LED Full Spectrum Lights
All about LED Full Spectrum Grow Lights
With the LED market having various indoor options, it has become hard to figure out which is the best grow light to purchase. When purchasing full-spectrum LED lights, it is essential to know that LEDs are made in a different way. In recent years, full spectrum is a term that has been used to refer to light between the UV and infrared wavebands as seen in the graphic below.
For you to know the real power LED spectrum lights delivers to your canopy, you need to adequately pay attention to the quantity and quality of light that a fixture produces. Mokolight provides in depth accurate data concerning LED full-spectrum grow lights.
History of LED Full-Spectrum Grow Lights
Initially, full-spectrum light was used to describe the sun, which was the source of real full-spectrum light. As time progressed, the term started to take on other sunlight characteristics.
The commercial lighting industry introduced the name “full-spectrum” when they started selling lights that had the power to produce a Color Rendering Index (CRI) of over 90. In light sources with a CRI of over 90, humans take in colors more perfectly. It is a beneficial feature in human surroundings, such as in outdoor spaces, offices, and other places.
Other companies began borrowing the term after the arrival of horticultural lighting. But this time, the companies claimed that full spectrum LED lights would copy the paraphernalia of sunlight for plants. As a consequence, the term full spectrum LED grow light was innate.
Problems that relates to Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights
For beginners, naming something doesn’t make it accurate. Although this concept could have made sense to those interested in selling light to humans, plants too enough light to grow, feed, and live well. Full-spectrum grow lights have three significant problems:
- They Aren’t Augmented for Plants
Most full spectrum power LED grow lights are not anticipated to look for daylight without being specially made for vigorous plant growth.
Due to this reason, the term “PAR” was coined, establishing that all plants and Lumens are for human use. As not every light wavelength is ideal for photosynthesis, the photosynthetically Active Radiation “PAR” of plants should have electromagnetic radiation with a nanometer range of 400-700.
- Don’t Include the Full Solar Spectrum
Most individuals think that when a grow light LED full spectrum creates a supernatural spreading similar to sunlight, plants will do well. Even though this is a decent theory, LED full spectrum grow lights are different from the sun.
Plants respond adequately to radiation outside the PAR spectrum region, although for photosynthesis to occur, PAR must be available as it is an essential light. I.e., UV light has the power to release protective compounds in plants, just like in humans. Also, plants stretch and start early flowering when induced to infrared light called “far-red light.”
- They Are Not Vibrant Like the Sun
Creating an actual full spectrum LED grow light is costly, although its enactment does not precisely replicate what is trendy in nature. The dramatic changes in weather patterns and the sun’s position in the sky are the leading causes of constant flux in the sun’s spectrum.
Best Light Spectrum for Plant Growth
- Suitable for the surroundings your plants are growing in, either indoors or in greenhouses.
- Custom-made to the growth phase of your plants. It can be vegetative, propagation, flowering, or finishing.
- Precise to the growing plants.
Full Spectrum LED Grow Lights vs. Other Grow Light Options
As of now, you may have noticed that full spectrum LED grow lights have no objective standards. It is only a simple term that enables you to understand a simple idea. You can only apply light spectrum for your benefits as it is hard to mimic sunlight.
Luckily in MOKOLight, we have various designs that LED grow lights in. We will uncover the best options available to help you choose the right LED grow plants for your plants.
- Narrow Spectrum LED Grow Lights
They rub on an intricate quotient of LED narrow bands. Most often, these grow lights have a purplish or pink shade as they are enhanced for the PAR wavebands that are blue and red. A narrow spectrum is primarily suitable in greenhouse environments.
As the sun fills out a full spectrum, it is essential to establish optimal wavelengths for photosynthesis from your energy. This will give you more profits as the red diodes are more energy-efficient than other colors.
- Broad Spectrum LED Grow Lights
- Adjustable Spectrum LED Grow Lights
The difference between Red/Blue vs. Broad “Full” Spectrum LEDs
Horticultural LED spectrums come in two options; full-spectrum, whose light appearance is white, and broad-spectrum, which appears to be either purple or pink light.
Most people term the red/blue spectrum LEDs as narrowband spectrum lights. This is because they release wavelengths that have a light of a narrow band. Those LED spectrums that emit white light are termed “full-spectrum” or “broad spectrum” lights as they produce broadband light similar to the sun.
All LEDs whose appearance is white are blue spectrum LED grow lights with a phosphorous coating. The coating converts the blue light into larger wavelengths, and in turn, the blue light is absorbed by phosphorus hence re-emitting the photons into red and green lights.
The coating minimizes the LED efficiency of altering photons into usable PAR light. It makes it suitable for use in sole source applications. You can use the phosphorus coating composition to establish the spectral quality of the emitted white light.
What are the benefits of full-spectrum lighting?
Using full-spectrum lighting at home or in the office has many advantages. The lightning minimizes eye-straining and headaches. Full-spectrum lightening also improves the physical and mental health of your body as it, in a close way, imitates natural light.
- Color perception will be improved
- Clear visibility
- Happy mood
- Higher productivity
- Mental awareness improvement
- More retail sales
- Better plant growth
- Better results of light therapy in treating seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
- Improves results of light therapy for sleep disorders
- Improves the scholastic performance of students
- Improves the vitamin D synthesis in the body
- Reduces incidence of dental decay
On the other hand, artificial lit surroundings are linked with various conditions, which include
- Deteriorated immune system
- Anxiety and stress
- Sleep disruption
- Cyclical Affective Illness
- An augmented menace of cancer
When your body is exposed to a full-spectrum light, it produces melatonin and serotonin hormones. These two hormones regulate the body’s sleeping cycles.
Full Spectrum Comparison
We will compare the full spectrum bulb Sylvania Octron 900 produces and the fluorescent light filter from MOKOLight.
The Ra indicates the different color that makes up the white light. The color accuracy is more significant when the line is closer to the graph’s outer edge.
Complete electromagnetic spectrum
As illustrated initially, the array of light visible to the human eye inhabits a narrow band. It fits in between infrared rays of longer wavelengths and UV lights of shorter wavelengths. The chart below represents the UV light wavelength chart.
UV lights harm humans more when the wavelength is shorter. UV light breaks to form UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C. UV-A has an extensive wavelength and is contiguous to observable light. Also, it’s the least harmful, and the most dangerous is the UV-C.
Grow lights contain various degrees of UV and blue light. Fluorescent grow lights have more blue and UV lights when compared to HPS grow lights which have less. LED grow light manufacturers determine the number of UV LED chips they will erect in a grow light.
Different harms of different color
- Impact of Blue Light on Humans
It is more harmful to human sleep. The blue light enables us to be roused and vigilant during the day. However, when our bodies get exposed to blue at night, it suppresses the selection of melatonin, a hormone responsible for influencing circadian rhythms. This makes our body more tired and sluggish, making it hard to fall asleep.
- Impact of UV Light on Humans
It damages our skin, causing body damages varying from burns from the sun, aging prematurely to skin cancer. It also impairs our vision and sight.
How to shield our eyes when using LED grow lights
UV lights have a more negligible effect when you spend little time beneath the lights. However, it is advisable to guard your eyes if your full spectrum indoor grow lights are powerful and you devote very much time working under them. The guidelines below will aid you to shield your eyes when using LED grow lights.
- Never stare into your lights directly.
LED grow lights with more UV and blue light cause serious harm to our eyes. The same case applies to all-white lights that release a more great white light or over 5000 Kelvin. The intensity and color are the main determinants of how harmful an LED light can be. These lights harm our eyes when we directly stare at them.
- Always wear grow glasses
In case you are a professional grower, regular sunglasses are not recommendable for use as they rarely protect the eyes. This is because; regular sunglasses are not specially made for the unique light released from a grow light. Also, when you wear regular sunglasses, your plants will not look natural.
Also, it is crucial to use grow glasses designed for the precise spectrum of your lights. Full-spectrum LED tubes perform better for lights that have predominantly red and blue diodes. These lights have a slightly diverse range.
- Regular Sunglasses
You can use regular sunglasses if you are too concerned about the plants looking unnatural. Make sure your glasses are protective from UV-C lights in case you have lights that release UV-C rays.
The Work of a Full Spectrum LED Grow Light
Water, sunlight, and nutrients are essential elements that must be available for plants to thrive outdoors. However, it becomes our responsibility to see that plants evolved indoors to get the same support as plants outdoors. The biggest challenge is to give these indoor plants the exact amount and quality of light as outdoor plants.
The distribution of the sunlight spectral distribution cannot be matched by High-pressure sodium (HPS) and fluorescent grow lights. On the other hand, the LED grow light spectrum has several diodes, each tied to a specific part of the spectrum. Full spectrum light tubes provide exact wavelengths that plants require to bloom in every stage of their life cycle when the diodes are combined.
Spectral distribution is significant to ideal plant growth as distinct wavelengths affect altered parts of the growing cycle. Blue light arouses vegetative growth, enabling the plants to be leafier hence supporting plenty of budding and flowering. Red light encourages the development of flowers and buds. A lot of red light weakens the plants as it inhibits vegetative growth, whereas too much blue light causes bushy plants with fewer buds.
Greenlight has a more negligible effect on the growth of a plant, although it is still essential for plants. It enables the visible spectrum to produce white light that imitates the natural sunlight. Also, it makes it easier to inspect your plants from diseases.
As each LED array diode releases a thin band of the spectrum, it is possible to copy the portions of natural light from the sun needed for plant growth nearly. Full spectrum lights for plants are ideal sources of indoor gardening as the lights consume much less power; releases much less heat, and last a lot longer.
How light spectrum affects plants growth
Although spectral quality impacts the plants’ morphology, it has a more negligible effect on plant photosynthesis. The shape of a plant is more critical on visual and commercial, mostly when the plants are sold in pots. Additionally, the leaf size of the plant, its compactness, general area compact, and the amount of light the plant captures the plant’s growth rate and yield primarily. Besides, the light quality affects biomass and the distribution of sugars to the plant.
Different colors of lights work in synergy and not independently. Plants generally identify the ratio of different colors and not percentages of photons. There are several receptors in plants that can intellect various wavelengths hence reacting accordingly. A set of wavebands activates these receptors and deactivating the others.
The process is dynamic as when a plant grows in balanced light can activate and deactivate in various forms. This typically hinges on the ratio of the grow light spectral composition. For instance, there are a group of receptors like phytochromes that are profound to far-red (FR).
The far-red light triggers the growth of plants’ steam, petioles, and leaves. Also, it enables the plant to produce flowers and branches. When used together with a white light background, a far-red with more than 750 nm drives photosynthesis more efficiently, although it is not part of FR. The plant’s size, biomass, shape, and quality are affected mainly by adequate ratios of red to far-red.
Plants photosynthesis is under taken principally by Red light. Ingrow lights spectrum influences the existence of red light equilibriums influence of far-red plus blue light. Vast quantities of red light highly stimulate biomass allocation to the stem.
Blue light lessens stem and leaf elongation along with stimulating the creation of photoprotective pigments. When plants are grown on bulk magnitudes of blue light, they tend to be compact, short with moderately small, dark, and thick leaves. Therefore, a high proportion of blue photons in a grow light spectrum are unnecessary, but it depends on the crops you are cultivating.
Greenlight is helpful to plants as it promotes photosynthesis and it enables humans to see plants. More significantly, green photons have the power to penetrate deeper into the leaf as they absorb low rates of green light. Depending on the growth stage and the plant’s species, all plants use around 70% to 95% green light.
Greenlight stimulates an increase of the leaf size and, in turn prompting the position of the leaf. Subsequently, less compact plants capture light from a broader region. When the green light is present, it positively impacts the penetration of light into the plant canopy, increasing the whole amount of captured photons and fuel yield.
When compared to light visible to humans, UV light usually has higher frequencies and shorter wavelengths. Even though it has some biological importance, UV light is harmful primarily to live organisms. For instance, UV light is essential in synthesizing vitamin D in human skin.
Among the UV wavelength ranges available, UV-A is the least harmful and the longest waveband. It fully stimulates the creation of biological products that makes taste and aroma in plants. UV-A light is also used to regulate diseases in plants. UV-A mainly exists in some LED grow lights and in supplemental UV bulbs. However, high-energy UV protons lower the quantum efficacy of UV LEDs.
As longer UV-A wavelengths are photosynthetically full of life, exposure of plants to UV light makes them produce protective pigments. The pigments protect the plants from excess energy as they work as sunscreen. Thus, UV light can efficiently arouse plants’ biochemical properties and coloration. Plants grown with UV light have a higher biomass production and yield than plants grown without UV.
Best light spectrum to grow plants
For a very long time, researchers in various institutions are still trying to understand the light spectral quality. Although their work is not yet completed, it is obvious right that plants do better when exposed to light, similar to natural sunlight. The best light spectrums to grow plants in are;
- Narrow spectrum
Initially, most people thought that plant photosynthesis could only be increased by red and blue light. Chlorophyll which is the green pigment that plants use to seizure light, has summits of engagement in the red and blue areas.
Blue and Red LEDs are installed in most multi spectrum LED grow lights; hence they have the highest photon efficacy. Therefore, this enables a large number of protons to be converted by electric energy. Dual spectrum LED grow lights drive photosynthesis in plants on the upper leaves. All available photons in LEDs are used at the top of the canopy as it is the region where red and blue light is absorbed efficiently. Plants growing under red and blue lights are habitually very compact.
- Full-spectrum
Full-spectrum grow lights release light that has photons from the whole spectral region. Plants use a full spectrum grow light of at least 350-750nm. Horticultural light producers often miscommunicate the phrase “full spectrum.” Most full spectrum grow lights in the market lack short blue and UV light as they only release light covering photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) only. Moreover, they contain minimal amounts of far-red hence it is fair to term them as broad-spectrum lights.
When you use broad or full spectrum LED grow lights, you will be assured of growing healthy plants, provided there is adequate light intensity. On the other hand, it is essential to choose the spectrum composition carefully for the best results and yield.
A wide variety of full spectrum led lights are available at MOKOLight, and they include: adjustable spectrum led grow lights, LED cob 100w full spectrum, full spectrum power LED, Full spectrum light tubes, 50w full spectrum LEDs, LED 150w full spectrum, 300w full spectrum LED grow light, 600w LED grow light full spectrum, 1000w led grow light full spectrum, multi spectrum LED grow lights, Dual spectral LED grow lights, Osram full spectrum led, and Samsung full spectrum led
Ideal Grow Light Spectrum for Plants
Several factors determine the most ideal grow light spectrum for plants. They describe how wavelengths outside the range of 400-700nm are used by a PAR-spectrum for plant photosynthesis. This light enables the plant to speed up its flowering, accelerate growth and increase nutrition. The full spectrum led panel to use on your plants depends on whether the plants are indoors or in greenhouses.
In general, plants engross these spectrums in the initial phases as photosynthetic productivity transpires at the red and blue regions. Similar to sunlight, full-spectrum indoor grow lights yields lots of greens, yellows, and oranges. Studies show that green light is critical for photosynthesis than red and blue light; hence most are green in color.
Plants less use light spectrums, not within the blue and red wavelengths for growth. Due to this, full spectrum LED lights for plants are exceptionally effective as an agronomist can get very precise.
Can you Use Definite Light Spectrum in Different Plants?
Blue light has nutritional levels and coloring in some plants. Plants flower due to an augmented ratio of red to far-red. Today, full spectrum white LED lights for plants are radical as producers handpick the factual magnitudes of red and blue light. Chlorophyll pigments engross the light essential for the growth of plants and better yields. Far-red and red light is more important to a plant as they drastically boost the results.
Controlled uses of the far-red spectrum have enabled salad leaf indoor growers to experiment with the panel LED full spectrum. All plants that associate with this spectrum have a low canopy, and this causes their leaves and stems to stretch out as the plant reaches out for sunlight.
Therefore, when you use them used strategically, your plants will have bigger leaves and flowering. The correct ratio of red to blue light is necessary as there is no definite LED grow spectrum for certain plants. This capitalizes on growth and the rate of photosynthesis in plants.
Spectrum for Photosynthesis, Growth, and Yield
Plants use both red and blue light, effectively enabling photosynthesis to take place and chlorophyll to grip adequate light necessary for plant growth. Other spectrums of light, such as yellow, green, and orange, are less beneficial for photosynthesis. Blue spectral LED grow lights absorb chlorophyll b, whereas the red spectral LED grow lights engross chlorophyll b.
For plants to grow better, blue light is important as it helps plants yield healthy stems, well-established roots, and improved density. This frequently transpires throughout the initial phases of vegetative growth. When the absorption of red light increases, it accelerates development, resulting in increased flowering and longer stems. Due to this, the red light plays a crucial role in the maturity of plants.
For increased yields, a combination of the light spectrum, which is often unique to growers, is very important. It is an ever-changing process as optimal lighting is very much inclusive; hence no single light spectrum produces more return than the supplementary.
Is Full-spectrum is observable or directly visible?
It is important to know that a non-full spectrum bulb and natural daylight emit the same light color and have similar appearances. This arises despite the two having substantial diverse spectral possessions.
Full-spectrum normally talks about the totality of a light source’s spectral energy, predominantly when linked to natural daylight. Specialized photometric equipment, for instance, spectrometers, determines the exact spectral light composition.
Full spectrum light has two major remunerations:
1) Enhanced color rendition
Color rendition talks about how colors in objects are seen under light sources. Even though white fluorescent lamps emit the same light colors as natural daylight, florescent light appears to be much different from natural sunlight.
The reason is that wavelengths reflected by the source determine the colors of the object. Since the spectrum of fluorescent lamps lacks red blooms, it instead reflects off a dull red color.
2) Improved biological and health benefits
How we see the light or color indirectly relates to the health benefits of full-spectrum lighting. Rather, it recounts other biological processes, for instance, how hormone-like melanopsin reacts to varying degrees of light and wavelengths. Our vision system does not directly link to these processes. Instead, our bodies receive signals that promote sleep, alertness, generally control our overall moods.
As the processes are not human limited, plants that use light energy also respond to different light spectra inversely. Plants undertake photosynthesis more effectively depending on the light source spectrum of a light source.
Ways of assessing a spectrum’s “fullness”
At spectral levels, full-spectrum light is responsible for approximating natural daylight. A light source can efficiently deliver the advantages of full spectrum lighting when there is some spectral similarity.
Awkwardly, it is hard to accurately assess spectral similarity as it is only possible to make general observations. The only two critical metrics that can assist you in determining the similarity between natural daylight and light sources are;
a) Color temperature– It is tells characterized by the value of temperature that defines the virtual balance between blue and yellow. The color temperature tells us about the color that a light source emits. A light source is bluer when the temperature is higher and yellower when the temperature is low.
b) Color rendering index (CRI) –It generally tells us about the spectrum’s quality and how colors look under a light source. A score measures the CRI, with 100 being the highest possible score.
When purchasing a power LED full spectrum light source, we recommend buying the one with a CRI is 95. Also, lookout for a high-quality spectrum light source capable of publishing its R9 typically above 80. Visit our stores at MOKOLight and acquire the best LED full spectrum grow lights in the market.
