More and more growers are moving from outdoor to indoor growing. In indoor environments where sunlight is lacking, they use physical fill lights to promote continued plant growth. Depending on plant growth needs and grower concerns, most available plant grow lights are classified as incandescent, fluorescent, HID, and LED.
1. Incandescent lamps
Incandescent lamps are the cheapest of the plant grow lights. A 150 watt bulb can be purchased at your local hardware shop for a few dollars. Because most of the energy in an incandescent bulb is converted to heat, much is lost in light intensity. Too much heat puts them too close to the plants, even if it is to increase the light intensity needed for the plants.
2. Fluorescent grow lights
The disadvantages of fluorescent grow lights are their low yield, large size and ineffectiveness during the flowering phase as opposed to the nutritional phase. They are usually used for seed or seedling lighting. The lumens of fluorescent lights are too low for use in the budding stage of plants, but they are the best choice for herbs. You can buy them for under $40 at your local hardware or garden supply shop. The new ‘T5 lighting system’ is very efficient and bright and in some cases may be better than HID lamps. High-end fluorescent lamps provide more light for plants, and they produce less heat than incandescent and HID lamps, so they can be placed closer to the plants.
3. HID lamps
HID lamps are the brightest of the plant growing lamps and are very efficient, but also very expensive. A 1000 watt HID lamp can produce the same amount of light as 50 40 watt fluorescent lamps. The most common sizes are 400 watts and 1,000 watts. 400 watts will provide enough light for a garden of about 15 square feet. A 1,000 watt lamp will cover an area of approximately 4.5 square metres. For rapid growth, approximately 25 watts of HID lamps can be used per 0.09 square metres. Their main disadvantage is that they do not produce light in the blue spectrum. If only HID lamps are used for illumination, the plants usually grow very thin, which is not an ideal result for the gardener.
Disadvantages of HIDs
- The bulbs produce a lot of heat, which can burn the plants if they are not monitored or considered when they are placed in the grow room.
- They require additional hardware to operate, such as ballasts and reflectors. Some HID ballasts run only MH and some only HPS, some HID ballasts run only MH and some only HPS, which means that more than one ballast may be required.
- The effectiveness of each bulb will decrease over time, which means it is important to note how long a particular bulb has been in use and replace it before it .
4. LED lights
LED plant grow lights use light emitting diodes which are efficient, long lasting, safe, reliable, environmentally friendly and energy efficient; LEDs save nearly half the cost of electricity (which means lower growth costs); they produce less heat and less heat allows the plant grow lights to be closer to the plants without having to worry about them burning out. It has the ability to promote ripening, colouring, improved taste and fruit quality. Most users who grow cannabis choose this LED plant light.
Benefits of LED plant grow lights.
- Full spectrum lighting, more in line with plant growth patterns, also customisable with red, blue and purple light bars
- Easy to adjust the flowering and fruiting time of the plants with the dimming knob, while controlling the height of the plant growth
- High space utilisation thanks to the aluminium strip heat sink, which can be used in multi-layer cultivation stereo combination systems for low heat load and miniaturisation of production space.
The most used LED plant grow lights are the most suitable for cultivation and are excellent in terms of price, quality and effect.