What Color Light Is Best for a Plant's Growth?

Views: 28411 | Last Update: 2009-02-04
The best color light for a plant's growth is a bright white, which encompasses all of the colors in the spectrum. Research various studies that test plants' reactions to colored lights with help from a sustainable gardener in this free video series on... View Video Transcript

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Yolanda Vanveen

Video Transcript

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen and in this segment we are going to talk about what is the best color light for plant growth. Now if you go on the internet there is so much information and so many different high school science projects that have addressed the issue and basically they have taken just a regular light and put different color cellophane on the light and grow flowers and plants underneath it to see how they do and figure out which color is the best. People have found pretty much every result. Some people say it is green, some people say it is blue, some people say that red is the best but the Colorado State Extension Service did a study and they found that when you're starting seeds that really bright florescent white light was the best because it has got all the colors and it is the most intense light there is and if you think about it ultraviolet light is violet and that is what the Earth needs and we're worried about our future because the ozone is depleting and we're not getting as much ultraviolet light as we used to and so that would make me think that violet light would be the strongest but Colorado State has decided that the white florescent light is the best for starting seeds and once you have got them growing though the best light for producing flowers is actually red. So they have found that the hues of red sparks the plants to put off flowers but there is really no proof to any of it and my theory is that plants and people, we need light to survive and whether it is natural light or artificial light we still need some kind of light in our life just like a plant and he more intense the light is the stronger it will be hitting the plants and some people say that green lights are the worst because plants are green and if they have a green light the chlorophyll won't be able to activate because the green light is too close to the color of the plant. There are so many urban tales and myths when it comes down to light and in the end as long as you have got a sunny window or you've got artificial light, I really don't think the color matters. It matters that the plant is getting light and it can go through photosynthesis and in the end that is their goal to survive.