Choosing Grow Lights for Hydroponics Gardening
By the urban gardener

Australia's online hydroponics supplies & indoor grow shop

One can enjoy hydroponics gardening any season of the year, but it is especially rewarding during the cold and dark winter days. Being a type of indoor gardening, this system implies growing of plants in a special growing medium, supplied with nutrient solution, instead of soil. Similarly to other indoor gardening methods, with hydroponics gardening it is necessary to use grow lights, which allow plants to grow, make food and reproduce themselves through flowers or fruits. For this purpose HID lights are commonly used. There are several types of HID or high-intensity discharge lights: for example, metal halide grow lights and HPS grow lights. Every HID light requires digital ballast, which is necessary in order to control electrical current within the lamp, and thus provide its seamless functioning. Supplying light with a reflector is highly recommended as well, since it allows pointing the light in proper direction and increasing the light, produced by the bulb itself. Other type of grow lights are cost-effective and lightweight LED lights, where light-emitting diodes are used to produce light in colors beneficial for keeping up plant growth. The use of any of these lamps is highly effective for hydroponics growing.

Metal halide lamps contain aluminum arc tube, filled with argon, mercury and a variety of specific metals. It is a set of different metals that provide a particular color of the light, produced by the lamp. The argon gas works to start a lamp, when electric current is introduced at the electrodes on either end inside the arc tube. Under the effect of electric current mercury and metals start to vaporize and the light is produced. The key benefit of these lamps is that being small in size they produce a significant amount of light.

HPS grow lights, also known as high-pressure sodium lights, also have an aluminum arc tube inside, similarly to metal halide lights. However, the filling of the tubes is different: in case of HPS there are sodium, mercury, and the Xenon gas inside. Both metal halide lights and HPS lights require ballast for stabilizing electric current and providing smooth performance.

LED grow lights are small, but work very efficiently providing a lot of bright light. In general, they are similar to the lights, used for decorating Christmas tree. The light is produced when electric current moves between the two crystals inside a diode, which works as semi-conductor. Furthermore, LED grow lights usually have a reflector and a lens to direct the light where it is needed.

Along with being cost effective and energy saving, there are multiple different color spectrums to choose among in order to suit specific plants needs in the best way. So, irrespectively to what type of grow light you choose, it will work accurately and provide effective growth of your indoor plants.

Plants use light to convert it into energy during the process, called photosynthesis. Growth of the plant is directly dependant on the amount of light received. By the way, the amount and type of light depend on the particular plant and its stage of development. So, a good grow lamp is the one, which is chosen in accordance with the light requirements of the particular plant.

Light is essential for health of your indoor plants, but choosing a proper grow light may be challenging and always requires thorough considerations. Grow light fluorescent offers the benefits of high effectiveness, no heat generation and full spectrum of light. For comparison, incandescent bulbs also produce a lot of light, but at the same time they generate a lot of heat, which is not always beneficial for indoor plants.

Each stage of plant development requires a particular light. When the plant is in its growing stage during which stem, branches and leaves develop, it is the best timing to use metal halide lamps for they produce blue spectrum light. However, when plant forms flowers and fruits, it is better to use high-pressure sodium or HPS lamps, which provide red light spectrum.

The only downside of MH and LPS lights is the heat generated by them. Heat is not good for plants and soil. To prevent overheating, special cooling fans may be required.

Light-emitting diodes or LEDs, introduced in early 1920s, have debuted in hydroponic gardening as grow lights only recently. In comparison to metal vapor lights, LED lights offer a lot of benefits with the initial cost being their only disadvantage. However, these grow lights are more cost-effective in the long run, having the average life time of about 100 000 hours vs. 15 000 hours of other lights. Besides, LED lights consume less energy, providing energy saving up to 80% in comparison to fluorescents and metal vapor lamps. Furthermore, LED lights do not generate heat, and, therefore, they need no additional cooling and ventilation.

In order to increase plant growth and productivity it may be necessary to use certain additional accessories, such as reflectors, which help to increase light intensity and make it more balanced, eliminating any “hot spots”.

Another key component of the grow light system is ballast, which provides energy. While fluorescent light fixtures have built-in ballasts, the other types of grow lights, namely metal vapor and LED lights require remote or external ballasts. Digital ballasts are important components, so it’s better not to save money on them. It is recommended to choose domestically produced digital ballasts instead of old magnetic coil types or those imported from China. In addition to being more reliable, expensive digital ballasts are equipped with additional features, such as short circuit or defective bulb detection.

Hydroponic gardening belongs to the most common techniques to grow plants and flowers with no land required. While building hydroponic system, sooner or later one faces the necessity to invest in high quality grow lights. A lot of people give their preferences to HID (high intensity discharge) lights equipped with digital ballast. These types of lamps provide the most natural light similar to sunlight, which is especially important for successful indoor plants growing. However, there are certain differences between HID lamps worthy to know.

In general, five types of HID lights exist. They are mercury vapor, xenon short-arc lamps, metal halide, low-pressure sodium and high-pressure sodium lights. Among these metal halide and high-pressure sodium lights are the most preferred types.

A metal halide grow light features a blue spectrum light, beneficial for young plants in the stage of development. The light is produced under the influence of electricity, running through a mixture of mercury, metal halides and argon gas. Metal halides used in the lamp are responsible for the particular light shade and its intensity.

Structurally, metal halide lamp consists of a metal base and a glass bulb with wires, a quartz arc tube, tungsten electrodes and gas inside. An essential component for metal halide lamp to function properly is electric or digital ballast. This equipment controls the electric current, running through the lamp, and thus it can be used for dimming the light. Digital ballast should match the whole lighting system of the indoor garden. Many hydroponic gardeners prefer this type of grow lights for the ability to choose necessary light color temperature.

Sodium vapor lights produce light of the red spectrum due to the sodium used in this type of lights. High pressure sodium lights contain aluminum arc tube, and aluminum oxide participates in multiple chemical reactions, taking place within the bulb. This type of lights also requires use of HPS digital ballast for controlling electric current.

Both of the above mentioned grow lights are often used by indoor gardeners, choosing either metal halide bulbs with blue light for young and growing plants or high-pressure sodium lamps with red light for plants with flowers and fruits. During the lifetime of the plant, both of these lamps should be utilized.

In order to grow indoor hydroponics successful certain equipment is required, just like with any other hobby or activity. Furthermore, in order to get the best results, one should use the right tools and accessories. Proper grow lights are essential for indoor gardening, and the success or failure will depend on the choice of grow lamps.

High-intensity discharge or HID grow lamps are considered to be the most energy-saving and effective at the same time. These lamps are small, but they can generate a large amount of light, which closely resembles natural sunlight. Among the HID lights high-pressure sodium or HPS lights are recommended as the first grow lights to start working with.

Digital ballast is necessary for all HID lights in order to control the electric current flow through the electrodes in the arc tube. Digital ballast maintains the electric current within the proper limits, because too high current will lead to bulb explosion, while too low electric flow will not be able to generate light. That is why, when using HID lights it is crucially important to use accurate digital ballast.

Light reflector is also among the required equipments to be used along with grow light. Made of shiny material, the main task of the reflector to direct and intensify the light from grow lamp. It is reasonable to light the exact area, where your plants grow, without wasting light at some surrounding areas. Plants benefit only from the light, which is directed right onto them.

After all the equipment is finally assembled, it is time to consider where to place your lighting system. For growing seedlings it is recommended to place the light two to four inches above the young plants. As they grow bigger it is necessary to lift the lights, which can be easily performed with chain and hooks in the ceiling for mounting your grow lights. Such system will allow you to place grow lights lower or higher depending to the situation.

As a rule, all the lighting equipment for hydroponic gardens, including grow lights, ballasts and reflectors, are supplied in packages to make assembly easier and to provide a customer with the right set of compatible components.

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