Lights often represent the lifeblood of plants that are grown indoors. Because any sunlight that they might receive is sparse, artificial light is valuable and necessary. Plants need the light to perform photosynthesis, which is vital for sugar and tissue production.
Many people who grow for personal use will use a closet space for their garden. Some can get away with using a guest bedroom that can’t be seen from the outside and is rarely used otherwise.
Regardless, every grower must assess the viability, both in terms of space and electrical capacity, of bringing in large amounts of lights. Most growers limit their choices to one of the following three options: fluorescents, incandescents, and HID (high-intensity discharge) lamps.
HID Lamps To save yourself some time and money, it’s in your best interest to opt for HID lamps during the vegetative and flowering stage. These are sold as Metal Halide (MH) or High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps and they are, without question, the best for your marijuana garden.
Although they have a higher up-front cost than fluorescent or incandescent lights, their overall value is much greater in the long run because they don’t require as much electricity as the other options, plus they are brighter also last much longer.
Even if you’re on a budget and don’t want to throw away too much money up front, you must still factor in the cost of the electricity bill and bulb replacements.
So, when it comes down to it, MH and HPS lamps represent a much better value and product overall. The plants will also need an even distribution of light so that growth is congruent.
A lot of professional growers hook up a track system that allows the light(s) to be moved. With this technique, the plants receive an optimal amount of light without needing extra lights here and there.
Fluorescent Lights For seedlings, an HPS light bulb can be too much, so many growers use fluorescent lights during germination. They don’t produce a lot of heat and can be lowered to just four inches above the top leaves.
Reflective materials also helps enhance the amount of light that the plants receive. This can be as simple as lining the walls with aluminum foil or just painting the walls of the room with bright white paint. While mirrors undoubtedly look nice as decorations, they don’t actually reflect as much light as other materials.
Indoor gardens Large indoor gardens (and the light they require) place some heavy burdens on electricity, but personal growers really won’t have any problems because they might only use a few hundred volts per hour. This usage would add, at the most, about $10 to the electric bill. Extensive growers, on the other hand, might be limited by the size of their circuit.
For instance, older homes might only have a 15-amp circuit that can’t maintain all the excess light that a large garden needs. Read these articles about HPS and fluorescent lights and let me know what kind of lights you use.
