4 Different Types of Indoor Garden Lights Explained

When you have an indoor garden, it's also very important to have indoor garden lights. You will need these if you want your plants to grow because there will not be enough natural light without them. There are three main types of indoor garden lights and each one offers something different. The more you know about each type, the better you’ll be able to use them.

HID Lights

Don’t use regular incandescent lights for indoor garden lights. Their light spectrum is very limited so they don’t replicate the full spectrum of light offered by the sun.

The best choice is high-intensity discharge lights, otherwise known as HID. This is because they give out much more heat and light than any other option. However, you need to be aware of a couple of things regarding HID lights. One of the most obvious things will be the fact that HID lights are much more expensive. They require a ballast to start the bulb and it takes many hours (up to 100) before their color and light intensity properly stabilizes.

Fluorescent Lights

Many people use fluorescent lights for indoor garden lighting but they’re not the best option. HID remains a better choice because fluorescents cannot produce enough light for an indoor garden. If you’re using fluorescents as indoor garden lighting, the best option is to use them with low-growing plants. This means you can bring the lights closer to the tips of the plant without any danger of burning them.

Compact fluorescent lights don’t give out much heat and only offer a soft light. They are, however, readily available and cheap to purchase compared to some other indoor garden lights.

HPS Lights

HPS, or high pressure sodium lights, give off large amounts of light and heat and can last a long time. Their longevity is a helpful way of offsetting their expense. HPS bulbs mainly contain yellow and red parts of the spectrum, much like fall sunlight, so they are good for growing plants. Note that for growing plants, you will need the blue spectrum range as well as the red and orange range. Without these, you indoor garden is not going to flourish.

In some cases, the heat from HPS indoor garden lights can cause a problem so you’ll need to make sure that your garden is well ventilated to dissipate the heat.

Metal Halide Lights

If you want full spectrum lights, you’ll need to buy metal halide bulbs. In fact, different types of metal halide bulbs can reproduce different shades of the spectrum. Be aware that the blue light from metal halide bulbs is probably the best for plants as it replicates the light emitted from the sun during the summer. This makes them ideal for leafy green vegetables. The cool blue light is very good for the development of leaves but is not always the best choice for flowers.

General Tips

For each 20 square feet of indoor garden, you will need 1000 watts in lighting. A device that allows you to move your lights or the use of a reflector can make your indoor garden lights much more efficient.