Growing strong tobacco seedlings using artificial lighting

In order to grow high-quality seedlings on the windowsill, you need to provide the plants with additional lighting. Artificial lighting prevents seedlings from stretching and weakening. With its help, you can grow a "winter garden" on your windowsill, provide the plant with a full life cycle, from the appearance of the first shoots to the fruiting period.

Plants at different stages of their life cycle use different ranges of light waves for their development, the length of which is measured in nanometers (nm). Its color depends on the length of the light wave. The sun is a light source that emits and provides crops with the entire spectrum of light waves: from violet (380-460 nm) to red (620-780 nm).

For young seedlings, only two wavelengths are needed, blue (450-480 nm) and red (620-780 nm). To ensure further growth of seedlings, fluorescent (white) light lamps are used, that is, mixing all light waves into one stream.

Red light

Red LED bulbs are used to provide plants with a red spectrum of light waves. In horticulture, they are widely used in the cultivation of fruiting plants. The red spectrum of light has an auxiliary effect on seedlings, stimulating the production of chlorophyll in green leaves.

Blue light

Blue light is most important for seedlings. This spectrum of light has a number of positive effects on a young plant:

• stimulates the formation of new cells, in particular, coarse plant fiber, necessary for the growth of seedlings;
• starts the growth of new cotyledon leaves;
• stops the absorption of carbon dioxide by a young plant, but increases the absorption of hydrogen, so that the seedling accumulates more strength for further growth.

Therefore, when growing seedlings using artificial lighting, it is imperative to use blue light lamps, because in winter the sun's rays fall on the seedlings in insufficient quantities. Blue light is especially important for seedlings of raw crops:

• flax;
• tobacco;
• cotton.

Use homemade LED installations to illuminate it. They are economical and require little maintenance. To power the LED elements, just connect a 12 volt power supply to them. Under artificial lighting, industrial crops grow much better than on the windowsill.