The LED grow lights for seedlings provides growers a cost-effective solution to produce healthier and attractive plants. Generally, the LED lamps are highly customizable. This allows manufacturers to optimize them to produce the perfect combination of light wavelengths. Consequently, the growers can adjust them to create the ideal indoor environment for the growth of healthy seedlings.
Advantages of growing seedlings indoors
Advantages of growing the seedlings in the controlled environments or indoors are several. The environments have the ideal humidity, light, controlled nutrition and other conditions favorable for efficient growth. In addition, the indoors facilities are safe from animal predators and hence no damage to the plants.
Lighting challenges in greenhouse and other indoor facilities
Most growers, including the public forest services and private nurseries, often face a number of challenges when cultivating young seedlings in the indoor facilities. During some seasons such as the winter, there is usually insufficient light that reaches the inside of the facilities. This hinders the proper growth and ends up yielding low-quality seedlings.
With insufficient light, the seedlings do not grow properly and will usually form the terminal buds much earlier than the optimal time. In addition, they will not reach the proper height and weight required for transplanting in the outdoor environments.
To overcome these, growers can use the artificial lights. Unfortunately, the traditional lights such as the HPS do not produce the correct light spectrum for efficient photosynthesis of the trees. Also, the lamps consume more energy while releasing much heat that requires additional cooling systems. As such, it is more costly to light the indoor facilities using the traditional lamps.
On the other hand, the LED grow lights for seedlings can be customized to produce the ideal combination of the light spectrum that promotes proper growth and healthy seedlings. The LEDs, unlike the other forms of light, consumes less energy while producing less heat, hence no cooling requirements.
Most importantly, the seedlings grown under the LED lights weights more, are larger and produces more chlorophyll than those cultivated under other lights such as the HPS. As such, the LED grow lights are therefore more cost-effective and ideal for more healthy seedlings.
Where are LED grow lights for seedlings used?
- Indoor seedlings cultivation facilities without natural light
- Inside greenhouses during the periods or seasons such as winter when there is less light.
- During the cultivation of tree seedlings in the vertical farms, growth chambers, and other controlled environments.
What makes the LED grow lights ideal for the indoor facilities?
The LED grow lights for seedlings produces the specific wavelengths of light energy that the plants require in their early stages. Generally, the plants require light of different wavelengths at various stages of their growth and reproduction cycles. And this is what the LED lights are capable of providing.
The advantage of LED lights is giving the growers the ability to produce the exact light scheme that the plant requires at a specific time.
Typically, the LED lights can produce light in a wide variety of wavelengths, covering all the stages of a plant growth from seedling to production. Most often, manufacturers will produce a lighting fixture that covers all the wavelengths of a particular plant and then incorporate a control system. This allows the grower to adjust the light according to the requirements.
In fact, the LED grow lights for seedlings will only emit the specific wavelength that the seed utilizes, meaning that all the energy it produces is useful and very little, if any, goes into waste.
Coupled with the inherent energy saving features of LED lights, the indoor farmers can achieve higher growth and production levels at lower costs.
On the other hand, the traditional lights produce an unbalanced light having some wavelengths that are not useful to the seedlings or plants. This limits the growth of the plants hence compromising their health. Most of this light energy goes into waste in form of heat. Such an environment will, therefore, require costly cooling systems to remove the excess heat and prevent damage to the seedlings.
Effect of LED light on the seedlings
- LED are highly customizable to emit just what the seedlings require, hence leading to better plants. On the other hand, the traditional lights such as the HPS and fluorescent produces unwanted wavelengths.
- The quality of seedlings under LED lights is superior to those grown under other forms of artificial lights such as the fluorescent lamps. The seedlings are healthier both during the development stage and even after transplanting and exposing them to the natural light.
- LED grow lights for seedlings produce a light in the spectrum that favors positive seedling shoot development and a higher leaf formation. In addition, this leads to greater length and dry weight.
- The LED technology enables the isolation as well as mixing the various wavelengths to provide a suitable combination for a specific plant. Since they produce less heat, the farmers can increase the light intensity on the plants by reducing the distance between the two.
Advantages of LED grow lights for seedlings
Easier to install and maintain
Unlike the other types of grow lamps, the LED lights for seedlings have lower installation and operational costs. This includes the energy savings and eliminating the need for reflectors, ballasts, air conditioning and big space.
In addition, the LED lamps are long lasting, hence requiring fewer replacements and maintenance. This in addition to the energy savings and eliminating the need for cooling translates to lower operational costs. Besides the energy benefits, the LED grow lights are safer and able to give high-quality seedlings.
Double-stack potential using LED grow lights
Since the LED grow lights are usually thinner, they can be very close to the canopy. This allows growers to increase their growing space by double-stacking their indoor gardens. For example, with a height of about 10 feet or more, a grower can add another level or stack garden, hence increasing the outputs. This can be placed at about 5 feet from the ground.
LED grow lights for seedlings do not require reflective wall coverings
The traditional lights require the reflective wall coverings to reduce hot spots and reflect all the light onto the garden. However, the LEDs produce directional light that falls over the seedlings hence no need for reflectors. This means that a grower will save on construction costs. In addition, the lights such as the HPS/MH lamps dissipate a lot of heat.
To remove this heat, the farmers often use cooling fans and controllers to keep the temperatures within the safe limits. This adds to the installation costs as well as extra energy to run the fans. In addition to the noise, the facilities require more space to accommodate the cooling system.
Environmentally friendly
The LED lights for seedlings are environmentally friendly and suitable for soil and soilless indoor farming in hydroponics, aeroponics and greenhouse and other indoor facilities. Due to their high efficiency, they consume less energy compared to the conventional lights.
Also, the LEDs dissipate very little heat to the atmosphere. Consequently, the reduction in energy demand and cooling requirements translates to a decrease in the carbon footprint.
Conclusion
There are several benefits of using the LED lights for seedlings in the indoor facilities such as greenhouses. Compared to the other traditional lights, the LED’s light environment produces better and healthier seedlings.
It is also cheaper to install and run the LED lamps due to their low energy consumption and less heat dissipation. Besides the low operational costs, the LED lights for seedlings are highly customizable to produce just the ideal light that the seedlings require for healthy growth.
