| LED Gardener |
In This Issue Too Much of a Good Thing Plants, Light, and LEDs Part 11 Featured Distributor Innovative Growing Solutions Inc. San Diego, CA 1-858-578-4477 www.igshydro.com Featured Product: ABP5 LED Grow Lights Ideal for Saltwater Tanks, and Freshwater Tanks Over 20" deep. Receive 10% off of your purchase of the ABP5 model in the month of February by simply mentioning that you are a reader of the LED Gardener. (Enter into Special Requests if using our website shopping cart.) Order now. 1-866-414-7244 Care to Comment? The LED Gardener appreciates all the input we receive from our readers. If you would like to submit an article or pictures; or if you would like to comment on a current article please send submissions and comments or questions to angela@led-grow-master.com You are receiving this email because you subscribed at led-grow-master.com If you do not wish to receive this newsletter :Request your name removed by emailing angela@led-grow-master.com Contact LED Grow Master Global, LLC: Admin@led-grow-master.com |
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| February 1, 2009 Volume 4, Issue 2 |
| Too Much of a Good Thing What happens when your plants are getting too much? There are four main areas where your plants might be getting more than they need or want. Because the factors of plant growth are so interdependent, if any one of these areas is out of balance, it will affect the way your plants are able to use the other factors in an environment to their full potential. Water, nutrients, light, and heat are prime categories of excess, and in an LED garden the probability that you are getting too much is even greater. Consider that over watering is the number one cause of death in indoor plants, now consider that under LED lighting you eliminate the radiant heat that is responsible for much of the evaporation. While most plants can easily bounce back from a lack of water, over watering is not easy to recover from. By over watering your plants you have shut off the root’s supply of oxygen and created a breeding ground for fungus that will turn healthy, creamy white colored roots into brown, mushy, slimy, or smelly roots. Other symptoms of over watering include standing pools of water, leaves turning yellow or developing soft, rotten, brown patches that fail to grow. Young and old leaves falling off at the same time or flowers that are rotting. Generally, aeroponic and hydroponic systems will reduce the risks of over watering. If you prefer to use a grow medium, choose something with the ability to hold oxygen in your root zone. Expanded clay pellets, perlite, freshwater Diatomaceous earth, or even adding gravel to your soil will help drainage and hold oxygen. Water plants once, then let them run low on water. This will establish the water usage rate for your plants and allow you to set a schedule for when to water. Do your leaves appear to be burning at the tips with brown, black, or dark spots? Are they wilting even when they are well watered? This may be too much fertilizer. Since the amount of fertilizer your plant is able to use, is dependent on the light, water, CO2, and heat in the room, if any of these variables change, your fertilizer regime should change as well. By simply replacing an HID lamp with an LED lamp your water requirement is reduced, heat is eliminated, and the plant is receiving more quality light. My suggestion, regardless of the light source is to always start out using ½ of the nutrients recommended by the manufacturer, and only up the dosage if your plants show signs of malnutrition. If you are certain that your plants have been overfed- remove the plant from the medium, rinse the roots, and then transplant into fresh medium immediately. When outdoor plants receive a high level of light- this is usually accompanied by an increase in temperature which helps the plants to make use of the light. This is true of HID lighting, as well, adding light equates to adding radiant heat. The advent of LEDs has allowed us to add light without adding heat, and because 100% of the light emitted is being absorbed by your plants (as opposed to 10% of the light from traditional lighting) there is a danger of giving your plants too much light. It is important to transition plants into any new light source. Starting with less is always better than starting with more. Plants will generally survive a period of low light, but a prolonged exposure to excess light can cause permanent damage. When adding LED lighting it is wise to start the light at the maximum distance from the plant canopy. Only if plants show signs of needing more light should you slowly lower lights an inch or two at a time. Always give plants a chance to adjust and watch for improvements before lowering the lights further or adding additional lighting. The problem of too much heat can first appear in many different parts of the plant: Flower buds may wither, leaves may droop or become more attractive to insects, chlorophyll may disappear so that leaves appear white or brown, or roots may cease growing. The plant may survive in a stunted or chlorotic state for years but once the damage is done- it is difficult to recover from. The best weapon against heat damage in an outdoor garden is choosing plants that are appropriate to your climate and area you are planting. For the indoor gardener, over heating is generally associated with HID light sources. The solution here is simple. Instead of running 1,000 watts of HPS for the entire photoperiod, you would run the HPS for one hour in the morning, one hour in the afternoon, and one hour before the lights go off (or 30 minutes every 3 hours). Then, run the LEDs for the entire photoperiod. The radiant heat from the HPS will keep growth rates on par with what the indoor gardener has come to expect and the LEDs will provide quality light, prevent over heating, increase the lifetime of your HPS, and reduce your electrical use by over 70%. By eliminating this gluttony in the garden, your plants can be healthier and your wallet thicker.--AL ****************************************************************************************************** Plants, Light, and LEDs part 11 In the earliest parts of this article we have shown that plants have very specific lighting requirements in order to support both growth and development. We also looked at the characteristics of conventional grow lighting products and discovered that they are merely modifications of standard room lighting products which are very inefficient grow lamps. In this part we'll look at how SolarOasis is striving to meet the special challenges encountered in designing long-lasting, efficient plant grow lighting products. What does SolarOasis grow lighting offer? Superior engineering as well as research and development. Our engineering staff have been designing and developing LED-centric lighting appliances for the consumer market since 1992. This gives us particular expertise in creating highly optimized LED lamp circuitry, which translates into products delivering optimal light intensity while maintaining the long service life expected of LED lighting. SolarOasis received the first patent for an LED-based plant grow light designed specifically for use in commercial greenhouses and the home. By combining our knowledge of plant physiology with years of field testing, we created a blend of light colors designed to promote both plant growth and development. By targeting specific plant processes with colors of light plants use efficiently we improve the efficiency of our products, which translates into savings in the greenhouse. Whenever possible, technological advances made during the development of future products are backward engineered into the current product line. This incremental development in two directions ensures our products are always as good as they can be. Historically this has meant that successive generations of our grow lighting products have increased light output while decreasing both energy use and waste heat. SolarOasis products are manufactured in the USA from the finest electronic components we can procure. When the correct component isn't available, for instance if LEDs manufactured for general lighting aren't generating the particular wavelength we require, we work with manufacturers to custom manufacture components to our specifications. At the same time we are directing the development of radical new LED designs for use in our future products. Using just-in-time production techniques means that as products are improved, the improvements move into production immediately. There's no point stockpiling products only to have them fall behind the latest technology. We carefully schedule production runs to supply enough product for current needs, and no more. Each year SolarOasis provides time and expertise to both public and private researchers, helping them keep their own research projects on the cutting edge of their fields. University researchers, major research institutes and exciting technology start-ups have all benefited from our help. Helping other researchers often helps us see ways to improve our own technology, adding yet more depth to our research efforts. --CEO SolarOasis **************************************************************** Copyright 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED LED Grow Master Global, LLC |
