Recently, while enjoying a hot cup of coffee, I read an article about some of the problems faced by coffee plantations. They’re running out of space to grow the coffee bean, which means they won’t be able to supply the world’s coffee needs. The demand for coffee worldwide is so great that we need to find a new way to grow this plant.
The solution suggested in the article was indoor gardening. A lot of plants are currently being grown indoors. Methods like hydroponics and aquaponics work great, but planting them in soil would work as well. The main thing you lack indoors is sun and rain. You can obviously make up for the rain by watering your plants more. As for the sun, that’s where plant grow lights come in.
A 1000 watt LED plant light. Photo by Sunshine 117 – http://www.buynicer.com/news/How+to+Use+LED+Grow+Lights%3F_nwid500015.html, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22682319
There are a lot of different types of grow lights but the ones that will see used most in the future are LED grow lights. They are much more expensive, but there also much more efficient, especially the powerful 1000 watt LED lights for growing. Due to their higher efficiency, they use far less electricity to produce the same par output. This means you get more light that is usable for your plans for photosynthesis for the same amount of wattage inputted than you would with traditional horticultural lighting.
Electricity bills are lower and also, indoor LED lights meant for growing plants create a lot less heat than other lights. This means you don’t have to cool your grow space as much and save are able to save even more money on electricity as well as expensive equipment.
There are two main types of LED grow lights. One of them uses multiple colored LEDs to create the perfect spectrum for growing plants. Most of these LEDs will be red and blue, with some ultraviolet and some infrared and some all white LEDs mixed in. This creates exactly the light plants need and is the most efficient way of lighting your indoor garden. Good examples of multi-colored LEDs are the Black Dog PhytoMAX line of lights, the California Lightworks SolarStorm 880 and the Kind LED K5 XL1000.
The other type of LED lighting uses full-spectrum white LEDs, like the NextLight Mega panel. These produce a light very similar to natural sunlight. This is a great spectrum for growing plants, because as we all know, the sun does a great job of this. However, unlike with the sun, here you have to pay to power the light. And you’re paying for a lot of light in the green and yellow spectrum. With the sun it doesn’t matter that you have a lot of this light, but when you’re paying for green and yellow wavelengths, your money is going to waste. Plants don’t use this color of light as much as red and blue, so you’re simply wasting money.
That said, full-spectrum white LED grow lights do have one advantage. Your plans look the same under this lighting as they do under the sun. With other types of indoor LED lights, the plants in the taking on a pinkish hue, which makes it difficult to see any damage or infestations. With white light, it is easier to care for your coffee or tea plant.
Now I know this is all fantasy and we will probably not see coffee growing under horticultural LED lighting any time soon. I do know that tea has been grown under them, but not in a profitable way. I do think as we are more and more pressed for space on our little planet, will have to move more of our food production indoors. This means that LED plant lights will become more and more popular and you will start to see them everywhere and people will know what they are. An article like this will no longer be necessary.
If you need grow lights, you can find them on Home Depot’s website.