Do Indoor Grow Lights Work?

Like most answers, it depends! Plants need light for photosynthesis and in theory a standard fluorescent bulb will help plants grow, just not very much and not very efficiently. There are a wide range of grow light types that help plants to grow but most have their pros and cons.

Light & Photosynthesis:

All plants contain proteins called light-harvesting complexes, or LHCs. When light reaches a plant  it excites the LHC which in turn excites other LHC receptors and eventually reaches a reaction center in the plant. The reaction center creates a chemical reaction to convert water into oxygen gas and positively charged particles called protons. The photons trigger the production of enzymes that create energy in the form of carbohydrates which feed the plants metabolism.

But the reason sunlight is so effective is because of several components that directly affect photosynthesis. Sunlight contains a wide spectrum of wavelengths ranging from 100 nm to 1 mm, which include ultraviolet, visible, and infrared radiation. Simply put, a spectrum is characterized by a color range from violet to red. Plants require different color spectrums during different times in their growing cycle. Once a seed germinates it becomes a seedling and the vegetative phase of growth starts, it then needs light with a spectrum in the blue range to best convert light into energy to grow and become strong. After completing the vegetative phase, it needs to produce flowers and seeds called the flowering stage, at this point the plant needs a spectrum rich in red wavelengths to help produce buds and to flower and produce fruit and seeds.

Light’s intensity is another factor important to growing, wavelengths need to be delivered to the surface of the plant strong enough to promote photosynthesis. If the light is week or too strong, then the plant will react accordingly.

Finally, there is UV “Ultraviolet “and IR “Infrared” waves that help inform the plant to create certain defenses or strengthen a specific type of growth to better handle the environment. UV light helps lights to strengthen their defense against certain pests and UV light also help eliminate problems like mold.

So, the long answer is Yes, Grow Lights do help pants to grow but only ones that can mimic sunlight and provide a broad spectrum of intense light including blue and red light as well as UV and IR wavelengths.

 

Grow Light Types:

The traditional lights used were HPS “High Pressure Sodium” which did provide red light and good intensity, the problem is that they did provide much blue light and the intensity could be strong and the last factor, they are not inexpensive and require a lot of energy to operate.

LED lights became popular because they could also provide red spectrum light and ran much cooler and inexpensively over traditional HPS lights. New studies are showing however that they lack the UV and IR wavelengths which result plants needing other methods to ward off mold, pets, and some diseases. Some recent studies have show that the plants are not as large or productive as when grown with more intense light. LED lights are also very expensive to purchase, and one needs to make sure they are buying high end units in order to get the desired effectiveness needed.

 

A Technology Breakthrough!

One technology not discussed was CMH lights, Ceramic Metal Halide grow lights. These offer both the intensity to safely grow plants and operate at a much lower costs than HPS and are cheaper to buy than LED lights. One of the only issues is the traditional CMH lights tend to provide more blue light rather than red light.

So, a company called gGRO  manufactures an indoor grow light that takes the intensity and effectiveness of a CMH light but ads features to better mimic sunlight. The first feature is having two different bulbs inside the fixture, one that produces light with more blue spectrum and the other to provide more red spectrum. These can be controlled to best suit the growing stage of the plant. The lights do emit both UV and IR wavelengths and can help plants to ward off diseases and pests. They have also engineered the lights to run more efficiently over HPS and reduce initial costs. They are even designed to run off of solar power to further reduce energy costs. This is the closest indoor grow light to sunlight providing a good balance of full spectrum light with intensity and energy efficient operation and provide a great alternative to growers looking for a quality effective grow light.