Hi,
I'm looking for a grow light for my lemon, olive and soon to be mango tree to prolong the season here in Norway.
I want something that looks OK in the corner of my apartment, A nice T5 reflector might work but a LED bulb will look better! the T5 are reasonable priced but the "brand" LED are expensive! anything over 7W is like 100usd, and as soon as you come close to 100W its hundreds of dollars!
So, what about the Chinese LED bulbs? I can get a 60W off aliexpress for 20USD, do they work? whats the difference?
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steffenland
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HoneyBerry
- Greener Thumb
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My understanding is that the normal household LEDS that give off a white light are not suitable for plant growth. In contrast to other light sources, LEDS give off a light that has very narrow peaks in the total light spectrum, so the white ones are not giving ample light in the parts of the spectrum that are most needed by the plants, which is the red and blue parts of the spectrum. If you google 'LED grow light' you will see lights that give off a weird, purplish light (combination of red and blue leds) that seems pretty dark by our standards. It's good for the plants, but not at all attractive to humans, unless you're going for some kind of sci-fi spaceship aesthetic.
If you can't get ample sunlight to your fruit trees, you will definitely need dedicated lights shining directly on your trees. And if you go with LEDs or fluorescents, the lights will need to be very close to your plants. I'm talking inches. If you're willing to pay the utility bill, a higher wattage grow light might give you a more pleasing color, allow you to situate the lamp farther from the plant, as well as provide residual heat, which could be a positive or a negative depending on your setup. I don't have any personal experience with the higher energy light types, but there's plenty of information out there. Honestly, the largest body of information on the internet about these issues is on marijuana growing websites, but the same basic rules apply to any plants. Cannabis is an extremely needy plant, so anything that can grow good weed can grow just about anything else, fruit included.
If you can't get ample sunlight to your fruit trees, you will definitely need dedicated lights shining directly on your trees. And if you go with LEDs or fluorescents, the lights will need to be very close to your plants. I'm talking inches. If you're willing to pay the utility bill, a higher wattage grow light might give you a more pleasing color, allow you to situate the lamp farther from the plant, as well as provide residual heat, which could be a positive or a negative depending on your setup. I don't have any personal experience with the higher energy light types, but there's plenty of information out there. Honestly, the largest body of information on the internet about these issues is on marijuana growing websites, but the same basic rules apply to any plants. Cannabis is an extremely needy plant, so anything that can grow good weed can grow just about anything else, fruit included.