Grow Light
Every plant grower wants their plants to grow faster, grow taller. They want their plants to make more delightful leaves that they can put in their food. But, slow growth is one of the most common issues that every plant grower faces. Florists and farmers would know this pain. After trying so many things, many people are still unable to get desired results. However, sometimes, doing the basics right can help you achieve success. The connection between the plants and light is so strong. The right exposure to light can help you grow your plants quicker and taller. Today, we’ll talk about the role of grow light with various white LEDs that encourage plant response.
Grow Light: Different “Types” of Light to Induce Plant Response
Plants require light for different things. The most common thing that strikes our mind is that they use light for making energy, or food. A plant converts grow light into energy via photosynthesis. They also utilize light for deciding in which direction they should grow. Moreover, they use light for deciding for how long they need to make the stem, when to produce a flower, how big to make leaves, and more. As a farmer, you must be aware of a couple of things to ensure plants grow in a particular direction. Take a look at the following information:
- Different light types with their responses
- How to help indoor plants with such light types?
The “types” of light we are talking about are various light wavelengths. Talking about the light that human eyes can see - the human eye will see shorter wavelengths as violet while longer wavelengths as red. We also have a light that a human eye cannot see, but the bodies may feel it.
Wavelengths that are longer than infrared light or red light give us a warm feeling. Whereas wavelengths that are smaller than the violet, known as UV (ultraviolet) cause sunburn. We hope you can now understand the importance of grow light on the plantation. It also tells us that it is necessary to find the most suitable light for the plant that you want to grow.
How to Find the Most Suitable Light for Your Plant?
All light wavelengths come through the sun when it is daylight. Plants are selective and they don’t want or need all types of light. Therefore, farmers and scientists need to understand the types of light that a plant converts into food and the light types that plants use to produce more flowers or fruit. They should also understand the light types they must ignore for specific plants.
As a farmer or a scientist, you can develop that understanding through chemicals examination that your plants utilize for interacting with the light. The most significant one is known as ‘chlorophyll’ (a pigment), which is known for introducing energy in plants. The thing behind a healthy green plant color you see is chlorophyll. And, it provides us a great clue about what grow light type a specific plant would like. You see green color because it is the light that your plant doesn’t like, so it reflects it away. Rather, chlorophyll likes blue and red light.
While chlorophyll creates energy for plants to grow, the plant doesn’t get the direction on how it should grow. Instead, chemicals known as cryptochromes and phytochromes perform this job. Phytochromes are only red-light sensitive and direct plants in what numbers they should make leaves and how large the size of leaves should be. When it comes to cryptochromes, they are sensitive only to blue light. They control how a plant should respond to the daily light cycle. The job of this chemical is to tell the plant when it should produce a flower.
Use Light for Better Plantation
Different lighting conditions and light colors produce different impacts on plants. Several experiments are available from different researchers that show using different lights for better plantation is so important. Here are a couple of experiments that you should know as a farmer or a plant grower.
Experiment 1:
Researchers and farmers gathered these facts about various plant chemicals. Using these facts, they experimented with testing how light affects the growth of plants. In the experiment, they grew strawberry plants indoors for controlling the grow light they chose for their plants. We all know that strawberries can grow under a red light only. But under the inclusion of both red and blue light, the size of strawberries under experiment got bigger. Additionally, those strawberries also got distinct nutrients, taste chemicals, and sugars according to the blue to red light proportions.
The result also revealed that strawberries ripened slower or faster according to the blue to red light ratio. Therefore, the experiment result shows that it is possible to grow strawberries in an enclosed environment. Farmers or researchers can also control how tasty and how healthy strawberries can be. It is also possible to control the growth speed of strawberries with the help of a few light wavelengths.
Experiment 2:
In another experiment, a few researchers experimented on flowering plants. The result revealed that tussock bellflower flowers soon after exposing it to certain red light types. However, the flowering time of pansies didn’t change under that red light. Rather, pansies plants grew longer stems with fewer flowers in that experiment. It can assist a florist to get flowers on time for customers.
The variance between the pansies and the bellflower demonstrates a massive test for researchers because different plant types would have partialities for dissimilar wavelengths. We also have another issue here. How can we shine only that type of grow light on these plants after knowing a specific light wavelength? In such a situation, LEDs play their role to encounter this problem.
Final Words
Different plants require different light colors for their growth and quality. Light sources, such as incandescent lighting bulbs, flames, and fluorescent lighting bulbs are hard to fine-tune for emitting the exact light wavelengths. Luckily, we can use LEDs for emitting precise light wavelengths that help us conveniently change the light we need to shine on a plant. We can combine LEDs techniques we shared in this light to create a perfect grow light for indoor plantations. It will help you grow your plants faster, taller, and more tasty and nutritious.
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