Light for plants and lightmoover

Lighting is, without any exaggeration, one of the most important elements for indoor cannabis cultivation. Even if you are covered from head to toe with top-end fertilizers, but do not have a good lamp, all this is dead weight. What kind of light do plants need indoors?

To understand this issue, you need to start with the very basics, which will give you a basic understanding of the essence of the process.

Cannabis is very fond of light. A typical and most common mistake newcomers make is that they think that hemp is some kind of relative to indoor flowers and plants. It's not like that at all. Marijuana, unlike them, cannot successfully grow on a windowsill. This variety has not yet been bred and is unlikely to appear.

However, young growers are trying to grow on the windowsill. The result is a lack of light: the bush practically does not develop, it grows frail and slender. The fruits remain underdeveloped and look like pitiful dandelions.

The exception is growing closer to the equator, where there is a lot of high intensity sunlight. There, cannabis is still somehow able to ripen on the windowsill. But for our latitudes (Russia and the CIS - 70 ° and 50 ° north latitude), this method is not suitable at all. So forget about growing on the windowsill if you planned it. A crushing fiasco awaits you.

In addition, marijuana on the windowsill can attract the police and get you into very serious legal trouble. A stunted unintelligible bush is not worth it (and not worth it, your safety is more important than any growing).

Cannabis requires light that is quite comparable in power to the light of the Sun. Actually, the most successful lamps for indoors are a miniature copy of our main star, if you like. Of course, their power is an order of magnitude lower than our luminary, but the spectrum is adjusted quite similar to itself, if we are talking, for example, about full spectrum LED boards. However, first things first.

Spectrum and PPFD

For a basic understanding of the requirements of cannabis in terms of light, you need to learn that the light spectrum (or wavelength) is important, as well as the strength of the lamp radiation (power).

The spectrum is also called the color temperature. This indicator is measured in Kelvin. The main ones in cannabis cultivation are blue (6400K) and red (2700K) spectra. Although green is also important - it illuminates the internal parts of the plant, as well as ultraviolet - it helps the plant to more actively produce trichomes on inflorescence cones.

Illumination power is measured based on PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density). It shows the flux of photons per second per square meter (µmol/m²/s.)

When selecting a cannabis grow lamp, you must ensure that it has a PPFD of at least 500 µmol/m²/s.

Which lamp to choose?

The main and main types of lamps for growing cannabis today are two: HPS and LED boards. DRI, DNAZ and ESL lamps are used much less frequently. Gradually, they become a thing of the past.

In fact, the most popular and sensible lighting is LED panels, they are also LED boards. In second place are DNAT lamps.

The abbreviation HPS stands for Sodium Arc Tube Lamp. They are also called high pressure sodium lamps. But behind all these names lies the same light bulb. Everyone has seen HPS - they are used everywhere for city night lighting. They have a relatively small power consumption, but the brightness is excellent. For this reason, they fall into urban lamps. Well, in growboxes. You can’t confuse the HPS light with anything - it is a characteristic bright orange “flame”.

DNATs are good at flowering because their spectrum is red-shifted. But even in the veg they show themselves with dignity. By the way, the most impressive results are obtained by combining LED boards and HPS lamps. When used together, they give the plant excellent bushiness and fruit thickness.

However, modern LED panels can give the same result. The main thing here is that they are full spectrum. If you purchased a full spectrum LED board, you don't need to add HPS.

In general, there are several types of LED boards: bicolor, multicolor, full spectrum. Full spectrum lamps will cost more, but will provide the plant with excellent lighting conditions. Therefore, we advise you to purchase a full spectrum LED board.

Important! Whatever type of lighting you choose, it must be adequate to the growing area! Remember these numbers forever: you will need a 450-500 watt LED board per square meter. For HPS lamps, this figure is 600-1000 watts. And, as noted above, the level of illumination is important. Let's repeat it again for better memorization: the light level (PPFD) should be at least 500 µmol/sec/m²!

Lightmover

What is the difference between indoor lighting and outdoor lighting? The fundamental difference is that indoor light is permanently static. That is, the lamp hangs in one position and does not move. But the sun moves across the sky due to the rotation of our planet around it.

As a result, the bush is illuminated during daylight hours from almost all sides. As a result, the plants grow powerful and bushy.

In order to create an imitation of this process indoors, the so-called light mover was invented and introduced, or, strictly speaking, a device for reversing the movement of light sources.

This is a special structure on which the lighting is mounted. As a result, the lamps move around the grow box or grow room, providing uniform lighting to all parts of your bushes.

In fact, cannabis grows under static light, however, if you want to achieve impressive results in terms of yields, this device will not be superfluous to buy.