Grow Lights for Vegetables

Natural light has many wavelengths of different colours. In artificial lights can we provide all those wavelengths?.

Does the product so produced have any shortcomings in vitamin,protein etc compared to those grown under natural sun light?. Does it satisfy the circadian cycle viz how many hours exposed or under darkness?.

I can't speak from experience as I do not consume said product myself, but I have some friends that partake regularly and say it suffers from no shortcomings what so ever. If fact, they swear that the "vitamin" is much more potent then the natural growing "vegetable". As for the circadian cycle, yes, just turn them off every night.

The only vegetable grown is those that consume the product.

The Dutch are doing it all the time.

Google it?

I kinda have a feeling you're out to grow something else and you want to mask your activities and keep your electric bill from sending up a red flag

You'll need some dirt, too.

Oh, and don't grow more than you can smoke use yourself. "Vegetables" have a distinctive odor if stored in too large quantities.

Rstyer7:

.

Most LED's produce a very narrow band of wavelengths (the common exception being white LED's which use UV to excite phosphors).

.

It ends up that most plants do better with a broader spectrum. Although LED's should be very useful in the spectrum's that signal chromophores...one is around 670 to 690nm and the other is around 730 to 760 I think... but I haven't seen much in the way of widely available commercial products.

.

If you are concerned about efficiency, High pressure Sodium lights and Metal Halide lights usually put out the same or even out more light per watt than LEDs. Metal Halides and High Pressure Sodium lights also have excellent spectrum for growing almost any plant.

.

Some people claim LEDs produce much less heat. Being able to keep plants cool enough inside to avoid problems like stem elongation is vital, and keeping things cool can get expensive.

I'm not convinced that LED's are that much cooler in total. I'm basing this on what I've seen concerning efficiency....If LED's are comparable to HPS or MH lights in efficiency, then the heat generated should be comparable as well....since almost all wasted energy is in the form of heat......so either I am remembering the watts/lumens efficiency incorrectly, or the Heat benefit is not significant.

.

If this question is related to a clandestine venture, if the motivation is to produce enough to sell regularly, you will certainly run a significant risk of being noticed, and that risk alone probably makes the risk/return very poor for any business investment.

.

If, however, you are truly planning to produce just enough for yourself and couple friends, IF you are unfailingly conscientious and resist pride, greed, or getting sloppy; risk of running into trouble could probably be made made reasonably small.

.

Many typical small indoor for-profit illicit grow operation are ridiculously easy to identify:

The growers often buy lights and horticulture supplies with credit cards and sometimes have it shipped to the intended location, but even without records like that, there are big red flags around the house...

Bags of potting soil and plant containers far in excess of the number of houseplants around.

Often there is unusual venting set up and living areas that are made inaccessible.

Some are even so foolish as to steal electricity in an effort to avoid detection for high electricity usage.

The smell can also be very strong, but air filters and strong negative ion generators are often used to nearly eliminate the smell.

At certain times you might see a strange intense glow between building cracks, even when they have taken the care to put aluminum foil to the inside of the windows....You might even be able to see a bong in the living room when they walk out the front door and more than likely there are issues of High Times around.

(Amusingly, there is often something like a "Police Benevolence Association' sticker on their car, and a pot leaf insignia someplace like their key chain or perhaps as a tattoo.)

I'd say leaving clues like that is pretty sloppy.

Greed and Pride get people in trouble in lots of ways and this is no exception....

.

Greed, because they start growing more to start sell.

Pride, because like most people, they simply cannot keep a secret....most people are compelled to show off their projects...compelled. If you can't keep a secret, and end up telling just the 'trustworthy' people....the better the secret is, the more people who will be told.

.

For something personal, running a 400 watt light 12 hours a day and a little extra air conditioning isn't going to put you on the radar...but Pride, Greed, or being sloppy certainly can.

.

.

.

You could of course take a very different approach,

and set up a large conspicuous grow operation sure to be raided;

and once your case goes to court suing them for breaking your ribs, shooting your dog, and terrifying your family, in a raid of what turned out to be an operation to grow heirloom tomatoes ...

..only then, start the clandestine operation to grow wormwood, sarsaparilla, poppies, mimosa, or whatever it is you might be planning.

Does the FAO approve growing vegetables and fruits under artificial light,if so do they recommend any source,duration etc?.

check www.fao.org . I have grown tomatoes and hot peppers over the winter with full spectrum fluorescent lights, taken them outside for the summer and brought them in for the winter. I had habaneros and jalapenos go for 2 and a half seasons, continuing to produce fruit. Tomatoes only did 2 seasons. They may have gone longer but I got lazy with watering them.

Sheesh what a suspicious bunch of answers.

The wavelength of light required depends on the kind of vegetable you're growing. For leafy greens or vegetative growth you need the cool end of the spectrum - high colour temperature, and for flowering or setting fruit you need the warmer end - low colour temp, and a higher intensity may be of benefit as well.

You can grow leafy greens under shoplights with cool bulbs at very low power consumption and the lights and fixtures are dirt cheap, cw LED's. Just hang the lights as near as possible to the plants, leave em on for 24 hours, and voila, salad in 30 days. Had some with dinner this evening, best kind. Personally I hang my shoplights in the window, so there's some natural light as well (why not capitalize on Mr. Sun, eh. At least, as much as we can get).

I've also grown peppers and a few tomatoes in windows with shoplights and they do just fine but won't set fruit until daylength gets back to the ten hours (February here in the north). You need very high intensity light to penetrate any distance, so fruiting crops like pepper and tomato which are large plants are more difficult (and expensive) to light adequately without our friend Mr. Sun. However I do know of people who are using the new T5 fluorescents in garages or basements to grow a few tomatoes and they say it is possible. They are more expensive than T8's but still don't consume much energy to run.

I tried LED's as display lights a couple of years ago and was disappointed, because of the low light penetration in spite of their brightness on the spot. So I googled it for you and, according to the salesperson/expert here, "LED's are low wattage light sources which are not able to carry light energy long distances like HID".

The LED systems would probably not perform well for a large plant such as tomatoes. You might get a good crop of broccoli or bush beans, but at the quoted cost for a 4X4 growing area, it's going to be the most expensive vegetable you ever ate. The same crop could easily be grown with T5's and even possibly with T8's for a much lower investment, and pay for itself in a relatively short time with better assurance of putting food on the table.

I always used induction grow light to help me grow vegetables

www.riant-lighting.com/Grow-Light.html‎