Influence Of LED Grow Light On Plant Grown Quality By Different Light Quality
Effect of LED Light Quality on Plant Growth: Ideal Color Tempurature, Type of Light and Spectrum
When it comes to indoor gardening, you can expect just any light to work. We speak of LED lighting quality most often because that’s what we recommend for growing plants.
Different aspects of light quality apply to any kind of grow lamps you decide to use, however. Color temperature, type of light and color spectrums are some factors affecting plant growth quality.
Ideal Color Temperature
Color temperature matters when considering light quality measurement. It’s part of what you can count on to make your crops flourish, providing you the yield you hope.
Now, you may require a slightly different color temperature for carrots than you would cannabis. Light measurement variations may also affect cucumbers differently than they do peas – or whatever you decide to grow. Still, there’s an ideal color temperature range for most plants.
High quality LED lights used for plant growing usually run from about 3,500-7,000K (Kelvin temperature rating). If you’re not sure what lights to use, stick with the average of 6,500K, which also is the Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) of natural sunlight.
Ideal Color Rendering
Color rendering refers to how your plants look under the grow light. With a Color Rendering Index (CRI) as close to 100 as possible, your plants will look like they would in sunlight.
A near-100 CRI will help you assess plant health as opposed to a light with strong red, green, yellow or other tint. You can see identity defects, diseases, brown spots and other issues more in the best quality LED lights that look as natural as possible.
Now, you may not always achieve a perfect 100 CRI with artificial lighting. However, high quality LED lights can reach a CRI rating of at least 85. That’s the minimum you should aim for when determining the ideal Color Rendering Index.
Color Intensity
Color intensity is related to how bright a light shines. You will have to determine how intense your lights should be based on what you’re growing.
Low-light plants may call for only 50-250 foot-candles, which translates to about 10-15 watts of light per square foot. This figure is based on research findings concerning fluorescent lighting, so you may need to adjust accordingly when using LED lights.
Other plants that grow well under medium light (think partial shade) may require 250-1,000 foot-candles of light. This requires at least 15 watts or more of power per square foot. You may want to choose for about 7000-7500 lumens per square foot for medium-light plants.
Plants you grow indoors that normally require direct sunlight could require more than 1000 foot-candles. This equals at least 1,000 lumens of light per square foot or maybe 20-50 watts of light for that square-foot growing area.
Again, these figures are based on a report about fluorescent lighting. It’s regarded as the second most efficient lighting as LED lights. You may not require as much wattage for your high-quality LED lights as you would fluorescent ones.
Light Efficiency
Incandescent
Incandescent bulbs have always been the standard in household settings. They only last an average of about 100 hours as opposed to quality LED lights. LED lights last a maximum of 50,000 hours.
Incandescent bulbs can work for plant growing, but it’s a slow process. You would need more of them than you would LED lamps. Incandescent bulbs only have about a 10% efficiency rating.
Fluorescent
Fluorescent bulbs do okay for efficiency at about 85%. Of course, that’s still not as good of a quality of light that an LED lamp could provide. They last about 10,000 hours, and they take about 46-226 watts to run versus only about 12-215 for LEDs.
HID (HPS and MH)
High intensity discharge bulbs (HID) include both the high-pressure sodium (HPS) and the Metal Halide (MH) lights. They can last at least 24,000 hours, and they’re slightly cheaper than the LEDs.
However, they HIDs consume far more energy than LED bulbs. If you’re concerned about upfront cost, use these. On the other hand, you’re investing more than you need to if you don’t use LED instead of HIDs.
LED
In all fairness, LED light quality does vary. For the best LED bulbs you can find, the efficiency usually rates about 90%.
Most LEDs do provide you quite a bit of coverage area. They’re bright enough to run at lower wattages than most other common lighting types. The price per unit upfront cost is the highest, but the cost to operate is lower than incandescent, HID and fluorescent lights.
Ideal Color Spectrum Ratings
The full LED color spectrum appears like white light, just like daylight. The wave colors of the visible light spectrum include the seven colors of the rainbow. These different LED light waves affect plant growth quality in different ways.
You might consider installing full-spectrum LED lights when you get started. They do at least provide some of what you’re plants need, including the ever-popular blue and red lights.
Not all full-spectrum lights are created equal, however. Consider the ideal overall spectrum rating, and think about the purpose for both blue and red lights.
By the way, it’s not that you can’t use the other light waves, such as green or yellow. However, blue and red are most helpful to plants. For now, we’re going to focus on the use of them regarding the quality of LED light you should use for plant growth.
Ideal Overall LED Spectrum Range
The ideal overall LED light spectrum range describes the ideal light wave ratings that plants most need. This is measured in nanometers (nm).
The ideal LED spectrum range includes both the blue light starting at 400 nm. The high end of this spectrum includes the red light that measures 700-750 nm.
Ideal Blue Light Range
We already mentioned that light at about 400 nm begins the range at which blue light is most useful for plants. Even up to 500 nm of blue light will activate the chlorophyll production, which plants require for the photosynthesis process for providing itself its own energy.
Blue light helps a plants’ overall development starting from the roots, to the stems, to the leaves. It can help produce as green and as full of crops as possible. Better-tasting fruits and veggies also may come from growing plants using the ideal blue light range.
Ideal Red Light Range
Growing plants using LED lights at the ideal red light range of 600-700 nm seems to help the most during the budding and flowering stages. However, it’s this mixed with the blue light that provides the most positive effect on plant growth quality.
The red light along with the blue light provides the efficient use of energy plants require during development. We suggest “getting this right” before your crop fruits (or veggies) begin to ripen. After ripening, it may be too late and you may not yield as much of an edible or useful harvest.
Additional Lighting Factors
It’s not just about the quality of your LED lights. It’s how you use them that matters. Now, we don’t mean this as an insult. We’re here to help you grow successful plants, and our experience concerning usage of your lights and how you set them up will help you.
Additional lighting factors besides lighting quality involve where you place the lights. The growing environment and size or type of plants also makes a difference too. As you experiment with your first round of growing, you probably will figure out some of this for yourself.
Light Placement
You don’t want your lights too close to your plants. You could burn out the leaves or even start a fire. A good foot or two is best, and make sure they’re secure. You don’t want them falling off or down from where you placed them.
As far as placement, make sure the light shines to the edges of your plants’ leaves. If your crops are still seeds, plant for about two feet around each one for proper light placement. Consider also height in between rows if vertical growing, and plan for enough light underneath the top.
Growing Environment
You obviously won’t get the same results in a corner of a bedroom or in the basement as in a greenhouse. The greenhouse setup would be the best place for direct-sunlight plants.
In the case of a greenhouse, you won’t need to rely on as high of a wattage and brightness of growing lamps. However, trying to grow plants that need direct light will not do well in a partially shaded room unless you allow for enough brightness in that space to cover your plants.
Type and Size of Plants
Types and sizes of plants you grow matters works hand-in-hand with ideal light placement. This pertains whether you use LED lamps as your only illumination source or when combining with sunlight.
Type and size of plants in your indoor space also matters even if it’s a sunroom or greenhouse. For instance, it does no good to place plants underneath another row of plants if that top row of plants is going to eventually cover them and block the light.
Make sure you leave at least 12-24 inches all the way around each plant. What’s more, you may need to place some lights above and/or below each row if you do vertical gardening.
Types of Lights
When considering the quality of LED lights and their effect on your plant quality, consider types of lights. For instance, some bar lights can provide coverage in the middle of grows as well as overhead.
You can plug some of them in just about any outlet. Then, you can unplug them and move them if you want.
On the other hand, if you’re going to use the built-in ceiling lights, you have less control later of what you place underneath it. In this case, it would be tough to grow rows underneath each other. They would instead have to be tiered.
One advantage, by the way, of some of the LED lights we offer is the adjustable spectrum features. This allows you to control how much of each blue, red or other light waves your place receives when first sprouting, vegetating, budding and flowering.
If you’re growing just a few plants for now in your home, the UFO lights may be all that you need. It’s also easy to apply these lights to most room interiors, just in case the plants you grow also serve decorative purposes along with the lighting you install.
Of course, the UFO only covers limited areas, as it is meant for spotlighting. It might be more costly to gain the coverage you need for large commercial indoor plant production. However, they do offer just as high of a quality of light as other LEDs.
How to Choose the Right LED Lights
LED light quality is only half the battle along with knowing how to place your lights. Along with placing your lights, it does require careful room planning.
Measure your Grow Room
You’re going to have to measure the size of the room itself if you don’t already know what it is. Then, sketch a plan (blueprint) of where you will place all your plants. Then, you’ll need to measure the space you need above, below and around your plants for light placement.
Plan for the Right Lights
Don’t decide on what lights you will buy until you’re sure – not even if you want overhead lights. After all, the top lights could be too long, and you won’t be able to place more than one above your plants if you choose the wrong ones.
Consider also that placing lights in front of windows is a waste of energy. Why do that when you know the windows already provide daylight?
Concerning installation of LED lights near windows, you’re better off planning to place them in shadier areas of the room. Save some of the LED lights for under larger plants to cover younger plants just growing, for instance.
Count Your Plants
Of course, it would be better if you count your plants before you buy them. However, if you already had gone on a spree and purchased them, it’s not too late to rectify the issue.
Count how many plants you have space for in your primary growing area. Remember, this requires at least two feet from your plant’s base around smaller plants. That will give them room to grow.
For larger, more mature plants, they’ve already maximized their spread, and you can plant for about a foot around each one.
Make Room for Maintenance
Your plants do need some room, but they maybe don’t need as much room as you do. Before choosing LED lights, make sure you also have room to maintain your plants before setting them up. You have to get around them.
Lighting Features
We suggest giving both your energy bill and your plants a light break. The LED lights with the programmable timers work the best. You can dim your lights automatically without being their to turn them down at night.
Keep It Simple
Speaking of how to choose the right LED lights, keep your growing environment simple at first. Maybe instead of setting up vertical grows, just do one single row at a time for as much room as you have. Then, place lights overhead.
Perhaps you can also place some barlights on the sides too if you have room between rows. Otherwise, instead of rows, have small tables with plants on them and room around those few plants. Then, place a spotlight over each space.
These are just examples of what you can do with high quality grow lights. It may take a few rounds of testing to determine the right growing environment for you. We’re here if you have any questions though.
led different light quality on plant growth quality
