Are White LED Grow Lights Good for Growing Pot?

White light is the mixture of lights with varying wavelengths along with the electromagnetic spectrum. It can vary based on the particular CCT of light that is produced. CCT stands for correlated color temperature. Cannabis seedlings and clones require lights with lesser intensity and can grow in a better way in the action spectrum of white light. You must also know that red or blue light with higher intensity can cause potential harm to plants at the development stage. As soon as you find the cannabis plants moving into the stage of vegetation, they need to lessee white light than the Action spectrum and more blue-based light for the photosynthetic reaction. 

Similarly, when the cannabis plants start moving into their flowering stage, they must be more focused on the red light for a better reaction to photosynthesis. You will be able to see focused blue as well as red light peaking in the absorption spectrum. In the present times, there are so many different colors of LED grow lights available in the market which can leave you to wonder which one will be the best for your growing pot. If you want to know if white LED grow lights are good for growing pot for you as a home cultivator, you must read this post till the end as it will take you through different sections of information regarding the same. 

What Are White LED Grow Lights?

There is a misconception about white LED lights being white. However, that is not true. The initial “white” LEDs were blue, red and green LEDs packaged in just one diode. Combining all three colors of the best commercial LED grow lights together can give out a whitish light. If you change the proportions of every light, you can find varying color temperatures. A similar combination of three different LEDs, frequently added with a fourth to flash out a spectrum, is also used for various uses. But it isn’t the only way in which “white” diodes which can be seen in grow lights are formed. 

If three different colored LEDs are used together, it is surely not going to be a reliable way of creating white light. In such a case, a different method was practiced that uses just one LED. These LEDs followed a similar principle that was used already in fluorescent lights. The fluorescent tubes generate ultraviolet light rays and not white light. There is a powder-based coating on the interior side of the tube which is used to convert the UV light to red, blue light and green. As already mentioned, the combination of all three colors looks white. 

LEDs give out violet or ultraviolet light, before which is changed into white light with the help of phosphorus coating all over the lens or a different enclosure. This is known as a white LED with full conversion. These can work but not efficiently. This is the fact that created a spur in the researchers for trying out and creating an LED with partial conversion. These lights make use of blue light and mot UV light or phosphorus coating that can convert a part of that particular blue light to another yellowish light, the result of green and red light. That yellow combines with the leftover blue light and forms white light. Because only a portion of blue light gets converted, this kind of diode is considered to be more efficient. Its efficiency continues to rise to that point where the white LEDs have now become the best lights available in the market in terms of efficiency. 

Are white LED grow lights good for growing pot?

LED with full-spectrum can perform much better when compared to a white LED with basic wattage because it makes use of the highly efficient color spectrum required by the plants. LEDs with the full-spectrum corpse of diodes that measure 760 nm to 380 nm and are inclusive of a lesser number of the white diodes for completing the range of colors. Whereas, a white LED grow light might lack some really important parts of a light spectrum, such as IR (Infrared), UV (Ultraviolet) and Red. Infrared and Ultraviolet are mostly out of the physically visible range and have no existence in the white light. You can use white LED grow lights for growing pot if you are a home grower. 

The role played by UV diodes is to improve the generation of resin so that more trichomes are formed. This can result in better health of the plants with improved aroma, potency and flavor. The infrared also helps in increasing the strength of stem and flowering. These are the main lacking factors in a white LED light which mean that LEDs can’t provide plants with these wavelengths of the spectrum of light. The plants will generate a lesser number of trichomes with lesser potency, flavor and aroma. 

By using white diodes only in a grow light, one can go against the exact concept of using the LED technology for focusing particular wavelengths of light required for plant growth. White colored LEDs are mainly developed with 3000K or 4000K white diodes fit all over the LED board. The diodes are only blue LEDs covered with phosphorus which can convert the majority of blue light to white as foreseen by the human eye.

 The majority of the white LEDs you will find presently make use of phosphorus to give out a whitish light that gets positioned as 5000-2700K. Nearly 20% of the entire light that is produced by blue LEDs in this way gets lost in this process. As an outcome, a white diode doesn’t work as efficiently as a diode producing just one color. While white colored LEDs have high efficiency as far as an office or home usage is concerned, they cannot be the most reliable option you can use for indoor growing. 

Can plants absorb White LED?

Plants are known to absorb white light lesser than red and blue light. The maximum of the wavelengths of the light generated by the white LEDs is within the spectra that are not used by the plants. The unutilized light is also converted into heat in the leaves, which will need low temperatures for maintaining a proper temperature in the leaf surface. When the 20-40% loss in efficiency can be factored in, you will find that the white LED grow lights just have half the efficiency for plant growth in comparison to the accurate combination of single colored LEDs. The white LEDs can create a compulsion for you to continue cooling the environment where you grow, which leads to the wastage of many benefits offered by LEDs. 

What is the white LED grow light spectrum?

As the majority of home growers are very familiar with the advantages of using LED grow purple lights, white lights have recently become a topic to debate on. Nearly all cultivators have earlier regarded the white light to have very little or almost no value for the growth of plants. But, this is not true in the case of white white LED lights as stated by several studies before. 

The spectrum of white LED grow lights is inclusive of just a few colors presently included in the different LED grow lights like red and blue. It also consists of a handful of wavelengths that are not included in an essential intensity in the majority of the LED grow lights available in the market presently. 

Which is the best white LED grow light for growing pot?

The LED grow lights with the white spectrum are intended for vegetables, cannabis or fruits. They can cover an area of 3×3 ft. Might be overkilling for plants like succulents or flowers which grow in a smaller area. If you want a smaller white LED grow light with a white spectrum that covers a 1×1 area and is enough for small plants such as seedlings, flowers or succulents, there is much light available in the market. 

Conclusion

This was all you should know about whether or not white LED grow lights are suitable for growing pot. The answer can be yes as they play a crucial role in remaining a part of the spectrum that can be absorbed but it is not sufficient to nurture the plants completely on its own until it is combined with the blue and red spectrum too. This is the reason why white LED grow lights are mixed always with the rest of the colors. 

Additionally, you will also need white LED grow lights in a safe growing space. You will also require them to keep the room well-lit and allow the colored grow lights to rest. The best thing is that you will not need as many white LED lights for the room. You won’t also require such lights with higher intensity in comparison to the grow lights used specifically for cannabis.