Indoor growers use the switch from eighteen hours of light to twelve in order to signal to plants that the time has come to move into the flowering, or bloom stage, of the growth cycle. Whilst this is effective, it fails to give plants the necessary time to adequately prepare for the significant biochemical changes required to make this transition, adversely stressing the plants, potentially stunting the size and quality of the yield they eventually produce.

The concentration and distribution of auxins and cytokinins throughout a plant determine the focus of plant growth. Auxins are produced during daylight hours whilst cytokinins are produced at night. When the concentration of cytokinins exceeds that of auxins, bud production, or the flowering stage, is induced.

When plants don’t have the time to prepare for this hormonal shift, as they would in nature, they’re forced to draw on essential energy stores in order to compensate for their unpreparedness. It can be days before a plant is able to properly readjust to its new situation, let alone rebuild the stored energy lost in the process. Given that these hormones play a role in many different aspects of plant growth, including disease resistance, minimising their workload likely ensures a greater level of general plant health.

The new frontier of LED lighting allows us to better mimic the process that plants would properly go through in nature. When the days get shorter, a preponderance of light from the blue end of the spectrum gives way to a majority from the red, higher wavelength end. By mapping and simulating this shift in light spectrum, Optex grow lights utilise plants’ own biochemical processes to transition comfortably between the stages of their growth cycle, maintaining their energy stores, and minimising essential growing time lost to an unstable transition.