Artificial Lighting

Simso 7/18/2022, 8:17 am

Trialing out different light sources for growing inside and shadeed locations.

Not having much luck, I purchased a Mars led full spectrum and must say, kind of dis-appointed, the plants in the garden bed in poor winter sunliht are fairing way way better.

Anyone have some suggestions

Here is the link to the Mars unit, maybe i bought the wrong one or missing something

https://www.amazon.de/MarsHydro-Pflanzenlampe-reflektierend-hydroponischen-Pflanzen-Zimmerpflanzen/dp/B01ABRT8GI

OhioGardener 7/18/2022, 8:55 am

Simso wrote:Anyone have some suggestions

There are a lot of posts for LED lighting or artificial lighting on this forum, such as this one:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t18576p50-led-grow-lights-any-advice?highlight=lights

Use the search function for something like "lights" or "LED lights" to find a long list of the previous posts.

markqz 7/18/2022, 11:40 am

The main thing about artificial lights, as I understand it, is that they usually have to be fairly close to your plants to be effective. About two inches above the top of the plants. The pictures for the product you listed show the lights hanging much higher. With lighting, the inverse square law is fully in effect.

It's hard for artificial light to compete with natural light. On my micro setup, I measure 3000 lux directly under the grow light. (using statsat app on my phone for approximation). But even though it's morning, I measure 8000 lux under tree shade, and 14,000 lux in full sunlight. Full, mid-day sunlight should be somewhere around 30,000 lux.

Simso 7/19/2022, 8:44 am

Thanks, placed the lights less than 6 inches above the seedlings, in the zone that is identified by the manufacturer, just extremely dis-appointed so far

Chuck d'Argy 8/2/2022, 3:06 pm

I bought under the cabinet 19 or so inch LED lamps for our kitchen. When we put plants under them they grow like crazy. And we discovered that accidently.

Are we saying LED lights invented for the purpose of growing plants aren't working well?

Would someone explain this to me please? What am I missing?

**Scorpio Rising** 8/2/2022, 11:44 pm

I start most of my plants under lights—I use cheap fluorescents. I have 2 set up side by side to get early stuff started—that is the only time I use this.

No artificial light source can duplicate or even come close to sunlight. If you can’t get to actual sunlight, then LED is the best. I have an aerogarden that uses LED technology. Works really well

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