subject: Light For Plants [print this page] Light For Plants Light For Plants
Light gives a great influence on leaf size, growth rate, and the production of chlorophyll, flower and seed. When you decide to grow house plants, we suggest that you read the following info.
Plant needs light for the photosynthesis process to produce its own food. You can cultivate plants by using artificial lights. Different colors suit different growth patterns. You can use blue light in the beginning of the growth process while the red one is helpful in the process of blooming. The blue light controls leaf development while the red one controls maturation, and flower and seed production. Using only blue light will make your plants short with thick stems, dark green leaves and few flowers. On the other hand, red light gives you tall-growing plant.
Light which contains merely the color blue is not good for plant growth. This kind of light is typically called as black light. However, it is not only the color blue needed within the photosynthesis process. Therefore black light can never help the plants bloom. Nevertheless, some plants have ability to live only with black light.
Black light becomes dangerous for your plants when it is getting hot. This temperature is gained after long period of use. Black light produces Ultraviolet rays under 380 nanometers. Chlorophyll itself will best function between wave lengths of 400 to 700 nanometers.
Speaking on photosynthesis, plants with chlorophyll produce nutrition by themselves. The process also needs sunlight which has full spectrum. Within the process, the chlorophyll absorbs the color red and the blue one, while the color green and yellow are not beneficial, indeed.
The last but not least, it is suggested that you use fluorescent lights for house plants rather than incandescent lights. Fluorescent lights give higher light efficiency than the incandescent ones. The later ones cause cooling problems and burning of leaves since they are easily heated. Incandescent lights are typically those are round bulb used in houses. Quantity and brightness of light is the most important, not the quality of the light.