A Simple Introduction of Hydroponic.
Do you know? Setting a hydroponic garden at home can be a more convenient and efficient way to grow than soil. It’s quite easy to pick up and can be used year-round, making it a perfect choice for inexperienced growers.
What is Hydroponic?
Hydroponics, as the name suggests, refers to the method of growing plants in containers filled with water or a nutrient solution. Planted this way, plants can be placed closer together than in soil, saving space. It uses less water than traditional gardening because water does not have to travel through the soil to the roots, saving costs. And generally, plants grown using hydroponics are more productive.
Different Plants Have Different Needs
If you are looking to purchase a suitable grow light for your hydroponic system, you should first consider the light needs of the plants you are growing, as different plants have different light needs.
Short-Day plants: Some plants, unlike other plants that require long-term light, will not bloom if they receive more than 12 hours of light a day. Poinsettia, strawberries, cauliflower, and chrysanthemums are all short-day plants.
Long–Day Plants: Some plants have a high demand for light, and they need to receive up to 18 hours of light a day, otherwise they will not bloom. Wheat, lettuce, potatoes, spinach, and turnips are all long-day plants.
Day-Neutral Plants: These plants are easier to feed and will bloom no matter how much light is given to them. Rice, eggplant, roses, and corn are all day-neutral plants.
How to Choose the Right Hydroponic Grow Light
For the short-day and long-day plants mentioned above, it is especially important to choose a high-quality hydroponic grow light to provide sufficient indoor lighting. But with a dizzying array of brands of hydroponics lights on the market, and the quality of these lights varies, in this article, we’ll recommend the most suitable ones for you.
The most common types of hydroponic lights are LED grow lights, fluorescent, metal halide, and high-pressure sodium. Fluorescent, metal halide and high-pressure sodium are all high-energy-consumption lights that release more heat, which is very unfavorable for plants in the early stage of growth. And because of their high heat consumption, they have a shorter lifespan, so growers need to replace them frequently, which of course inevitably costs a lot of money.
Let’s take a look at LED grow lights. The reason why it can top the list of grow lights in recent years is that it has low energy consumption and is suitable for plant growth at all stages. Most LED grow lights have full spectrum to adapt to the different lighting needs of plants at each stage of growth. Compared with other types of grow lights, it has a longer lifespan, basically reaching 50,000 hours.
In order to provide you with a more direct choice, we recommend two hydroponic grow lights of Mars Hydro for you here. We have three small hydroponic lights that are very suitable for home hydroponic growers – Hydroline12, TS600 and SP150, if you are interested, you can click to view directly on our official page.