How much light do plants need

How much light do plants need

How much light do plants need

Now generally speaking, the more light the better where plants are concerned; however there is a distinct point beyond which they are unable to make further use of extra light. This is rather boringly called the Light Saturation Point and for your average plant this is around about 500 mol/m2. For comparison, the maximum amount of PAR available on a clear summer day is 2000 mol/m2.

Subjecting plants to light in excess of their particular saturation point (this obviously varies for individual species) is not only wasteful but in fact counter productive as they will actually grow less well. An easy way to adjust the PAR is to simply alter the height of the lights above the plants. For example, the saturation point for lettuce is about 300 mol/m2and a typical 120wLED grow light can deliver between 200-1400 mol/m2as the distance is varied from 3 feet to 6 inches. The optimum height for growing lettuce would thus be at about 2 feet.

To sum up then, what plants require for healthy growth is light that radiates at four specific wavelengths (two types of chlorophyll times two absorption peaks each). To be technical, chlorophyll "a" absorption peaks are at 430 nm and 662 nm, and chlorophyll "b" sits within "a" at 453 nm and 642 nm. As we shall discover, understanding these basic principles can prove useful when evaluating the efficacy of different types of grow light for plants.

However, that's not quite the end of the science lesson. Plants don't use both parts of the spectrum adjacent to the green portion at the same time. Generally speaking, the blue end is utilized more during early growth and the red end later during blooming. To complicate matters, sunlight is, by comparison to what most electric light bulbs can produce, very very bright.

A further difficulty is that light is governed by theInverse Square Lawwhich put simply means that every time you double the distance from a light source the amount of light received reduces not by 2, but by 2 squared i.e. 4. So any effectivegrow light has to allow for these various factors.

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