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Indoor gardening is becoming ever more popular. Every year more and more companies are developing Soils, nutrients, hydroponic systems, grow lights and more, all geared for the indoor gardener. Recently I decided to setup my own 4x8 grow tent for a garden of my own. I plan on keeping it in the basement where it is nice and cool with plenty of space. In the summer time I always do about a 10x12 foot garden, then in the winter months I am missing those home grow organic peppers.
Many Indoor gardeners I have met this far have told me that the grow light you choose is one of the most important and one of the most expensive parts of getting started. I started my research on this topic just like any other,"I Googled it". Well what I found was; 1. HPS/HID grow bulbs were the main stream lights, most companies selling them had about the same products and they measured the light in Lumens. 2. LED Grow Lights are the next up and coming Grow Light in the world of indoor gardening. These lights are measure in "PAR" value or "Photosynthetic Active Radiation".
After Doing My research on both "PAR" and "Lumens" I found the "PAR" is a much better way to measure a lights performance in terms of measuring light the plant can absorb. Basically lumens is a measurement for "visible light", 1 lumen is the amount of light that one standard candle can produce. Yet measuring visible light is kid of useless because plants do not grow with visible light, their photosynthesis peaks are 2 spots in the blue spectrum range and 2 places in the red spectrum range.
The Better way to measure light is "PAR" is a measurement of how much photosynthetic light is present per square meter per second between the spec rural ranges of 400nm and 700nm. This is the most scientific way to measure a lights ability to drive photosynthesis. This measurement is calculated in micromoles: A micromole is a single photon that is available in the atmosphere for a plant to absorb.
LI-250A Light Meterimonomy - free enrichment tools for your site.
Now to make this all simple I borrowed a LI-250A Light Meter from the college I work at. This thing gives a digital read out of micromoles by placing a small sensor under the light fixture. Recently I found the perfect opportunity to try and get to the bottom if this burning questions "what is the best grow light for my plants?" There was a trade show coming to my town specifically for indoor gardening, I wasn't going to miss that one. Once I got their just as I expected there were many vendors offering LED Grow lights and HPS or (HID) grow lights. I went around to the all the tables and read or talked about the lights. Anyone whom would let me put my meter under their light I would.
The more and more I measured these grow lights I realized that the spectrum for the bulb style grow lights was not really anywhere near the photosynthesis peaks for plant growth. However the Grow Stealth LED company had a spectral blend of light right at the 4 main points! I though wow even though this HPS is pushing 2800 micromoles, only about 22% of the light is the correct spectrum for plant growth. When measuring with led's even at 2000 micromoles that's still way better because nearly all of the light provided by the led light is usable by the plant. Not sure if you ever saw one but the light these things emit is a cool purple shade.
HPS Grow Bulb
I decided to take the test outside, on a good clear day, my light meter was picking up about 2200 micromoles from 10:00am to about 7:00pm. So respectfully these higher powered grow lights do have about the same intensity and penetration of the sun. Still After all the research I thing I am sold on the LED's. The bulb style Grow Light is just too much of a pain.
For example If I got and get a 1000 watt HID grow bulb, first I have to buy the ballast, that's about $200 for an average one, then I need to go out and buy a reflector hood to hold the bulb, that's another $200. Next item is the bulb itself; all the bulbs that were in the 2000 micromole range were about $120. To add to the bulb deal, they said I need to buy one every 5-6 months to replace it. Then I was advised that if I was going to use the bulb in a tent I would need a 6" vent and vent fan then an air conditioning unit! That AC unit was $2500 and the vent setup was another $200! So for a total of $3220 I could have my 1000w HID setup. To add to that they said my electric bill would raise something around $125 -$200 depending on how often my AC kicks on. I asked why I need an AC unit to use the bulb and the vendors pretty much told me because the bulbs operate at about 1300F.
LED Grow LightNow for the shorter story the grow stealth company offered a unit they called the GS600 Pro-Bloom. This was the one with a Micromole output of about 2000, which was the best reading I got from any LED manufacture. That unit cost $1249. OK that's the end of the story for this one, once you buy the light your done buying equipment. The light produces so little heat, something like 100F max that you don't need to vent for heats sake. Still with growing plants in general you need to vent somewhat for air circulation but not because of heat transfer. Then to sweeten the deal their unit only draws 565 watts! That's about half as much as the 1000 watt HID. The last two benefits would be a. I don't have to replace any bulbs ever and b. all of the micromoles release from the light is useable by the plant.
Well next article I can tell you how the whole setup is doing for now I'm testing my 2 GS600 and its looking really healthy in my tent so far!
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