Sidelighting Interlighting Intercanopy Lightcicles

[Ca++]

50% more bud, of 15% higher quality interesting?
This topic is as old as growing, but getting people onboard has taken surprisingly long. LED has really let us get lights right into the plants now though. Making professional companies get involved. Such as Philips, who claim cannabis yield increases of 30%. Which while not as wild a claim, does have their reputation riding on it.
This is an image from Philips

That shouldn't be a real surprise, as it's lit now. Read the label on the next pic

https://www.lighting.philips.com/content/dam/b2b-li/en_AU/horticulture/medicinal-cannabis/this-is-how-Philips-interlighting-increases-yield-in-cannabis/signify-tch-top-flower-canopy-lighting.jpg

The plant just seems happier. Growing much better terminal buds, when there is more energy available to the plant.

Osram have there vyne offering, but no cannabis info on that.

This company http://www.growlightdesign.com/ seem centered on the idea, and have a few studies who's highlights can be seen. They have a rather nifty netframe, using poles with flat sides, enabling LED tape to be applied. They are not saying much about the tapes output, like it could be Ikea tape. They do offer some interesting results though.

This topic has been aired in a few threads recently, so if anybody wants to copy over their findings (and some have been a good read) then please do.

 

[Bush Dr]

Thanks for posting this

 

[Cerathule]

Buddies (String LEDs) - Grow Lights Australia

"Buddies" grow LEDs fill the gaps other LEDs can’t reach. Tough, waterproof side-lighting, under-canopy lighting, supplementary Far Red and more.

growlightsaustralia.com

 

[Ca++]

This is the article from Philips

This is how Philips interlighting increases yield in cannabis | Philips

Signify has conducted over 5 years of research into lighting strategies for cannabis cultivation. Philips interlighting increases yield and improves product quality.

www.lighting.philips.com

 

[Ca++]

@JKD Shared this link

DSpace

atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca

Section 4 looks at it, about 6 years ago. White beat burple, with a 25% and 20% gain in weight, respectively. Upper buds were as strong, but lower ones were better. Which were found as nugs, not leafy rubbish, which aided crop maintenance. The paper goes into detail about just which compounds were increased, if such details interest you.
Overall more weed, with the lower stuff increased in potency.

 

[Bush Dr]

Excellent if brief article, food for thought

Where do you intend taking this?

LED strips down the sides or LEDs from the bottom?

 

[Ca++]

Buddies (String LEDs) - Grow Lights Australia

"Buddies" grow LEDs fill the gaps other LEDs can’t reach. Tough, waterproof side-lighting, under-canopy lighting, supplementary Far Red and more.

growlightsaustralia.com

It's an option, though at 7w a meter, costing £20, the lack of a warm white choice is making them a fussy install with no given output spec. Then you need to add a driver.

I was looking at 115cm T5 (16mm) tubes of 30w for £5 each yesterday. 3350lm. It's half the efficiency I would like, but to get from them 110lm/w lamps to 150lm/w was taking me to £30

I did spot some LED tape on Ali. £30 for a 10 meter run, that offers 40umol/m in burple, or 50umol/m in white. It was encased in soft plastic, and as such waterproof, and can be wiped clean. Something seems wrong though, as £30 for 400-500umol can't be right. A review says a strips not enough, but 4 strips are. 160-200umol seems like 4 strips. I think someone else should go first though

10.3C$ 50% OFF|24 Grow Light|full Spectrum Led Grow Light Strip 220v - Waterproof Phyto Lamp For Plants

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

I'm not sure I could buy this 100lm/w stuff that's almost free now. I'm still resigned to putting higher efficiency lighting, at a greater distance, until we see higher efficiency interlighting.
This response seems reasonable, in the right circumstances

They were put on the floor, looking up. The cross was left to stop leaf drops smothering them.
Another home brew here


So many possibilities, if you set your mind to it,

 

[Ca++]

Excellent if brief article, food for thought

Where do you intend taking this?

LED strips down the sides or LEDs from the bottom?

I have been lighting from below, on&off, for 30 years. In that time I have had entire forums laugh the idea out of the ring. Even with the evidence I'm bringing together, I don't imagine people will adopt the idea that lighting our plants helps them grow better. It's like people know, while at the same time they don't. Chasing bits of spectrum and nutrient amendments for tiny gains, when just adding more light where it's dark brings real results.
I'm looking at LED tubes to finally get lighting in the actual canopy, but already get more per watt from lighting below, than lighting above. That sounds odd, but the canopy is well lit, and as we light plants further, the efficiency at which they can use the light lessens. By 2000ppfd, adding more light can be more damaging than useful. The most useful watts, are the first one's we apply. So while at 750umol, I gained more putting 200umol under them, than I would of adding 200 more above them. I had no real idea of this when I first saw the results at weigh-in. I just got more per watt than I should of.
There is a paper coming soon, where they move light from above, to below, in order to prove it's better to evenly light a plant, than just from one side. The crop is down, but full analysis takes a while.

 

[JKD]

A few I’ve come across recently:

https://www.lighting.philips.com/products/highlighted-products/ultraefficientprof

LED Grow Lights for Plants

Looking for the best LED grow lights to elevate your indoor gardening game? Check out our collection of high-quality custom made bar, tube, and shelf grow lights, similar to popular brands like Barrina. With our energy-efficient and long-lasting LED technology, you can grow your plants year-round.

growplantshop.co.nz

HL03 Horti-Reina LED Grow Light - Atop Lighting

www.atophort.com

https://www.specgradeled.com/grow-lights/extra-48/

Searching “cabinet lights” brings up some options also.

 

[Hiddenjems]

I’ve always wondered about how indoor lighting affects plant morphology. The inverse square law does some strange things indoors. Never in nature is the bottom of a plant almost twice as far from the light source as the top. Wildly different light intensities and spectrum hitting different parts of the plant probably produces some kind of effect.

 

[Ca++]

A few I’ve come across recently:

https://www.lighting.philips.com/products/highlighted-products/ultraefficientprof

LED Grow Lights for Plants

Looking for the best LED grow lights to elevate your indoor gardening game? Check out our collection of high-quality custom made bar, tube, and shelf grow lights, similar to popular brands like Barrina. With our energy-efficient and long-lasting LED technology, you can grow your plants year-round.

growplantshop.co.nz

HL03 Horti-Reina LED Grow Light - Atop Lighting

www.atophort.com

https://www.specgradeled.com/grow-lights/extra-48/

Searching “cabinet lights” brings up some options also.

The philips tube looks good, but as is common with them now, there is no warm white in the range. I'm still interested, but they might be a bit too new to be in circulation. My usual outlets sell the basic master, which is about 100lm/w like your other links (though thank you for adding them) and my better suppliers have the better master variants, but top out around 150lm/w still. I think the A rated stuff is just an offer to produce them, if a designer specifies them. E F and G are all I can find.
I don't mind T8 with it's 121cm packaging, but the T5 at 115cm fits the common 120cm tent dimension.
Just a tenner gets a wide choice of LED baton fittings, if we accept that 100lm/w and just want something to plug in. That can look up, but not really go within. Much like the vast array of low quality grow lights, but we can't just run a $20 QB turned upwards. Leaf drop will smother the chips, and burn them out.
I will find something... Or just stick with my floor lights, though I need some more.

@Hiddenjems The light coming from all angles, leads to shorter internodes. I won't use them in veg, because of the huge amount of lower growth you get, but it does keep them shorter, if all the lights not above.
I save them for after the bottoms are stripped. Generally about 2 weeks in. Leaving more depth to the canopy than usual, to grow extra buds on.
That last paper posted, iirc, speaks of a 18% gain on the first run, then 25% on the second. As they were learning this. It is quite different, but it's just logical really. When I used them in veg, I don't have to look about for the cuttings I wanted on the plants bottoms. Every plant had more than enough. I was growing lots of plant, to just chop off and chuck away. It was pointless, so I don't light the bottom in veg now.

 

[Ca++]

Osram/Fluence looked at tomato's and cucumbers. They moved a third of the light from above, to below. Not extra light, just relocated. Result, as much as 25% more, or as little as 7. While 20% seems reasonable. That's more product, from the same amount of electric.

The impact of intercanopy lighting on plant growth and development

Intercanopy lighting study: A Fluence research trial on the influence of light intensity & light distribution on cucumbers and tomatoes

fluence-led.com

 

[Ca++]

DC24V White High Efficiency LED Strip Lights

Our high efficiency led strips offer 160lm/w and 190lm/w bright white lights for your lighting project. 15-30% brighter than other white led strips. Energy efficient.

www.superlightingled.com

Best strip lighting I can find

 

[Ca++]

Looking at the strip above, it's 100w of 160lm/w LED, for $30. Free world wide shipping at $200. So 700w for $200, but you need to add a power supply. You can drag one out of an old PC.

I tracked these back to https://www.tyrialight.com
They show the same things on their site, with the same packaging options regarding coatings and tubes. They give a bit more detail though. Still reading between the lines, it seems the 160lm/w and 190lm/w strips use the same LED. In the 160lm/w tape, they use resistors. In the 190lm/w tape, CC driver chips. If we go back to the 160lm/w $30 tape, you add $22 to make it 190lm/w. Then $5 to get in in a silicone tube, that we can clean down, but will surely loose 10% of the light. I know a 14w Philips (100w) E27 with it's top off, gives 1.7umol/w. I think we can expect that. Though growlightdesign say 2.3umol/w on their product. Which I just can't get a good look at.
Anyway, I feel $60 for the 100w 190lm/w (actually 110w) tape, giving close to 200umol, is pretty cheap by any measure. Add the damage of P&P, and a 5a 24v psu, and you might be at $100 per meter, to get near the 200umol that seems the sweet spot, currently.
It would probably be best to put them on bars, and have them just under the canopy. They can hang from the roof, or your frame. I feel within the canopy, you will get some smothered. Which could heat them, and age them. Also, that would be very bright in contact. I must also point out that silicone might not be very oil resistant. Though this $100 per meter, should mean 30% more yield, from this 25% more light. If we are just chucking numbers about. So it's paying.
www.kgp-electronics.de may also sell them. The site offers no prices though, which is a walk away moment for me.

 

[Ca++]

@JKD Shared this link

DSpace

atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca

Section 4 looks at it, about 6 years ago. White beat burple, with a 25% and 20% gain in weight, respectively. Upper buds were as strong, but lower ones were better. Which were found as nugs, not leafy rubbish, which aided crop maintenance. The paper goes into detail about just which compounds were increased, if such details interest you.
Overall more weed, with the lower stuff increased in potency.

Looks like that link has broken
Here's another, to what I think is the same study

Improving Cannabis Bud Quality and Yield with Subcanopy Lighting

The influence of light spectral quality on cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) development is not well defined. It stands to reason that tailoring light quality to the specific needs of cannabis may increase bud quality, consistency, and yield. In this study, C. sativa L. ‘WP:Med (Wappa)’ plants were...

journals.ashs.org

Worth noting they used 100umol underneath, shone upwards by laying something like these across their pots

4lite Advantage Twin 4ft LED IP65 Batten 40W 5200lm 220-240V - Screwfix

Order online at Screwfix.com. Polycarbonate. Slimline design, can be installed in factories, warehouses and garages. Waterproof, dust proof and corrosion proof. Easy installation via easy wiring connectors. FREE next day delivery available, free collection in 1 minute.

www.screwfix.com

That's in the UK, at £20 or ~$25. It's only doing 125lm/w, which is like a 12w 1521lm e27 lamp in efficiency terms. It has a cover to defend against leaf drop, which could be modified with chicken mesh. Thus letting out the ~75umol. It also has a cable compression gland, for when you really want to swing it around by the plug, like a light saber. You could stick two in a 4x4 and see over 100umol, to replicate the study linked to. Presuming you have an old vacuum cleaner to chop the plug lead off. If you have a canopy usually (rather than light hitting the bottoms already) then 20% more yield of better quality, should cover the £50 project cost.


Edit: eBay have a £10 fitting, claims 4800lm, no cable clamp. It is however, warm white. That is a bonus, that makes it's lower output insignificant.

4FT LED Strip Lights Batten Tube Light Office Shop Garage Ceiling Lamp Dimmable | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 4FT LED Strip Lights Batten Tube Light Office Shop Garage Ceiling Lamp Dimmable at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

If you are not in the UK, this has less meaning, but the option to buy kitchen lights is there. It's not really what we want, but in simplicity terms, you could do that today.

 

[Ca++]

Regarding the PC covers on the 110lm/w lights above, PC industry professionals, claim as little as 20% of the light can be lost, if the cover can't clearly be seen through. I have seen 30% in the covers intended to offer protection against electric shock. So these are knocking on the door of many cobs, once that PC cover is swapped for mesh.

Moving along, to look at illumination targets

Dr. Youbin Zheng, a professor at Guelph. Says based on research he’s seen, lighting below roughly 200 micromoles could reduce the potency of cannabinoids. However, he has not seen higher light intensities increase cannabinoid content.

It could be useful to target 200umol, so the lower buds can't dilute the strength of the top buds, once it's all mixed together. Though that would be an aim, rather than a tightly constrained fact.

 

[Ca++]

90 Big Boys were surveyed

More than half (51%) of participants currently using top lighting or considering adding it within the next 12 months expressed interest in exploring at least one alternative lighting type

Ignoring those without lighting, or a desire to have any, there is a spread of interest as follows
30% like the idea of sidelighting
23% like the idea of interlighting
19% like the idea of sublighting (uplighters)
6% have another idea

Sidelighting is the traditional version. It's like calling a vacuum a hoover, or spa bath a Jacuzzi. It could be a lack of research, leading to such naming. Not an actual desire to do it that way.
Interlighting is in the papers of the day. It's what the lighting giants are selling growers of everything. Allow in a rep, and you will be pitched interlighting. Not sidelighting. Interlighting is up close, and doesn't take up space.
Sublighting, or uplighting, is what I have been doing forever. I put it forward, as something we can do easily. Something that can slip into a tent, where sidelighting isn't an option. It's not as close as inter, so not as efficient, but inter is barely an equipment option, and our plants turn white nets black. I really don't think it's for us.

Maybe 15 years ago, I was banned (elsewhere) for talking nonsense, when a whole forum couldn't accept my idea, and wouldn't wait for the results of my run. My thoughts on how to do this, are pretty honed now, as that wasn't my first trial, but was worth watching. I noticed Harley was going to trial uplighting this year, but like stateside, the topic has slipped without any answer. I'm told this year we have a lack of reports, as the viral load has taken out university facilities. People that thought they could work through it, were seeing results not of their trials, but of their overconfidence. Moving forward, this should lead to more efforts to clean up our genetics. For now, the most constructive voice to listen to, might be some unknown guy on IC

 

[Ca++]

It's bad, but give me a moment

These cobs have a lens, that will fend off falling leaves. They also have a small footprint, for dotting between pots. They would need feet to keep the fan off the floor, but them hanging brackets could be bent at 90, near the hanging holes. Making the holes suitable for some doorstops as feet. Or some standoffs.
In a 1.2 a 100w 120degree cob would be a simple addition. Least, for those running 4 plants it would..

 

[Normannen]

It's bad, but give me a moment

These cobs have a lens, that will fend off falling leaves. They also have a small footprint, for dotting between pots. They would need feet to keep the fan off the floor, but them hanging brackets could be bent at 90, near the hanging holes. Making the holes suitable for some doorstops as feet. Or some standoffs.
In a 1.2 a 100w 120degree cob would be a simple addition. Least, for those running 4 plants it would..

I used to use these, one per plant. But you're better off with the abovementioned "Buddies" a board (or those new grate design) or led strip lights as you say, maybe Ikea sells cheap strips, use the RGB ones (half joking here)

 

[Ca++]

The buddies are a pretty poor 'string light' but we can get better and cheaper ones.
I'm pretty sure https://www.superlightingled.com have them. The American looking site, that's actually in China.

I'm really not fond of this close placement stuff. Our plants grow fast, and would be all over them. My canopy just wouldn't let the light through from the sides. I have only been happy with lighting from below. Which offer a canopy like the one seen from above. With the same need to keep a bit of distance away, to get the light spread.

In a 1.2 I would really like 4 bars. One for each 30cm of canopy, sited 30cm below it. It's about right for beam angle. While making sure nothing touches it. Can you imagine the ppfd at a contact point. It just doesn't seem healthy.