What type of LEDs are used for grow LED lights? something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:Contents1 So what colours of light should an LED grow light have?2 What colours of light do we get from traditional grow lighting?3 A word about White LEDs4 A word about the ratio and power…5 What else should you be looking for in a LED grow light?6 The ‘Perfect’ LED grow light The research into this question has been confusing to say the least and because of this the products on the market have varying combinations of LED colours and intensities. I think this goes a long way to explaining the differing opinions and experiences people have had with respect to the effectiveness of LED grow lights on plant growth. I think we can make more sense of what makes a good LED grow light by first analysing what wavelengths plant pigments are absorbing. I debated on whether to include all the detail about plant pigments in this article but ended up deciding that for most people, the scientific information would be sleep-inducing, even though I find it quite fascinating knowing what’s going on inside those leaves!

So, instead I created a separate page to summarise the more scientific findings here. Suffice it to say, that so far, all the pigments identified in green plants absorb light wavelengths in the UV, blue, red and far-red regions of the light spectrum while ignoring (or avoiding!) the green and yellow regions. This makes sense from the standpoint of what we see: plants are green precisely because they don’t absorb these wavelengths, instead reflecting them back at us (note: we only see the reflected yellow / orange colours in the fall when the green chlorophyll has degraded).Patio Furniture Lake Forest CaSo from the plant pigment absorption information, we can deduce that the ideal LED grow light should have the following light sources:NB: one key point to keep in mind is that plant photosensitive pigments typically absorb light over a narrow band of wavelengths around a central peak. Fishing Rod Rack

Therefore if LED wavelengths do not exactly match the ideal wavelengths required, for instance let’s say we have 650nm LEDs in our grow light instead of 660nm ones for red light, that’s still OK since plants will likely absorb sufficient amounts of 650nm light to equal their 660nm light requirement, so we have some leeway.How do the electric lighting systems that we use now stand up to the lighting needs of plants? What wavelengths do they emit? Below is a table detailing the colours/wavelengths that are emitted by sources of light currently used by horticulturalists and indoor gardeners:Clearly, most of the current lighting systems in use today don’t cover all the wavelengths that are required by plants, or if they do, they also include wavelengths that are not required and possibly detrimental to plant growth. Wholesale Evening Prom DressOne way growers get around some of these issues is to use different combinations of lights, for example, High Pressure Sodium (HPS) in combination with Metal Halide (MH) will cover the full spectrum but this has high cost and low life-expectancy issues.

The HPS / MH combo, like the full-spectrum fluorescent lighting, also emits in the yellow and green light wavelengths, which as I have said before, would be preferable to avoid. So, our current electric lighting systems appear to be both inefficient and more costly, and may even be preventing us from reaching the full potential of our gardening ambitions! So there is certainly an argument for using LED grow lamps if we could only just get the lighting characteristics right…I’ve also seen some LED grow lights containing white LEDs which appear to be included in the light fixture to provide the ‘other’ important wavelengths in addition to the essential red and blue ones – how effective they are is debatable but there are only two common ways to generate white light from LEDs, neither of which seems to sufficiently cater to all the wavelengths that we’ve outlined and may even be producing lots of the undesired green/yellow light. I detail my findings on how white LEDs are made here and why I think they should NOT be in your LED grow light.

So what ratio of red to blue to UV to far-red is ideal? and how powerful should the lamp be? How many LEDs in total? Now those are difficult questions…so I’m going to have to post separate articles on these questions when I’ve done some more research…stay tuned! OK so now that we know what LEDs should be present in our ideal LED grow light, we can go ahead and press that ‘pay now’ button and begin fantasizing about how impressed our neighbours will be with our exceptionally green fingers, right? Not so fast…. there’s more…For anyone who doesn’t want to bother reading all my drivel above, here’s the summary of what I think an ideal LED grow lamp should have:UK readers : LED grow lights available in the UK…US readers : LED grow lights available in the US…Spectrum King LED full spectrum LED grow lights offer more than just everyday illumination. They are designed to mimic natural outdoor sunlight to help your plants grow healthier and yield better harvests with a quality and intensity of light they are accustomed to.

Sunlight includes many spectrums, even beyond what we can see with the naked eye such as ultraviolet and infrared. Traditional HPS lights put out an intense high band of limited nanometer wavelengths (color spectrums), which is why they have been so successful in agricultural applications up to today. LED grow lights that provide only two, three, four, or even eight colors will never come close to reproducing the effects of sunlight. Why change what Mother Nature has already perfected over millions of years? Spectrum King LED full spectrum LED grow lights consistently emit wavelengths in the range of 380 to 779nm. This includes those wavelengths visible to the human eye (what we perceive as color) and the invisible wavelengths, like ultraviolet and infrared. Our 400+ and SK600 LED grow lights truly mimic natural sunlight while matching intensities of traditional HPS lamps with over 100,000 Lux. We know that blue and red are the wavelengths that dominate the “active photosynthesis” portion of the spectrum, so you might think that providing these colors alone might circumvent the rules of nature.

However, there is a problem: productive plants, whether they’re on a farm or in nature, need to photorespire. When plants become heated by intense yellow light like HPS or natural sunlight, the stomata on the leaf surfaces open up to allow for photorespiration. During photorespiration, the plants go into “workout” mode, which causes them to consume more nutrients just like humans want to drink water or eat after a session at the gym. Traditional LED arrays tend to only emit the spectrums that activate after the photorespiration period takes place. This is the reason traditional LED lights sometimes finish cycles with immature plants that produce low yields. By supplying plants with only the limited “beneficial” spectrums (pink light) from traditional LED arrays, you are essentially putting them into a permanent chill mode. You may end up with some healthy plants, but they will not yield as much or be as healthy as plants under a full spectrum LED grow light. If red and blue light were truly all that plants needed then why do HPS lights which don’t have much of either color outperform them?

The answer is intensity which plants go for first then spectrum. When you give your plants both intensity and full spectrum light they will pay you back every time. While HPS lights require over 1,000 watts to produce the intensity needed for healthy plants, our full spectrum LED grow lights offer the same intensity while using only 450 watts. For those of you using double ended  bulb fixtures which use over 1,150 watts we can give you more intensity with just 640 watts with our new SK600. This equates to less money spent on utilities as you’ll use less electricity and benefit from lower ambient temperatures, which translate to less A/C usage and expense. In a grow room, cleanliness is an important factor that affects your plant’s growth and your own personal health. Insects and pests are common in most gardens, indoor or otherwise, while stray soil and dust can easily clog equipment which can prevent proper ventilation. Our grow lights are IP65 rated which means they are completely sealed from dust and moisture.