Which Hydroponic Lights are Best?
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Hydroponic lights, or grow lights as they’re usually called, come in many varieties and can be utilized in combination with one another to achieve the best results. Natural sunlight can still be used together with grow lights but if you’re purely on artificial lighting, then your setup should be more elaborate.
In setting up hydroponic lighting, it’s important to understand the principle of color temperature and its effects on plant life. For starters, color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin and refers to the color spectrum of light – not heat or cold. Blue light – at about 6000K – is considered the coolest while red-orange light – at the 2000K range – is considered the warmest. The darker blue spectrum – which resembles normal sunlight the most – is ideal for full-vegetation plants, while the slightly warmer color temperatures are most appropriate for fruit and flowering plants. In the reproductive/flowering phase, plants draw from the red-orange part of the spectrum. Ideally, though, your hydroponic lights should be a combination of different colors to best suit the needs of your plants.
The most popular type of bulb utilized in hydroponic lighting is the Metal Halide (MH) bulb. This High-Intensity Discharge (HID) light leans most toward the blue part of the spectrum, resembles direct sunlight the most, and is preferred for almost all growing situations. Of course, leafy, full-vegetation plants do well with MH bulbs.
The High Pressure Sodium (HPS) bulb is yet another HID bulb. This bulb tends to produce the orange-red light approximately on the 2200K mark, and is good for flowering plants, but not ideal as an artificial lighting substitute. It should generally be used together with natural sunlight or other artificial bulbs.
A third option is fluorescent lighting. The advantage with fluorescents is that even if they are less intense, they are less costly, can be placed close to the plants because of their low emission of heat, and in combination with one another, can cover the color temperature spectrum fairly well.
Still, you have even more alternatives: (1) incandescent light which is not as intense and would get too warm when placed too closely to the plants and (2) LED lights, which can cover the spectrum well without emitting heat but are a bit too expensive.
As discussed above, you actually have a wide range of hydroponic lights from which to choose from. The combination that works best for your garden can be determined with your retailer.
