I'm looking to manipulate the light spectrum for grow lights? looking for a lighting gel solution (plastic transparent sheet for changing color) to change the grow lights lighting spectrum. Any ideas? Anyone? Thanks
A better solution would be to use a lamp in the correct spectrum for the stage the plant is growing. Why try to complicate things? PW
Thanks for the input... I'm just curious if its possible to manipulate the light spectrum using a gel. If its impossible I have not found anything to support it. If you can take a light with one spectrum and modify to a dif spectrum with a simple low cost gel rather than swapping out a more expensive new light. HERE IS WHAT ONE SITE SAYS Do Blue Lights Increase Plant Growth? | eHow.co.uk "Growing plants under colored lights doesn't require special equipment. Simply cut a rectangle of blue cellophane and prop it over your plants so your grow lights filter through the cellophane. You can also cut circles of heat-resistant theater lighting gel and smooth them onto your grow lights. Experiment with different colors by placing one of the same kind of plant under each light color, including sunlight. Keep detailed notes to see which plants produce which kinds of growth."
Notice it says nothing about increasing growth. It's not possible. Filters are sometimes used in order to test specific spectra, but even that is mostly a thing of the past with the advent of grow LEDs. Plants need the entire spectrum for optimal growth, not just 1 or 2 (blue and red, etc.).
All the types of lights that could be used to grow weed efficiently already come in spectrums usable by the plants so what type of bulb are you thinking of that doesn't already?
Induction lamp, great for clones but not as good for flowering... Some induction lamps are close but still not as good as a 1000 watt HPS
Cool thanks Lay Low... this is the kinda feedback I was looking for there is just not much about it I have found so far Appreciate the feedback
You don't change the spectrum with a filter, you just filter out other colors to only allow the one(s) you want to show. This would reduce overall light intensity and PPF. Not too wise.
I wonder if just complimenting the induction light with a LED would do the trick. The energy savings with induction is nice.
Even if you could applying gel would be a terrible pain in the ass. My plant right now must have a hundred leaves and way to numerous branches etc. I would spend half a day gelling it up. Then it would all dry out and most likely cake on. So if you could it would be a pain in the ass and not even worth it for a second. Imagine having to gel once a week 4-5 plants. No one would do it. The cost benefit would be to high.
Dif type of Gel.... More like a diffusion or daylight gel for film video lights, can handle high heat. Add a small strip of gel to the glass of the hood to boost some red to the light source for flowering or something was more less the idea of incorporating a gel. example.. Color Balance Correction Daylight Tungsten Florescent Conversion Softbox Gel Filters Lighting Gels Lee Filter Rosco
Those wont really work for you. Usually filters like that either block all spectrum except one kind to produce the desired lighting effect or are simply colored and do nothing except color the light. What your asking to do..manipulate the spectrum is exactly what LED makers do...should consider that route. Being that almost every light type wastes 90% of the light in the form of heat LED makers make LEDs that generate only the spectrum that a plant uses and nothing else right now to the nanometer range. What you want to do basically already is being done.
i've been growing marijuana for more than a decade and know about stage lighting and production gels; which is how i found my way into this forum. i too Am curious about shifting the light spectrum of fluorescent lamps over to something suitable for flowering by way of using gels. what i suspect is that a violet colored gel can compete with LED lighting. i'm not sure which hue will be best, but i think that the color may have to be off-violet to an extent or that maybe even customizing a gel comprised of all the different colors on an LED light and affixing it to a frame that can be popped in and out of the light fixture might be best. the gel won't exactly reduce or filter the light if we choose hues of violet that are light enough to allow the light through without dampening the intensity. Anyhow, i'm willing to experiment with gels to see what works because i cannot afford an entirely new grow system for flowering plants, nor do i have funds for the electric bill.