for maximizing your crop yield.
You also will want to use artificial light for growing plants indoors that you otherwise can’t grow off-season. For instance, you can grow lettuce, carrots, cannabis, summer flowers, or just about anything inside year-round using artificial light.
When you grow plants with artificial lights, you can overcome challenging climate changes. Take your garden indoors, and you can develop plants even during droughts and freezing weather.
It will require that you also have enough water and nutrients, but it’s possible. After some practice, you should have no problem using artificial lights to grow plants.
