Grow Lights

Depending on the time of year that you are starting your plants, you may decide that you need to use grow lights to keep your plants growing or simply starting your seeds. Your choice of grow lights will vary by size, temperature emitted and the actual light that is emitted as well. Indoor gardeners starting seeds and plants become very dependent on grow lights when the cold winter clouds do not permit the sun and the heat into the greenhouse. With a grow light you will find that you can get up to 10X more lumens from a grow light, per light per bulb than if you were using a incandescent bulbs.

Grow lights provide your plants with not only the needed heat but also the light that they need to thrive in the greenhouse. Hobby gardeners as well as commercial gardeners do use grow light in their greenhouse. Depending on the climate and grow zone you live in; you may not have a need for grow lights. In the coldest and darkest regions of the country is where the most hobby gardeners are found to be using grow lights. The main benefit of using a grow light is to bring out of season crops into your greenhouse!

Many grow lights come with a regular three prong plus where you will not need to install any special electrical outlets. To get the most from a grow light you will use reflectors to keep the light focused in the areas you want.

Plants need light to make their own food. In the darkest and sunless times of winter when you are trying to start plants and seeds, you will need a grow light for the photosynthesis process to be complete. Plants use light energy to feed.

When you are choosing a grow light, a few of your choices should include the review of how long you are going to burn the grow light. Is the bulb you are picking noted to last that long? What is the color of this grow light? Plants feed off of the color of a light as well as the heat from a bulb. And lastly, what is the intensity of this grow light? This is similar to buying a bulb for your home; there are different strengths of grow lights that you can buy. If you were to buy the hottest and to place the grow light too close to your plants you will burn off the seedlings.

This article was published by: Garden Moose.

Garden Moose is a feature contributor to Greenhouses.com a leading internet destination for gardening and greenhouse information and ideas.

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