All these lights, whats the difference. Here it is!

There are many types of lights, and Ive used them all, even incandescent; heres the skinny.


Non-HID types:
Incandescent lights 

Suitable spectrum and color for growing, however the power use and heat they produce is just
ridiculous. The lumen output is also retarded, but you could start a few seeds under one if you  
don't have any florescent. Just don't keep them there too long, they start to stretch right around when
the second set of leads begins "Not counting seed leaf, cotyledons".

Light Emitting Diodes "L.E.D / LED "

Make no mistake, you can grow full plants under these regardless of what the HID die-hards will
let you believe, the problem is unscrupulous manufacturing practice has screwed many people over.
Simply put, you cant grow with just any LED. The most famous BAD panels where the "Gro 45"
they had 90 LEDs so I knew without even further inspection they were trash. 1 LED per watt or
better, simple as that. Beyond that when compared to HID as saying "90 watt is equivalent to 400 HPS"
they are right, but what they aren't telling you is the comparison is to area of coverage without
intensity loss, not growth of the plants. it would take 220watt LED of the right spectrum's to grow like
an HPS. So 4'x4' 90watt LED will cover the same area as a 400watt HPS, but youll see growth like
a 250 HPS. make sense? There will be more on LED later.



Fluorescent Lighting / Compact fluorescent Lighting "CFL  /  TFL"

Absolute best lighting when it comes to spectrum's, but second when it comes to growth over HID.
Im not including LED in that comparison because there is just too many variables.
These produce less heat, much less; require much less energy for a equal crops, and are lots cheaper.
A single light of 150watt equivalent "42 watt" can do 2 plants, if you do the math on that you are
covering 1/3 more area then HID, using 2/3 less energy, but will have 1/2 the yield. Well thats good and bad.
The good is for the energy your getting the crop size your paying for, alls fair in love and grow.
the BAD is youll need more plants, time or a second crop if you wanna keep up with HID.
Oh, and you can use these in the smallest areas and have great success, doing that with a HID will
burn your house down. Seriously, get some space from those HIDs and any surfaces.



Halogen Lights

Suitable spectrum for "vegetative growth", not much else, however the heat again, pretty intense.
Unless you want to be spending way too much on air conditioning, you better look the other way, and
since theres no spectrum in here for flowering, youll need a whole new light system for that.
Look away !!!




HID Types
Mercury Vapor "MV"

 Also a great spectrum, most people aren't even aware the HPS/Pressured sodium systems are based
off the mercury vapor design. However they heat to light output is pretty  bad, even though its useful light
you should go for Fluorescent before Vapor. heres the why.
175watt MV lights produce 8000 lumen, but generate heat like 300 watt incandescent.
compared to
150 watt HPS will put out about 15000 lumen, generating the same heat.
Moral of the story? Even though its suitable, id not use this even if given to me free!


High Pressure Sodium / Low Pressure Sodium

LPS is a good option but takes up huge amounts of space, produces the least lumen to watt then the other
HID types, and gets longer and longer the higher the wattage. BUT is closest to sunlight spectrum.
Produces little heat because of the coating of the indium tin oxide coating on the inner glass. Almost
no UV, also blocked my the tin oxide. Can you use it? yes, should you?  hells no.
It would cost way too much to get equal results comparing LPS to HPS.
The LPS color is also a nice yellowing orange, like mid day sunlight.

High pressure sodium is the "current" best light if you have the space, and money to run it.
Its also the light you should get if you can only get ONE light, as it will do all phases of plant growth from
seed to harvest. If you will buy one of these absolutly get a DIGITAL ballast! they dont kill the bulbs
give a bit more lumen per watt, dont get hot, make less noise, and will run HALIDE!!! without a second
ballast. they are king "currently" of the indoor grow. "I give 5 more years and it will be LED, maybe less"



Metal Halide  "MH"

This is the absoulute best light to have for vegitative growth, and most vegitables/herbs.
Lettuce, onion, chives, celery, all best to just use a MH light. they produce less lumen.
However this is a prime example of spectrum, as it will produce better then 3x t he lumen from a
high pressure sodium on plants not producing any type of flowering hormones.



Costs to run a system of any type can be found here, you just need to know the wattage
of that system, and it helps to know your KWH prices, but 10 is a good guess if you dont.
Go here for costs

Do to heat generated by lights, and the varied amounts of that heat its good to know what height
you should be above the plants, Small wattage systems like 100-250 should be about 2-3 feet
above the tops, 400-700 at about 4, and 1000 about 6.
For CFL/Tubes the height should be about 6-12 inches, use your hand as a guide, if its hot to your skin
move it up a bit, keep them close as you can.

Light duration for Indica should be about 16-24 hours a day, but i recomment never above 18.
For pure sativa, 13 hours a day, youll be shocked, try it.

For flowring Indica should be 12/12, for sativa 11/13 "11 on" to get best results, has never failed.
If your sativa just wont flower, give it another week "up to 4" then try 10/14.
Most hybrids will follow the 18/6 12/12 rule. }



lights the affect plant growth!!!

200-280nm            UVC ultraviolet range which is extremely harmful to plants because it is highly toxic.
281-315nm            Includes harmful UVB ultraviolet light which causes plants colors to fade.
316-380nm            Range of UVA ultraviolet light which is neither harmful nor beneficial to plant growth.
381-400nm           Start of visible light spectrum. Process of chlorophyll absorption begins. UV protected
                             plastics ideally block out any light below this range.
401-520nm          This range includes violet, blue, and green bands. Peak absorption by chlorophyll
                             occurs, and a strong influence on photosynthesis. (promotes vegetative growth)
521-610nm           This range includes the green, yellow, and orange bands and has less absorption
                             by pigments, but still useful as proven, but its still unknown why.
                             Which is why LEDs are starting to come with a bit of orange "This range".
611-720nm            his is the red band. Large amount of absorption by chlorophyll occurs,
                              and most significant influence on photosynthesis. (promotes flowering and budding)
                             This range will give you the die hard nugs your looking for. especially around
                             630 and 660 ranges.
721-1000nm         There is little absorption by chlorophyll here. Flowering and germination is influenced.
                             At the high end of the band is infrared, which is just heat.


Remember you can have lots of cannibinols without it being visible "LED has proven this"
The reason is the plant secrets it as crystals to protect itself against UV ranges and far-red
Then will produce MORE inside of itself again "Increasing potency without increasing yield by
using UV/REDS" Something LED hasnt caught onto yet, but you can get UV LEDs if you wanna make
it yourself.







Quick space coverage facts that I wouldnt bend too much
100 watt HID = 2'x2' area
250 watt HID = 3'x3' area
400 watt HID = 4'x4' area
600 watt HID = 6'x6' area
1000watt HID =  8'x8' area
Remember to VENT your area!

you can double these numbers by using  moving / automated lighting.