Full spectrum light is a marketing term used to describe a light source that emits wavelengths across much of the visible spectrum, and sometimes into the ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) ranges. There is no universally accepted scientific or horticultural definition of “full spectrum,” so products with this label can vary substantially in their spectral output.
For plant growth, the term alone provides little useful information because it does not indicate how many photosynthetically active photons the light produces. Plant performance is determined primarily by the intensity of light reaching the leaves, measured as PPFD, and the total light received each day, measured as DLI, rather than by whether a fixture is marketed as full spectrum.
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