Nobody tries to grow plants in the dark. The fact that plants need light to grow makes sense. However, lighting conditions can change or be changed. Therefore in this article, we would like to talk about the relation between plants and light.
What light do plants need?
Predominantly plants need blue and UV layers of at their growth (vegative) phase. Plants basically need blue light with a wavelength of about 380 to 490 nm and red light from about 640 to 730 nm for photosynthesis and generating energy.
The amount of daylight needed by plants
Answer for “which lamp is right for your plants?” depends on the type of plant. The amount of light that each plant needs is different. In general, a distinction is made between short day and long day plants when it comes to light requirements.
Long-day plants only bloom when the day exceeds a certain length. The day should be long enough for the plant to receive enough light. Otherwise, the plant will not grow properly.
Short day plants only thrive when the day is shorter than a given day length.
Day length is a critical the critical contributor for plant growth. This is between 10 and 14 hours. For the short-day plants to reach flowering phase this day length must be obtained. If this period is exceeded, the short-day plants will not bloom. For long-day plants, the 14-hour day length must be delivered. Otherwise, they will not bloom.
The higher the plant's daily light integral, the longer or more intensely you need to illuminate it. As Farminc.Space, we produce grow lights that provide sufficient PPFD based on plants need.
Lighting time
The lighting time is clarified relatively simply. The system that works best is the day-night cycle that has been operating for thousands of years. You can simulate this in a simple way using a simple external timer available commonly.
Light color and Spectrum
Everything gets a little more complicated in the color of light. As it is known, Light is part of the electromagnetic ray, its wavelength is in the range of about 380nm to 750nm and is the part seen by the human Eye. It also roughly overlaps with the part required for photosynthesis. So let's get the colors into the game.
A specific ray of Light can consist of various wavelengths and thus acquire a specific color. The bluish part of the light spectrum, wavelengths are more high-frequency, and longer waves are more likely to be located at the reddish end. The wavelengths that appear green to us are in the range of about 500 nm. If these are reflected in the chlorophyll cells, they are largely reflected. Therefore, most plant leaves appear green.
This means plant is creating a gap in green. If a plant is irradiated at this wavelength, plants will photosynthesize less because they absorb less of this wavelength.
Many Grow-light manufacturers are now switching to skipping green wavelength components and mixing blue and red LEDs. However, this is not totally right because photosynthesis cannot be activated in this area. Due to the carotenoids in the leaves, blue-green is absorbed from shorter wavelength rays and green light is photosynthetically active especially in dark green leaves. This is part of the green gap mentioned earlier. An LED plant lighting should ideally be designed evenly in terms of light spectrum. There are LED lightings with SMD technology that mix the spectra. In this way, your plants are provided with light in all necessary wavelengths.
Let your plants spend the winter healthy and productive, thanks to Farminc.Space
Winters in our country are usually not exactly mild and most of the planted plants do not survive cold weather and insufficient sunlight. However, if the right plant lighting is used than the interior spaces can become relatively warm and bright enough. This way, your non-winter-hardy plants will have enough light and warmth to continue growing in winter.