|
LIGHTNING
SYSTEMS GENERAL INFO
When you can't rely on Mother Nature to provide
light for your garden, the next best thing is High
Intensity Discharge Lighting Systems. HID lights are special, and
can't be compared to fluorescent tubes or regular light bulbs.
Fluorescents are fine for some situations, in
fact, we recommend them for seedlings, cuttings and low-light plants.
Unfortunately, fluorescents can't deliver the strong light you need for plants
taller than 4” to 6”. It takes 20 fluorescent tubes to equal just one 400
watt HID light. HID lights generate up to 6' of light penetration and use much
less electricity.
Two types of HID lights that have been adapted
for safe gardening use Metal Halide and High Pressure
Sodium.
Metal Halide
lights produce an intense light of a blue-white spectrum. Most flowers, herbs
and vegetables do well under Metal Halides. A plant grown under halide will be
leafy and have strong stem and branch development. Many gardeners use Metal
Halides as a vegetative growth light. They are excellent for starting and
vegetating cuttings and seedlings as well as for keeping and regenerating
cutting stock plants. Once a plant attains about 6" of height, they may be
moved under a High Pressure Sodium if the plants are of a flowering variety.
High Pressure Sodium
lights are the most popular lights for fruiting and flowering. The HPS lights
emit an orange/ yellow/red spectrum that simulates the autumn sun. This spectrum
encourages plants to complete their life cycle and get on with the harvest.
Flowers and vegetables finished off under HPS produce tighter, bigger flowers
with higher yields. Using HPS light alone during vegetative cycles may cause
plants to grow long and stringy as they need light in the blue spectrum. Because
of this, bulb manufacturers have produced special HPS bulbs with some light rays
in the blue spectrum, which are fast gaining in popularity. These types of bulbs
eliminate “stretching". These type of bulbs are available as Son Agro
430, Super Agro 160, Super Agro 270 and Hortilux 1000.
Although HPS lights are more expensive than Metal
Halide, the initial cost is recovered as the HPS puts out more light and the
bulbs last three times as long with no decrease in output.
|
