The real key to deciding what sort of light you need is to figure out the size of your grow area.
What kind of light do pot plants need.
A study found that the most productive ppfd for cannabis is 1500 2000μmol m s at a temperature of 25 30 c with natural co increased to 750ppm.
I personally haven t seen evidence of that and at least in my experience autoflowering cannabis plants seem to do great getting 24 hours of a light a day.
Flowering plants should receive a minimum of 600 par.
Plants need higher par values as they mature.
This article explains how much light a day your photoperiod cannabis plants need to grow and start budding so you get to a happy harvest day.
However different colored lights are mostly just different wavelengths and intensities.
Established plants that are still vegging will do best under a 400 600 par light.
The different types of lights for cannabis.
They all serve the same purpose but many of them go about it in different ways.
Some manufacturers advertise more than 100 000 hours of life in their led bulbs which gives you enough time for almost ten years of harvesting.
Cannabis is a photoperiod plant which means the amount of light received each day decides when the plant starts flowering or making buds.
Cannabis plants in their vegetative phase will need 400 600μmol m s and flowering plants normally require 600 1500μmol m s ppfd with atmospheric levels of co.
In weeks 4 to 6 of your cannabis flowering the buds will get bigger and fatter.
There are growers who believe auto flowering plants need a dark period and won t be as healthy if they get 24 hours of light a day.
A seedling will thrive under a lower par value between 200 and 400.
Mh lights produce a strongly blue tinged light which the plants prefer at this stage of growth.
Pros and cons learning about the many types of grow lights available can be overwhelming especially for those new to cannabis cultivation.
It might sound strange that a plant prefers a type of light.
People who don t know what they are doing often choose to plant their cannabis plants in the middle of a forest.
In general lights with higher wattage should have a higher par output.
This is the part of the cannabis plant s life where growth takes off and leaves begin to flourish.
Your marijuana plants would need to fight for light competing with tall mature trees.
During the seedling stage it will produce two leaves that open outward from the stem to start receiving sunlight.
Both are important for a good bud formation.
In this phase your plants will need a lot of co2 carbon dioxide for growth and health.
Next its trademark cannabis leaves will begin to sprout at the top of the plant as it enters its first growth cycle.
Click here for the best led lights for marijuana plants.
For people who have a good understanding of the importance of light to their harvest this is clearly not the best choice.