What You Need to Know About Lighting for Indoor Gardening
If you have considered hydroponics and want to do it indoors then you will need lighting suitable for indoor gardening. Lighting for indoor gardening, aside from being a substitute for the sun can actually speed up growth or benefit certain plants depending on the type of lights you choose. The element of control you have over indoor lighting allows you to enhance the growth of the plants in your indoor garden that is absent in conventional gardening.
Types of Lights
There are two types of lights in lighting for indoor gardening, metal halide lights and high pressure sodium lights. Metal halide lights produce light in the blue spectrum, this type of light is good for vegetative growth and will promote good vegetative growth in your plants. High pressure sodium lights on the other hand will produce a strong output in the red spectrum, this is good for the flowering and fruiting stage of growth. The advantage of using lighting for indoor gardening is that you can easily switch the type of lights depending on the stage of growth, something you can't do outdoors.
There are two ways you can go about using lighting for indoor gardening. One method that is used by most people, is to use both lights. Another option that is quite viable is to use a single light. When using this method you should first use metal halide lights in the vegetative state and then switch the bulb to a high pressure sodium one. This way you can have both lights and get the best results. There are however lighting systems that provide light in both the blue and red spectrum. This is probably the best solution and doesn't require to tinker with your lighting system.
The size of your light varies according to how big an area is being used. Light sizes range from 250 watts to a 1000 watts, you can cover an area as small as three by three inches to seven by seven inches. If your indoor garden does receive some sunlight you can use smaller lights for a bigger area. Do a little research as to what size lights are needed for the size of your garden. It's just as important to determine the right light size as it is to get the right type of lights. Too little light and you won't be getting good growth results, too much and you might be killing off your plants.
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