Grow Lights

Grow lights are a wonderful option for both indoor and outdoor gardens. Indoors the grow light will provide extra light and warmth year round for the plants that require it, especially delicate ones that cannot withstand drastic temperature or weather changes. Outdoors grow lights provide a boost when weather isn’t cooperative and your greenery begins to look a little dull and wilty.

You can build your own grow light system using a ballast like this one

The most important consideration in choosing a grow light is that you get the correct intensity for what you’re growing. Bear in mind that the bulb in your grow light fixture is only half the equation – how close that bulb gets to the plan is the other half.

You don’t want to use a normal household bulb on seedlings because they’ll burn if you don’t moderate the distance from the grow light. Instead, consider fluorescent bulbs or even better a full spectrum bulb, which also has a very long lifespan.

The second benefit to full spectrum bulbs in your grow light is that they’re not only good for plants, they’re good for people who suffer from seasonal mood swings. There are also high pressure sodium lights that mimic late summer lighting. This particular set up is good for older plants that you want to encourage to flower or fruit.

One feature you might like in a grow light is a timer. Young plants should get at least 14 hours of light daily.

If the timer is built into your grow light, you don’t have to remember this figure, just program it and focus on remembering to water! Besides this try to find a light that will accept a variety of bulbs, and that adjusts easily to different growing containers. So doing increases the potential usefulness of this garden tool by at least 3x.

Hydroponics gardeners require grow lights. The most common system utilized in hydroponics grow lights is the high intensity discharge light often combined with a reflector that helps control the intensity of light the plants receive. LEDs are also used in hydroponics and are a bit more cost effective that the HIDs. The third option for hydroponic gardens is a metal halide light which mimics spring sun to encourage strong roots and disease resistance.

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