INTRODUCTION TO
CANNABIS LIGHT
SOURCES
Chapter Preview
Light Cycle & Stage of Growth
Sungrown vs Indoor Cannabis
Artificial Grow Lights
Mixed Lighting
Light Deprivation
Light
The quality, intensity and duration of light received by your cannabis plants influences your
final harvest in fundamental ways. Light is one of the most important concepts in plant growth
– without light, only a tiny minority of plant growth can happen at all.
Cannabis depends on intense light to produce big flowers and abundant cannabinoids. It also
relies on certain spectra and durations of light, varying according to different stages of the life
cycle, to trigger essential growth and maturation processes.
Light Cycle & Stage of Growth
Most varieties of commercially-grown cannabis are photoperiod-dependent. They rely on
different durations of light (or more simply, day lengths) at different stages of their growth.
The Importance of Photoperiod
Photoperiod-dependent cannabis varieties descend from landraces found in temperate parts of
the world, with significant variation in day length between summer and winter. In spring and
early summer, the days are long, triggering plants to grow roots, stems, leaves and shoots. This
stage of growth is known as the vegetative cycle.
In late summer and autumn when the day length decreases, the plants are triggered to start
flowering, so that they can produce seed for next season before the winter cold kills them. This
stage of growth is known as the flowering cycle.
Non-Photoperiod Dependent Cannabis
Some varieties of cannabis are actually not photoperiod-dependent, and some others are
somewhere in between. Autoflowering cannabis has “ruderalis” in its lineage, for example.
Ruderalis is a type of cannabis found in cold, northern parts of Europe and Asia. Plants here
have adapted to flower much quicker and earlier – instead of being triggered by a change in
day-length, they tend to start flowering at around five weeks old, regardless of day length!
At the opposite extreme, cannabis varieties with equatorial or tropical lineage also don’t
respond as rapidly to changes in day length. Near the equator, day length changes very little
year-round. Here, cannabis has evolved to flower at leisure, sometimes taking as long as six
months to complete its flowering cycle.
Vegetative Cycle
Most of the time, cannabis growers stick to commercial varieties – which are mostly
photoperiod-dependent, flower relatively quickly, and produce dense flowers with lots of resin.
Being photoperiod-dependent, different day lengths are needed to trigger key developmental
processes. During the vegetative period, plants require between 15 ½- 18 hours of light per day.
This day length allows for the strong, vigorous and healthy growth of roots, stems, leaves, and
shoots.
Flowering Cycle
As mentioned earlier, photoperiod-dependent cannabis plants naturally begin to flower
outdoors after the summer solstice, as the daylight begins to shorten.
The flowering cycle can also be triggered to begin in photoperiod-dependent cannabis, by
reducing the amount of light per day from around eighteen hours to around twelve.
This artificially recreates the change in natural day length from its maximum at the summer
solstice, to twelve hours around the autumn equinox.
Light Contamination During the Dark Cycle
Rather than light itself, darkness is truly the key to flowering. Photoperiod-dependent cannabis
plants must have around twelve hours of uninterrupted darkness per day to successfully flower.
If their “sleep” is disrupted, it can severely affect flowering.
Therefore, it’s crucially important not to interrupt the dark period with light contamination
during flowering. Doing so can cause various types of stress, or even total failure to flower at
all.
Just a single, brief interruption of the dark period can lead to hermaphroditism, or the
formation of male flowers. Prolonged exposure to overly light conditions during the dark cycle
can keep your plant permanently in a vegetative state.
Sungrown vs Indoor Cannabis
In the right locations, where the sun is bright and hot enough, outdoor-grown cannabis can
easily match or exceed the quality of indoor cannabis. In the wrong locations, where it’s too
cold and summers are too short, outdoor cultivation of cannabis is difficult or even impossible.
Of course, using the power of the sun is generally a far more sustainable option than cultivating
indoors, although some forward-thinking operations are making great strides in zero-carbon,
zero-impact indoor cultivation.
Furthermore, the spectrum and intensity of sunlight is usually ideal for growing plants, as plants
have evolved to grow under it! Attempts to recreate that spectrum and intensity indoors are
costly, energy-intensive, and imperfect. Outdoors, plants can express their full range of flavors
and aromas, arguably to a far greater extent than indoor cannabis.
There are some advantages to indoor-grown cannabis. Pests, diseases, and overall
environmental control may be more easily managed, and risk of catastrophic crop failure due to
weather extremes is minimized.
In some regions, outdoor growing is impossible due to cold climate and insufficient growing
season. In these situations, the financial and environmental costs of producing cannabis indoor
locally should be compared to those of importing cannabis from elsewhere.
Artificial Grow Lights
Let’s take a look at the various options for indoor grow lighting available today.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS)
HPS bulbs contain sodium, xenon and neon. This mixture is gently heated by passing electrical
current through the bulb, causing it to emit light. Lights that work in this way are known as
gas-discharge lamps.
HPS lights have long been (and remain!) the industry’s favorite grow light solution. They are
powerful, relatively cheap, and produce a lot of orange-red light. The spectrum is far from
perfect but is generally favorable for flower growth.
However, they also produce a lot of heat, and necessitate expensive cooling systems to ensure
temperatures stay within range. Traditional HPS lights are inefficient in terms of energy usage
compared to other modern grow light solutions.
Newer, double-ended (DE) HPS lights represent a significant increase in performance compared
to traditional lights. A 1000W DE fixture will produce overall better coloring rendering, will be
brighter, and will provide better coverage than a traditional single-ended fixture.
Metal Halides (MH)
Metal halides are also a form of gas-discharge lamp. They rely on a quartz arc tube containing a
mixture of mercury and metal halide compounds (compounds formed from metals and
halogens such as bromine and iodine).
Metal halides are the traditional favorite for vegetative growth. They have a bluer spectrum
than HPS lights, which is often considered to be advantageous at this stage. However, it’s not
actually clear if using traditional MH over HPS confers any real advantage, as they produce less
light overall per watt.
Ceramic Metal Halides (CMH)
Ceramic metal halides are a relatively recent innovation, and are 10-20% more efficient than
traditional quartz metal halides. As the name suggests, they make use of a ceramic arc tube
rather than quartz, allowing for higher temperatures, along with better color rendering and
stability.
CMH lights produce a spectrum very close to daylight, and may produce better results then HPS
or traditional MH lights at all stages of growth. According to some sources, CMH lights can not
only produce increased yields at harvest compared to HPS, they can also significantly reduce
flowering time!
What’s more, they can reportedly do all this while using less than a third of the energy of a
1000W HPS bulb, with just 315W of power consumption. However, not every grower is
convinced, and the research out there is confusing and often contradictory.
As usual in the cannabis industry, there is no “one size fits all” – testing to find out what works
best for you is usually the way forward.
Light-Emitting Diodes (LED)
LEDs are finally gaining ground, after decades of lagging behind other solutions. Recent
innovations have led to the development of much more powerful LED grow lights. They remain
expensive compared to other solutions, but have several benefits.
One major benefit is low running temperature. Unlike the other lights mentioned here,
generation of light via LED technology does not depend on the creation of heat. Instead, LEDs
use specialized semiconductors to convert electrical energy straight into light, with relatively
little energy lost as heat.
LEDs are probably the most sustainable, environmentally-friendly choice of grow light available
today, as they are highly efficient and do not contain harmful chemicals such as mercury.
Furthermore, top-quality LED grow lights usually offer comparable yields to other lighting
technology. However, some growers find that yields are not as high with LEDs as with HPS and
other forms of lighting, and that penetration is not as deep into the canopy.
Results with LEDs may vary widely according to the brand and model used, as well as the care
taken to “dial in” all other necessary variables. Using LEDs effectively may even require heating
your room, and may also require logging variables such as leaf temperature and vapor pressure
difference.
Fluorescent
There are several types of fluorescent lighting that can be useful for growing cannabis. The
most common types used in the industry are compact fluorescent (CFL) and T5 fluorescent.
Fluorescent lighting is another form of gas-discharge lighting. It works by sending an electrical
current through a phosphor-coated tube filled with mercury vapor. When the vapor is heated,
it produces UV light. The phosphor then absorbs the UV light and emits visible light.
Fluorescent lighting is highly efficient and uses very little power, but current technologies offer
poor penetration and overall intensity. CFLs are generally only used for seed germination,
rooting clones, and vegetative growth. T5 fluorescents are more powerful and may even be
used to successfully flower cannabis if plants are kept short.
Light Emitting Plasma
Another type of gas-discharge lamp, light emitting plasma (LEP) technology uses radio
frequency power to excite gases and emit light. LEPs are capable of producing light almost
identical to the composition of daylight, and have excellent longevity.
However, LEP lights are usually very expensive, and can also produce electromagnetic
interference that can compromise the stability of other electronics. They are currently far less
popular than other solutions, but as a new technology, the future may hold further innovations
and cost reductions.
Mixed Lighting
Many operations opt to use more than one form of grow light technology. For example, as
mentioned previously, metal halides or ceramic metal halides may be used in the vegetative
period, and HPS may be used in the flowering cycle.
As well as this, it’s now increasingly popular to alternate grow lights in the flower room. Some
people choose to give CMH light at times, alternating with HPS at other times, using special
fixtures that can work with either type of bulb. Others build rows of lights, alternating between
HPS and CMH (or LED) in a checkerboard pattern.
Greenhouses
In greenhouses, it’s possible to mix artificial grow lights with the light of the sun itself! This can
be very useful, particularly at certain times of year.
For example, supplementary lighting can artificially extend the length of the day to delay
flowering and extend the vegetative period, and can boost the power of the sun on winter days.
Supplementary lighting with specific spectra may also be useful in some situations. If practicing
light deprivation (which we’ll talk about soon), a short period of far-red light may help to trigger
nocturnal processes.
Last thing at night, before all light from the sun disappears, there is a natural period where all
we receive is a small amount of far-red light; supplementing with far-red mimics that process.
Light Deprivation
Light deprivation, as the name suggests, refers to the act of depriving your plants of light! It’s a
popular technique practiced by many greenhouse growers, and even some outdoor growers.
In spring and early summer, the days are too long to trigger flowering in
photoperiod-dependent cannabis varieties. But if the day can be artificially shortened to no
more than twelve hours, flowering can be triggered. The key is simply in producing sufficient
darkness to stop photosynthesis, tricking the plants into thinking it’s actually nighttime.
For light deprivation, you’ll need light-proof material, such as thick blackout curtains or rigid
plastic panels. The light-proof material will need to cover your whole growing area, with no
gaps allowing sneaky shafts of light in.
With a greenhouse, there’s an existing frame to work with. If you’re growing outdoors and you
wish to practice light deprivation, you have to be a little more inventive. You may be able to
cover cages or poles with light-proof material, or build a frame to cover multiple plants at once.
Some people have even rigged setups that allow plants to be moved indoors at night time,
using platforms and pulleys to wheel multiple plants in and out!
Whatever you choose to do, remember that you must ensure sufficient airflow to your plants
when they are under light deprivation conditions. You can achieve this by using a breathable
light-proof material; products are now available that are designed specifically for the cannabis
industry, and block out all light while allowing 85% or more of usual airflow.
