Get your seeds started right with the right grow light.

 

 

Light is essential for seedlings as well as plants to grow and develop properly. If you want great pepper plants, for example, start your pepper plant seeds under the right light. Here are some of the different grow light options. Incandescent bulbs usually come in low wattage (60-90) and tend to emit more heat than light. They will cover an area of approximately 2 feet.

A better choice would be one of these CFL’s. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) will fit a stand socket, just like your incandescent bulb, but they run cooler, so they can be closer to your seedlings and they tend to be brighter, and less expensive to run, than incandescent bulbs.  A 23 Watt CFL is equal to a 100 watt incandescent bulb. A 55 watt CFL is equivalent to 230 watt incandescent. These CFLs are full spectrum bulbs. This means is they produce light similar to natural daylight.

Standard fluorescent bulbs come in two sizes, T12 and T5. T12 bulbs are the familiar “shop light” bulbs. They are available in full spectrum also and work great for growing sturdy seedlings. T5 bulbs are smaller, run cooler and with this system, you may choose between a vegetation bulb and a flowering bulb, depending on what you are growing. You can grow tomatoes and peppers indoors under T5 system, like this Jump Start system, for example.

High Intensity Discharge (HID) systems are more complicated because they require a ballast, a hood and a lamp.

With HID systems, you can choose between Metal halide (for vegetative growth) and High Pressure Sodium, for flowering and fruiting. Regardless of the system you choose, you will typically run your lights 10 to 12 hours per day.

You can simplify things by adding a timer to your lights. The point of this is, don’t be confused by the number of choices. Stop in and talk to us. We’ll show you how each option works and help you select the one system that’s right for you.