I'm a little concerned about the red end of the spectrum. Your graphs show it peaking at 637 and then drops off. I've read that chlorophyll a & b peak absorption is at 640nm and 660nm. Isn't this panel missing those peaks? Does CREE not make high intensity LED's at those wavelengths, or what is the reason for that?
Victor: There's a lot of generic information out in regards to the clorophyll a/b absorption. We've done extensive R/D on this subject, testing most of these theories in pursuit of tuning our spectrum canna-specific to allow this miraculous plant to reach it's full genetic potential.
The spectrum of light the plant uses efficiently changes with the intensity. At low light levels red is used most then blue, just like the chlorophyl charts. As the light gets brighter more blue is used, and more. The break point is reached about 50% of max leaf capacity then green starts coming on. As the intensity continues up red and blue remain steady but green use continues to grow until at maximum it is almost half of all the light energy being used. This is one reason why, even with the lopsided spectrum produced by HPS can still get good results.
Green-response chlorophyll extending throughout and deep into leaf structures, with a net effect at or near that of the (mostly) surface-level blue and reds, which also takes care of most of the ~660nm+ you actually need for photomorphogenesis - and you can get by with 630nm reds just fine.
(i.e. 630nm red is ~95% of the PSR of 660nm and they currently still have ~20-30% greater radiometric efficiency.)
Our 6500k based spectrum peaks in the blue/green, which are higher intensity than the red bands and allows it to have better intra-canopy penetration since it's able to retain more of it's intensity at longer distance.