Many amateur gardeners who may not be able to avail of much natural sunlight have to rely on artificial methods of providing their plants with the light they need. They ask the question: do LED grow lights work? In order to answer that question, it is best to be aware of a few elementary facts.
Do LED grow lights work
First, unlike animals, plants make their own food. They absorb carbon dioxide in the air through small openings called stomata, and they absorb water through their roots. The carbon dioxide and the hydrogen in the water are transferred to the plant leaves, where they chemically combine to produce sugar.
In order for that chemical reaction to occur, however, the leaves need a catalyst, a source of energy to stimulate the reaction. This energy source is light, and it is usually the light energy from the sun that is used. The energy is then stored in the plant chlorophyll, which then triggers the combining of the hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
For aspiring gardeners who have no space where sunlight can easily be exposed to the plants that they want to grow, this causes problems as the plants cannot then create sugar for themselves, which means that those which manage to grow at all will not live for very long. To overcome this problem, such gardeners have had to utilize artificial light sources in order to provide their plants with the energy they need, and LED lights have proven particularly useful in this respect.
The first thing you must bear in mind is the amount of lighting that you will need, and this will be dictated by the needs of your plants. To put it simply, the bigger the plant, the more light it will require. If it does not receive enough light, it will not grow. So you have to tailor your lighting to the requirements of your plants if you want to see any results.
Another thing you have to understand about LED grow lights is that they cannot be substituted for any other sort of light. They are specifically designed to replicate the light spectrum that the sun emits. It is this spectrum that plants regularly use for photosynthesis in nature, and it is lights that make use of the same spectrum that you will need in order to achieve the maximum gains for your own plantlife.
The full light spectrum is essential as it will cover the life cycle of a plant. For instance, a plant needs light from the blue end of the light spectrum in order to grow healthily and be durable. The short-length, high-frequency gamma rays from the blue end of the spectrum are necessary for a plant to grow properly.
In addition, for the plant to bloom and bear fruit, they will need light from the red/orange end of the light spectrum. The long-length, low frequency microwaves from this part of the spectrum are essential for a plant to reach it’s full flowering.
Many other lights are not designed with the full light spectrum in mind. LED grow lights, by contrast, are specifically designed with this consideration. Since they do faithfully replicate the spectrum that the sun’s rays use to provide outdoor plants with the light they need, they will service indoor plants in the same manner.
A lot of people, however, are sceptical about the efficacy of LED grow lights. They will claim that they are not powerful enough to provide the amount of light required for plants to grow indoors. They further claim that plants need light that contains plasma, which LED grow lights cannot generate.
On the lack of power that such lights have, that simply is not true, though it was at one time. LED technology has improved greatly over the last few decades. The amount of light required for a plant to grow depends upon the size of the plant. If the lighting you have is insufficient for your plant’s needs, you must get more lighting.
The point about plasma is without merit of any kind. LED grow lights have been proven to effectively grow indoor plants, and that simply would not happen if plasma was an essential ingredient. Be sceptical of anyone who dismisses LED grow lights with such arguments, as they are clearly not up-to-speed on the subject matter.
