One measure of how well an artificial plant light works is how well plants
grown under the grow light compare to plants grown outdoors in natural sunlight.
Does this mean the sun is the perfect plant light, and that the artificial light that is
most like sunlight is the best? Let’s take a look at the good and bad features of
sunlight.
Without a doubt, the sun gives plants more useful light than any other light
source. If there’s some type of light a plant needs, it can be sure to find it in
sunlight. Sunlight is the ultimate broad spectrum plant light. Yes, sunlight is also
free, so it’s difficult to beat it for growing plants. Artificial plant lighting sources vary
in price, but none are as inexpensive as sunlight.
Can plants use all of the sunlight they get? Actually, no, they can’t. The
reason plants have pigments to protect them from too much light is because they
can’t use some of it, but it can still cause damage. The noon sun in summer is
particularly strong and damaging to plants. And not only does this extra light
cause damage directly, some of it is absorbed by plants and converted to heat,
adding stress to plants already struggling to survive in the hot summer sunshine.
Beyond one end of the visible light spectrum is UV light. This high energy light
causes sunburn in people and damages plant cells. Sunlight contains a lot of UV.
Going past the other end of the visible spectrum we come to IR light. Infrared light
also adds heat, another source of damage and stress for plants.
All of today’s conventional plant growing lights began their lives as general
purpose room lamps, used for lighting indoor spaces for people. Because of the
need for artificial grow lighting, all of these bulbs have been modified to enhance
their light output to make them better able to grow plants. From the humble
suburban incandescent bulb to the ubiquitous fluorescent tube, and the blazingly
bright high intensity discharge lamps, makers of these modified bulbs claim their
lights really “do the job” of growing plants without sunlight. The operating cost is
high, they generate a lot of waste heat that has to be removed, and in the case of
metal halide lamps they emit a lot of UV.
New technology only recently available have allowed the creation of the next
generation of plant grow lighting- led grow lights. Targeting only frequencies of
light that plants can use, the LED Grow Master line achieves the dream of a small,
cool operating, efficient plant light.
CEO- SolarOasis