Trouble reading today's article? Click
here: Issue #298 - Sunday, December 31, 2017
Dear Fellow
Grower,
In today's issue... - Learn how the color spectrum of your grow lights changes how plants grow, so you can choose the perfect grow lights for your garden!
- It can be difficult to see your plants properly when growing under odd-colored lights like HPS or LEDs! Did you know there are specially designed glasses which let you see your plants in full color?
- This weeks trophy pic is a budding cannabis plant so covered in trichomes, it looks like it grew fur!
Nebula Haze & Sirius Fourside (founders of GrowWeedEasy.com) "The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum
of possibilities." ~Stephen Hawking
How Does Color Spectrum Affect Growing Marijuana Plants? by Nebula Haze |
Table of Contents
Note: This article is aimed at intermediate to advanced cannabis growers looking for ways to improve their results, but beginners can still learn some stuff, too! |
What is the Color Spectrum of Light?
Although natural light may appear white to us, it is actually made up of
many different colors. You can see this in action when you put light through a prism, or if you catch the sight of a rainbow. When light is refracted into its individual parts, you can see all the colors that make up that light!
Over the years, we've learned that plants actually make "decisions" about how to grow based on the spectrum of light they receive. A different color spectrum can change how cannabis germinates, grows and even makes buds!
Although we don't have a lot of options to change the spectrum of sunlight when growing outdoors, we have almost complete control of the spectrum when growing cannabis indoors since we're using grow lights!
So, what's the "best" light spectrum for growing cannabis? Unfortunately, that's a big question since each spectrum has its own unique effects and some are more useful to you than others, but let me share everything we know so you can
decide what's best for your goals and situation.
There is no "best" light spectrum for growing cannabis, but you can choose the best one for your goals and grow room!First, it's good to know why cannabis plants react to different light spectrums. When
growing outdoors under the light of the sun, the spectrum of light received by a cannabis plant gives it a lot of information about what's going on in the world around them.
As just one example, during the spring and summer, more of the blue spectrum of light makes it to earth because the sun takes a more direct path through the sky.
In the summer, a plant responds to this bright direct
light (with lots of blue) as a cue to grow vegetatively with lots of big leaves and short stems. The plant tries to spread out as much as it can and increase its leaf mass.
Blue light - Grow lights with a higher ratio of blue light are often used in the vegetative
stage as they tend to make cannabis plants grow short and squat, with big healthy leaves.
As fall approaches the sun starts hanging lower in the sky. As a result, more of the light that reaches the plant falls within the red spectrum. More light in the red part of the spectrum is a sign to the plant that summer is coming to an end and it's time to get ready for winter. As a cannabis plant gets
exposed to a higher ratio of red light, it reacts by growing longer stems with more space between the leaves, getting as tall as possible for the best position to start making buds and pollinate via the wind!
Yellow/Red light - Grow lights with higher amounts of red are often used in the flowering
stage to encourage plants to grow tall (stretch) and to help promote budding. Plants may switch to the flowering stage faster under red light than under blue light.
By keeping track of the ratio of colors in the spectrum of light, a cannabis plant is able to "know" a little bit about what's going on around them! This helps plants grow in the best way possible! As an indoor grower, it's your job to
be the sun and tell your plant what to do!
If you're trying to keep plants short with lots of leafy growth, use grow lights that give off light in more of the blue spectrum during the beginning of your plant's life. When it's time to switch the plant to the flowering stage, you might change the lights to something that has more of the reds and oranges that cannabis likes during the flowering stage.
But you don't have to follow the general rules! I personally use an HPS bulb from seed to harvest, which gives off primarily red/yellow because I like how young plants grow under them; I find it easier to train the plants when they have a little bit more space between nodes! But if I were in a very height-limited space, I might consider trying to give more blue light to help keep stems naturally shorter.
I personally grow plants from seed to harvest under HPS grow lights so plants grow taller, because the longer stems make plant training easier in my case. You can grow
your cannabis plant from seed to harvest under any grow light as long as the light is bright enough!
How big a difference does spectrum make to plant growth?
As long as a cannabis plant is getting bright
light with at least some red and blue, it will grow normally, so any reputable plant grow light you get on the market will do the job and get you to harvest with top-quality buds!
Although certainly not essential to healthy plant growth it is considered good form to choose lights in the proper light spectrum to encourage the growth you want in the vegetative and flowering stages of the marijuana plant. If you have a tool, why not use
it?
However, keep in mind that each strain is affected differently by the color spectrum of the light. Some plants are barely affected at all while others might react much more strongly. It's important to remember that the changes caused by light spectrum are relatively small (such as stems tending to grow longer) and many other factors drive some of the same changes.
For example, if your
plant isn't getting enough light, it will grow long and lanky even if the light has lots of blue because it's "reaching" for more light. Conversely, if you give your plant high levels of light with lots of yellow, it tends to stay short because it's getting so much light that there's enough blue and no need to get taller. Since almost all
grow lights give off a spectrum of light that is suitable for healthy cannabis growth, in many ways the amount of light has a much bigger effect on your plant than spectrum.
The best way to increase yields is to give your plant more light altogether!
In other words, giving your plant more light is going to give you a bigger return on yields than simply changing the spectrum...up to a point. So if it's possible to give your plant more light, that is going to increase your yields even if you're adding light in the "wrong" spectrum. Even bright white fluorescents that dip into
the green spectrum will produce great plant growth. If it's a grow light, it will do the job! Learn about different cannabis grow lights!
In-Depth Look at How Light Spectrum Changes How a Cannabis Plant Grows
Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes not just the visible light spectrum, but also includes X-rays, Gamma rays and infrared light. Plants react to light spectrum via a process (known as photomorphogenesis) that is completely separate from photosynthesis. This section has
nothing to do with PAR or lumens or how a plant makes energy from light (which I talk about below).
In this section, we're only
talking about how the plant uses hidden information contained in the spectrum of light to grow more efficiently!
Although a plant can't physically get up and move to a new spot, it is constantly growing and changing its growth patterns to maximize the amount of light it gets. For example, a plant turns its leaf blades to face the light as the sun moves across the sky, and then puts all its leaves down at
night to save energy and protect itself. Like all plants, a cannabis plant has ways to measure different spectrums of light, each giving the plant information about the best way to grow.
Plants "smell" the light spectrum!
Like humans, plants use the signals from their senses to help find the energy to grow. Humans have a
nose to smell some tasty food and help us seek it out. But although we use our noses to capture the hidden messages in smells, ultimately a nose can only tell us about possible food sources. We can't actually eat food with our noses - we need our mouths to get food in our bellies.
Plants have certain light sensors (photoreceptors) found all over the plant that act kind of like the plant's "nose" to detect information about the light
spectrum. Just like how humans use their sense of smell to help find good food, the plant uses the information about light spectrum to help the plant grow in a way that gets the most light.
However, similar to how we can't actually eat food with our noses, plants can't make energy from light using their photoreceptors.
So when it comes to photoreceptors and the light-color response of
plants, we're talking about the "nose" of the plant, not the "mouth!" The reactions to light spectrum we talk about below are completely separate from photosynthesis. If you're interested in how the plant actually obtains energy from light via photosynthesis, check out the section at the end of this page about PAR, lumens and light intensity.
LED grow lights use custom color spectrums to get plants to
grow more efficientlyClick below to continue...
See Your Cannabis Plants
In Their True Colors! |
Today we talked a lot about the color spectrum of light, and how it affects your plants. But color spectrum affects you, too! When the color spectrum is tinged with yellow or purple, like with LED and HPS lights, it's impossible to see your plants in true color! This makes it a lot more difficult to spot
problems, which means a problem might go on a few days before you notice it!
Not only that, when working under powerful grow lights, it's important to protect your eyes from damage!
Not too long ago, I found out that a company called "Method 7" makes glasses that not only keep your eyes safe, they actually correct the color spectrum of light so you can see your
plants!
Here's two examples of Method 7 glasses in action!
Method 7 Glasses for HPS Grow Lights |
Method 7 Glasses for LED Grow Lights The only problem is that Method 7 glasses are obscenely expensive ($80)!But recently I discovered a company called "Apollo" which
makes knockoff glasses that claim to do the same thing, but cost less than a fifth of the price at $15 each!
It seemed too good to be true but I ordered a pair and I have to report that they're honestly almost as good! If you don't want to put down a ton of money for the Method 7 glasses, get the ones from Apollo, you won't
regret it!
Learn more about specialized glasses for...
|
"Extremely Well Done!( I’m sure you’re swimming in platitudes lol)As an Ivy League MS Bio-Chemistry, I submit that your writing is excellent, concise and educational." ~Alan |
Trophy Picture of the Week! |
"My first grows ever. Grown from 3 seeds I found in my dispensary buds."
-Deez Buddz |
We encourage you to forward this email to a friend in need!
Check Out Our Growing Community! |
Check out our friendly growing community to ask questions, discuss your grow, share pictures, or otherwise talk about growing cannabis with other real growers!
Ask Questions & Talk With Other Growers!
Please note: We let each person in manually, so please be patient after you request to join and we'll try to let you in as soon as possible!! |
Who Runs This
Newsletter? |
Nebula Haze:
I'll be honest with you, when I first started growing, I struggled. Now, it is my mission to
make it easier for new growers to get started as well as help advanced growers get bigger, better yields with less time and money. We are updating and adding articles every single week and our goal is to eventually build a comprehensive growing resource so anyone and everyone can grow if they want to! If we all share the knowledge there's more buds in the world for everyone :) |
|
Learn which seed sources are personally recommended by Nebula Haze |
Sirius Fourside:
Sirius Fourside is a hobbyist grower who has gained the bulk of his experience growing in water as a medium (deep water culture, bubbleponics).
"Growing cannabis can be a relaxing hobby in and of itself, but it also saves you money and keeps you from having to deal with shady characters. Cannabis is much easier to grow than people give it credit for, and growing in water
doesn't increase the difficulty much, if any. But whether you want to grow in water, coco, or a different medium, we'll show you how easy it can be!"
Get Your Seeds Delivered
Safely! |
|
GrowWeedEasy.com has put together a hand-picked list of all the available seed
banks including what type of payment they accept and where they ship in the world!
List of trusted seed sources:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/seeds Get Seeds!
|
Copyright (c)
2017 GrowWeedEasy.com NOTE: If links aren't working or if pictures are not showing up
properly, please view the full newsletter here: http://archive.aweber.com/gwe-updates Disclaimer: Grow Weed Easy only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we may receive a commission. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized Financial, Legal, or Medical Advice. The
contributors to this magazine grow legally under their local laws but are not lawyers or medical professionals. Any decision to grow marijuana should only be made after consulting with an experienced lawyer or other legal adviser. Any medical decisions should only be made after speaking with a doctor or other medical professional. Be safe! How Did I Sign Up For This Newsletter?
Our records indicate that requested to be added to the GrowWeedEasy.com weekly newsletter at .
Date:
To unsubscribe: |
|
