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LED Lighting in Hydroponics · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hi there growers, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for
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  all things soilless and sustainable.
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  I'm Dr. Russell Sharp and today we're shining a spotlight, quite literally,
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  on one of the most critical components of a hydroponic setup and that's your LED lighting.
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  Most growers now have moved over to LED lighting away from sodium,
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  HPS lights, metal halides and fluorescents and so we're going to do a deep dive
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  into all things LED lighting.
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  So if you're growing indoors the lights are your sun and LED lights they're
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  the rock stars of the artificial lighting world.
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  But are they all bright ideas or are there some dim spots?
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  So let's look into it see what the technology is all about and see where it
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  could potentially be going as well for hydroponics.
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  So most growers have moved over to LED lighting because it's energy efficient.
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  They use way less power than traditional lighting like
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  HPS or metal halides that means lower
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  energy bills for the same and a smaller carbon footprint and
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  so that's great for the economics of growing your crop they've
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  got a long lifespan so most high quality leds can
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  last for 50 000 hours or more that's over
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  five years of continuous use so you're going
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  to make your money back on them eventually so but the
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  the key consideration there is that that lifespan
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  drops dramatically if they are dusty and
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  they get too hot so always make sure you keep them
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  clean and always make
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  sure your air temperature is not too high as well when you're using them
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  you can get targeted spectrum and this
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  is one of the key reasons why leds are used unlike traditional
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  lights like fluorescence and sodiums leds can
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  be fine-tuned to admit the spectra of wavelengths that
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  you're looking for so like blue light for veg red
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  for bloom or anything like that whatever the latest science is
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  saying green for stomatal aperture and things like
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  this far red for stem elongation so
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  you can tailor the spectrum like you would be a dj mixing
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  the perfect beat into into songs
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  now i was at the very.
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  Sort of forefront of led lighting back about 2015 and we actually produced bulbs
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  specific bulbs that were 660 nanometers or um for red and 730 for far red and
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  then we had blue lights and these ones emitted just one nanometre.
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  Of light so just unlike the sort of arrays you
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  get when you buy a grow light i could get these
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  grow light single lights that produce single bulbs and
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  i've still got a box full of these bulbs so
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  if anybody wants them they're the screw-in bayonet type
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  not bayonet the opposite the screw-in type light bulb fitting and
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  they can be retrofitted into any normal light bulb fitting and they're
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  really cool for doing experiments with where you can modify the spectrum so
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  if you're interested than that give me a bell the other
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  thing about led lights is they've got low heat output
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  so say goodbye to burnt leaves when
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  your plants get too close to them they run much cooler than older
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  lights meaning there's less risk of heat stress and no
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  need for expensive cooling system some of the metal halide
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  and sodium lamps used to have like water cooling systems around
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  them and air vents their own ventilation system to
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  stop the grow lights getting too hot certainly in
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  in america they were popular not in the uk not so
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  much because they were expensive now that
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  low heat output is great for preventing
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  scorch and if you're growing crops that are really tall say
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  you're growing in a two meter or 2.2 meter grow tens
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  and your crop maybe gets to like 1.8 meters tall before you harvest it then
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  that's great because you're going to get far less scorch in your grow room the
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  other reason led lights are good is that you can if they're a white led you
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  You can see pest and disease a lot more easily than you could with like a sodium
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  lamp. So that's a good thing.
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  Now, obviously, all of those things have their own disadvantages.
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  So one of the disadvantages of a low heat output is that you are not driving the transpiration.
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  LED manufacturers didn't really realise this, that you needed transpiration
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  for nutrient movement, things like calcium.
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  So if you're growing in LEDs, you might need to bump your calcium,
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  add a CalMag or something like that.
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  Okay, other disadvantages of growing with LEDs.
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  Traditionally they were expensive so there was a big upfront cost just
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  like an electric car might be really good for
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  the environment but also for your wallet it might be the running costs are
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  quite low the actual upfront costs are so high
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  that it's a barrier to entry for most people so the upfront costs
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  of leds were traditionally very high now they've they've
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  plummeted in recent years and so that's been
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  a good thing for hydroponic growers but it's also been a bad thing for the
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  hydroponic industry because it meant that obviously margins stay
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  the same but profits go down for everybody in the
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  supply chain in hydroponics so a lot of people have lost a
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  lot of money on led lights and i think in hawthorne in america it's owned by
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  miracle gray they dumped loads of lights they just got rid of them because they
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  weren't selling and that just wrote it off didn't give them away or anything
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  like that or reduce them so that's something to consider that The costs have
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  come down dramatically on LED lights.
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  So no need to reach for your credit card anymore.
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  There's an issue with light penetration with LED lights because the light is
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  coming from, because they're more arrays and bars rather than one single light
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  point, the penetration can be less into the canopy than just a single light point.
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  So if you're growing tall crops, you might need side lighting.
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  Additional lighting for optimum growth.
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  I'm not a big fan of side lighting, especially not under canopy lighting because
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  I think for most hydroponic growers.
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  Mixing water with electricals down at
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  the lower up and lower down in the row room
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  is a danger because if you're hand watering and you
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  get water on electrical fittings that's going to be an issue but if
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  you've got a system where you're not worried about that you
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  don't think it's a hazard then potentially side lighting is
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  a good option there's lots of new products coming on the market for under
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  canopy lighting there are a
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  lot of led products out there not all are created equal and
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  obviously we always say in the industry the cheap ones on ebay
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  that promised the moon but you could barely grow a weed with them
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  do your research and check for ppfd and
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  par values not just the wattage if you
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  don't know what those are we'll we'll go and explain then what those
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  are but wattage is just what someone can claim
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  is the electric electricity going into it whereas ppfd
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  and par is the actual photosynthetic power that's
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  coming out of it in photons we call it okay so
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  the technical side ppfd and
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  par or par then par
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  stands for photosynthetically active radiation i'm
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  a plant scientist who can't say the word photosynthetically which is a bit of
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  a drawback but basically plants actually that's what they use for photosynthesis
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  so it doesn't include the non-useful part of the light so So if the wattage
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  is all in the green light or in the far red light, then that's useless for plants.
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  So PAR works out just what that is. And PPFD stands for Photosynthetic Photon
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  Flux Density and tells you how much of that usable light is hitting a square
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  metre each second. If it's not directed at your plants, then it's pretty pointless.
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  So you can buy PAR metres and your grow shop might have a PAR metre and you
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  can look at lights and see whether they are what they say they are before you
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  buy them or if you've bought them and you want to check whether their lifespan has degraded.
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  So spectrum control is key.
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  LEDs can be fine-tuned.
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  Some of them can be fine-tuned. You can adjust the red-to-blue ratio or the
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  red-to-far-red ratio. You can turn on the UV or turn off the UV.
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  So have a look at that. You might think, why is this LED light really expensive?
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  It might be that it's tunable. It might not just be the fact that it's 1,000
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  watts, super-duper light. It could be that it's got more ability to fine-tune it.
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  You might see the word COB, C-O-B, or quantum bars. COB stands for chip-on-board and LED bars.
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  So chip-on-board are the yellow, see a yellow square, and
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  and that whereas a bar goes a long long
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  way these are different spreads intensities and use cases
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  cobs are more used for like those security lights
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  outdoors so with bars for great coverage
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  bars are used in propagation micro propagation veg rooms and vertical farming
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  and then you have multiple bars in a sort of sodium lamp replacement type product
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  that you see in grow shops so that's to consider there are a lot of new products
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  that occur on the market that have sort of smart systems,
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  and these might be more expensive you might see these and think why are these
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  more expensive so imagine one that could sync with your smartphone you could
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  monitor your plant's needs as it grows it could talk to the other lights in
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  the in the greenhouse and things like that you could adjust the spectrum and
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  the intensity in real time in a greenhouse imagine of you,
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  the cloud came over and it suddenly turned on.
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  That's something that's been talked about for years.
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  I've never seen it really used in action. You couldn't really do that with sodium lamps because.
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  If they're hot and you try and turn them on, then they don't start well.
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  They do something, I think it's called cycling and it really ruins the lifespan
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  of the sodium lamps. Whereas LED lights, you just turn them on and off.
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  There's no issue, do it as many times as you want. You're not going to burn the bulb out.
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  So there's some high-end systems and obviously they're going to use AI and they're
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  going to stick that they've used AI and the system uses AI.
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  It might even be AI designed, you know, a lot of golf clubs now.
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  I'm into golf now and a lot of people say, you oh, it's AI design golf club. I'm like, oh, so great.
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  Some chat GPT absolute vomit has made this golf club.
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  It doesn't appeal to me. But if you can use AI to determine when's the best
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  time to turn the lights on and prevent scorch, something like that, it could be good.
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  Also, obviously, prices are coming down. Efficiencies are going up.
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  LEDs are getting more efficient.
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  Newer diodes are being produced with more light per watt.
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  So it's a good area of development. As I say, talk about the innovation, internet of things.
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  Hydrophonic controls will all talk to each other as well so your nutrients your
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  lights your pH your humidity potentially all talking to each other and obviously more affordability.
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  Other issues are that China supplies around 70% of the world's LED lighting
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  products at least a lot of the and that 30% will be people who've bought the
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  diodes from China and then just made the the systems around the cooling systems
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  and electronics around them so they're not even making the LED diodes and chips.
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  And so the industry is very reliant on China.
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  So the future of LED lighting in hydroponics depends on what happens with China
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  and international relations with China.
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  So things like if Putin doesn't sign a peace agreement with Ukraine,
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  then Trump could get really, really annoyed with China and start putting more
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  sanctions and tariffs on China.
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  That's been threatened and so that could
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  be an issue obviously if china invaded taiwan
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  then you know everything hits the fan
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  there and that's big big trouble there for everyone in international trade
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  taiwan make a lot of semiconductors and so
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  and chips and and things like that anything that involves semiconductors also
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  the amount of water and drought can massively affect supply and that's could
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  affect led lighting supplies yeah so basically whatever happens to china if
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  trade talks go well and he's like this could get even cheaper.
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  And so, yeah, a lot of the companies that claim to be European or American are
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  probably using Chinese diodes and then just building the system around them, which is fair enough.
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  But just be aware of that. If you're going to buy an LED light,
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  then know your space, measure up your grow area and pick the light that gives
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  the best coverage and actually fits in your grow room.
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  That sounds stupid but a lot of people will buy an led light and then forget
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  that their grow room is only 90 centimeters by 90 centimeters it doesn't fit
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  in this happens a lot with like,
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  metal halide lamps where you buy a plant a light
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  that fits will fit in but you actually cook your plants that's
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  less of going to be an issue try and check the
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  ppfd maps or the par levels don't just go by the watts look for full spectrum
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  a good full spectrum light that supports every stage of the plant growth avoid
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  i would avoid a purpley pinky type product just because you're not going to
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  see pest and disease might be more efficient than you know if it doesn't only have the sort of.
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  Light white diet red green blue
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  diodes in there and it can produce light white
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  lights but the white light's useful just for just for growing
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  as a human being rather than the natural plant itself
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  look at build quality make sure it's
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  proper heat sinks they're important they're the bits that are made often in
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  america or the in europe that's what determines the.
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  Lifespan that so having a good heat build
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  quality is very important we had a really
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  good quality led light in our gray room that just it was
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  dimmable but then the dimmers stopped working so it was only on
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  100 so we had to take that one out because going into summer we didn't
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  want it on for 100 and and think about
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  warranty and support good companies stand behind their gear
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  look for solid warranties and responsive support
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  do some research on things like reddit and
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  and other online forums and
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  find out which one people recommend it's a big investment
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  so you don't just want to jump into it don't buy them
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  whilst you've had a few beers okay when you when you think
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  oh okay i'll buy an led light now always always
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  or oh it's on offer now it's only 150 euros think
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  about it and there's always
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  going to be an offer available on lights at some point someone's always
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  got an offer on on lights if you're growing in a polytunnel or a greenhouse
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  then there are there are specific led lights that work well there are these
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  ones tend to be more fitting around the existing structure of say the greenhouse
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  so that the the shadow that they produce on the crop is less when the sun's
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  shining and they're not needed.
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  I'm not an expert when it comes to greenhouse lighting, but it is now widely used.
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  If you go to Holland, you'll see a purple glow over many areas where they're
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  using LED lighting for growing their tomatoes and cucumbers and things like this.
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  The expert when it comes to greenhouse lighting is a guy called Tim Coates,
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  TCE Electrical, I think is the name of his company, and probably get him on
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  as a guest on the podcast at some point next time I bump into him.
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  I don't want to do Skype-based interviews on this podcast because I think they
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  sound rubbish, but I see Tim every now and again at trade shows,
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  so I'll probably strong-arming him into appearing on this podcast if he's willing to.
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  If you would like to be on the podcast and you see me at one
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  of the horticultural trade shows around the world in
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  this year then i'm more than happy to speak to you and get you on the podcast
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  it'd be great to get some more voices on here i've got an extra microphone i
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  bought an extra microphone extra road microphone to feature people so i'll be
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  popping into some grow shops and speaking to people i'll be popping into some
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  nurseries probably go speak to my friend tony,
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  roland's in evesham where he grows chrysanthemums and all sorts
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  of interesting pot plants for the the markets in
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  birmingham so he's he'll be a great person to speak to because he's really
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  knows the horticulture industry and then so
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  yeah watch this space thank you
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  very much for listening as i say if you've been recommended this
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  episode by a friend you wear them a beer take them down to the pub um and share
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  this podcast with some of your friends so that they owe you a beer as well and
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  so pay it forward thank you very much for listening until tomorrow that's been
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  hydroponics daily we're going to talk about sun sunlight and sunshine tomorrow thank you.