Is LED Interlighting a Good Choice for Cannabis

With the development of LED  lighting, grower has the possibility to reap more profits. As we all know, LED lights are more efficient and cost-effective than other traditional lights, such as high pressure sodium and ceramic discharge lamps. The difference between normal LED light and LED grow light is that LED grow light produces light in suitable wavelength of radiation, allowing plants absorb more usable light. The three key factors of LED grow light are photon efficiency, PPFD (photosynthetic flux density) and PPF (photosynthetic photon flux). Generally speaking, LED grow lights can supplement or substitute natural sunlight to plants and therefore, growing plants more efficiently, conserving space and improving yields.

Cannabis is a adaptable plants can grow almost everywhere with the proper temperature and enough sunlight. Moreover, the air, humidity and lighting time are also important to the growth of cannabis. But the weather and climate are constantly changing, we cannot guarantee the all the influencing factors are great for the growth of cannabis all the time. So many growers add LED grow light to supplement lighting for cannabis.

However, traditional LED grow lights are placed on the top of cannabis, only lighting the horizontal surface of plants. Then the bottom leaves of the plants shaded by topper leaves, which cause the plant as whole is lack of lighting. Thus, vertical dimension should be taken as account as well. A solution for the limited lighting is to use LED interlighting system. What LED interlighting is? How it works? Is LED interlighting a good choice for cannabis? Let’s start to find the answers.

What is LED interlighting

Firstly, we should keep in mind that LED interlighting is one of the horticulture lighting, which is mainly used to help plants grow better. In other words, LED interlighting is manufactured to meet the specific needs of various plants, such as the ranges of spectrum, luminous efficacy and color temperature. The main features of interlighting is that it can prevent the shadowing and placed between the plants and leaves to better distribution of light. Interlighting runs either vertically or horizontally to deliver light to lower leaves that does not receive enough direct light from above. The wide distribution covers larger areas and the vertical placing way penetrates tall canopies easily. A study has shown that cannabis inflorescence yield is proportional to light intensity. If the light are cut out by the taller part of plants, the inflorescence yield will not increase nevertheless how strong the light intensity is. So LED interlighting is also combined with toplighting or traditional horizontal grow lights to offer adequate lighting for plants by many growers. It is easy to install thanks to the plug and play design of most of inter-light. LED interlighting are widely used in growing tomatoes, cucumbers and cannabis.

What are the effects of interlighting on cannabis

Inter-light can placed at any position and lit the plants to help them gain more lighting. From germination, seeding, vegetative growth to flowering, each period requires different lighting quality for cannabis. When using toplighting for plants grow, we had better to know the growing rate to avoid the plants pushing up against the light. Cannabis is a light-loving crop and some of may even grow as fast as an inch a day. Therefore, be safe to install the light in a proper height. Otherwise, the burn to leaves may occurs. Though interlighting system is capable to deal with the problems, it also has its own deficiency. The effects of interlighting on cannabis are divided into advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

Less heat

LED lights produce significantly less heat than most of the traditional lights. Cannabis leaves will burn if placed too close to a light or a rise in temperature. Moreover, LED interlighting will not heat up your grow area, then you do not need to build an air vent or fan. Therefore, LED interlighting protect cannabis from stunt and help you save additional cost to control the temperature in your grow room.

Cost-effective

LED lights have a long lifespan about 50, 000 hours, which means reducing maintenance and operating costs over the luminaire lifetime. LED lights consume less than 60 percent of the energy than other traditional lights. For example, A laboratory recorded - LED efficacy of 254 lm/W, which was much higher than conventional technologies like florescent and incandescent. As LED lights produces less heat, there is no need to build additional cooling equipment and you can save costs. The easy installation also reduce installation costs. Thus, LED interlighting is cost-effective during the whole growth of cannabis.

Higher PPFD & broad spectrum

PPFD means photosynthetic photon flux density, which measures how much active photons fall on a given surface of the plant and changed with coverage area and height. LED interlighting achieves photon flux up to 220 μmol/s. Furthermore, LED interlighting provides another portion of the cannabis lights to cover more surface from the upper to lower leaves. As a result, LED interlighting brings higher PPFD.

The light ranges from 400nm to 700nm is benefit to photosynthetic to plants, as well as cannabis. Individual red light is ideal for flowering while the combination of red light and far red light accelerate stem growth. Heavy blue light promotes vegetation. LED interlighting can offer broad spectrum for cannabis during germination, vegetation and flowering, which allowing growers to optimize the lighting environment.

Greater yield

The upper part of cannabis absorbs most of the light and the lighting intensity decrease rapidly further downwards. If the lower part of cannabis is lack of lighting, flowers would grow smaller and the maturity would be delayed. In turn, with the more evenly lighting, the whole cannabis can absorb lighting. As a consequence, it can increase the photosynthetic rate, flower development and, result in better plants quality and greater yield. LED interlighting is an optimal choice for both indoor and outdoor grow areas that are lack of light.

Disadvantages

Limited Application

A survey shows that LED interlighting did not lead to higher photosynthetic and yield in summer while enhance light distribution of the lower canopy leaves. However, when LED interlighting was used during the daytime in winter, photosynthesis and yield were improved. Another survey, tested the performance of HPS and the hybrid system HPS with interlighting. When the top-light were turned off for the duration of cannabis growth, the photosynthesis was short of lighting.

Additionally, the supplement light produced by interlighting may have resulted in only the leaves closest to it receiving benefit. The interlighting only benefit cannabis in limited applications. It may also cause the problem with insufficient lighting during individual usage. We should also consider that whether the upper part of cannabis miss adequate lighting if we use the LED interlighting separately without top light.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, we can conclude that interlighting do increase the photosynthetic rate, the overall plant vegetative growth and the yield of cannabis, but the performance may not as well as expected in several conditions. This is likely due to the improper placing position of the light or the effects of Interlighting was “washed out” by natural light during the daytime in summer.

One flaw cannot obscure the splendor of the jade. Interlighting brings lights to the lower and darker areas of cannabis, providing supplemental lighting and can increase year-round productivity. Interlighting produces less heat, providing higher PPFD and broad spectrum and greater yield to cannabis as well.

Still wondering whether LED interlighting is suitable for your cannabis grow area? Consult our professional team freely.