With winter drawing in, now might be a good time to start planting indoors. But is it worth investing in specialist lighting to compensate for the lack of sunlight? Our latest guest author will talk you through the pros and cons of LED lighting.
Using the correct grow light is of great importance when growing plants indoors. You may provide the perfect temperature or give plants ample amount of water but unless you give plants the correct light, you will never be able to grow high quality plants.
In an indoor hydroponic environment, the grow lights are supposed to mimic the natural sunlight. Therefore, grow lights are tailored especially to meet the growth needs of the plants. There are plenty of grow lights available in the market. Generally, people use HID lights for large scale growing and fluorescent or halogen lights for small scale growing. In the past few years, LED grow lights have gained a big share of the grow light market. A decade ago, it would have been unimaginable to use LED lights for growing plants, but now they are quickly advancing and becoming immensely popular. Many indoor plant growers are now switching to LED lights whether it is for small scale growing or large scale plant production. Although HID bulbs still have a huge market, many indoor gardeners who have used top shelf LED grow lights claim that these lights outperform their previous and inefficient HID bulbs.
Power and cost efficiency
When LED lights were introduced in the market, many companies sold them under the tagline ‘The last grow light you will buy’. The initial cost of LED lights may be more than any other grow light, but in the long run, they are far more cost effective. They have a very long lifespan and an average LED light can last up to 10 years with a 12 hour daily use. This means that they practically have no replacement cost. On the contrary, other lights such an incandescent bulbs, halogen lights, fluorescent lights or even HID bulbs need to be replaced.
Unlike the power hungry HID bulbs, LED lights run on very low energy. In fact, they use less than half of the energy a typical HID light would use and give an equally good performance. For regular indoor gardeners it can be a huge advantage as it lets you save a huge amount of money that you would otherwise spend on your electricity bills.
No excess heat production
Another selling point of LED lights is that they produce very little or no heat at all. One of the biggest complaints that indoor gardeners had with HID bulbs was that they produced a great deal of excess heat. The excess heat forces growers to invest in air conditioning and ventilation systems. Too much heat can have a very dangerous effect on the plant hence HID lights can never be used without heat management. Not only does heat dehydrate the plants, but it also inhibits ultimate growth by damaging the enzymes of the plants when the grow lights are placed too close to plants. LED lights produce almost no heat hence they don’t have any damaging effect on plants.
Meeting the photosynthetic requirements of the plant
HID bulbs are full spectrum lights that closely resemble the natural sunlight. While they prove to be effective, they are not efficient and certainly do not provide the best blend of spectra for plant growth. Sometimes the plant that you are growing may require a higher amount of a certain color and using a fixed spectra HID bulb will not allow the grower to achieve optimal plant growth. With LED lights, the color ratio is targeted to the exact wavelengths the plant requires to grow.
LED grow lights grow difficult plants
Research shows that LED lights are not only capable of large scale growth of plants, but they are also able to grow plants that are difficult to grow under other light sources. The intensity of LED lights is strong enough to make the plants grow and subtle enough to be effectively absorbed without damaging the plant. Also, since they can be designed to meet the needs of the plants, they can be used to grow any plant. LED grow lights are without a doubt a worthy investment because of their incredible features and tremendous advantages over traditional lighting sources. Using LED grow lights will prove to be a wise and economic choice for indoor growing.
