Grow Lights

Grow Light is also called as plant light which is an artificial electric light helps to stimulates the growth of plants. These artificial grow lights emit electromagnetic waves which is necessary for the photosynthesis of plants.

Uses of plant light

• Plant lights are used more commonly by the gardeners, florist, in industries, etc.
• Useful in the areas of snow where sunlight is not enough to cultivate the food or grow plants. Hence this artificial light is the source of light in these places during winter.
• Useful for growing flowering plants, herbs, medicinal plants, vegetables and fruits.
• Grow lights produce minimum or required light so that plants are not burn due to excess heat.

How grow light works?
Grow light produce light spectrum which is similar to sun and necessary for growth of plants. Depending on the type of plant and cultivation requirement, the luminosity and temperature of grow light is adjusted for the specific time period.

Types of Grow Light
The type of grow light depends on the type of bulbs used. Bulbs used are Light emitting Diode (LED), high intensity discharge lamps and fluorescent light.

• Light Emitting Diode (LED) - LED is most widely and commonly used light. It is a superior type of grow light.    
  Uses of LED - 1) It uses minimum amount of energy for the plant growth. Uses 60-70% of less energy as compared to others.
  2) It is 100% efficient as all the energy gets converted into light as compared to others where some      energy is wasted in production of heat. Hence it saves the money.

• High Intensity Discharge Light (HID) - HID is also an efficient way to convert electricity into light. There are two types of HID grow lights

1) High Pressure Sodium (HPS) - HPS are the bulbs that emit orange or red light. This light help and stimulates plant to flower and grow slight quickly. HPS light produces more heat and can burn the plant without the desired growth.

2) Metal Halide (MH) - Metal Halide bulbs emit light in blue spectrum. This light can be used as primary source of light where there is no sunlight. This blue spectrum of light is helpful in the of green leafy plant.

3) Combination of MH and HPS - According to manufacturers, blue and red spectrum of lights are ideal for the plant growth and has extremely high outputs. But these lights has very short life span and very costly as compared to others.

• Fluorescent Grow Light - This light is useful for growing indoor vegetables and herbs. There are different type of fluorescent lights available with desired color temperature. It produces much less heat as compared to HID. They are available in the form of compact fluorescent grow light (CFL) and T 5 fluorescent tube grow light. CFL are available in red spectrum, light blue spectrum and daylight spectrum.
  
  

What is the time period for grow lights to run?
Most of the plants require at least 8 hours of darkness. The time period to run grow light depends on the type of plant. Flowering plants need 12 to 16 hours of grow light daily while foliage plants need 14 to 16 hours of light daily.

The grow lights cannot substitute the natural sunlight but it is necessary in cases where the sunlight is very minimum and no plant growth due to lack of sunshine. It is necessary for artificial light to emit similar type of light as sunlight so that plant can effectively grow. Plant also require some darkness hence it is necessary to switch off the grow light at night as plant can get the darkness too.