5 Tips On How to Choose A Grow Light

with new technologies, especially artificial light source,using in farming, it increases the possibility for people to grow plants indoor where is short of light or has no light. The way we grow crops has been changing greatly . Indoor farming gets more and more attention in agriculture nowadays since the controllable interior environment is more favorable to the growth of plants . compared with other influence factors of indoor like humidity , temperature，the intensity of CO2 etc , lighting is an vital factor . different plants have different demands of growing light. even the same plant at diverse growth and development stages has different requirements of light . so it is a challenge for growers to choose fitted grow light when face so many grow light products on the market.in this article we will contain five tips as a guide for your reference .

1.make sure the plant you grow

as you’ve decided the species of plants you’re going to develop, and then you can figure out the growth characteristics of chosen plant. based on these characters, you might have an initial direction of grow light selection . that is  seeking the unification of modeling and functions.exploring the scientific basis behind plants and lights to determine which is best for your needs is a scientific way. in this way ,you can make choosing indoor grow lights much easier.

2. what type of lights to be used .

 generally plants, during their seedling stage, prefer the light from the blue side of the spectrum .while in blooming and fruiting periods they are more inclined to absorb the light from the orange to infrared side of the spectrum

Incandescent : Incandescent grow light  is a low energy efficiency light.Any other lights like HPS and MH are about 10 times more efficient than it.  and its photons output  isn't as high as other lights . besides ,when lighting it will give off a lot of heat,which goes against the temperature control of indoor space. choosing this light as your grow light means a very low photosynthetic efficiency. it is not a very ideal light source for indoor growing . 

HID:

1)HPS:  generally HPS grow lights emit the range light from yellow to red . this range light is liked by flowering and fruiting plants . the colour of emitted light is relatively single and blue light is absent.

2) MH: MH lights tend to radiate far more blue light,  it is good for vegetative growth plants like leafy vegetable that are not flowering and fruiting  furthermore ,a small amount of ultraviolet may be also contained in these lights, which can increase the disease-resistant of plants . 

3) CMH: although CMH (Ceramic metal halides) have features of high lighting efficiency,mixed spectral output and high colour reproduction , the lifespan of these lights is relatively short and it is difficult to start when compared with other grow lights . in addition ,the manufacturing technique is not yet mature . the higher technology requirement  the more money you need to pay.

LED: LED grow lights ,as to lighting efficiency they deliver more active photosynthetic photons and only have little loss in intensity. as for spectrum they simulate sunlight even you can customize spectrum for your specific plants . in other words ,LED grow lights can emit light in specific ranges of wavelengths to support plants of their different growth stages.  as to their lifespan they can last more than 50,000 hours. moreover, LED technology has matured at an incredible pace in these years . there is no need to worry about the technology support no matter in designing or in producing.

through comparison , whether it is from the perspective of technology, cost or product characters,  it is no hard to see that led grow lights are more applicable . now that intended plant has decided and know what kind of light should be used . the next trouble you face is how to choose suitable led grow lights from a variety of led grow lights on the market for your plants . 

3. lighting efficacy

differ from other LED lights using lm/w to define the lighting efficacy .LED grow lights have their own different description on efficiency . as for the reason of this difference , we won't get into it here. however,the lighting efficiency of LED grow light can be regard as one of standards to measure the using effect of LED grow lights you intend to purchase . generally . the higher lighting efficiency , the more photosynthesis active photons plants get. plenty of active photons are useful for motivating the ability of plants to synthesize more compounds. 

(PPF output is about equal to multiply power by system efficacy )

see the picture above . one of lights is extracted at random online . through the comparison of the parameter list ,we can easily find that the amounts of emitting light of two 600w LED grow lights can be also different . In the same power, the PPF of the right light is a little higher than the left one . PPF ( photosynthetic Photon Flux  ) is a value to explain how many photosynthetic active photons are given out from light per second. even though using this value to assess lighting efficacy is not quite true, it still partially reflect the luminous efficiency.  

certainly there are also other parameters grow light manufacturers use to illustrate the lighting efficacy of their lights ,such as power , PPFD, PAR ,PBAR,DLI,YPF and so on . but some are not so rigorous. so when you are choosing LED grow lights ,you should ask suppliers to show you the parameter that can best embody the lighting effect to plants . knowing which parameters are more useful become the first issue in the present . typically PPFD is a more applicable metric to horticulture lighting systems. it shows the actual amount of light that arrives at the plants.it is worth noting that this value will change with the variation of measurement distance, including vertical distance and horizon distance. so to ensure you are getting correct comparison result, it had better control these two variable values.  visible , the lighting efficacy can become one of the measure standards and we think it should be a relatively important criterion. 

4. light spectrum 

there are complicated relationships between plants and the light spectrum ,which need to be explored . the existing indoor grow light are made based on the analysis of known relationship between them .we think it is important to see the output spectra of a light before you buy.  because If you don't offer the right color of light, plants won't grow well as you desire no matter how much you spend. so firstly we have to make it clear that the effect of all kinds of colour light and what colour light do the plants you grow require.  and then you will have a basic judgment on whether the provided spectrum of grow lights effective or not .

for example , infrared light plays a part in the blooming of flowering plants. it can promote plants to bloom. so when you need to make a decision which light is more applicable for your flower gardening from following two provided spectrum graph. you will find that the second  spectrum maybe your optimal choice . because it also offers extra infrared light expect for the same colour component of light  . in addition, matched with small amount of red light , it also can help to extend the stems of plants and  increase yields. however , too much infrared has a bad impact . so what is important is making sure plants get the right percentage of colour light.

5.  adjustable light output mechanism

 unlike other industrial and commercial LED lights application , the applied occasions remain unchanged . LED grow light act on plants which are ever-changing. there are a few growth stages of plants such as seeding ,seedling, vegetative growing , flowering and fruiting . plants experience all or some of these stages depending on the species of the plants . for plants , however ,Seedlings need low levels of light.  flowering plants at their blooming stage require much more light to enhance their colour and smell . it is obvious that there are two ways to do this . the first is arranging more lights and then selectively switch on to adapt different requirement of diverse stages. the second is making the chosen led grow lights with an adjustable light output mechanism .

you can image if  choose the first scheme how much additional money you need to spend on. being a rational man , believing that most are inclined to the second one . led grow light system owing an adjustable mode is necessary for lowing growers running cost. so adjustable mechanism is another factor that matters 

The market is full of products in a wide price range.new comers of using grow light or who are thinking about replacing their old devices with new lights can refer to the above tips to purchase grow lights suited for their situation. we hope this will help you make an intelligent choice.

more led grow lights information , come to: https://www.atophort.com/?from=sopl