Sunlight in abundant is beneficial for the plants significantly because it has all the energy required by them to create food for themselves. But as a professional or passionate gardener, finding enough sunlight for optimum growth of plant is daunting task especially during winters when the days get shorter and there is less sunshine. Further, your home due to different direction or location may not get enough natural light even in the warmer months. Luckily, plants can grow with LED lights as well but are they effective like Sunlight?
The development of artificial light scientifically known as light emitting diodes or commonly known as LED grow light has proven to be more reliable source of energy all year around. In the following article, we will discuss about the benefits of LED grow light over sun light. Due to change in climatic conditions, food production for rapidly growing population across the world is becoming an enormous challenge. However, with innovation in technology, scientists are finding different ways to increase production of food.
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Duration of light from these 2 different sources:
One of the major benefits of LED grow lights over sunlight is the overall duration in which vegetables and indoor plants are exposed to light. In case of Sunlight, which is only available for approximately 10-12 hours around the equator and few hours at south and north hemisphere. During the night hours, the plant growth is stalled. Whereas you can set the duration of LED grow light for 24/7 that means plants will mature multiple times faster to those depending on sunlight.
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Intensity and Wavelength of Light:
Maturity period of plants is determined by the intensity of light. If the intensity is not appropriate or very low, it takes long time for the plants to get mature. Unlike Sunlight that is not in our control, the intensity of led grow lights can be adjusted by lowering the height and bring them closer to the plants. Also, grow light designed with a reflector can direct more light and as a result increasing the overall intensity.
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Improved Photosynthesis:
It is process through which plants and vegetables convert light energy from the source into carbohydrates. The overall process helps in producing food that plants needs to grow but the optimum growth only happens when the supply of blue and red light is sufficient. During night hours, there is not photosynthesis taking place, which means inadequate food that hinder the growth in plants. However, with LED grow lights, photosynthesis takes place 24/7 or as long as the lights are ON. Due to this reason, maturity period significantly reduces with healthy and high yield results.
- Temperature and Heat Control: It is one of the critical factors when it comes to the growth of plants and veggies. Some of them require cooler temperature that Sunlight may not offer. So, by exposing those plants in Sunlight without controlling the temperature could result in poor yield and great losses to your investment and time. LED grow light not only produced less or negligible amount heat but also equipped with temperature control to set the suitable temperature.
- Full control on dedicated spectrum of light: When we compare LED grow lights with Sunlight, choosing the color and spectrum of light is one of the best advantage of LEDs over Sunlight. Whereas you can’t expose the plants to specific spectrum of Sunlight but with LEDs you can customize the best suitable color and spectrum that results in healthy plants.
Conclusion
These are some of the major benefits of LED grow light over Sunlight. So, if you are a passionate or commercial gardener and planning to get yourself involve into indoor farming, above listed benefits will definitely increase your enthusiasm with great outcomes.
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