Dreddd
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,
Laser grow lights have been on my mind for a while now, i always wondered if using Laser diodes would produce better results then LEDs at similar/lower wattage, since lasers produce coherent light while LEDs (and pretty much everything else) produces incoherent light, what the effect on plant growth might be...
recently i've found this study:
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep33885
that suggests that you can grow plants from seed to seed with a mix of red and blue laser diodes at a ratio of 9:1 of red (671 nm) : blue (473 nm), giving an average of total photon flux density of 90–100 μmol m−2 s−1
from a total wattage of 500mW.
in this experiment the beams were hitting a diffuser with a 50-degree divergence angle 20cm above the plants illuminating an area of 227 cm2.
they tested this laser illumination prototype on the Arabidopsis thaliana model plant and noted that the plants appeared to be healthy and were able to complete a full growth cycle from seed germination to the production of viable seeds.
This seems interesting but i'm not sure how these findings stack up versus current LED technology (Cobs/QBs), what do you guys think?
EDIT: forgot to mention that in the comparison graph the "W" are the control plants grown with a florescent bulb also measuring a photon flux density of 90–100 μmol m−2 s−1 at the canopy.
cant say i understand this data 100% but even when i think about the most efficient LED diodes on the market today, i think Nichia has a 210lm/W diode running at 1w, would a single one of those LED diodes running at half strength be able to produce the same results?
Laser grow lights have been on my mind for a while now, i always wondered if using Laser diodes would produce better results then LEDs at similar/lower wattage, since lasers produce coherent light while LEDs (and pretty much everything else) produces incoherent light, what the effect on plant growth might be...
recently i've found this study:
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep33885
that suggests that you can grow plants from seed to seed with a mix of red and blue laser diodes at a ratio of 9:1 of red (671 nm) : blue (473 nm), giving an average of total photon flux density of 90–100 μmol m−2 s−1
from a total wattage of 500mW.
in this experiment the beams were hitting a diffuser with a 50-degree divergence angle 20cm above the plants illuminating an area of 227 cm2.
they tested this laser illumination prototype on the Arabidopsis thaliana model plant and noted that the plants appeared to be healthy and were able to complete a full growth cycle from seed germination to the production of viable seeds.
This seems interesting but i'm not sure how these findings stack up versus current LED technology (Cobs/QBs), what do you guys think?
EDIT: forgot to mention that in the comparison graph the "W" are the control plants grown with a florescent bulb also measuring a photon flux density of 90–100 μmol m−2 s−1 at the canopy.
cant say i understand this data 100% but even when i think about the most efficient LED diodes on the market today, i think Nichia has a 210lm/W diode running at 1w, would a single one of those LED diodes running at half strength be able to produce the same results?
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