Choosing the Best Grow Ligth Systems
Deciding on the best grow light system is one of the most important and expensive decisions you will face when creating your grow room. The lighting system you elect to use can have a huge impact on growing plants such as tomatoes inside. There are lots of things to have in mind when deciding on the lights that will fit best for you. This includes the quantity of grow space you have convenient, the weather or climate where you will be growing and how that can be maintained in your grow space, energy costs, and the size of your plants.
When carrying out research to see what light is best for you, have in mind that there are four main types of grow lights: incandescent, fluorescent, LED, and high intensity discharge (HID). Incandescent lights are not used much due to their low lumen output. Fluorescents however are used a bunch for the vegetative stages of growing as well as maintaining mother plants and creating clones. Just recognize that these lights are not very powerful either, so you may need more bulbs than you anticipate. This type of light is proper for small grow areas or areas where it is hard to keep heat levels down as these lights don’t expend much heat. They are also very low energy if you need to diminish your overall energy use.
High intensity discharge (HID) grow lights are the most known choice for indoor growing. This is because of the high lumen output and the spectrum of light they discharge. The disadvantage is that they give off much more heat, are more expensive, and require extra maintenance. This all comes with growing indoors though!
There are two principal categories of HID used to grow inside. Metal Halide (MH) lights are used during the vegetative stage of growing because of the particular light range that is emmitted. High pressure sodium (HPS) lights are used for the flowering stages to help grow bigger fat buds. Most individuals will obtain a grow light ballast that is one or the other and will use that ballast for that specific part of growth. It is possible though if you have a small growing area to use a convertible ballast which allows you the grower to alter the bulb between MH and HPS when needed. You would simply just have to alternate the small switch on the ballast.
LED grow light systems are still very revolutionary to the market and the technology isn’t quite there to substantiate the cost of the light system. Although this form of light very well may be the future of greenhouse growing, the lumen output you get for the cash you put in just isn’t worth it so I would stay away from these lights unless you have a strong need for low energy use, have a small grow space, and don’t plan on growing your plants very huge.
Now that you have a better idea of how these different lights can be used in an greenhouse grow, you should be outfitted with the knowledge necessary to make an educated selection on what type of grow light system you should use in your grow. Feel free to glance at the other articles and information on our web page to get a better idea of how to increase the use of your grow light systems.
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