Using grow lights is a wonderful tool for starting a spring garden, or to keep a garden going year round in a greenhouse. There are a number of choices in grow lights and they can range from the high tech LED, the high intensity lights, traditional incandescent grow lights, and fluorescent grow lights. More and more people are using grow lights today and it seems that the fluorescent grow light has also become more popular.     

If your only source of light is going to be a grow light it is best if you use about 25 watts of light per square foot of garden. If you are also using sunlight you can probably get by with less wattage unless you want to promote more growth in your plants.

Standard fluorescent grow lights produce very little heat and they are inexpensive. This is the main reason why more home gardeners are using them. The incandescent light puts out more heat and is generally used only for spot lighting. The standard fluorescent lights are double the efficiency of incandescent grow lights plus they will last roughly 25 times longer. If you need to have more light, the high output fluorescent is recommended but do not last as long as the regular fluorescent grow light and will only last about 10,000. These bulbs will also burn very cool.

If you decide on an indoor hydroponic garden, grow lights will become very important. They supply the much needed light for proper photosynthesis of the plants. Unfortunately fluorescent grow lights do not produce enough lighting for hydroponic gardening. 1000 watts of lighting is ample enough to penetrate 15-25 square feet of growing space. Much of the time reflectors and/or light movers are used for effective hydroponic growing.


Compact Fluorescent Grow Lights
For a single plant, a simple light fixture can be used as a grow light, with a compact fluorescent bulb doing the job. Many of the compact fluorescent bulbs that are used for room lighting are well under 20 watts; the compact units used for grow lights are generally much larger.

HPS Grow Lights
High pressure sodium bulbs are quite efficient and have a long life span. These grow lights produce brighter lighting; they are high in the red and yellow ranges of the spectrum. These lights also resemble the sun in the fall and are used best during the flowering stage of plants. HPS grow lights are generally associated with high cost. The high heat emission from these bulbs makes it a setback, although it can be neutralized with the proper ventilation of your garden.

Metal Halide Grow Lights
Metal halide grow light bulbs are excellent at producing full spectrum lights. The blue lights that are emitted closely imitate the summer sun which makes them perfect for growing vegetables. There are even some of these bulbs that are designed to emit only certain color of the light. Metal halide grow lights are great for leafy vegetables such as spinach or lettuce. Cool spectrum light is good in promoting rapid growth of leaf development.

Generally speaking using grow lights will stimulate growth for the seedlings that you want to plant outdoors in the spring. In a greenhouse, using grow lights helps the gardener who wants to continue to garden through the year.