LED Grow Lights: Do You Really Need Them For Growing Plants Indoors?
If you are still a beginner when it comes to growing plants indoors, you will have a hard time understanding everything about the lighting of your garden. Some people are now using LED grow lights while some of them still utilize the traditional way of lighting gardens. If you are in their position, will you stay on your traditional lighting or will you plan to try out the newest innovation in indoor lighting?
Before you think about answering this question, here are some of the few applications of LED grow lights in the industry, particularly in growing plants.
Reef Lighting
Have you ever seen an aquarium with LED lights? If you have an aquarium at home, what kind of lighting facility do you use? Or do you even use a lighting facility for your aquarium? When it comes to aquarium lighting, LEDs have become the top choice of people as soon as it appeared in the market. The lights from these LEDs can create colored plants for saltwater and freshwater environments. As a matter of fact, LED can provide better lighting compared to other traditional lighting with less amount of energy.
If you currently have a 400 watt Halide lights on your aquarium, you can replace it with a 60 watt LED without any drops on the lighting levels. Actually, they are even better. As of today, most of the aquarium owners use LED lights for their aquariums.
Medical Marijuana
Well, this is totally different from the well-known Marijuana. It is called “Medical” marijuana for a reason. They are specifically made as a medicine that is mostly considered as a physician-recommended form of medicine. Various states across the United States that includes Oregon, California, Colorado and others are now allowing different organizations to grow their own medical marijuana provided that they have a license from the government.
If you already know some information about cannabis, growing it outside is a bit too much because of its nature. It means that it is not ideal to grow these plants outside. The risks are too great for the organizations so they are letting these plants grow indoors. They are making use of LED lights to significantly reduce the amount of expenses that they have to pay on their electricity as well as the benefits that it provides in helping the plants grow.
Usage of Commercial Growers and Greenhouse Owners
As you all know, most of the greenhouse owners and commercial growers already knew about the benefits of providing additional light to the plants. It will help the plants grow bigger and taller, and they can produce better flowers through the use of supplemental lighting. They have found out that they can have great benefit if they use grow lights to fruits and vegetables. Because of the many benefits offered by grow lights, greenhouse owners produced fruits and vegetables all year round and they can even produce more through the use of these grow lights.
Now that you have an idea on the usage of LED lighting in growing plants indoors, how about the advantages and disadvantages of using it? This is very important if you want to know if this kind of lighting will work for you. Here are some of the information about the pros and cons of using LED lights.
Advantages:
Very Convenient
You will not need a portable power source if you want to keep it on at all times so it is really convenient to use.
Less Usage in Electricity
Like what has been said earlier, you can replace a 400 watt Halide Lights with a 60 watt LED without reducing the lighting levels.
Longevity
It is said that this kind of lighting can last for up to 50,000 hours while the traditional ones can only lasts for about 20,000 hours.
Less Heat Produced
Compared to the traditional lighting, it produces less heat. Some plants do not want a lot of heat while some of them have a good response to heat. It can also prevent fire inside the greenhouse.
Disadvantages:
Initial Cost is High
Of course, this is more expensive compared to your traditional lighting but this is a better choice because these new lights can last longer than traditional lighting.
Replacement of the Light
Since it is expensive, replacing it is also expensive. Before you decide to consider LED lighting, make sure to look at how you can use it as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using it.
