Kimberly Green is a girl with a green thumb in grow lights 101, sharing her insight to the wide world of grow lights and grow light systems.
If growing plants indoors is something that interests you, then you'll most likely need grow lights to help accomplish the job. A grow light provides the special lighting and light spectrum that plants need to grow and thrive, and there are two types of lights that accomplish this: high intensity discharge lights, and fluorescent lights. High intensity discharge grow lights come in two varieties -- the metal halide grow light (often referred to as MH), and the high pressure sodium grow light (often referred to as HPS). The metal halide light is designed to nurture plants during their growing cycle. The growing cycle applies to pants that are non-fruiting and/or non-blooming.
The high pressure sodium lights are designed for those plants that are in the fruiting or blooming processes. The HPS grow lights come enhanced with the blue spectrum (this is used for vegetative growth) or the red spectrum (this is used for the flowering growth). The nice thing about these types of grow lights is that they can be used throughout the entire growing, fruiting and blooming process for most plants. Fluorescent grow lights do not emit as much light as the other types of grow lights that are available on the market, and so they are not intended to be used during the plant cycle, since the lack of a bright light will yield only small growth results. Instead, fluorescent grow lights should have its softer and gentler light used to help seedlings and cuttings begin to generate growth. Fluorescent lighting is best used to help nurture young plants and blooms.
No matter what type of grow light systems you have, it will use some kind of ballast system which enables the bulb or tube to generate enough energy to strike and give off light. Typically, metal halide grow lights and HPS grow lights run from remote ballasts. A remote ballast is a special configuration in which external boxes contain the electronics and wiring needed to pre-heat the lamp, and then keep it running. Why should you use grow lights? Well, look at a plant as if it is a factory that manufactures goods from raw materials and products. Factors need energy to run, and so do plans. The energy source that enables them to grow comes from grow lights (hence the name). Usually, it is natural sunlight that is used to feed plants with the energy they need, but grow lights can be a reliable and suitable substitution.
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