How did they differ? is it the wavelength or the amount of light?
In: Technology
Two main areas:
1. As you note, wavelength. For example, bluer light is useful for growing leafy plants and vegetables, whereas red light for helping plants flower. You can either have multiple lights or a single light like an LED that can change or emit a broad spectrum
1. [https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/grow-lights-for-plants](https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/grow-lights-for-plants)
2. The amount of light/brightness (more lumens) is higher with less heat. Too much heat and the plants can get scorched. Too dim and the plants don’t get enough light.
Plants can often survive off of regular lamps, but some do much better with specialized lamps. Notably, “daylight” spectrum lights are good for non-flowering house plants because they have bluer light.
Grow lights are calibrated to mainly emit the wavelengths of light that plants absorb to make sugars, that is less green shades. They are also more intense than regular lights, which is why they take so much energy
Basically, you are correct that both wavelength and amount will matter; usually the complicated combination of these things is described as the “spectra” or “spectrum” of a given light source.
Any kind of light source you buy… whether that’s an “oldschool” incandescent bulb, some sort of “mercury” lamp or “fluorescent” lamp, or the fancy latest diode “grow light”… will each have a unique “spectra” based on how that technology turns electricity into light.
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Whether or not a given light source will work (poorly or well) for you will depend upon what amount of light you need at what specific wavelengths (i.e. the absorption “spectra” of your application).
Basically, you want to match the “spectra” of your light source as efficiently as you can to the “spectra” of your application… but real-world difficulties/actualities can-and-will complicate things.
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