Picking the right Grow Light System can be very difficult. Horticultural grow lighting allows you to considerably extend the growing season by producing artificial light to your plants indoors that produce wavelengths of that of real sunlight. This is a tremendous advantage for those of us who really like having a year-round harvest of flowers, vegetables and fresh herbs. Grow Systems are also a wonderful way to get an early start on spring by starting your plant seedlings months ahead of the last cold spell. There are three main types of horticultural lighting systems.

Fluorescent Grow Systems

Fluorescent grow light systems at 75 to 90 lumens per watt, these lights are very energy efficient and are extremely effective especially when used in numbers. CFL Grow systems and T5 Grow systems have better color rendering properties (the light emitted that used by a plant) and have much less heat than energy-eating incandescent and HID grow light systems. The Fluorescent grow lights can be placed closer to your plants (within a few inches). This greatly decreases light loss from the bulb to the plant. These grow systems should be placed no more than a couple feet from the plants for best results. 2700 kelvin to 3000 kelvin bulbs provide more output in the reddish spectrum which promotes flowering in your plants. 5000 kelvin to 6500 kelvin fluorescent grow bulbs are full spectrum light in the bluish spectrum which facilitates overall green plant growth.

LED Grow Systems

LED grow light systems come in different wattage, depending on your growing area.
For example if you are growing in a 5×5 square foot area, you would use a 45W LED Grow Light System (replaces a 250W Metal Halide System) or if you intend on a smaller area (2×2 sq ft) a 14 Watt LED Grow System would be better. Commercial 300W LED Growing Systems can be extremely powerful. LED Grow Systems light is infrared, so it’s invisible to human eyes. LED Spectrum in these grow lights is only used by the plants themselves.

Advantages of using LED grow systems are that they are long lasting (50,000 hrs) since there isn’t a filament in it, and that they don’t become overheated when in constant use and you can keep them very close to the plant. Just let the LED shine and watch the magic unfold in your plants.

HID Grow Light System

Metal Halide Lamps produce an array of light in the blue spectrum which promotes plant growth. The average lifespan of a metal halide bulb is about 10,000 cumulative hours. Comparing Metal Halide, the lumen (brightness) per unit of energy (watts) consumed, metal halides produce up to 125 lumens per watt compared to 39 lumens per watt with standard fluorescent lights and 18 lumens per watt for standard incandescent bulbs. Do not be fooled by this alone. More of the Metal Halide Light is not used by the plants other grow systems might be better.

High pressure sodium bulbs have an orange-red glow. This bandwidth of light triggers the plants to increase flowering and budding.

HPS has two properties that make it a wise choice. HPS average lifespan is twice that of metal halides (10,000hrs), but after about 18,000 hours run time, the bulbs will start to use more electricity than the rated watts and gradually produce less light. However, they last much less time than an LED Grow System. HPS bulbs are very efficient however, they produce up to 145 lumens per watt used. Their main disadvantage is they are don’t have anything in the blue spectrum. If you use HPS alone, you will have a long non-leafy plant.

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