UV and IR light

RusselSprout
RusselSproutstarted grow question 14d ago
My new growlight is an experimental model from Silverfox, based on the Silverfox Samsung Evo Mint Green 280w. The difference is that this light has a switch that turns on some UV LED's and then a separate switch that turns on IR. What do these spectrums do? when to use? what for?
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ATLien415
ATLien415answered grow question 15d ago
really dumbed down but red is mostly used to discern daytime versus night (like in nature for the plants) and then a ratio of red to blue can be used to promote lengthier growth. red in the spectrum is mostly on the flowering side of spectrum builds. it all comes down to what the IR would be signaling in nature. on your fixture, I'd turn it on for flowering sometime around the third week or so but play with the timing. UV is a lot more complicated. it is an energy source and will be consumed by the plant. it is also going to be particularly good at destroying trichomes and plant mass...meaning defense mechanisms will be stronger when UV is present. think weight lifting type of building your trichomes out on a healthy plant. you can break down UV further into distinct bands with distinct effects as well. in general, the most advanced takeaway i have seen here is that the presence of UV light is going to shift the X+Y=Z where X is cannabinoids and Y is flavenoids and Z is your upper limit for total secondary metabolites, it shifts the weight more towards Y rather than X. many folks would attest to sun grown flower tasting particularly good, and this would be one of the major mechanism by which that is factually true
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Ultraviolet_
Ultraviolet_answered grow question 15d ago
That light only has UV-A diodes that emit ultraviolet light at a peak wavelength of 395nm. So its almost entirely a gimmick. Will slightly help improve flavoinoid if at all. The IR will extend the photosynticslly active range that photosynthesis occurs from (PAR) from 700nm upwards to 780nm. This extension improves photosynthetic efficiency maybe 15-25%. By extending PAR to ePAR.
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