Growing Plants With Lights: A Beginner’s Guide
You won’t be able to grow many of your favorite plants inside if you don’t have a proper source of light.
Any indoor space where the sun doesn’t shine for more than four hours a day is not suitable for most flowering and fruiting plants.
Many people give up on gardening when they realize that the sun doesn’t shine enough on their indoor plants.
Others, however, think of innovative solutions, such as growing plants with lights.
Lamps are also a source of light, so we should be able to grow plants under them, right?
The truth is, you can grow any plant with artificial light, and people have been doing it for decades.
And, with the newest light technology, growing plants with lights has become easier than ever!
But, if you want to grow plants with lights, you must be ready to learn all about it.
For that purpose, I wrote this definitive guide on how to grow plants with artificial light.
Although you’ll find a lot of new information in this article, I want to assure you that nothing mentioned below is difficult to understand.
Also, you don’t need to finish reading this guide in one sitting. Save this article in your bookmarks and come back to it whenever you want.
OK, without further delay, let’s start!
Section 1: Introduction to Growing Plants with Lights
Before you grow plants with lights, you should learn about the light requirements of plants, measurements of light and their importance, and the lights that are used to grow plants.
In this section, I will walk you step by step through the basics of growing plants with lights.
If you have enough information about the topics mentioned here, you can skip this section and jump to the next one.
Light and Plants
You have heard it before, plants need light for photosynthesis, the process by which they produce their own food.
But did you know that not all light can drive photosynthesis? Plants need specific colors (frequencies) of light to survive.
Sunlight has all frequencies of light, ranging from infrared (IR) to ultraviolet (UV).
However, plants rely almost entirely on red and blue light to make photosynthesis. Plants also grow better when they are exposed to slight amounts of UV and IR.
The unique light pattern, which ranges from blue to red and can make plants thrive, is called PAR, short for Photosynthetically Active Radiation.
Lamps that are used by gardeners to grow plants emit most of their light in the blue and red spectral range (PAR range). Then I'm going to introduce you some useful led grow light.
ECO Farm SP Series 420W/630W/840W Dimmable LED Grow Light With Samsung Chips Foldable Light Strips
Product Features:
- High-efficiency full spectrum grow light: ECO Farm SP series led grow light have Samsung lm281B LEDs(3000k+5000k) +RED 660nm+IR 730nm +UV 395nm, provides the plant with the full spectrum from seeding to flowering. Ideal for indoor plants all stages growing, rapid plant response from seed to flower, speeds up flowering time and boost yields
- Market-leading efficiency to 2.6 µmol/J and 2.5g yield per wattage with 30% higher average PPFD
- Realize large-area harvest with LED lighting: Easy to dimming and heat dissipation, waterproof power supply, aluminum housing, long power supply life, suitable for large rooms and commercial places, make your plants get more energy, and get maximum headroom without burning plants
- Optional touch screen controller, an idea for commercial growing (max 100 lights) &timing and dimmable function.
- All in one design, build-in driver, free assemble, save time and shipping fee
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Low Noise & Low Heat: No fans needed meaning low noise; Ambient heat is very low, so there is no need to worry about burns or damage to your plant
ECO Farm MS 660W/760W/900W Samsung 301B Chips LED Grow Light Full Spectrum Light Strips
Description:
- ECO Farm MS 660W/760W/900W full spectrum LED grow light strips with enhanced red for full-cycle grows. Using Samsung LM301B high bin LEDs, efficacy is up to 2.7μmol/J.
- No wiring needed, it takes less than 30 seconds to install a fixture.
- 0-10v auto & manual dimmable control. 2 dimming solutions, manual and automatic dimming are optional.
- Passive heat dissipation design (No need for internal cooling fans)
- Uniform Light distribution. Each light bar is evenly distributed on the 2 ends of the power supply, and the PPFD value of each point is very uniform, giving your plants the most uniform growth environment.
- Save 50% space for the same 660W/760W/900W grow light in the market, thus could save shipping and storage space.
ECO Farm MB2 660W/720W Foldable LED Grow Light With Samsung 301B Chips Full Spectrum Light Strips
Product Features:
- Using the highest output Samsung 301B LED chips and Osram 660nm chips, efficacy is up to 2.7umol/J. High PPF is up to 1782μmol/s. Ultra-high PPFD than Fluence/Gavita.
- Advanced Sonsen LED driver can provide higher performance
- Full-spectrum grow light, Samsung 301B white light, and enhanced Osram red 660nm, good for full-cycle growth, high yield
- 180° Folding design, just hang it up and plug and play, very convenient and flexible to adapt to different growing areas
- Standard 0-10V knob dimming, support the daisy chain RJ port
- UL, DLC, CE, ROHS certified
- Big Footprint: suitable for large-scale use in greenhouse, commercial growing space etc.
Section 2: Choosing a Suitable Grow Light
It’s very important to take your time to search for a grow light that is suitable for the plants you want to grow.
Most grow lights cost a good amount of money, so mistakes at this stage are expensive.
In this section, I will teach you how to choose the perfect grow light for your plants by examining various important factors.
Intensity & Efficiency
The intensity (or brightness) of a grow light is determined by the amount of light it can put out.
Usually, the higher the intensity of a grow light, the higher its price.
You should search for a grow light that can give your plants the minimum light intensity they need.
Since the light intensity of a grow lamp is measured in PPF or PPFD, it’s important to learn about the light requirements of your plants in terms of these units.
It’s not enough to know if the plant you want to grow is full sun, partial sun, or partial/full shade. You must also know the exact quantity of light it needs.
The efficiency of a grow lamp is the amount of useful light it can emit for every watt of electric power it consumes.
So, to find the efficiency of a grow light you must divide its PPF value (or lumens) by its wattage. The resulting value is called the PPF efficacy rate.
Any grow light that has a PPF efficacy rate above 1 μmol/J is considered efficient.
Many modern LED grow lights for indoor plants can generate 2 μmol/J and more.
Manufacturers of high-quality grow lights usually provide the PPF efficacy rate of their lamps.
ECO Farm Full Spectrum 120W/240W Samsung 301B Chips Quantum Board LED Grow Light With MeanWell Driver
Product Features:
- ECO Farm full spectrum 120W/240W LED grow light is suitable for all plant stages of growth. This light allows you to adjust the height of the grow lamp according to the growth stage of the plant, such as a seedling, vegetative, flowering and fruiting stage.
- 3500K color temperature + red light Full Spectrum for Flowering and full-cycle.
- Passive heat sink (no fan)& large-area solid aluminum heat sink.
- Adjustable high safety performance Mean Well driver.
- Comes fully assembled plug and play.
Section 3: Using Lights to Grow Plants
Using grow lights is a straightforward job. But it can get sophisticated when you want to grow plants on a large scale or in a more controlled environment.
In this section, I’ll discuss the fundamentals of using grow lights.
Distance from Plants
Before you run your grow light, you must adjust the distance between it and the growing plants.
The ideal distance is determined by the light requirements of the plants, their growth phase, and the intensity and the type of the lamp.
If the grow light is too close to your plants, it can burn them.
The more intense the grow lamp, the wider the distance should be between it and your plants.
Typically, you should maintain the greatest distance between your plants and the lamp when the plants are still seedlings.
The lamp should then be lowered a few centimetres when the plants enter their vegetative phase of growth.
Plants need the highest intensity of light when they are in the flowering phase, and this is when the distance between the plants and the lamp should reach its minimum.
How Long Should You Keep Your Light On?
The more accurate answer depends on two metrics: PPFD and Daily Light Integral (DLI).
Daily light integral (DLI) is the quantity of light that your plants receive (or need) each day.
You can calculate the number of hours of light your plants need each day if you have the PPFD measurements of your grow light and the DLI requirements of your plants.
Below is a brief list of the DLI requirements of plants:
Full sun plants need between 20 to 30 mol/m²/d
Partial sun plants need 5 to 10 mol/m²/d
Full shade and other low-light plants need a maximum of 5 mol/m²/dv
Growing Environment
You won’t succeed in indoor gardening if you don’t provide your plants with a suitable growing environment.
No matter where you’re growing your plants (grow tent, room, or closet), always keep an eye on the following environmental conditions:
Temperature
Every plant has an optimal temperature for growth. But, most plants will thrive at temperatures between 66°F and 75°F (19–24°C).
Most times, growers don’t need to regulate their indoor temperatures because they’re already in the optimal range.
But, in other instances, the temperature might be too low or too high for the growing plants.
There are many methods to control temperatures indoors and it’s up to you to choose the one that suits you the best.
If you’re growing in a tent and using a lamp with high wattage, you need to install fans to keep the air flowing and prevent heat from building up in the growing environment.
In case you’re growing in a room, keep a close eye on the fluctuations in temperature around your plants.
Air conditioners, radiators, heaters, fans, etc. can help you manage the temperature in the growing space.
That’s all you need to know about growing plants with lights for now. If you have any ideals about grow light for beginner or have any question, welcome to visit our website: https://www.ecofarmgreeninc.com/
Our emails address is: business@ecofarm.com
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