Growing indoors is about mimicking the outdoor growing environment and making improvements where possible. Cannabis plants grown outside enjoy the sun in all its essence. Light movers can help mimic the sun’s light, hitting the plant at the right intensity.
The sun is never stuck in one place, so the sun’s apparent movement allows the plant to get light from all sides.
When the plant is wholly exposed to the light, it grows vigorously, builds stronger immunity, and yields better.
The problem with indoor stationary lights is that they lack the movement that guarantees the whole plant’s exposure to the light. Thus, when you grow indoors, using light movers (aka light rails) can be an excellent way to bring the movement of the sun indoors, literally.
Light movers come in varied designs, mainly horizontal rails that run the light in straight lines and spinning rails that run the light in a circle.
Other light movers are more advanced, allowing you to set the lights to pause at given ends. These are called smart rails because, really, they’re smart, knowing when to pause and pick up the motion.
Does A Light Mover Increase Yield?
Light movers can increase the yield because they increase coverage by up to 140%. They also get rid of hotspots and shadows, allowing the plants that are farther from the light to get as much light as the plants directly beneath it.
If you’ve been using one light to grow a few plants in the tent, you have observed that the farthest plants do not get wholly soaked up in the light. This makes it impossible for these plants to reap from all their bud sites.
Bud sites that do not receive enough light fail to yield buds. When the light isn’t well-distributed, plants do not get ready for harvest all at once.
The plants beneath the light will be growing more vigorously than those at the farthest ends, making it impossible for you to harvest all the plants once.
RELATED READ: Do Buds Need Direct Light?
Stationary lights can also reduce your yield considerably because the light’s intensity reduces the farther it travels.
Thus, the lower bud sites won’t get exposed, reducing the number and the sizes of buds you harvest.
The Inverse Square Law And How It Relates To Light Movers
To understand how light movers can improve the quality of light your plants get, you need to understand the Inverse Square Law. The law states that the farther away an object is from the source of light, the effect of the light diminishes geometrically.
Thus, when you use light movers, you can move them closer to the plant’s canopy for maximum benefits.
Keeping your HID grow light at 5 feet above the canopy makes the plant safe from light burn, but the intensity is insufficient.
Using light movers can allow you to adjust the light up to 2 meters or less without hurting the plant. Thus, a better quality of light at no risk of burning the foliage.
Light movers allow you to have the light closer than you would with a stationary overhead grow light.
Light Movers Allows You To Place The Light Closer To The Plant
Using stationary grow lights comes with significant limitations. One of them being the risk of light burn. Because the light mustn’t be placed too close to the plant, it forces you to have it too far to avoid light burn.
Unfortunately, when you place your lights far from the plant’s canopy, it dilutes its intensity, and the plant loses yield because of low PPFD (photosynthetic photon flux density) numbers.
Lighting is always an art of balance because you shouldn’t sacrifice a bit of the essential light spectrums for the safety from light burn.
Light movers solve this problem because as the light moves, it distributes the light uniformly— the intensity isn’t concentrated in one point— thus, inhibiting light burn.
You can place the lights closer to the plant’s canopy, feeding it all the essential spectrums in optimum intensity for vigorous growth and development.
Also, when the light is moved closer to the plant’s canopy, it’s shed farther down, improving the quality of light energy the lower bud sites get.
Improving the quality of light and coverage directly improves the yield.
Using light movers, thus, increases light efficiency and enables your plants to thrive uniformly.
Automation Of Light Movers For Consistent Results
Grow lights are always in the grow room even when we shouldn’t. The plants rely on the lights for the energy to grow and develop. Thus automating your light movers is life-saving.
Of course, light movers have to be automated to eliminate human errors, but the actual job in automation is dialing up the right variables for a steady, intense light.
Light movers come in advanced designs and abilities. And with the correct settings, you can control how far it moves on the rail and how long it stays before making a return.
This ensures your plants are consistently getting exposed to light that pours down on them from varied angles. All the leaves get the light, and since you can lower it, it penetrates even deeper into the plant.
Automated light movers also eliminate hotspots and shadows due to improved coverage from different angles.
Frequently Asked Questions
Light movers are worth it because they allow you to lower the lights closer to the plant’s canopy without the risk of light burn. This improves the quality of light the plants get and enhances the yield. Light movers also eliminate hotspots and shadows because it hits the plant from all directions.
More light means more yield if other factors like temperatures, humidity, and nutrients are kept at the optimum. Better light coverage and intensity improve the rate of photosynthesis, thus more robust growth and better yield. 
Though light movers are great, you can overstretch them, leading to plants on one end waiting for too long for the light to return. The farthest you should stretch a light mover is 2 feet to cut the waiting time. Light movers allow you more coverage, but they are used chiefly to improve the quality of light and not just the coverage.
In conclusion, light movers are a great way to improve the quality of light and coverage. With light movers, your plants get more from the grow lights than possible with fixed grow lights. Light movers improve coverage, leaf penetration, and PPFD numbers, resulting in a bigger yield.
External references:
- https://www.maximumyield.com/the-benefits-of-installing-light-movers-in-a-grow-room/2/3649
- https://howtogrowmarijuana.com/grow-light-rails-increase-yield/
- https://www.maximumyield.com/the-effects-of-light-movers-on-grow-light-ppfd-and-photo-efficiency/2/17586
- https://agradehydroponics.com/blogs/a-grade-news/the-benefits-of-light-movers