How to get Vibrant Yellow, Orange & Red Plants?

[ayman.roshdy]

Based on your experience; how do you get Vibrant Yellow, Orange & Red Plants?
Is it:

• Through excess fertilizers ?
• Depriving the plants from nitrates ?
• More light intensity ?
• More light exposure time ?
• Better light, RGB or WRGB ?
• A combination of all of the above ?
• Some other means, please explain ?

 

[Art]

Ayman - good question.

While I know that people are always asking how to get a plant to be more "insert some color", I don't agree with this. My goal is to make the plant as healthy as possible within the environment that I'm providing for it (usually, high light, high CO2 and excess availability of nutrients). Limiting nitrate so that a plant is forced to turn red is almost like cheating to me. I don't mean to sound harsh or judgmental. It's just my opinion.

I think people should ask, "how do I get this plant to grow healthy and show its natural colors?" If this is what you are after, your plants will display their most beautiful version of themselves.

That being said, there seems to be some species (or is it cultivars) that come with deeper coloration. I know that there are some intensely red species today and some really cool purple ones.

 

[BigWave]

Only a few ways:
Light - the more PAR you have the more it'll color up. Your fertilizer dosing including CO2 better be on point or you find them deficiencies real fast. The longer the lights on the more the plants need to eat. It also stresses them out. Think this way, in nature they have clouds covering the sun. Trees blocking the light. Even the movement of the sun throughout the seasons. The actual color of light plays a little role but not a whole lot. We can grow fantastic healthy plants with saltwater reef lighting. The thing is the blue's wash out all the other colors making the plants look terrible. The new fad for using RGB and RGBW LEDs is more about having all the different colors so as to make their tank look better than it actually is.
Fertilizer (Nutrients) - This is very debatable. The biggest here is CO2. Plants need Carbon something like 22x more then the next element Nitrogen. We have proven lean dosing works and also rich dosing. Only a few plant species color up intensely with lean dosing aka limiting nitrogen. You can achieve the same results of dosing EI with more than enough nutrients.
Genetics - This plays a huge role here. A good example is Ludwigia pantanal vs Ludwigia meta. The same plant but meta has different genetics so much brighter (redder) vs pantanal more orangish.

 

[ayman.roshdy]

Only a few ways:
Light - the more PAR you have the more it'll color up. Your fertilizer dosing including CO2 better be on point or you find them deficiencies real fast. The longer the lights on the more the plants need to eat. It also stresses them out. Think this way, in nature they have clouds covering the sun. Trees blocking the light. Even the movement of the sun throughout the seasons. The actual color of light plays a little role but not a whole lot. We can grow fantastic healthy plants with saltwater reef lighting. The thing is the blue's wash out all the other colors making the plants look terrible. The new fad for using RGB and RGBW LEDs is more about having all the different colors so as to make their tank look better than it actually is.
Fertilizer (Nutrients) - This is very debatable. The biggest here is CO2. Plants need Carbon something like 22x more then the next element Nitrogen. We have proven lean dosing works and also rich dosing. Only a few plant species color up intensely with lean dosing aka limiting nitrogen. You can achieve the same results of dosing EI with more than enough nutrients.
Genetics - This plays a huge role here. A good example is Ludwigia pantanal vs Ludwigia meta. The same plant but meta has different genetics so much brighter (redder) vs pantanal more orangish.

Thanks very comprehensive

 

[GreggZ]

It depends on the plant.

About 80% of the plants get red from peak health plus strong light. Take something like Ludwigia Ruben or Mermaid Weed. At lower light can be perfectly healthy but also mostly green. As you start turning up the light you also turn up the color. A dramatic difference between low, medium, and very high light.

But like @BigWave said above, as you turn up the light you better have everything else dialed in. Very high light tanks take more attention to every detail to remain in balance.

Then there about 10% the plants that turn red from nitrate deprivation. But people need to understand that the color is a distress response. So you are walking a fine between good health and color. This is a tricky method and is hard to maintain long term.

Then there about another 10% of plants that are genetically prone to a certain color. That is they will show red in pretty much any amount of light. Think Ludwigia Super Red Mini.

And don't underestimate the color of light you provide. Plants under a rich blend of good light spectrum will just flat out look better. Put the same plants under 100% daylight type bulbs and the color will be washed out. Years ago I posted a bunch of picture of my tank under different combinations of T5HO bulbs. It was amazing how different the same tank looked under different color combinations of light.

This was one issue that LED's suffered from years ago. They had very little color. Now with all the WRGB type set ups it's come a long way. IMO when you select lights, pay close attention to the color rendition. Makes more difference than most realize.

 

[Burr740]

A light with strong red and blue is number one if you want colors to pop.

 

[JPog]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but speaking about nitrate limitation and color in some plants, why is it that the leaves still turn red with an active substrate full of N. I don't claim to be a botanist, so is the delivery of the N through the roots, more regulated vs an uncontrolled uptake through the leaf surfaces?

 

[ayman.roshdy]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but speaking about nitrate limitation and color in some plants, why is it that the leaves still turn red with an active substrate full of N. I don't claim to be a botanist, so is the delivery of the N through the roots, more regulated vs an uncontrolled uptake through the leaf surfaces?

Yes, interesting question indeed, I always thought that roots will absorb nutrients (including N) more efficient than the leaves !