Hydroponic Gardening - LED lighting

As much as we’d like to depend completely on the sun to provide all the necessary light for our hydroponic gardens, that is not possible. The majority of hydroponic gardens are inside, whether inside a greenhouse or our homes. Greenhouses offer more light than having your hydroponic garden in your home, but this is often still not enough to produce adequate light for growing fruits, vegetables and flowers. This lack of natural sunlight makes it necessary to supplement with grow lights. There are many types of grow lights available to hydroponic gardeners, but let’s focus on LED lights for now.

LED stands for Light-Emitting Diode. This is one of the most popular types of grow lights. The heat given off by these is not as intense as with other types of grow lights. There is also the ability to provide different color of lights with LED lighting, which is helpful for increasing growth at various stages of a plant’s life. Younger seedlings do better with blue light. More mature plants prefer red or orange.

With LED lighting, it is easy to change the light color to accommodate whichever growing stage your garden plants are currently in. Additional benefits of LED grow lights are the decrease in power consumption, less heat is produced and bulbs often last longer than other types of grow lights. In addition, light can be focused on a smaller area because of the reduced heat. This allows gardeners to provide extra light where it may be needed without producing too much light for other plants in the area.

LED lights require an increased initial investment, but they are less expensive in the long run. LED lights are energy efficient, using less power to run than standard bulbs. These bulbs also tend to last for a longer period of time, making it unnecessary to replace the bulbs as frequently as other types of grow lights. The added length of time can amount to seven to ten years under the right circumstances.

If you are switching to LED grow lights from another method, you may need to make some adjustments in other factors of your growing environment. The lower heat output of these lights makes it unnecessary to use air-cooling equipment as much as other lights. In addition, the cooler environment will cause less evaporation and will lower the amount of water and hydroponic nutrient you require. This in itself will help lower production costs.

Finally, to help insure your plants get the best chance to grow to their maximum potential, you should check out the seven best-kept secrets of hydroponics and subscribe to the Advanced Nutrients newsletter at http://www.advancednutrients.com/newsletter/. Advanced Nutrients is the world’s foremost supplier of hydroponic nutrients to discriminating growers everywhere.