Use of green light Green light is definitely required for a rich and healthy light spectrum, missing it out reduces growth and yield, as plants at light saturation would not benefit from the additional energy. Plants also use green light to set their circadian rhythm through phytochrome, cryptochrome and heliochrome, meaning that it is an essential component of plant growth control. At excite we include white LEDs that emit a full spectrum with plenty of green presence, this allows the high PPFD to deliver more growth at levels of saturation that any other type of light that misses green out.
NASA ran tests on growlights and found that a full spectrum of red-blue-green produced more dry mass of crop than purely red-blue, indicating green light’s ability to deliver yields. This was found to be because the plant was already saturated with red and blue light; therefore, a balance including green was more efficient in carbon fixation in photosynthesis. This agrees with McCree’s 1972 study that found a heavy showing of green in a mixed spectrum to produce the most photosynthetic activity.
Broad spectrum lighting – often referred to as full spectrum lighting, means the complete spectrum of light given by sunlight. This means wavelengths of broad spectrum lighting include the 380nm-740nm range (which we see as color) plus invisible wavelengths too, like infrared and ultraviolet. One advantage of LED grow lights is they can be set up to produce certain wavelengths for specified periods during the day or night. This makes it ideal for plants because growers can isolate specific spectrum colors depending on crops and growing conditions. Full spectrum lighting can also speed up or slow growth rate, enhance root development, improve nutrition and color etc.