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There is a trend towards growing all kinds of plants indoors without soil. This method is called hydroponic gardening. For gardeners lacking ground to plant in hydroponics is a wonderful solution. After nutrition hydroponic grow lights are the most important purchase made. Hydroponic grow lights fill the same plant lighting needs as the other forms of indoor gardening. Making the proper equipment purchases is made easier with a simple formula for calculating the necessary wattage and a list of features to look for in the associated equipment.
There are a couple of lighting configurations that work well as hydroponic grow lights. The most common setup is the 4 foot shop light panels that house 2 fluorescent bulbs. A horizontally hung shop light delivers 40% more light than one mounted vertically regardless of what bulbs are used. It is widely held that only two types of high density discharge lamps, as hydroponic grow lights are sometimes called, are suitable for indoor gardening. Fluorescent high pressure sodium and metal halide lamps offer the combination of red and blue spectrum light that creates lush blooming plants and productive indoor crops.
The kind and amount of light needed is determined by the plants you want to grow. An incandescent 150 watt grow light is sufficient for a single houseplant. Local hardware stores or nurseries are good places to find one of them. For anything more than that a single houseplant a serious grower will looking at high intensity high pressure sodium or metal halide discharge lamps that will make bright and efficient hydroponic grow lights. The economic sense of HID lamps is obvious when you learn that one thousand watt HID lamp creates the same light as it would take fifty forty watt fluorescent lamps. The single HID lamp could effectively light a 7 foot x 7 foot growing area. The generic formula for figuring lighting needs is 25 watt of HID per square foot of the growing area.
What the optimal hydroponic grow lights are for your situation depends on what you are growing, in what space, and for what purpose. Growers maintain that metal halide hydroponic grow lights are best suited for growing vegetables while high pressure sodium hydroponic grow lights are best of for flowering plants. When growing leafy plants 25 to 30 watts per square foot of growing area is sufficient but if the plants bloom and produce vegetables or fruit 40 watts per square foot should be arranged. There are ballasts that allow switching from HPS lamps which are ideal for the initial growing and flowering stages to metal halide lamps when the fruit or vegetables start coming on.
The last piece of equipment we will discuss is the reflector. Smaller reflectors deliver more usable light to the plants than larger hydroponic grow lights reflectors and at a higher density than larger hoods. A feature to check for in any reflector is air cooling vents that allow the hot air to escape through the holes in the top of the unit.
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Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about hydroponic gardening and organic gardening at GreenThumbArticles.com!
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