Lighting in Hydroponic Gardening

Lighting plays an essential role in hydroponics gardening. Adequate indoor lighting is essential for plants to produce food and to survive. Lighting is the first thing that is taken into consideration when starting an indoor garden. The amount of light that is naturally available or that can be supplied by artificial means, determines which plants are ideal for an indoor garden.
The amount of light entering any part of the house would vary from one location to another. The surroundings of the house such as trees, roof over hangings affect the amount of light entering through a window. A light meter that provides measures of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) should be used to calculate the amount of light falling through the window. Plants require 400 and 700 nanometers for photosynthesis and chlorophyll production.
Artificial lights for plants can be provided by using a variety of bulbs. These include incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs, fluorescent lamps, HID lamps and plant growth lights. These bulbs are ideal for plants that have limited natural light.
Incandescent and halogen light bulbs are known to produce more red spectrum light. These bulbs should be placed about one foot over the plant. This is not a grow light but is ideal for plants with low light requirements. A normal incandescent bulb is considered to be inefficient in terms of energy consumed and the amount of light generated.
Halogen bulbs have a color temperature of 3000K giving it a whitish light. These lights can be used to supplement a lighting system that is deficient in red spectrum light. Horticulturists should opt for low voltage halogen bulbs to use in track lighting systems. These are 12V bulbs which can complement a fluorescent bulb setup.
Fluorescent bulbs are a cost effective solution offering four times the light of an incandescent bulb per unit of electricity. Though there are a number of fluorescent bulbs available to the general public only few of them are applicable to aiding plant growth. These are plant growth, industrial, daylight, full spectrum (which imitates natural light), actinic, tri-phosphor, special purpose and High Output / Very High Output bulbs. The ideal size of bulb for plant growth is the T12 four foot length tube. These bulbs fit the gap between cost and quality.
High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs are another solution for illuminating an indoor garden. These bulbs are very large and draw a large amount of energy. These bulbs require an additional fan to cool down due to the large amount of heat that they produce. These lights are ideal for flowering plants as the light source mimics sunlight. These lights require a ballast box to regulate the amount of electricity going to the light.
If additional lighting is not possible, the best choice for an indoor garden is plants with medium to low light requirements. Plants such as Boston fern, Philodendrons, etc are ideal.

Indoor Hydroponic Gardening | Hydroponic Gardening systems - Hydroponic gardening is a better alternative indoor gardening process. Hydroponic indoor gardening uses hydroponic systems to grow plants in an inert soil-free medium like water, fiber, sand or stone, may be used to anchor the roots.

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