The most crucial component of any indoor farming setting is a well-designed lighting system. Farmers must make sure their plants get the right amount of energy to grow at the fastest possible rates without getting overwhelmed. This brings up one of our most commonly asked questions: how far away from plants should grow lights be?
While grow light distance charts are easily accessible, the answer that's best for you will ultimately rely on the sort of lighting you use and the species you are growing, therefore we're sorry there isn't a precise response. Most contemporary indoor farmers now use LED illumination instead of outmoded HID (high-intensity discharge) and fluorescent T5 grow lights.
In light of this, let's examine some LED grow light height factors and then dig into suggestions on how to use cutting-edge LED lighting systems to get your crop to produce as much as possible.
Considering LED Grow Light Distance
It's crucial to have a fundamental grasp of how to measure the light that reaches your plants before we begin. The primary technical words you'll encounter are as follows:
Photosynthetic Active Radiation (PAR) - PAR is only a description for the kind of light required to enable photosynthesis in plants; it is not a measurement. In further detail, PAR describes visible light with wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers (nm).
The total amount of photons in the PAR range that are produced by the light is known as the photosynthetic photo flux (PPF).
The quantity of PAR that reaches and is absorbed by your plants is measured by a factor known as photosynthetic photon flux density, or PPFD. PAR readings at various points on each canopy might vary. The issue of "how near should grow lights be to plants?" may therefore have a variety of responses.
Micromoles (mol) - Measured per square meter per second, micromoles are the unit used to quantify PPFD.
Now that you are aware with the words used to describe light, let's examine some of the key elements that have an impact on grow light distances:
Conventional vs. LED Lights - The ideal distance from the canopy might alter depending on the kind since different varieties have different heat energies produced and light spectrums available.
Wattage: In order to prevent damage, high-wattage lights are normally positioned further away from plant canopies whereas lower-wattage lights may be brought closer.
Plant Stage - Grow light distance must take into consideration plant vitality at different stages of growth in order to provide the ideal lighting arrangements. The ideal proximity for seedlings and blooming plants will vary, for instance.
In the sections that follow, we'll go further into each of these factors.
What Makes LED Lights Unique?
The development of LED light technology has made it simpler for farmers to set up ideal indoor farming settings and produce more crops in less time. Higher revenue and profit margins are the results of this. Due to a few important variables, LED efficiency has increased and LED solutions have become more popular.
High-quality LEDs have little bother and need little upkeep.
LEDs outlast their conventional counterparts in terms of lifespan. Current LEDs have a lifespan of up to 50,000 hours, which is equivalent to over six years of continuous operation (the latest LEDs can last up to twice this long).
Without the need of filters, LED systems can produce every hue of visible light.
All phases of plant growth may benefit from LED lighting since it emits both red and blue wavelengths, as well as every shade of white in between.
LED lights may be placed nearer the canopy since they produce less heat than conventional HID lights.
As LED bulbs naturally produce light at an angle of 180 degrees, there is less waste and less money spent rerouting and reflecting light from 360-degree lamps.
For the last ten years, the price of LED lighting solutions has been steadily declining. Since 2008, according to statistics from the Department of Energy, LED costs have decreased by 90%.
Due to these factors, LED lighting is becoming the most practical and cost-effective lighting option available to indoor farmers worldwide. Almost 87% of all light sources are predicted to be LEDs by 2030 as other sectors catch up.
How Does Grow Distance Influence Wattage?
Wattage is thought to be a key element in figuring out how near grow lights should be to plants. Generally speaking, the bulb has to be placed farther away from your plants the greater the wattage. With LEDs, however, you can put them considerably closer to the plant's canopy without endangering its ability to develop.
Many farmers operate on the unspoken assumption that:
Per square foot, you require 20–40 watts of electricity.
Low-wattage LEDs of around 200 watts should be positioned 12 to 20 inches from the plant's top.
LEDs with 1000 watts or more of power should be placed 36 to 46 inches from the plant's top.
Between these ranges, medium-wattage bulbs should be used, and their brightness should be continuously adjusted to meet the demands of each species as they go through their many development phases.
These recommendations do not, however, apply to every situation. For instance, even 600w lights in the multi-bar or spider type may be strung at 12". The Scynce LED makes use of secondary optics to send our 600w light (Raging Kush) to the plants inside 6′′.
But it's a little more complicated than that. It's important to keep in mind that wattage is only a way to measure energy. Although keeping track of wattage information is useful for growers, it's not always a smart idea to base choices only on electrical power when estimating how much energy your plants will need to thrive. The main cause of this is because, often, a bulb's or LED chip's color spectrum, rather than wattage, controls the development and vitality of a plant's leaves and blossoms.
Recalling the definitions we went through previously will help. Farmers should be able to maximize growth by varying the amount of time and intensity that plants are exposed to PAR (visible light with wavelengths of 400–700 nm). As you want the best PPFD readings at each stage of each plant's growth, there is no one rule for how near your LED lights should be to your plants based only on their wattage, despite the abundance of led grow light distance charts available online.
The optimal distances for light placement cannot be correctly calculated without taking into account the demands of your plants at every stage of their life cycle since, in the end, the health of your plants is more important than the brightness of the LED bulb.
