Like man, plants need to “sleep” sometimes in order to renew themselves and to promote cell growth, and that means that periods without light are almost as important as exposure to sunlight or the electrical equivalent. Some might expect round-the-clock lighting will make their vegetation grow speedier, but having periods of light deprivation is a healthier strategy when cultivating plants indoors. Depending on the type of plants you are growing, you’ll find that some do better with longer periods of light, and shorter periods of dark, and for other varieties the reverse is true.

Various varieties of grow lights have certain effects on hydroponic gardens, ranging from those that can produce rapid, healthy growth to others that are virtually useless for helping plants to grow. On the limited usefulness end of the spectrum, incandescent lighting has barely any effect on cultivation, even if the bulbs are labeled “grow lights,” and they are also quite uneconomical in consuming electrical power. Growers will probably face higher than average electrical bills if they use incandescent bulbs, because those bulbs waste a great deal of power by converting it to heat rather than light.

You may be risking burning your plants if you use incandescent bulbs and place them any closer to your crop than a couple of feet away. Incandescent bulbs have a rather limited lifespan of only an average of 750 hours, which means you’ll be required to replace them more often than you would with many other kinds of bulbs. Be prepared to write a check for air conditioning gear if you choose incandescent bulbs, because the heat thrown off by that variety of lighting will boost your indoor temperature extremely high.

Equipment that removes heat from your grow space also uses current to operate, which will present an ongoing cost, and it will need periodic servicing whenever it breaks down. With fluorescent grow lights, you can raise most plants no matter how small your grow room design may be vertically, because fluorescent lighting can be 4 inches from your plants and won’t damage them. You can spend less on power by using fluorescent lights, which run more efficiently than do incandescent lights, operate without much heat, can fit into a variety of different grow room configurations and last about 20,000 hours.

In all, fluorescent equipment has many advantages over incandescent bulbs, and should be the most likely choice for your indoor garden.

For A Superb Garden, Install The Kind Of Lights That Make Plants Thrive is a post from: WiredWriter