Source: Medium.com (https://medium.com/@Dropality/matching-lights-color-temperature-to-your-home-8ee80cc79474)
Have you heard about “Color Temperature” and which is right for each stage of plant growth?
Trying to find the best grow light and wondering on the spectrum?
Cool White or Warm White? How about Neutral White?
All white light sources are categorized by how something appears to your eye. You may have seen Kelvin (K) or Color Temperature (CCT) before:
Cool White (6500K, 6000K, 5000K) looks more “blue” and “green” to your eye
Warm White (4000K, 3000K, 2700K, 2000K) looks more “yellow” and “orange” to your eye.
Have you wondered how lights designed for eyes could somehow work the best for plants?
Do plants really need blue light for vegetative growth and red (warm) light for flowering growth?
In this article you’re going to learn how to think beyond color temperature for plants.
You’ll learn how White LEDs and Grow Lights have been originally designed for eyes and how you can interpret this information.
Ready?
Let’s dive in…
Color Temperature (Kelvin) Means Almost Nothing For Plants
I must be crazy, right? Consider this, your eye can mostly pick up green and yellow, that’s it.
Here’s the thing…
White LED manufacturers make the LED chips so that they can “score” the highest lumen rating (the light your eyes can see).
Green and yellow are “boosted” to get the maximum lumen brightness.
Higher lumen rating = More Sales
This means that “Color Temperature” is actually the most sensitive in the Green and Yellow regions.
What’s more is that white LEDs are specifically designed to reduce the colors plants want most for growth – red and infrared light.
Since your eye can’t see them very well, the LED’s spectrum is designed to leave those colors out.
This means that Blue and Red can change significantly, but your eye can barely pick up the difference.
Take this for an example…
An LED vs CFL bulb might look similar to your eye, but will grow your plants drastically differently. — All because of how different red and blue is.
See how both CFL and LED Lights might look similar to the human eye, but the red and blue regions are drastically different, meaning different results with plant growth.
