LED Lights for Houseplants Questions

[Jamesm]

Hello,

I bought a Neon Pothos and a Marble Queen Pothos over the last few weeks for my desk at work. I live in England and I will not have a lot of sunlight moving into the fall and winter. I want to get an LED desk grow light to try to keep my Neon neon, and my Marble Queen marble. I don't want them to go green to make up for the lack of sunlight. The lights I want are just small desk grow lamps with the red/blue LEDs. I intend to have them on a timer to have them on for 16 hours a day. My question is, will those lights be powerful enough to "sunburn" my plants? I can't imagine that the light given off by those things is intense enough to do that, but I don't know a lot about grow lights. I have 6 plants. 3 high-light plants and 3 medium-light plants. I'm thinking of doing 2 rows with succulents and Wandering Jew in front closest to the light and Pothos in the back. Any advice/lessons learned would be incredibly helpful! Thanks!

 

[ecowarrior]

you should look into the PAR light values of the led grow light.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Hello,

I bought a Neon Pothos and a Marble Queen Pothos over the last few weeks for my desk at work. I live in England and I will not have a lot of sunlight moving into the fall and winter. I want to get an LED desk grow light to try to keep my Neon neon, and my Marble Queen marble. I don't want them to go green to make up for the lack of sunlight. The lights I want are just small desk grow lamps with the red/blue LEDs. I intend to have them on a timer to have them on for 16 hours a day. My question is, will those lights be powerful enough to "sunburn" my plants? I can't imagine that the light given off by those things is intense enough to do that, but I don't know a lot about grow lights. I have 6 plants. 3 high-light plants and 3 medium-light plants. I'm thinking of doing 2 rows with succulents and Wandering Jew in front closest to the light and Pothos in the back. Any advice/lessons learned would be incredibly helpful! Thanks!

Here is a simple device that can help. There are UV meters and near infrared spectrum meters that are also inexpensive and useful. Near vs Far infrared should be your focus (750-2500nm) and many meters just measure the 900-1000nm band as representative of that part of the em spectrum. Broader band machines tend to rise in price.

Being a device, and being on a lot of hours, the lights need to be checked over years, so no hurry.