Why Metal Halide for Flowering?

This spectrum, only offered by Metal Halide technology, is ideal for growth and flowering of medicinal plants. It’s a popular misconception that MH bulbs are only for the vegetative phase, or that you need a warmer, more red, light for flowering. These things aren’t exactly true, and may have been born from the earlier HPS technology being brighter, and orange in color. As we learn more, it turns out that a clean and complete white light, with a sun-like spectrum is the best thing you can give plants, especially if quality is your #1 goal. Our light chemistry also contains some Sodium, and delivers competitive levels of red energy as an HPS for sufficient flowering! Read more about the increased Quality of MH-grown flowers here.

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Superior Plant Health

Metal Halide bulb spectrums are the closest to real sunlight, and promote the ultimate expression of plant health indoor. In addition to the flowering phase, this bulb also excels in the vegetative phase. Many growers have been known to place tired, old cuttings outside in sunlight for a season to reinvigorate their health. We have seen maintained plant health in very old (mid 1990s) cuttings sustained over years in our MH powered veg rooms in a similar way. Plants have better structure, vigor, and ease of maintaining perfect health status under this lighting technology over long periods of time. We also see improved clone output, lesser nutritional needs, and more tolerance for stressful garden conditions.

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Useful Invisible Light

Plants use both visible light and invisible light wavelengths! The latest science proves that the short and long wavelengths outside of the visible spectrum actually drive photosynthesis and other cellular processes. Like the sun, MH technology produces light wavelengths from ~280nm to over 2000nm! While horticulture research focused on visible light (400-700nm) emissions, they mostly neglected the invisible portions of the spectrum which are present in sunlight and bulbs too. Science is slowly discovering that plants use much more than just the PAR range of light energy.

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The Magic of Far Red

Previously, it was said that only visible light (400nm-700nm) causes photosynthesis in plants. We now know that Far Red energy, outside of that range, is extremely efficient and useful as well! The latest science shows that plants can perform significant amounts of photosynthesis with the 700-750nm far red energy which is outside the traditional PAR range, now measured in ePar range. Our lamps have abundant energy in this region and beyond, while LEDs have much less, or often none at all. This energy present in bulbs makes them more efficient than we previously thought, since this useful energy output was not being counted at all! Far Red 700-750nm photons are said to be as photosynthetically effective as photons within the PAR Range (400-700nm), and penetrate deep into the plants' canopy. They can account for up to 25% of photosynthesis intra-canopy!

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Infrared Warmth

Our lamps deliver a full light spectrum including less-researched, longer Infrared (IR) wavelengths from 780-2000nm (present also in sunlight) which are absent in LEDs, and mostly ignored in indoor horticulture so far. IR has profound effects on plant growth and flowering. We see improved plant structure, vigor, and health in many cultivars with MH bulbs.

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Sunlight has abundant energy in the Infrared region (classified as 780nm and beyond.) What many people dismissed as inefficient heat loss, turns out to be essential long wave infrared energy that powers cellular processes within the plants, penetrating deep into the canopy and assisting in nutrient metabolism. Infrared helps control leaf surface temperature, crucial for plant's cellular processes and nutrient uptake. We notice that the same amount of soil or nutrition goes a lot longer in a plant under MH in comparison to using the same under LED. It is very easy to keep plants healthy with our bulb, especially for beginners and also at scale. With our bulb, you will notice ease of growth and maintained plant health for longer with minimal nutrient input, over a wider range of acceptable temperatures. Without infrared spectrums, growers have to maintain much stricter conditions and use more nutrients to keep plants in peak health.

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If you run a mixed-light grow room, you may find plants under other lights pointing their leaves toward our MH lamp! The plants can tell the difference and align themselves with the sunlike spectrum just like they follow the sun throughout the day outdoors!

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Our bulb has a similar ratio of visible light to IR compared to sunlight. LEDs produce a less natural ratio of colors, with more visible light and less, or none of the useful invisible IR light. This IR is very helpful for plants to express fully and utilize nutrition optimally.

 

There is currently no LED capable of producing a truly sun-like light spectrum, and even the best custom blends are still missing the entire long range of the IR spectral region. LED spectral curves are almost always variations of the same unnatural curve and mostly use the same chips as each other in varying ratios.

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Even an IR LED is no comparison for our full spectrum emission.   A typical IR LED 730-745nm is not IR at all, it's Far Red. A lesser common IR LED of 840-870nm is just the beginning of the entire wideband infrared range and is very weak. Our bulb technology produces a full range of wideband IR that covers over a 1300 wide nanometer range of wavelengths. The bulbs emit into at least 2000 nanometers in small amounts, just like sunlight does. You will notice a big increase in nutrient availability with our bulb, due to the full infrared range being present.

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As more research papers emerge, IR spectra is being shown to optimize things like nutrient metabolic rates, uniform ripening time of flowers throughout the plant, and enhanced flowering processes. Plants seem healthier and more expressive toward their full potential. For now we can tell you what we observe. Many say that using MH allows them to save a week of grow time.

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The Potency of UV

Our bulb also has nearly the same ratios of Ultraviolet (UV) spectra as sunlight. UV contributes additionally to the genetic expression of the medicine. It may increase potency or alter the metabolites produced. Growers often observe increases in resin quality and quantity.

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Plants have utilized UV from sunlight around the world for millions of years. Not until recently with the invention of LED's have plants been really missing the full UV spectrum in their environment. The UV produced by our bulb is far superior to that of most other grow lights, and is as close to sunlight as possible. 

We have full spectrum UV from 280-400nm, whereas specialized UV LEDs are narrow band in comparison. For example a typical UV LED is just a small spike of 365-375nm or 395-405nm rather than the entire UV spectrum range from 280-400.

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The following chart illustrates the UV difference of MH and LED quite nicely. It shows our spectrum compared to 10x of the LED UV + IR supplemental 10w bar by Grower's Choice ($180 each). As you can see, the supplemental UV and IR LED's put out very little energy compared to the UV + IR energy from our 1000w bulb.

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(Please note, our spectrum below was mapped with industry-leading CIE 1931 EVERFINE Spectrometer for the following graphs. Our spectral graphs with wider infrared readings as seen at the top of this page, are mapped with i-Phos UV-Visible-Infrared HD Spectrometer)