We all know the importance of sunlight light for plants growth. Plants thrive outside in direct sunlight, while indoors plants growing with led lights lack direct sunlight. For indoor plants, LED growing lights for plants that mimics sunlight makes perfect sense. But can any LED light be used as a grow light? The answer is no. The plant growth process has a specific need for light wavelength, ranging from 400nm to 700 nm. This range is known as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). The wavelength of blue light (400–500 nm) and wavelength red light (600–700 nm) are most conducive to the growth of plants. However, comparing with LED bulbs for indoor plants, ordinary LED lights lack the specific wavelengths that plants need to thrive. As a result, not all lighting promotes plant growth.
So, can a regular light bulb help plants grow? What is the difference between grow lights and regular lights? Can plants photosynthesize with LED light? Can daylight bulbs be used as grow lights? Are plant lights safe for humans? We will discuss each of these questions about LED lights for plant growth in this blog.
Regular LED Lights
What is an LED light?
Light Emitting Diode (LED), is a semiconductor light source that emits light when an electric current is passed through it. LEDs lights have the advantages of high energy efficiency, long life and durability, which makes life LED lighting widely used in residential areas, commercial environments and factory floors.
Depending on the application scenario, LED lights fixtures are also subdivided into many categories, such as LED panel lighting and recessed LED ceiling lights for indoor lighting, while outdoor LED spotlight and downlight, wall washer lights are generally used for outdoor applications, as well as LED fiber optic light. And the LED surgical lights, automotive LED work lights, stage LED lights, and LEDs for growing plants are applied in some professional field.
Can regular led lights grow plants?
Standard LED lights can improve plant growth to some extent. However, they are inefficient and no long-term, especially comparing with grow lights for indoor plant. The red and blue lights are the most required light for plant, and the full-spectrum is better for plant. Standard LED bulb is designed to fulfill human lighting needs, which may not provide the full spectrum light for plants growth. In addition, the light intensity of ordinary LED strip light fixture cannot intelligently mimic the daylight intensity variations, which is not conducive to optimal plant growth. Therefore, regular LED tube lights fixture is not the best choice for plant growth. LED plant grow lights are more capable of providing efficient and comprehensive light to plants.
However, regular tape lights LED can also play a role in plant growth, depending on the light needs of the plant. If plants just need supplemental light, then ordinary good LED strip lights can provide supplemental light for plants to support grow lights for indoor plants LED, thus promoting plant growth.
What type of light is best for growing plants indoors?
Choosing the right lighting is very important for the healthy growth of indoor plants. As we can see from online growers’ sharing, in addition to indoor LED grow lights for plants, planters will also use fluorescent lighting fixture or ultraviolet grow light to enhance plant growth at certain stages. Short-wave ultraviolet light (wavelength 200-280 nanometers) has an inhibitory effect on plant growth and prevents deformation of plant growth. In addition, UV lights have a disinfecting and sterilizing effect, which can reduce plant diseases.
How to start seeds indoors without grow lights? Fluorescent lighting fixtures are a good choice. What is Fluorescent lamp? Fluorescent lamps produce ultraviolet light by passing an electric current through a gas (usually argon and mercury vapor) inside the lamp, which in turn excites a phosphor coated on the inside of the lamp to emit visible light. As technology advances, CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) and CFL LED lamps have emerged on the market. These optimized versions of the lamps improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact. LED fluorescent light fixtures have a relatively broad spectrum, which are suitable for the germination stage of plant seeds. Fluorescent LED lamp is typically used for seed initiation, rooting plugs, and early to mid-plant nutritional stages. In addition, fluorescent LED lamps are easy to purchase and relatively inexpensive. Therefore, LED fluorescent lamp is used in the germination stage of seeds.
However, UV LED lamps usually act on the flowering and maturing stages of plants, while fluorescent LED lights are usually used for the budding and seedling stages of plants. Their spectrum do not fulfill the entire growth process of plants. In practical gardening applications, these two kinds of lights play a supplementary and complementary role, while LED grow lights for house plants are really widely used in indoor gardening. From the table we can see that each wavelength of light is important for the growth of plant. However, blue and red light play a key role in plant growth. Because they are absorbed by the plant efficiently and converted into chemical energy. LED light grow lights imitate the wavelength of sunlight that plant needed, including red and blue light. Additionally, the spectrum of LED growing light is adjustable to satisfy different periods of plant. Therefore, the most suitable for indoor plants are LED grow light indoor.
| Light Color | Wavelength | The Effects on Plants |
| Ultraviolet (UV) Light | 275-320nm(UVB) 320-400nm(UVA) | UVA can affect the photoperiodic response of plants, such as flowering time.UVB can promote mineral metabolism in plants |
| Blue Light | 400–500 nm | Promotes plant growth, leaf development, stem elongation and root growth;Promote chlorophyll synthesis |
| Green Light | 500-570nm | Penetrates more deeply into the plant canopy and can reach the lower leaves of the plant to help them photosynthesize |
| Yellow Light | 570-590nm | Yellow light is often considered to be inhibitory to plant growth |
| Orange Light | 590-620nm | Orange light may be involved in regulating physiological activities in plants, including photosynthesis, photomorphogenesis, and flowering time |
| Red Light | 620-700nm | Promotes photosynthesis in plants and influences the photomorphogenesis of plants, such as promoting flowering and fruit ripening |
LED Grow Light
What is a grow light？
Garden growing lights simulate natural sunlight to provide specific illumination to indoor cultivated plants, helping them grow well. Plants grow lights can emit red and blue light which fall in the wavelength range that plants require. As technology advances, some high-end plant grow light LED not only provide full-spectrum lighting but are also equipped with intelligent control systems to precisely regulate plant lighting to ensure more detailed and comprehensive lighting conditions for plants.
There are several kinds of houseplant grow light, including HID grow light, fluorescent grow lamps, Ceramic Metal Halide lights (CMH), and LED indoor plant grow light, which are the mainstream choices in the market. LED grow light bulb is efficient and durable, which especially offers the spectrum that plants need for growing. Therefore, LED grow lamps for indoor plants became the popular choice in the market. We will delve into the advantages and disadvantages of, the application of LED grow light for plants in this blog.
Do grow lights really work for indoor plants?
LED plant grow plants are really beneficial to interior plants. Plants absorb sunlight to perform photosynthesis, improving their own growth. However, plants have a preference for bule and red light wavelengths with a high absorbed rates. Therefore, according to this feature of plants, LED lamp grow light imitates the red light and blue light wavelengths from sunlight to plant growth spurts. The full-spectrum LED grow lights can emit all light falling into visible spectrum, which enable to emit various color of light corresponding to different growing stage of plants. Here are a few advantages of LED plant grow bulbs:
- Spectrum control: Plant growing LED lights provide the blue, red, white, green, even purple light wavelengths that plants need when they are growing. The blue and red light are favored by plants because they absorb these two lights more. And the full spectrum LED grow lights for indoor plants offer different color light aiming at different phase of plant.
- Growth improvement: In the different stage of plants including seedling, leaves growing, flowering and fruiting, LED lights for plants growth offers different wavelengths to support the plant development.
- Durability and shockproof feature: LED lighting for plant growth adopts solid-state design, which is impact-resistant and durable. besides, plants LED light has long service life, requiring less maintenance and replacement.
- Supplemental light: LED lamp for growing plants is suitable for indoor plants and greenhouse plantation because LED for plant growing can replenish the lack of light in the interior environment or winter for plants.
- Energy efficiency: LED plant grow bulbs have high energy efficiency for converting more electricity into luminous energy. Traditional incandescent light bulbs or fluorescent LED lamps also convert electricity into luminous energy, but in this process much energy is transferred to heat energy. Therefore, LED lights for growing are more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs or LED fluorescent lamps.
- Intelligent control: Some LED lights for growing indoors have intelligent control, can intelligently adjusting the spectrum and light intensity to realize automatic control.
Disadvantage of LED grow lights
- Higher upfront cost: Higher upfront cost: Although grow LED light costs less than traditional incandescent or fluorescent lamps in the long run, the initial purchase cost of LED grow lamp for plants is much higher than incandescent lamps or fluorescent lamps for plants. If plants need precise light control, like the light-dark circle, the intelligent control system matched with LED plant growth light will add the cost.
- Unbalanced light distribution: LED strip grow lights cannot penetrate dense foliage due to the concentrated and directional nature of the LED grow lamp bulb, and may not provide uniform light, resulting in uneven plant growth.
- Heat dissipation: Because the plant requires 10 to 12 hours of illumination, it needs LED plant lighting to work for a long time. Therefore, although LED indoor growing lights can lose heat more quickly than traditional grow lights, the long-time work of LED indoor grow light still generates a lot of heat.
- Variable quality: Since LED lights grow lightings are more expensive than other light bulbs for grow lights, there are many inferior LED lights for plants indoor in the market for high profit. These bad LED gardening lights are unable to offer the wavelength that plants need, resulting in unhealthy growth of plants.
How to use grow lights？
We all know that grow light LED lamp can promote plant growth, but improper use can also cause plant burn or yellowing and loss of leaves. Therefore, knowing how to use grow LED plant growing lamp is beneficial to your plants and encourage them to flourish.
Tips for using LED grow lights for plants
Light Distance: How far should grow lights be from plants? Generally speaking, LED lights for flowering can burn the leaves if they are too close to the plants. But if growing lights LED are too far away the plants will not get enough light to support growth. Therefore, the optimal distance between plants and plant light LED bulb ranges from 1.8 to 23.6 inches. The distance between the LED grow lamps and the plant should be adjusted constantly during the growth of plants. Besides, different-watt LED indoor grow lights have various distances from plants.
- Light intensity: The wavelengths in the spectrum between 400 and 700 nanometers are known as PAR, a spectral range that is important for plant growth. Therefore, PAR is compatible with plant grow light bulbs to assess the light intensity required by plants. Through PAR sensor we can detect the intensity of light and adjust the intensity of grow LED lamps, ensuring the health of plant.
- Light time: How long should grow lights be on? When using growing LED light to help plant growth, we should follow the natural growth law. The plant needs 12 to 16 hours of sunlight one day in nature. Therefore, using the LED grow bulb we should follow the same laws to guarantee the plant is growing normally. Only by following the rules can we use plant lamp LED to cultivate healthy and strong plants.
- Position Setting: Plants need balanced light and we should adjust the position of our grow light LED bulbs to ensure healthy growth. Pendant grow lights hang above the plants and provide light that is mono-directional. Supplemental lighting can effectively solve this problem.
- Spectrum adjustment: Plants has different favor of wavelength in different growing periods. Hence, plant LED grow light should emit different color of light for plants in different stage.
- Plant monitoring: When using the plant LED light, it is necessary to check the status of LED grow plant lights. If the leaves become brittle, we should adjust the light intensity or distance of LED plant growth lamp.
Can plants get too much LED light?
When using grow light LEDs, plants cannot get too much LED light. Here are several negative effects of excess light of LED bulb grow light. First, Leaves will turn yellow or even wither under harsh light of LED indoor grow lamp. Second, the plant will twist growth pattern under excess light. Finally, plants may grow slower or have smaller than normal leaves when faced too much light of LED indoor plant light, which is a self-protection mechanism that reduces the surface area for photosynthesis through smaller leaves.
Are grow lights harmful to humans？
Generally speaking, plant grow lights LED are safe for humans. However, to ensure safety, there are several points when using LED lights grow lights. First, some grow LED lights contain UV spectrum. When using UV radiation, leave the irradiation area and turn LED strip lights for plants off regularly. Second, prolonged exposure to artificial light for plants may interfere with the body’s natural biological clock. Using shading materials to reduce the glare of LED lights for growing plants is beneficial to our eyes; Third, the LED plant lamp should be installed in a safe location, There are some LED grow light for indoor plants that are suspended above the shelves, making sure that the shelves are solid to avoid tipping of the plant lights LED. Fourth, the blue light emitted by LED grow lighting is harmful to the eyes. Long-time exposure to indoor plant lights LED should be avoided. In short, as long as grower lights are used properly, the effects of LED grow lights for plants on humans are controllable.