Everything You Need to Know About Plant Lights
Why Use Plant Lights?
a The first question should be: Why do plants need light?
Photosynthesis is essential for plant survival and growth. Just like humans need food to sustain themselves, plants require light energy to produce sugars and other nutrients through photosynthesis. At the minimum, plants need enough light to meet their basic metabolic needs, ensuring they don't go hungry and suffer from stunted growth. However, providing optimal light conditions can push plants beyond mere survival to thrive, reaching their maximum growth potential. Just as overeating can cause discomfort, excess light can sometimes lead to issues like leaf burn or stress. Thus, ensuring plants receive the right amount of light is crucial for maintaining their health and promoting robust growth.
Light compensation points is like ensuring they don't go hungry.
Light Saturation points is like they go too full to eat.
Make sure your plants get light intensity between those 2 points.
b second question: why use grow light?
In indoor environments, plants often face challenges in receiving sufficient natural sunlight due to limited exposure. This partial and intermittent sunlight exposure may not be adequate to sustain optimal growth and health for all types of plants. Supplementary lighting addresses this issue by providing consistent and targeted light stimulation to plants throughout the day and night cycles.
By strategically placing supplementary lights, indoor gardeners can mimic and enhance natural light conditions, ensuring that plants receive the necessary wavelengths of light for photosynthesis and other biological processes. This approach not only supports plant growth but also helps maintain vibrant foliage, encourage flowering, and promote overall plant resilience.
Different types of plants have varying light requirements based on their species, growth stage, and environmental factors. Therefore, understanding the principles of light intensity, spectrum, and duration is crucial when implementing supplementary lighting systems. This knowledge allows indoor gardeners to tailor their lighting setups to meet specific plant needs, ultimately fostering healthier and more productive indoor gardens.
Key Parameters When Choosing Plant Lights
a Light Intensity lux
Light intensity refers to the amount of light energy that falls on a given surface area, typically measured in lux.
And it's measurable by hobbyists and crucial for assessing plant growth conditions. Following image displays one of the commonly used light intensity meters, known for its affordability, ease of use, and portability.
b PPFD( photosynthetic photon flux density)
PPFD stands for photosynthetic photon flux density, and it's a measurement of how many photosynthetically active photons hit a specific surface each second. It's measured in micromoles per square meter per second (μmol/m2/s)
PPFD is a key metric for comparing grow lights and ensuring that plants are getting the right amount of light for optimal growth. Different plant types and growth stages have different PPFD requirements. For example, flowering or fruiting plants often need more PPFD than leafy green plants.
Following image displays one of the commonly used PPFD Tester, but only use for plants related.
c PPFD to lux conversion
When most people do not have a PPFD meter specifically designed for plants but instead have an affordable lux meter, we need to convert PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) into a readable and practical measure in lux.
The conversion from PPFD (µmol m-2 s-1) to Lux varies under different light sources. See the reference listed below.
- 55 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec (sunlight)
- 63 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec (white light - CRI 90)
- 70 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec (white light - CRI 80)
- 80 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec (HPS)
- 11 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec (Red + Blue LED 450nm+650nm)
- 38 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec ( Red + Blue + White LED 450nm+650nm)
The claims are that uses 67 lux = 1 µmol/m2/sec as a generalization for all white LEDs and not taking CRI into account.
Therefore, compared to natural sunlight, LED white lights only need to provide about 1.2 times higher light intensity to achieve the same level of plant care effectiveness.
Plant lights that contain both white and red light clearly demonstrate efficiency levels higher than natural sunlight and LED white lights.
d CRI(color rendering index)
A color rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with a natural or standard light source.
We grow plants primarily for aesthetic enjoyment, so choosing lights with a high CRI (Color Rendering Index) is often a priority. High CRI lights closely mimic natural sunlight in terms of their effect on plants.
Steps select your plant light
Step 1: Determine your purpose of grow plants
Determine if aesthetics is your top priority. If it is, opt for lights with a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 95+ for the best color rendering. If a general appearance is sufficient, a CRI of 80 is acceptable. However, if your primary goal is simply to promote healthy plant growth without aesthetic considerations, choose specialized plant lights with red and blue spectra; these lights typically do not have a CRI rating.
Step 2: Determine the type of plant
What type of plant are you providing supplemental lighting for? Are you growing seedlings or encouraging flowering? Refer to the PPFD section to find the appropriate PPFD value for your specific plant.
Step 3: Determine the type of light
Based on your environment. If the plants are on a desk, you can use a desk lamp with a bulb for close-up lighting. If the plants are on the floor or wall, spotlights can provide distant lighting. For a large number of plants on a shelf, quantum boards or light strips can be used for effective supplementary lighting.
Step 4: Making decision
First, choose a light that meets your desired CRI.
e.g. I would like to have best viewing, so I choose plant light at least CRI>90%
Then, select the type of light suitable for your environment.
e.g. I got a Monstera deliciosa on my floor, so I choose a spotlight to lighting them from my floor lamp.
Finally, refer to the PPFD values provided by the manufacturer at various distances to find the light that matches your plant's needs.
e.g. My Monstera deliciosa just need been keep that sharp, so my perfect PPFD will be 300 µmol/m2/sec, then I can choose the light shown in the picture, place it at around 8 in away from my Monstera.
Remember make your purchase based on your budget.
Most plant lights found online tend to be expensive, while regular lights are more affordable. However, regular lights usually do not provide PPFD parameters. In this case, you can simply choose a regular light with the same power rating (wattage) as the plant light.
e.g. A 15 Watt plant light cost 15 usd VS 15 Watt regular led cost 5 usd.
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