Cannabis Growers Worldwide: What are the best types of Hydroponic and indoor Cannabis grow lights? Answered!

What are the best types of Hydroponic and indoor Cannabis grow lights? Answered!

In this article. We'll be covering the most effective types of grow lighting to use for growing your Cannabis & Marijuana plants indoors. Whether your growing method is Hydroponics, Soil or Soil-less. The lighting requirements are the same.

Cannabis is a very easy to grow plant. Provided you give the plants what they need in terms of PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) and with the appropriate amount of intensity & penetration for your personal grow area.

Before we go into the various types of effective indoor grow lighting. It's important for us to understand PAR and the proper spectrum of lighting that Cannabis needs, in order to grow and thrive.

Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) - is the spectral range of solar radiation from 400nm (nanometers) to 730nm. It is required by Cannabis and most plants in the process of photosynthesis. The human eye can detect most of the PAR range however some UV and Far Red bands are invisible to us but are still very present.

Cannabis plants contain lots of Chlorophyll - which is a plant pigment that effectively makes use of red / blue light the most.

Photosynthetically Active Radiation

Effects of PAR on Cannabis plants

Now that we can see the type of lighting that Cannabis needs to grow well. Finding suitable lighting for our set up becomes much easier.

Grow lighting that is made up with mostly BLUE lighting will encourage dense foliage growth.
Enhancing the cannabis vegetative stage.

Grow lighting that is made up with mostly ORANGE/RED lighting will help with stem/flower (bud) development. Enhancing the flowering stage.

It is therefore recommended that seedlings and young cannabis plants but put under lighting that is mostly BLUE for the initial veg phase and then switch over to lighting mostly predominant in RED for flowering. This is the general rule of thumb.

BEST TYPES OF INDOOR GROW LIGHTING (HYDROPONICS, SOIL, SOIL-LESS)

I have tried many different types of indoor grow lighting setups that include; CFL, HID and the more modern LED. They all have their own advantages and disadvantages. It's important to consider how much grow area you need to illuminate for before deciding on which grow light is the most suitable for your needs (If you haven't already seen the article on how long to veg cannabis seedlings then be sure to read up on it)

For growing seedlings and small marijuana plants/clones. CFL is usually more than suitable. CFL color temps that are the best to use for this purpose are 5000 K (natural white) to 6500 K (cool white) It's also possible to use LED lights to veg cannabis so long as it contains mostly BLUE light (420nm-460nm) and lastly, if you're planning on vegging for 5+ weeks HID - (MH - Metal Halide) is also a recommended option.

For flowering cannabis plants. I prefer using LED grow lights. The buds produced using HPS grow lighting are more fluffier than buds grown with LED lighting. I have noticed that LED grown buds are a lot more dense/compact in structure. LED lighting will usually be targeting the correct spectrums necessary for excellent growth. These spectrums are all necessary in developing the full range of cannabis terpenoids which are what's responsible for the unique smell and taste amongst different marijuana strains.

The main benefits of using LED over HID are: Quality LED grow light panels offer excellent PAR for your plants (light quality) compared to inefficient HID lights, Reduced electrical running costs for LED compared to HID, Reduced need for climate control with LED due to less heat compared to HID.
The only draw back of LED is the initial setup cost but the overall cost of those panels are recuperated through each successful harvest and reduces over time. Keep in mind that LED panels shouldn't need to be replaced like HID bulbs do, every few harvests.

LED & HID (HPS) grow lighting are both capable of producing high-grade quality buds. If you're after efficiency however, growing cannabis using LED lighting is definitely the most modern way to grow cannabis!

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