Today, many Russians who have household plots or summer cottages are thinking about building greenhouses. This decision allows you to diversify the diet - it's nice to see fresh vegetables and herbs on your table throughout the year, and also significantly support the family budget in our difficult time.
So, suppose that your greenhouse is ready: the foundation is built, the frame is erected, there is glazing (cellular polycarbonate or film), the soil is covered, the beds are created. Irrigation and heating issues are well thought out. It would seem that everything is taken into account. However, this is not quite true. Have you thought about lighting? And is it necessary? After all, during the day there is enough natural light, and at night the plants need to rest. Why plants need additional lighting and what it should be, what lamps for heating a greenhouse exist today, we will try to tell in this article.
For normal development and intensive growth, plants require a largeamount of energy. They get it from light rays: this is the sun in nature, and in greenhouse cultivation - special lamps.
What should be the light in the greenhouse?
Undoubtedly, solar lighting is most useful for crops, so it is necessary to use it as much as possible. However, the length of daylight hours (in autumn, winter and spring) does not allow to grow crops fully - after all, plants need solar energy for at least ten to twelve hours a day. In any season (except summer), you will need to use lamps to illuminate greenhouses.
To create comfortable conditions for the growth of crops, simple rules should be followed.
- Artificial lighting of the greenhouse with LED lamps (as, indeed, with any other) should not completely replace sunlight. It should serve only to extend the daylight hours. Therefore, the greenhouse lamp must be mounted in such a way that it does not restrict the penetration of sunlight.
- In a greenhouse, lighting can be intense up to 16 hours a day (depending on the crop being grown).
- Lighting of plants should not be throughout the day: instead of growing crops, you will get the opposite result - weakening and exhaustion of sprouts.
- Plants need rest and darkness for 6 hours a day.
What kind of light do plants need?
All crops can be divided according to the principle of photoperiod. This means that each crop requires a specialday length. According to this principle, plants can be divided into:
- short day crops - they require less than twelve hours (of light) per day;
- long day - plants need more than twelve hours of light.
How to choose lamps?
Generally, crops grown for flowers and fruits require more light than those grown for leaves and stems. This must be taken into account when deciding which greenhouse lamp you need. Today, the distribution network presents a huge selection of lighting fixtures for greenhouses. They differ in energy saving, emitted light spectrum, cost and some other parameters.
What to look for when choosing lamps?
First of all, you should ask the manufacturer of the lamp. Well-known brands guarantee quality, after-sales service (which is sometimes expensive). Chinese lamps are attractive mainly due to their low price, but, unfortunately, you will not receive any guarantees or service.
Lamp power (W)
This indicator indicates how much energy a lamp for a greenhouse spends per hour of operation.
Radiated energy
Knowing this parameter, you will be able to calculate how many lamps are needed to adequately illuminate the greenhouse.
Light Spectrum
It should be recognized that today a lamp for a greenhouse has not yet been created, which is capable of 100% transmitting the spectrum of the sun's rays. Therefore, experienced owners often combine lamps to achieve the best result. Biologists have succeededestablish that different light spectrums have different effects on crops grown.
For example, violet and blue rays accelerate photosynthesis - the plant strengthens and grows faster. Yellow and green rays slightly inhibit photosynthesis. In this case, the stems of plants are stretched in height and become thinner. Orange and red rays are the best energy for fruiting and flowering plants, but you need to know that if they are overabundant, the plant may even die. Resistance to cold is increased by ultraviolet rays, they also form vitamins in the fruits and leaves of plants.
Types of lamps for greenhouses
And now we will introduce you to the types of lamps, and you will determine which lamp for the greenhouse you need. We hope that the information received will help you make the right choice.
Fluorescent lamps
This type of lamp is most often used in small greenhouses or greenhouses. They are universal both in cost and in application - they can suit many. The ideal light quality can be achieved by combining warm white lamps with cool white.
This greenhouse lamp can work for about 2000 hours. Often, for a complex effect on plants, an ultraviolet lamp is additionally installed, which prevents the development of harmful bacteria on plant leaves and in the soil. But it must be admitted that for large greenhouses it is better to choose a different type of lighting, since fluorescents will require too much.
Benefits
- First of all - the efficiency of the device. Almost full spectrum light emission. Therefore, they can be used at every stage of crop development - from growing seedlings to full ripening of the crop.
- Affordable price.
- High brightness.
- Such lamps do not heat up, therefore, do not violate the microclimate of the greenhouse.
- Do not require special technical skills to install.
Flaws
- Greenhouse fluorescent lamp is too large and may block out natural sunlight during the daytime.
- Has low light output.
- Responds to changes in external temperature - for its normal operation, a temperature of +25 degrees is required. When lowered, the lamp may simply go out.
- Cannot withstand high humidity (no more than 70%).
The lamps are mounted above the plants in a horizontal position, fixed in a rectangular metal fitting. They are placed at a height of up to fifty centimeters for light-loving plants, and at a height of fifty centimeters and above - for plants that prefer not too bright lighting.
Mercury lamps
For growing plants in greenhouses and greenhouses, mercury lamps are produced - DRLF, which promote active photosynthesis of plants. Their emission spectrum is close to red, so they are best used during fruit ripening.
Nevertheless, you should know that such devices have more disadvantages than advantages. These should include:
- Danger in operation. By breaking such a lamp, you will not be able to collect mercury balls. In this case, it is necessary to change the soil and destroy all plants.
- This lamp cannot be thrown away at the end of its useful life. There is a special disposal method for this.
- Features too intense ultraviolet radiation.
High pressure sodium lamps for greenhouses
They are classified as emitting red and orange parts of the spectrum. Experts suggest that the blue part of the crop spectrum will be received from natural daylight.
Benefits
- The main argument in favor of such lamps can be considered their efficiency. Such devices consume a small amount of electricity and at the same time are cheaper than analogues in terms of efficiency, for example, LED lamps. This is very important if you need to light a large greenhouse.
- Also, greenhouse sodium lamps last up to twenty thousand hours.
- Light output significantly exceeds that of fluorescent lamps.
Flaws
- Greenhouse sodium lamps generate a lot of heat. This can be considered both an advantage and a disadvantage of the device. On the one hand, such lamps for a greenhouse in winter are quite effective. They can become an additional source of heating. But in spring, autumn, and, of course, in summer, such heating can harm the plants, and the owner will have to constantly monitor the temperature in the greenhouse.
- Suchlamps adversely affect the development of young plants - the red part of their spectrum makes the seedlings stretch, the stems become thin.
- Sodium lamps can attract harmful insects.
- Inside these lamps is a mixture of mercury and sodium. Therefore (like mercury lamps) they are not safe to use.
- Sodium lamps cannot be connected if mains voltage fluctuation is more than 5%.
LED bulbs for greenhouses
More often they are called LED-lamps. Despite the fact that they are quite expensive, this type of lighting is becoming increasingly popular. By composing a combination of such lamps, you can achieve light with the desired spectral composition - use individual lighting for any variety of plants. Greenhouse lighting with LED lamps allows you to adjust the intensity of light depending on the height of the devices and their number. For example, during the period of plant growth, you can give them more light with a blue spectrum, when fruits ripen - with red and orange.
Benefits
- Economy of electricity consumption.
- Very low voltage operation.
- Long service life (up to 100 thousand hours).
- Do not heat up - the microclimate of the greenhouse is not disturbed.
- The possibility of getting burns by plants is excluded, even in the case of the closest possible distance to them.
- LEDs are resistant to moisture, temperature changes and mechanical damage.
Flaws
There is only one drawback with such lamps - the high cost
Infrared lamps
Such a lamp for heating a greenhouse in winter is ideal. It must be said that today more and more greenhouse owners prefer new infrared systems. These systems are efficient and economical, able to create conditions in the greenhouse that are as close to natural as possible.
Benefits
- Infrared lamps for the greenhouse warm up the plants themselves and the soil well.
- The air temperature rises from the energy given off by the walls of the greenhouse and the ground. This is the main difference between IR systems and electrical and convective methods, in which air (heated) rushes upwards, while plants and soil remain cool.
- Such heaters, if desired, can be equipped with thermostats, which at a certain point stop the heat supply and resume heating when the temperature drops.
- Quickly warm up the air. IR radiation does not pose a danger to either humans or plants.
- Do not dry the air.
- The system is virtually silent.
As you can see, today there are many lamps for greenhouses. After reviewing their shortcomings and advantages, each owner will be able to choose a suitable lighting source for his greenhouse.
Reviews from greenhouse owners
According to people who grow vegetables in greenhouses, you can use different lighting. Both fluorescent and LED lamps are suitable for this. In the first caseattracts the low cost of lamps, in the second - the rapid growth of plants. However, most greenhouse owners prefer LEDs, despite their high cost. They fully justify their price with low power consumption and a long service life.
Many refuse mercury lamps due to the fact that, having broken, such a lamp can cause many problems. If additional heating is needed, experienced vegetable growers recommend using infrared lamps.
