Getting the most out of LED Lighting in Winter

February may have been unusually warm, but March has begun with a cold snap resulting in us all having to take more care over the temperature of our Grow Projects. Many of our growers have invested in LED lighting and in previous newsletters we have gone over how LED’s are an ideal choice for summer growing. This month we are taking a look into how you can get the most out of your LED lights during the colder months. Here are our tips:

Monitor your temperature

Knowing your grow room temperature gives you the power to make the most of your grow kit. With central heating and additional room heaters used during certain hours, it’s easy to see big fluctuations in temperature during a 24 hour period and plants will not grow well in these conditions. Using heaters with built-in thermostats and in-room temperature/humidity meters will give you the information you need to know how much outside air is needed to keep your plants at the ideal temperature to maximise growth. As a rule of thumb, you always want to keep an ambient temperature of around 21-23 degrees centigrade.

Use air from within your own home

Using air from within your home during colder months has several benefits. Firstly, the air isn’t as cold as outside air so you will need to use your grow heaters less to maintain the correct temperature. Secondly, by using warmer air and less heating, the atmosphere in your grow tent will not lose as much humidity which is vital for healthy plant growth. Lastly, air from inside homes tends to be surrounding humans and we are CO2 making machines! Increased CO2 in your Grow Tent has many positives which we will go through next.

Adding CO2

Plants need CO2 to grow. We have all heard of photosynthesis and this is key to getting the yields you want. CO2 is a great addition to any grow projects but specifically LED grow environments. LED’s emit lower levels of heat therefore the air in the grow tent can stay around for that much longer. Adding CO2 into this environment ensures it gets more time to be used up by the plant. Just ensure you have to correct fan set-up so air flow will continue even when the room temperature requires less air removal.

Extract Less Air from your Grow Room/Tent

LED’s emit less heat and, as a result, you will not need to pump in as much outside air as with other forms of lighting. There is a really simple equation to work this out. Firstly you will need to know the area of your grow room/tent. To find this, just multiply the room length by height and depth. Once you have this figure, times it by 60 and that is your rough level of air to be removed from your grow space every hour (units should be m3).

Circulate your air well

Less air in/out of your grow space doesn’t mean you don’t need to use fans! Heat rises and as a result you can easily find yourself in a situation where there is a significant difference in the floor and roof temperature which means your plant will not grow and develop evenly. To avoid this, have sufficient in-space circulation systems in place so your air will consistently move around and keep a consistent temperature regardless of the height of your plants and grow space.

Add CDM or HPS lighting

Finally, both CDM and HPS lights are HID (high intensity distribution) lights. These lights will not only help boost the light given from your LED set-up, but they also emit warm light which will help you add much-needed warmth to the plant without having to blow hot, dry air into your grow space.

We hope these tips can help you in making your LED grow projects during the colder months. You can take a look at our online LED range from the link below, or give us a call in the office and we can take you through everything you will need to make the most of your next Grow Project.