Grow lights are Light fixture used in plant cultivation, and the focus is on optimizing plant lighting, not human perception
What is grow light?
In short, Grow lights are special lamps designed to meet plant grow lighting requirements.
Different plants or different growth stages of the same plant require different light, and the purpose of cultivating plants is different, and the light used is also different. Especially the spectrum and illuminance PPFD are very different between different plants.
It is very important to know which kind of spectrum and what kind of light intensity (photosynthetic photon flux density PPFD) is suitable for a specific application (that is, the purpose of cultivation).
Strawberries growing under plant grow light
What is the difference between a grow light and a LED light?
The regular light is for people to illuminate, generally white light, or warm white light, blueish cold white light. This is to provide lighting for the place and environment of people’s activities. There are also some lamps that are colored, used for advertising and decoration.
Grow lights are used for plant growth. The complexity of the spectrum is far more than that of ordinary lamps. Plant Grow lights usually use more red light and blue light to promote plant growth and flowering.
The main parameters of regular lights:
Luminous flux:
The total amount of visible light emitted by the light source or received by the surface. is measured in the lumen (lm)
Illuminance:
Illuminance is a common photometric quantity used to determine the brightness of a given area. Unit: Lux (Lx)
Color temperature(CCT)
Color temperature is how color will appear when it’s measured at a certain temperature using the Kelvin scale. Unit: K (Kelvin)
It is a way to describe the appearance of the light emitted by the lamp, For example, light at 2000K-3500K looks more orange/yellow and is called ultra warm or warm white
Color Rendering Index (CRI):
CRI measures the ability of a light source to accurately reproduce the colors of the object it illuminates.
CRI is measured on a scale where a higher number represents higher ability, with 100 being the highest.
4 parameters of ordinary lights: luminous flux, illuminance, color temperature, color rendering index
The main parameters of plant grow lights:
PPF Similar to (luminous flux of general lighting):
Photosynthetic photon flux (PPF). The total light emitted by the light source per second (photons in the PAR spectral range). PPF tells us how much PAR is emitted by a light source. Take “micromole per second” as the unit, namely umol/s.
PPFD Similar to (illuminance of general lighting):
Photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD), defined as the light (photons in the PAR wavelength range) that reach the target per second. The unit is “micromole per square meter per second”, namely umol/m²/s.
CCT:
Plant grow lights do not have the parameter of color temperature, but usually some people use LED plant lights of about 3000K for the flowering of medicinal plants, and LED plant lights above 6000K for seedlings and vegetative growth.
CRI:
Color rendering index, originally plant lights did not have this requirement, the latest research shows that green is also beneficial to plant photosynthesis, and the environment of plant cultivation may also be the environment where people work, which requires recognizability, high color rendering index, which obviously meets One of the six major elements of plant lights is “friendly to the human body”.
What is the best grow light?
The plant grow light that meets the six elements is a high-quality grow light. The six elements include: 1. Effective, 2. High efficiency and energy saving, 3. Safety and reliability, 4. Long life, 5. Friendly to the human body, 6. Intelligent control .
The first element “effective” includes: effective spectrum and sufficient PPFD, high uniformity of illumination
6 elements of plant grow lights
Are LED grow lights better than sunlight?
Although photosynthesis was originally developed as a response to sunlight, the development of indoor planting, especially indoor plant factories, has proven that the effect of indoor plant growth lamps is better than sunlight.
The reason why high-quality plant grow light is better than sunlight is that the light of plant light is optimal and controllable. Its spectrum and photosynthetic photon flux density PPFD are suitable for crop growth, while sunlight is fixed and uncontrollable. It also contains extra spectrum that plants don’t need, such as UVB, excessive green light, etc.
