I thought this would be a great topic of disucssion....
When talking about plant lighting....What exactly is Penetration?
I see this word on just about every plant and horticulture grow light advertisement, saying things like "increased penetration" or "best penetration" or "more penetration than..." but really what does this mean?
I mean things like lumens, Umol, lux, watts, are all quantifiable measurements for a specific purpose, but when I googled penetration I found a bunch of adult sites, but nothing to do with plant lighting or a measurement...
So this leads me to ask...What the heck are all these light manufacturers talking about? Is this even a valid statement, and how can one measure it"????
As far as my understanding, we could be talking about 2 things here.... light penetration through the canopy, and/or light penetration through the leaf to reach the photosystems (total light minus reflected light)...
??
If the word "penetration" was speaking in regards of penetration through the canopy...then I don't believe 1 light vs another light in the aspect of power usage is going to have much to do with anything. Lets say you have a leaf, and a 400w light above it vs a leaf with a 1000w light above it... is the shadow going to increase, decrease or stay the same if all other factors are the same except the lights wattage? I would assume that he shadow would stay the same size...so how his one light having more penetration in the canopy than the other??? I don't think they would...
Now using the same example... you have a leaf and a 600w HID light above it vs 2x 400w HID lights positioned above the leaf, but also set apart from each other...
Well according to all the Lighting companies...a 600w HID must give more penetration than 2x 400w HID lights right??? 93,000lumens vs 84,000 lumens?? Well according to most light manufacturers they would say, yes, more lumens is equal to more penetration...But when you look at it... if light is coming from 1 point source vs 2 offset point sources, there is going to be less shadowing with the dual point sources, therefore less shadow, more penetration because of the mutiplue angles the photons are traveling from 2 light sources... So in this case, 2x 400w HID would have better penetration than 1 600w HID right.... I would assume this to be correct.
So what is the deal with the term "penetration" and why is it so loosely thrown around my lighting manufacturers without any definition to what they are talking about, and no quantifiable measurements??
I would love to hear everyone's input, including all the LED sponsors and HID sponsors here....Lets clear this definition up and find out what these companies mean when they say.... better penentration..
When talking about plant lighting....What exactly is Penetration?
I see this word on just about every plant and horticulture grow light advertisement, saying things like "increased penetration" or "best penetration" or "more penetration than..." but really what does this mean?
I mean things like lumens, Umol, lux, watts, are all quantifiable measurements for a specific purpose, but when I googled penetration I found a bunch of adult sites, but nothing to do with plant lighting or a measurement...
So this leads me to ask...What the heck are all these light manufacturers talking about? Is this even a valid statement, and how can one measure it"????
As far as my understanding, we could be talking about 2 things here.... light penetration through the canopy, and/or light penetration through the leaf to reach the photosystems (total light minus reflected light)...
??
If the word "penetration" was speaking in regards of penetration through the canopy...then I don't believe 1 light vs another light in the aspect of power usage is going to have much to do with anything. Lets say you have a leaf, and a 400w light above it vs a leaf with a 1000w light above it... is the shadow going to increase, decrease or stay the same if all other factors are the same except the lights wattage? I would assume that he shadow would stay the same size...so how his one light having more penetration in the canopy than the other??? I don't think they would...
Now using the same example... you have a leaf and a 600w HID light above it vs 2x 400w HID lights positioned above the leaf, but also set apart from each other...
Well according to all the Lighting companies...a 600w HID must give more penetration than 2x 400w HID lights right??? 93,000lumens vs 84,000 lumens?? Well according to most light manufacturers they would say, yes, more lumens is equal to more penetration...But when you look at it... if light is coming from 1 point source vs 2 offset point sources, there is going to be less shadowing with the dual point sources, therefore less shadow, more penetration because of the mutiplue angles the photons are traveling from 2 light sources... So in this case, 2x 400w HID would have better penetration than 1 600w HID right.... I would assume this to be correct.
So what is the deal with the term "penetration" and why is it so loosely thrown around my lighting manufacturers without any definition to what they are talking about, and no quantifiable measurements??
I would love to hear everyone's input, including all the LED sponsors and HID sponsors here....Lets clear this definition up and find out what these companies mean when they say.... better penentration..