Which grow lights are the best for growing plants indoors?

Which is the best grow light?

So you have decided to grow plants indoors and one of the most obvious things you will think

of buying is a grow light,but which one?The most widely used grow light on the market today

is the high intensity discharge (HID),the hid light is probably the best all round lighting kit

on the market with control gear (ballast) that will control either a high pressure sodium or a

metal halide lamp. Proven to be reliable year in year out with some magnetic ballasts carrying

a manufactures warranty of up to twenty-five years.

Whats the difference between a high pressure sodium and a metal halide lamp?

The difference is a metal halide lamp gives off a light with a lot of blue in the spectral output ideal for the vegetative stage of any plant growth,the high pressure sodium lamp on the other hand gives off a light with a lot of red in the spectral output ideal for the flowering phase of any plant.

HID lighting does however have its down sides such as heat generation,MH and HPS lamps create

a lot of undesirable heat that is essential to remove from your growing area or run the risk of harming your plants,this can be done by use of extract fans,air cooled lighting and air conditioning

e.t.c. And is in my opinion well worth the effort.

There are other lighting options available when it comes to plant lighting such as CFL and LED

grow lights which are becoming more popular due to low energy usage and low heat output

These lights do work but are a relatively new technology for plant lighting and would be more suited to supplementing existing HID lighting helping to cut costs and temperatures.

Other factors to take into account are reflectors,these spread the light from your lamp over your plant canopy and come in many shapes and sizes. Reflectors start with the basic euro wing or

dutch barn these come with most standard grow light kits on the market and are great for the beginner,ranging to reflectors such as the flexi wing which gives a much larger more even spread

of light increasing harvest size and quality.

In my opinion the best grow lights to use would be HID grow lights using the MH lamp for your vegetative phase and switching to the HPS lamp upon flower induction using blue and red CFL

grow lights to supplement and add light avoiding dark patches in your canopy. In my opinion for

the time being at least HID grow lights represent the value grow light per watt on the market.