Whether it is necessary to additionally illuminate plants in the winter on the window, how effective it is and how to do it correctly. Article about their own experiments and the results of many years of use.

Strawberry bush when backlit.

Hello.

In this article I will move a little away from the topic of wooden self-made plants. I want to share my experience of assembling and using LED plant lighting. Having used such lighting for several years, I can draw certain conclusions about its advantages and disadvantages. I do not pretend to make the right decisions. Rather, this is a progress report, and perhaps this article will help those who have long wanted to try this lighting, but do not know where to start.

Winter is coming soon and the work in the garden will be completed, but the most active lovers of growing plants are already figuring out what seedlings and how many will need to plant for next year. There are also enthusiasts to grow something in the winter in a pot in the window - at least strawberries. (I'm one myself). So just time to think about how best to illuminate future seedlings. After all, this is a very important point. Sometimes you have to watch as people bring their skinny and long seedlings in the spring, and you realize that something has gone wrong for them. And the problem is exactly the lack of light. If it is a late spring, you can ruin all the work at all. I myself have long agonized with this problem. There is only one southern window sill. On it the bookshelves with seedlings, and the result has a "pale look".

Creating additional light for the plants, and the right one, has become my main task. I am not a biologist and could be wrong, below I will describe my experiments and their results.

To control the level of light I bought two indicators. They are certainly not as accurate as laboratory instruments, so I bought two different ones to have something in between.

I did not need a numerical value of illuminance, but more of a comparative reading. They were good enough for that. Armed with my gauges, I measured the illumination on the windowsill. All measurements and assembled the lamps at the end of winter, just at the time of the first planting of seedlings.

First, for the sake of purity of the experiment and calibration of the readings, I repeatedly measured the brightness of the light, going out in different weather and time of day. It turned out that my readings were relatively correct. Then I went inside the house. As expected, the light intensity was extremely low. Even on the south window in clear weather the light was within the limits only when the sun was direct, and in winter the daylight hours are short, clear weather is not every day, and the sun moving around illuminates even the sides of the window sill in different ways. Also, not all of my windows face south, and there the figures were even worse. The obvious conclusion is that artificial additional light is needed.

The most common way of additional light at home since ancient times are daylight lamps. This is the most affordable option, but has a number of drawbacks. Here are just a few of them, which I was able to identify. For the experiment, I took a new lamp with a 36W white spectrum and increased brightness.

It seemed to be fine, but after measuring the brightness of the luminescence on the warmed bulb from a distance of 5 cm, I became convinced that the light is NOT Enough.

The arrow is about 500 units. On the digital it is LOW.
Not even close to the readings of 1000 units (in what units the indicator measures, probably in lux, but I wanted a relative reading). In the sun the value was 2000 or more. The normal value the instrument showed if the lamp was placed directly on the sensor.

With the lamp resting on the sensor, the arrow showed about 1000 units.
Applying a shiny reflector to the bulb improved the reading a little, but not enough to be satisfied. Firstly I can not locate the lamps so close to the plants and the lamps themselves need then a lot, secondly the lamps burn out with time and their brightness decreases markedly, and thirdly and most importantly, conventional daylight lamps provide little light that is directly needed by plants. This point requires a more detailed explanation.

I think the effect of LED lighting is very good. I managed not to occupy in the spring all window sills with glasses with sprouts, but to gather the whole "plantation" in the basement on comfortable tables. The light from the lights does not interfere with life. Also now there is no smell of damp earth in the rooms. Watering is also easier. The seedlings are not tall, but strong and with strong roots. Well take root and quickly overtake the window overgrowers.

There are also disadvantages of such illumination. Some I have already listed. I will add one more - a plant which grew under the LEDs can not be taken out from under them just to the window sill until the planting in the ground. Otherwise, due to lack of light it immediately stretches, and even more than if it was growing constantly on the window. It also uses quite a lot of electricity. You can't do anything in a room with light on for a long time - you start to confuse the colors.

However, as a result we get more pluses than minuses. This agrees with many of my friends, who also decided to repeat such a light, did their own experiments and now sprouts do not grow differently.