Do Lights Provide the Same Benefits as the Sun for Plants?
Plants require three factors to grow strong and healthy: water, soil, and light. Sunlight is an essential component for plants because it provides them with all the energy required to produce their own food. Also, the sun gives light across the entire spectrum, enabling plants to absorb the most beneficial wavelengths of light.
Artificial light, on the other hand, cannot replicate the optimal spectrum of sunlight for plant growth. But, it can effectively supplement natural light, especially during the winter or in locations with insufficient sunlight.
NATURAL LIGHT VS. ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
Sunlight is essential for plant growth. Your plants won’t grow if they don’t receive sufficient sunlight, which is plants’ natural source of light. But there are ways to grow plants using artificial lighting. Some artificial lighting does an outstanding job of sustaining plant life, but can it truly replace the sun?
No, it can’t. What distinguishes sunlight from artificial lights is the spectrum produced by sunlight. Sunlight produces numerous colors of light, and plants need blue and red light in particular to grow. While blue light promotes the growth of leaves, red light promotes the growth of flowers and fruits. Most artificial lights only produce green or yellow light, while a few emit blue and red light, but never both at once.
That’s why artificial lights are not as efficient as sunlight!
But artificial lights enable you to grow plants everywhere in the home, but not all artificial lights can get the job done, hence the need for adequate artificial lighting. Limited lighting can result in plants with weak, spindly branches and pale foliage, whereas adequate lighting can lead to plants with smaller, stronger branches and dark green leaves.
BENEFITS OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS
Customization of the garden
Artificial lights give you nearly unlimited options to do anything you want with your garden. Depending on the season, a houseplant may require a different kind of light to grow best. With a grow light, you can carefully control the wavelength of light that is emitted, the distance between the lights and the plant, and the quantity of energy that the plant absorbs.
The most affordable and practical option for indoor plants is fluorescent lighting, so you might want to take it into consideration. They are available in the form of tubes or tiny fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), which may be screwed into traditional or solar lamp sockets and provide a moderate temperature to be easily placed close to plant leaves.
Heat regulation
Generally, grow lights have minimum heat outputs, particularly when using LEDs (light-emitting diodes). You always have the option to adjust the heat by adjusting the distance between the plant and the grow light.
Growing location
With artificial light, you may arrange your garden wherever you like. A grow light increases your positioning options even in small places without windows. Different plants may require different locations throughout the house; thus, several lights facilitate the ideal arrangement.
Seasonality
If you need a few additional hours of sunlight during the summer to enhance your crops or supplement the gloomy winter months to keep your garden flourishing, artificial lights can be beneficial.
Intensity of light
Artificial lights emit powerful light. HIDs (high-intensity discharge), for instance, emit substantial amounts of heat and energy, whereas LEDs can cover all the required wavelengths and match the required intensity for abundant harvests.
Light adjustability
Plants require mostly one color and a small quantity of the other colors to grow. Grow lights can be adjusted to control when and for how long your plants are exposed to light. This is advantageous as it allows you to maintain the atmosphere in which your plants flourish.
THE BOTTOM LINE!
Both natural light and artificial light have their own advantages. Sunlight provides a broader wavelength for each color that plants require for optimal growth, but artificial lights provide you with more freedom with the space you have and you can use them all year long instead of trying to find the best conditions and natural lighting for each plant. Many gardeners use both natural and artificial light to ensure their plants are as healthy as possible.