Lighting

To determine the appropriate lighting (and the best lamp to use), the specific needs of the plant type to be grown must be considered, as well as the room size and ventilation. To arrange optimal lighting, the lighting present in the plant's natural environment needs to be imitated. For example vegetables grow best in full sunlight, which means in practice that as much light as possible must be supplied; (high intensity discharge (HID) lights such as high pressure sodium (HPS)and metal halide (MH) are preferred. fluorescent lamps can also be used). Incandescents and mercury vapor lighting are not preferred. In addition, plants also require both dark and light ("photo"-) periods. As such, lights need to be timed to switch them on and off at set intervals. The optimum photo/dark-periods is specific depending on each plant type (some prefer long days and short nights an others preferring the opposite, or something in between) Recent advancements in LED technology have allowed for diodes that emit enough energy for most cultivation. One major short coming of LED’s in the past has been a lack of intensity. Higher wattage chips are required to produce enough luminous efficiency to produce larger, denser yields. As with using a 400w HPS vs. a 1000w HPS, intensity has everything to do with yield. The same applies to LEDs however, it is not as simple as measuring watts because better quality chips can produce more light with less watts than cheap chips running at lower watts.

Online Ordering coming soon, Call us with your questions!