Why Full Spectrum Lighting?
Plants use ALL light in the visible spectrum. Let us repeat, plants use ALL light in the visible spectrum (and then some).
Several years ago, the photobiologist Dr. Keith McCree, mapped the usage of photons that trigger photosynthesis in plants. As you can see, and contrary to a lot of the hype you see on the Internet, a plant will use every color in the visible spectrum to support its growth.
You might remember from high school biology that a plant’s chloroplasts house photoreceptors that are triggered into action by photons delivered by the sun. Each photoreceptor is specific to a certain frequency, or color.
White light from the sun is made up of every frequency (or color) in the visible spectrum. Each of these frequency waves carry photons that strike and trigger their complementary (same color, or frequency) photoreceptors, causing the production of fuel and mass through photosynthesis.
Artificial Lighting to Grow Plants
All manner of artificial light sources are now being used to grow plants indoors, but not all of them are created equal.
Here you can see the output spectrum of a few of the most popular grow lighting technologies. As you can see, compact fluorescent lights operate mainly in the blue end of the spectrum, which is predominantly used for the seed-to-vegetative stages of plant growth
High pressure sodium lights are the most commonly used for flowering and harvest stages of plant growth. Their strength lies in their sheer power and strong output in the amber range, into the red frequencies.
Also shown is one of the more popular LED grow lights. You can see it is very strong in the red frequencies and somewhat strong in the blues. This belief that only reds and blues from LED grow lights is necessary for plant growth is a common misconception, based on very old data, and taken out of context.
Curtis Mathes Grow Lights
Below is another chart, except we have added in the output of the Curtis Mathes Full-Spectrum LED Grow Lights. You can see we’ have developed an LED output that covers the entire visible spectrum, and then some.
In the simulation of our light’s effect on photoreceptors, you can see greater action across the entire visible spectrum.