Grow Lamps
Horticulturally, metal halides tend to produce a shorter, more compact plant that resembles plants grown outdoors. This makes it the preferred lamp for use in living areas. Metal halide grow lamps have a higher red spectrum, for improved ripening and blooming without losing the plant’s appearance.
Metal halide lamps, are five times more efficient than incandescent grow lamps, can last longer, depending on the wattage. White light is a significant feature of metal halide light technology, as it is the nearest to natural sunlight.
High pressure sodium grow lamps use the orange/red spectrum in their reproductive processes, which helps to produce greater harvests of better quality fruits and flowers. A negative is that plants tend to be taller and thinner, with a longer stem length. Due to the poor color of high pressure sodium, the plants are inclined to look washed out, pale or nutrient starved. Additional benefits are high pressure sodium grow lamps have an amazingly long life – up to two years; and unparalleled effectiveness of more light output per watt of energy than a standard incandescent bulb.
Other types of grow lamps use a metal halide bulb and a high pressure sodium bulb in the same reflector, – a single, integrated ballast or two separate ballast construction. The combination of blue metal halide light and red high pressure sodium light generates the best spectrum mix and very high outputs. There are grow lamps designed to burn a metal halide bulb or comparable wattage high pressure sodium bulb in the same fixture, but not at the same time. These fixtures are ideal for raising plants under the metal halide, then switching to a high pressure sodium bulb for the maturing stage of plant growth. Usually, all that is necessary to change from one to the other is to change the bulb and turn a switch to the correct setting.
