What you need in your crop is a Grow Light Mover

In many cases the growers do not have the necessary amount of lights to cover the total canopy of the crop inside the indoor grow room. However, it is not convenient for some of your plants to stop receiving the amount of light necessary to grow in optimal conditions. If so, what options are available? If you can't or don't want to acquire an additional light source, the best option will be to acquire a grow light mover that helps maximize your current lighting system and increase your crop yield.

Can you imagine how cumbersome it would be to constantly uninstall and install grow lights from site to site manually, to cover your entire crop? Definitely no grower wants to waste their time on these types of unnecessary activities, let alone if there are ways to facilitate all this work with the help of a grow light mover.

With a grow light mover you can increase the penetration of the light source you already have in your crop without the need to invest in new grow lamps. This will be especially beneficial if you have a unique growing light and a growing space of considerable dimensions. In this way you will avoid blind spots and also avoid moving your plants at all times and the probability of damaging their leaves.

Let's see how a grow light mover works.

Types of Grow Light Mover

A Grow light mover can be considered as the device that allows you to move horizontally and mechanically the artificial light source of your crop (especially the canopy of your plants) through a rail or central motor.

That's right, you can provide all your plants with the necessary lighting with the same lighting device you already have, but, in addition, you will receive economic benefits on your electricity bill for using a smaller number of lights, while reducing the amount of heat that would produce using several grow lights.

It is common that, to avoid wasting light in stationary lighting systems in indoor crops, many growers have resorted to reflective covers. Such as covering the walls with Mylar or placing more lights on your crops. However, a grow light mover could represent a much more efficient and useful option and save you this type of work.

The movement of the grow light mover, will allow the light of your lamp to penetrate the shadow areas, consequently, it will reach a greater number of leaves that are below the canopy of your plants. You should keep in mind that this is not possible with a stationary light.

Below, we present the 2 types of grow light mover that exist: Circular Light Movers and Rail or Track Light Movers.

Circular motors

Circular light motor systems move through a centralized motor that is capable of rotating the arms (with two and up to four lights) as if they were a fan. The circular rotation allows for better fit and focus in all areas of the crop.

Rail motors

It is the most common type of light motor and although it can vary its length, it does not usually exceed 6 ́. This type of engine moves from one end to the other through rails. Once it reaches the other end it starts reversing again.

One of the advantages of this type of motors is that they allow the addition of additional rails and with it, increase the amount of coverage space on the crop.

How do growth light engines intervene in plants?

It has been proven that the yield of your crop can increase considerably thanks to the use of a grow light mover. Increasing the growth rate of plants, obtaining stronger plants, with more nodes (those points or areas of union between leaves and branches to the stem) and healthier, are all changes that occur in your crop product of the movement of the lights when using a grow light move, producing a positive effect in each phase of growth.

Additionally, a grow light mover also favors the uniform growth of your plants, since there is a better distribution of light in your crop. In turn, this will prevent some plants from growing too large and others from becoming noticeably smaller, either by excess or by not meeting their needs for necessary lighting.

Now let's look at some of the main advantages that a grow light mover has for your crop.

Advantages of working with growth light engines in cultivation

Every indoor grower wants to maximize the amount of lighting their plants receive, as this will give you much more flattering results for your crop. Among the advantages that a grow light mover can bring to your crop are the following:

• More and better coverage (about 30% more coverage than a stationary light).
• More uniform coverage of the canopy of your plants. Greater interaction between the light of your lamp and the leaves of your crop more powerfully, but at intermittent intervals.
• Greater penetration into the canopy, your plants can take better advantage of the growing light by maximizing the leaf area index, thanks to the absorption of light by a greater amount of surface in the leaves (medium and lower).
• Using a grow light mover will allow you to bring the lights closer to the canopy of your crop.
• Reduce hot spots. The difference between the PPFD that different leaves receive from your plants is determined by their location and the range of light. The hot spots would be those areas that receive a higher PPFD, this brings as a consequence that those leaves that receive more light, can be affected with burns or spots. In addition, this can cause the overgrowth of some branches over others, which is also undesirable.
• It allows your plants to cool down and significantly reduces burns thanks to the fact that it allows the heat to disperse and prevents the leaves from curling up due to hot spots.
• Plants that are outside the hot spot need a greater amount of nutrients to survive with less light, this could cause damage and turn them yellow. A more even distribution of light produced by a grow light mover will result in greater plant health and less investment in fertilizers and nutrients.
• The intermittency of the lighting also recreates some conditions of outer space. If we think about the breeze, the clouds, they all intermittently block the light that reaches the plants from the sun and a grow light mover is able to recreate these conditions as well, increasing the opening of the leaf receptors of your plants.
• It has been discovered that leaf receptors can be closed with stationary grow lights that hit the leaves of your plants in a fixed and direct way. With a grow light mover you can provide the correct leaf area index in a given period of time.
• Faster growth rate of your crop.
• Grow light moves ensure that more of the leaf surface comes into contact with the grow light, reducing shadow patterns.
• It will maximize the benefits of your LED grow light or any other type of lighting you use.
• Although the light exposure is intermittent, the light will move in various directions and that will ensure illumination even if it is not directly on the plants.
• The electricity consumption of a grow light move is almost negligible compared to an additional grow light.

To be taken into account

As you may have noticed, there are many advantages or benefits offered by the incorporation of growth engines to the crop, one of the great benefits offered by grow light mover is its versatility to adapt to the different types of lights you use in your crop (such as HID, LED, among others).

In the case of HID or fluorescent, they can usually burn plants because they emit a lot of energy and heat, so with them you must take care of the movements and especially the distance between them and the plants. Therefore, the best alternative will be to use an LED grow light.

You should also take into account the dimensions of your grow room, before choosing the type of grow light move. Although the installation of LED grow light is usually simple, in the case of a grow light mover you may need help from an expert for its installation. You should also consider that you must have an additional outlet to the lights to connect the conveyor.

Some experts point out that the rapid movement of the lights can cause damage to the plants, so the correct adjustment and configuration of the speed of your grow light move will also be very important. The delay time will be key for your plants to enjoy the true benefits of lighting and perform their photosynthesis process.

A grow light move will prevent you from acquiring numerous lamps for your crop, which will be of great benefit to save some money, not only for the additional lamps but also on your electric energy bill. In addition, you will get a maximum PAR for your plants and a more uniform PPDF. In addition, you can decide between buying a complete light movement system or on the contrary, you could also buy the rails and motors separately. It will all depend on your preference, experience and budget.