Blooming under LED's

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I have been playing with LED lighting for the better part of a year now. I have four strips, two cool white and two warm white alternating above the shelf that also has exposure to a north facing window (gets daylight, but no sun ever.) What I have discovered is that some of my AV's like it - others, not so much. And some grow longer petioles than normal as a result. Here are some that seem to have adjusted to it just fine, currently in bloom:

LE-Koltsa Saturna [LE-Rings of Saturn]

Gumdrop, two views - every bloom is different:

Two I grow in memory of my late DH - a chimera called Sweet Tea (one of his favorite beverages)

and LE-Teddi

This was LE-Teddi when it first sent up bloom stalks - before they all opened and it could no longer keep them up that high:

Below is Carolina Ariosa, just beginning to open blooms but I'm thinking this is one not so happy as all the leaves are hanging down as if the light is too much for it. What do you think?

And lastly, I've shown this one before but it was more red than white at that time. It has bloomed with red patches over white all winter although as you see the latest bloom to the left is going back to mostly red - very interesting! EK-Snegiri [EK-Bullfinch]

Just curious: does anyone else have problems with posting photos? When I am composing, every photo I insert is pale and I know unless it "turns bright" that it will not go through when I post. But I can sit there until doomsday and they don't finish the loading process. So I post the message, no photos appear and I have to go in and edit - which means adding in every photo again. (P.I.T.A.!!) THAT always works - they appear pale and then in a few seconds they brighten and we're all set. Is this just me or does anyone else have to jump through these hoops too?

Anne

Featured Answer

aegis1000

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

Posting photos seems trickier now. I've had some of the same experiences you have, and also have that there is no option to post a photo at the inception of a thread from my phone, but I can add one to a responding post.

It's keeping me on my toes.

P.S. Nice photos of your violets, BTW ...

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Comments (6)

AnneCecilia z5 MI
Original Author
7 years ago
Well, then, thank you doubly for the photos you post, Aegis. For a website that prides itself on all the photos to be found here, they sure don't have their stuff together. Every time I go through this I get so disgusted that I say to myself that I won't bother again...but I do, just not very often.
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dbarron
7 years ago
Usually when light is too high, the petioles shorten and tighten up (not elongate and droop). Just saying...I don't know :)
irina_co
7 years ago
I think AnneCecilia has the valid reason to say that they behave differently. Plants are more or less built to receive sunlight - the flat broad spectrum - even they mostly absorb the wavelengths matching chorophyll and a little bit by other pigments. LEDs do not have flat spectrum - they have peaks and valleys no necessary indifferent for the plant growth - and high K LEDs probaby have too much ultraviolet.

There are plant friendly full spectrum LEDs...I guess - pricey.

Analog with humans - infrasound at the frequency 8hz can kill us. At the low level - brings severe depression. Mantras - you chant Om Mani Padme Hum 100 times in a row... something will change in your mood, correct? Probably for the better...
dbarron
7 years ago
OMG Irina, are you saying 'We can't make artificial sunlight?''

Hee, yes, you're probably right that the balance is off. LEDs and growing under LEDs is still relatively new.
AnneCecilia z5 MI
Original Author
7 years ago
Exactly - and I'm certainly in no rush to convert all my florescent fixtures over to LED. It would save money in the long run, but I can see from my experiment that it would not make all of my plants happy. (Maybe not even most.) Yes, there are those funky blue/red=violet LED's, but I've seen them displayed in the local big box and I couldn't bear their color in my house (shudder.) Actually, I was just hoping to have a nice isolation area. For now, those plants that are happy under these lights (Sweet Tea is a good example - nice flat rosette, beautiful big blooms held high) ARE happy. So perhaps this shelf will eventually be thinned down to the handful of plants that really seem to do well there and the rest will go back to the plant room to live under good old T-8's. However, I still haven't gone through a summer season when the light coming from east and west brightens this window noticeably. Still testing....

Anne