What is the best light for growing chilli

Are you unsure when choosing grow lighting for your home chilli garden? We bring practical tips for grow lights for cultivating chillies for vegetative growth, flowering and germination.

The basis of indoor growing is to provide plants with an environment that best simulates ideal conditions for their rapid growth. This includes grow lighting that must have sufficient intensity and the correct spectrum. Let’s look at what factors to consider when choosing a grow light for growing chillies and how to light plants in different growth stages.

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What light to choose for different growth stages

During their life, chilli peppers go through several developmental stages – from germination, through vegetative growth, to flowering and fruit ripening. In each growth stage plants need slightly different light. It’s therefore a good idea to choose indoor chilli lighting that covers the plants’ needs from seed to harvest. Most indoor growers today light plants with modern LED grow lights, which have a balanced spectrum and are more energy-efficient than outdated high-pressure discharge lamps.

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Germination and seedling propagation: Chilli seeds do not need darkness to germinate, so you can light them from day one. During germination and the first weeks of life, less intense lighting with a dominance of the blue part of the spectrum, which supports growth, is sufficient. For these purposes many growers use energy-efficient TLED panels, which consume less electricity than large high-power grow fixtures.

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Vegetative growth: Once chilli seedlings have grown a bit and you transplant them into a larger pot, they enter the vegetative growth phase. During the growth period chillies need sufficiently intense lighting with plenty of the blue part of the spectrum, which stimulates rapid growth and supports the formation of leaves, roots and stems. In terms of light intensity, plants in the vegetative phase need somewhat less light than those in the flowering phase. If you have a grow light with a dimming function, set the output to approximately PPF 400–600 µmol/m²/s.

Flowering and fruit ripening: Chillies flower for a relatively long time and for some exotic varieties you may wait several months for fruit. During flowering and ripening the light intensity should reach 600–1000 µmol/m²/s with a sufficient share of the red part of the spectrum, which stimulates plants to form flowers and fruit. If you grow with sodium lamps, you will need to change the bulb at the start of flowering from a “grow” to a “bloom” type. LED grow lights have a balanced spectrum similar to sunlight and contain enough red light.

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Do you want to start growing chillies but don’t know what equipment to get to begin with? We have prepared advantageous chilli growing kits so you can start as soon as tomorrow! For tips on growing chillies and other useful growing advice follow our Higarden blog.