What Is Supplemental Lighting

Supplemental lighting is the additional lighting bar that’s designed to supplement your primary grow lights. As the name indicates, its main purpose is to complement the lighting needs of your plants, including enhancing light intensity, providing a specific growth light spectrum, and filling in the gap that the main grow lights fail to cover. 

Supplemental lighting for indoor plants can come in different colors of light, say, red, blue, or UV light. Since the two essential light colors that affect your plant growth are blue and red, commonly, you’ll see supplemental light bars of solely red or blue. 

Regarding the grow light type, you may see options like fluorescent or T5 supplemental lights, but truth be told, they are definitely not the best choice. We’ll focus on supplemental LED grow lights in this post, as they are the most effective and low-heat emission choice. 

Benefits of Using Supplemental Lighting for Grow Rooms 

It’s hard for the main grow light to perform best through the whole plant life cycle, particularly during the vegetative and flowering stages. Fortunately, whether you grow plants in grow tents or the greenhouse, you can benefit bonus from supplemental lights such as: 

Enhanced light penetration and coverage: Even the strongest primary grow lights struggle to reach the lower leaves beneath the canopy's top layer. As the light from primary sources spreads, its intensity diminishes, leading to insufficient light for plants at the periphery of the coverage area, which can result in smaller yields. Supplemental lights in this case work as under-canopy LED grow lights. When placed vertically or horizontally around the growing area, they can improve light penetration throughout the canopy, leading to larger, higher-quality yields.

Tailored wavelength for vegetative & flowering stages: Although the intensity of your primary light might suffice for photosynthesis, it's the presence of particular wavelengths that promote root development and flowering. For example, supplemental blue light( 450-495 nm) supports stronger root development during the vegetative stage and encourages compact, healthy foliage growth. The red supplemental light (650-665nm) is most beneficial during the flowering and fruiting stages of a plant's life cycle. It benefits flowering, budding, and fruit production, contributing to the overall reproductive success of the plant. 

Overall, supplemental lighting can improve the quality of your plants by promoting stronger, healthier growth. This includes better leaf color, more robust stems, and, in the case of flowering plants, more vibrant blooms. This explains why plants grown with supplemental lights tend to have greater yields. 

Best Supplemental Lighting Bars

Reading so far, you might want to add a supplemental light to your grow light collection. Spider Farmer prepares a series of supplemental lighting bars for grow rooms, be it UV, IR, red, or a combo of UV & IR. Let’s take a look at them and select one that fits the wavelength you need. 

Best UV LED Supplemental Light Bar (365nm) - Veggie & Flowering Stage

Thanks to 240 densely arranged diodes and multi-light daisy chains, Spider Farmer Supplemental UV LED Light Bar is a go-to choice for under canopy LED grow light in a 2x2 grow tent. The bar-style lights are structured for easy integration, allowing the fitting of three supplemental light bars between every two main light bars. 

When paired with the main grow lights, the Spider Farmer Supplemental UV LED Light Bar is a perfect boost during the flowering stage to increase the production of essential oils, flavonoids, and terpenes. This can lead to improved flavor profiles and higher active compound concentrations in the final yield. Additionally, UV light can improve a plant's resistance to pests and diseases.