Lighting

When choosing what type of lighting to use for your indoor garden, there are a lot of options and factors to take into consideration.  Depending on your garden set up and more importantly what you plan on growing,  you will want to choose a light that suits your specific needs.  This guide will go over the most popular types of lighting and their applications, benefits and drawbacks. 

Whether supplementing natural light, bringing container plants indoor to grow in the winter, or if you garden indoors year round, your garden may benefit from a combination of different types of lighting depending on your plants and their grow cycles.  For instance you may want to start your seedlings and clones under a T5 flourescent light, then switch to a HID or LED setup later on when more intense lighting is required.  Certain plants benefit from different wavelengths or colors of light depending on their specific needs and grow cycle, requiring a different type of bulb or additional lighting.

L.E.D. - (Light Emitting Diode):

LED stands for light emitting diode.  In recent years, LED technology has come a long way and is now a viable options for indoor gardening.  LEDs are very energy efficient and compact, saving space in your grow room and helping keep electric bills low.  LEDs also give off very little heat which can be helpful when trying to maintain consistant temperatures in your indoor garden.  LEDs have an extremely long lifespan and some lights will last far beyong 50,000 hours of running time. 

LEDs produce light in a wide variety of spectrums: the most common being “blue spectrum" (400-500 nm) and the “red spectrum" (600-700 nm), or any "color" that the manufacturer decides to include.  Some LEDs even have infrared diodes, the light of which is invisible to the human eye but can be beneficial to plants.  Some LED lights are manufactured to emit one specific wavelength of light, while others use a combination of different types of LEDs in a single fixture to give off a fuller range of light.  LED lighting is very versatile and can be used as the main lights in your garden or as supplemental lights in a HID set-up.

LEDs do have limitations.  The technology is still fairly new for growing applications, and you will pay a premium for high quality, high intensity LEDs.   The power and light output of LEDs is also limited when compared to traditional Metal Halide and High Pressure Sodium HID lighting.  This means that if you want more intense light, you will have to purchase additional LED fixtures, where in a HID setup for example, you can choose from 35 watt all the way up to a 600 or even 1000 watt fixture.  The diodes in LED fixtures also produce their light in single wavelengths.  For a single LED light fixture to produce a more natural spectrum, you would need various wavelength (color) diodes in the single light fixture, as opposed to HID fixtures which produce a more full spectrum with their single bulb. 

Pros:

• Low power consumption
• Generates little to no heat
• Compact space saving design
• Extremely long lasting

Cons:

• Expensive
• Limited Spectrum
• Limited power and light output

View Our LED Lighting Systems Here

H.I.D. - (High Intensity Discharge):

HID or High Intensity Discharge lighting systems are tried and true, and still the most common and cost effective setup for growing indoors. 

An HID setup consists of:  Ballast, Bulb and Hood/Reflector. 

• Ballast:  This is what regulates electricity and provides power to the bulb, and are either digital or magnetic.  Ballasts are commonly available in a wide range of power options from 35 to 1000 watts.  The digital ballasts are a newer more efficient technology and provide cleaner energy to the bulb increasing efficiency and light output.  It's a good idea to purchase a dimmable digital 2-way or "convertible" ballast which will allow the use of two types of bulbs. (HPS or MH)  The dimming feature is great for the sensitive early stages of plant growth, or for reducing brightness and fatigue while working in your garden.

• Bulb:  There are typically two types of bulbs used in HID grow setups: High Pressure Sodium (HPS) or Metal Halide (MH).  
  
  
• Metal Halide:  MH lights are great for vegetative growth due to their more blue-ish light output, mimicing the suns spectrum at the height of the growth season.  These lights are great for growing your plants big and strong

• High Pressure Sodium:  HPS lights emit a more orange/red spectrum which signals plant hormones to slow down growth and trigger production of vegetable/fruit/flower.  HPS lights are more efficient than their MH counterparts, but are best use in conjunction with MH in order to provide the best spectrum of light specific to the growth cycle in your garden.  

• Hoods/Reflectors:  Used take the light that would normally travel away from your plants and directs it downward toward the garden.  There are many types of reflectors such as umbrella, wing, open and closed air cooled.  While the main purpose of a reflector is to maximize the usable light for your plants, they also can serve multiple purposes.  The air cooled reflectors enclose the bulb with a glass panel, helping reduce the amount of heat from the bulb that reaches your plants, allowing you to keep the light closer and get more light to your plants.  The slight downside is they require a ducting system and fan to keep them cool, although this can be tied in with the ventilation system of your garden, and is not a huge drawback.  

Pros: 

• Industry standard for indoor gardens
• Broad light spectrum
• Interchangeable bulb types
• Cheaper than LED setups
• Available dimming feature 

Cons: 

• High power consumption.
• Generates heat, require good air flow
• Bulbs wear out, and require replacement after a few grow cycles.

View Our HID Lighting systems Here:

• 400 Watt
• 600 Watt
• 1000 Watt 

Flourescent Lighting:

With the introduction of T5 bulbs, flourescent lighting is now a viable addition to any full cycle garden.  T5 lighting is generally used for seed germination, and to help cuttings and clones take root in early stages of growth where more intense lighting is not required.  T5 light fixtures are also a great solution for leafy greens like lettuces and many indoor ornamental plants.  While T5 fixtures definitely have their place in the garden, the higher power light fixtures such as large LED lights and the industry standard HID lighting applications still yield the best results for full cycle adult plant growth. 

View our T5 Light Fixtures Here

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