LED growing lights become more and more popular in the plant market, more and more growers will buy LED grow lamps to grow vegetable hemp and other products.
In the past years, traditional indoor operations relied on HPS lamps to supplement sunlight. However, the low efficiency of traditional lamps makes them unsuitable as a single source of illumination.
Because traditional lamps have high requirements for electricity. There are many other types of lamps used for indoor growth, but for a variety of reasons, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are revolutionizing controlled growth technology. The advancement of LED lighting has increased, its efficiency in converting electricity into light, and it has become increasingly profitable for indoor farms.
Grow lights have powerful functions and sufficient cost performance. They have become popular auxiliary light sources in greenhouse plant lighting, and can also be the only light sources in greenhouses or indoor farms.
LED plant lights have the advantage of being adjustable. You can customize exciting plant light formulas by adjusting the light intensity, duration, wavelength (color) and lighting plan. Growing led light are an excellent tool to improve the efficiency of the growth process, but they can also be harmful to plants if used improperly. Here are 10 things to avoid when using LEDs and other types of plant grow lights.
When people use hemp-derived products on a regular basis, it is very tempting to try to grow this plant at home.
The benefits are very obvious: the cost is greatly reduced, and there is no trouble associated with the actual purchase of medical marijuana.
Many people around the world grow cannabis at home, whether for recreational or medicinal purposes.
Although some of them do a good job and manage to produce a good product, it does not work well for others-their Plants quickly wither or produce insignificant yields.
These problems may be related to improper use of lighting. (The same problem also affects other types of plants.) Grow lights are a good tool to improve the efficiency of the growth process, but if used improperly, they can also be harmful to plants.
In this article, we will provide you with the 10 most common things you should pay attention to when using LED plant growth lights, so that you can grow healthy-looking plants and avoid any unnecessary troubles. This information is extremely relevant for beginners.
10 Mistakes to Avoid When Using LED Growing Light
Plant overheating
If the leaves closest to the light start to turn brown, you know that the plant has absorbed too much heat. The first sign looks like a thin outline on the outside of the leaf, so if you can catch this quickly, you have a chance to avoid further damage. If some leaves start to curl, this may also be a sign that the plant is too close to the light. Good ventilation usually helps solve this problem.
Provide insufficient lighting
It is important to consider the scale of your operations. Consider how many plants you are growing and how many LED grow light are needed to properly illuminate them. You should also understand the brightness of the lights you are using. For example, it is said that a 200W LED lamp is sufficient to produce about 100 grams of output. Make sure you have enough lights, but still find a good balance between providing enough lighting and not over lighting.
Set the light at an inappropriate distance
Overheating or insufficient lighting may be caused by too much or insufficient light, but it may also be caused by placing the light too close or too far away from the plants. There is no general rule for setting the distance, but it is recommended to place the LED at a distance of 12 to 18 inches from the plant.
Plants have different levels of light requirements at different growth stages.
If you want to know exactly how far the plant light should be from the plant, you need to consider the different growth stages of the plant.
The power output of the grow light is also very important-this is usually related to the wattage of the light source, which is the main factor that determines the optimal distance of the LED at the beginning of the growth process.
The growth stages of plants can be roughly divided into three different stages-seedling stage, vegetative stage and flowering stage. This means that once a healthy root is firmly established, it is time to increase the intensity and reduce the light.
Generally speaking, LED plant growth lights can be kept 24-30 inches in the germination period, 24 inches in the seedling period, 18-24 inches in the vegetative period, and 18 inches in the flowering period. If the light is strong, hang the grow light a few inches higher, if the light is not too strong, hang it a few inches lower.
Use inferior products
Light is one of the most important factors to consider when growing plants, because it triggers the process of photosynthesis. If you use an ordinary incandescent lamp, you are unlikely to grow strong and healthy plants. Therefore, in order to get the best results, it is recommended that you use a full-spectrum LED plant growth light. They are specially designed for this purpose and have the function of providing light in the precise spectrum required by plants.
Choosing the wrong spectrum
In order to grow effectively, plants need different types of light at each growth stage. It is easy to use full-spectrum LED lights, but if you choose the wrong settings, the plants will not develop well. You should also consider the conditions of the room you are planting. For example, plants benefit most from light in the blue spectrum during the vegetative stage of growth. This means that if you set the light to emit light in the red spectrum, it will only hinder the growth of plants.
For all types of cannabis plant products, full-spectrum LED plant lights are a good choice.
Color temperature refers to the warmth and color of the emitted light. Our LED grow lights use international brand Samsung SMD chips. The lamp beads of this LED plant growth lamp are composed of full-spectrum three-star white light (3000K+5000K) and 660nm red light, which can help plants from seedling to harvest. For ordinary plants, it can save you the trouble and cost associated with changing the lighting to induce flowering.
During the growth of the plant, hemp grows best when it provides approximately 5,000 Kelvin of cool daylight blue light. In contrast, flowering cannabis performs best under a warm red light of 3,000 Kelvin.
Use the wrong lighting schedule
You should be careful not to leave the lights on all the time, or worse, on the contrary-forget to turn them on. This may sound trivial, but it is easy to mess up the lighting schedule, and even small changes can have a negative impact on plant growth. Cannabis requires about 18-24 hours of light during the vegetative phase and 12 hours of light during the flowering phase.
Forgot to adjust the lights
Many people forget to adjust the height of the light because the plants grow bigger and bigger, and eventually they will scorch the leaves. Another important thing is to rotate the pots occasionally to prevent the plants from tilting too much toward the light.
Does not protect and maintain LED lights
LED grow lights are your friend and an important investment, so you need to maintain them properly. They bring many benefits to the planting process, and a little maintenance and preparation can save you a lot of trouble. It is recommended that you set up a power regulator and connect it to the lamp to equalize the input voltage to protect the chip inside the LED.
Excessive watering when switching from HID to LED
Conventional HID lamps generate a lot of heat and produce a lot of infrared light. This will dry out the plants and the soil, resulting in the need to water the plants more frequently. However, LED lights do not produce infrared rays and do not emit almost the same amount of heat, so there is no need for a lot of watering.
Do not consider other factors
LED grow light fixture are a great help when growing plants indoors, but they can’t do much by themselves. In order to obtain a large and healthy yield, many factors need to be considered-room temperature, air circulation, soil, nutrients, plant genetics and many other factors. Don’t just focus on one part of the growth process. Instead, try to fully understand the entire chain and how everything is related to each other.
LED Grow lamp are important equipment that every aspiring grower should have. Although they are easy to use and set up, you should pay attention to this list of common errors to avoid headaches.