Seedling Lighting

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Plants suffer and get sick from a lack of light. In such conditions, your seedlings will stretch out, be pale, and possibly affected by fungal diseases. Defective seedlings will not yield a good harvest. Illumination is a must. How to choose a device and provide quality lighting? Read the details

How to calculate backlight power

The choice of your backlight depends on the characteristics of the lamps. For this, the amount of lighting power equivalent to watts, the luminous flux in lumens (lux), as well as the beam angle, and the color rendering index are calculated. It is important to take into account the degree of illumination and how much is required per sq. meter.

When choosing lighting, you need to pay attention to the suites. If you need to highlight seedlings on an area of one square meter, you will need at least 8,000 lux. So, you need to take the lamps that add up to this amount.

Lumens (Lm) is the luminous power, which is indicated in the characteristics on any packaging. For example, seedlings are located on a wide windowsill (50 cm). If its length is 1.8 m, the area is 0.9 sq. meters. To do this, you need a total power of 7200 lm. The loss factor is also taken into account here. A distance of 30 cm gives 30%, so the light needs to be increased by 1.5 times. The result is the power required for the backlight - 10,800 lumens.

Lighting types

The type of radiation, depending on the device, can be different. There are several options for lighting lamps: fluorescent, energy-saving, phyto lamps, diode.

Energy-saving lamps

These lamps will help save on electricity, they do not emit heat and are very popular with gardeners. The disadvantages include low-intensity low backlighting, as they minimize the number of lumens / lux. On a regular window sill, you will have to use 2-3 pieces.

Fluorescent lamp

Not a bad option, but also very efficient. When choosing, you should take into account the color temperature indicator. First of all, it is a minimum of 4500 K, which will bring light closer to that of the sun in quality. Lower numbers will make the backlight ineffective. On a meter long windowsill, you will need one 80-watt lamp or two 40-60 lamps each. The height to the shoots is maintained 15-30 cm.

Phytolamp

It is the perfect light for any seedling. One lamp with a power of 18 W, 30 W for an area of 40 * 70 cm is enough for one meter of a window sill. What you need to know when choosing? Of course there are varieties of them.

• LEDs are compact and consume little energy. They are considered the most optimal type for plant illumination, as they have a high efficiency.

• Sodium is more suitable for adult seedlings, as it is dominated by a red tint. This option stimulates the development of green mass, is useful for enhancing immunity and root formation.

• Metal halide devices have good light output. Unlike similar lamps, they do not have mercury.

• Induction does not require replacement, since they practically do not fail and are considered eternal. They have a red and blue emission spectrum. Suitable for any seedling.

Correct backlight setting

Your actions should be aimed at providing uniform and sufficient light. If you have a high-quality lamp, this does not mean that its power is sufficient for the available area.

Correct installation of the backlight is a competent calculation of the light per area and vertical arrangement. The distance to the plants should not be great. Optimally, a distance of 30-40 cm is chosen. Excessively close proximity is also not desirable. Leaves can change color, with the formation of a brown edging on the leaf. The large spacing facilitates stretching. In any case, you need to look at the condition of the plants and adjust the height.

Backlight time

Seedlings need long-term illumination, and usually the illumination time, with a short daylight hours, reaches 12 hours a day. For seedlings that appeared in January / February, turn on the light in the morning and evening. Each session lasts 4 hours. In March, the day is lengthened, so the time is reduced to 3-2 hours.

On a cloudy day, the work of the lamp increases, as does the finding of the seedling trays in the north window. At the end of April, the lamp is completely removed - there is already enough natural light. It is easy to check if the backlight needs to be used: turn it on during the day. If there is a difference in lighting, then you need to leave the lamp on. If no tangible changes have occurred, the backlight is not needed.

Considering these factors, your seedling lighting will be effective and beneficial.