It’s been sooooo gloomy here in Maryland and I decided to move everyone from my living room South-facing window to the downstairs north-facing window WITH grow lights. I don’t use grow lights regularly. Do you have any tips? Blue vs red vs white? Time?
The purple color is the full spectrum which is the best
1 like Which is what you have on
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I learned that plants need to be on the window sill, touching glass, or the light has little effect on the plants. All other plants in my North facing rooms must have grow lights. I live in subtropical Zone 9a, the Texas gulf coast getting lots of light. So, I assume you need grow lights in your area especially in winter. I get good indirect light in summer that keeps my plants alive. They don’t thrive in the window any time of year. I recommend you put grow lights over all your plants. They need to be within 2 ft of the plants if you have a strong light, 1 ft from the plant would be better.
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I grow exclusively under grow lights; they're full spectrum and on timers. From spring equinox to autumn equinox, they're all on for 12 hours a day. Autumn equinox to spring equinox, the stand lights are on for 8 hours and the cabinet is 6 hours. It simulates the shorter days of winter and allows the plants to have a dormancy period even while inside. I try to keep plants within 1-2 feet of the lights. New plants usually need shuffled around to see where they'll grow best and how close they need to be to the lights.
I always go white, personally, but a lot of that is aesthetic preference. The blurple definitely also works, and if the LEDs are single color (so you’re maybe only using 1/3 of them if you do white only) then blurple is the way to go. In theory the different colors are better for rooting vs flowering/fruiting, but the reality is that a good grow light can still look white and contain everything you need. Unless the lights are pretty high-wattage you’ll want them very close to the plants. Many grow lights come with a little diagram telling you the level of PPFD, or usable light, that will reach the plant at different distances. That’s a good starting place, but as a general rule strive to have them within one or two feet. If you don’t have enough grow lights to keep that close and still cover all the plants that’s okay. It’s better to have some plants getting good coverage and others left out, and then you can rotate which are closest to the lights. That’ll give better results than pulling the light back and trying to cover the broader area.
1 like As far as timing, it depends how your lights work. If there’s a built in timer then the max setting is usually 12 hours/day and I’d go with that for all established plants. If it’s a situation like a separate outlet timer you can set, I usually go for more like 14 hours/day. This will also depend some on the intensity of light. A less intense light needs to be on them for longer to get the same effect.
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