The choice for many customers looking to purchase natural, healthy vegetables often comes down to how much more organic produce costs compared to regular produce. Mass produced farming techniques can be harmful on the environment, dumping tons of pesticides and fertilizers into the soil system, but organic produce that does not use toxins can be as much as twice as expensive. Luckily, there is another choice available: using indoor gardening to grow your own food on a year round basis. Growing your own fruits and vegetables is not only extremely inexpensive and fun but can be done with almost no environmental foot print. The key to your own selection of produce, however, lies in how you provide valuable light to your growing plants. LED grow lights have been proven to grow larger, healthier plants over the duration of a single growth span.
The current source found in a normal house is called incandescent lighting and is powered by a basic electrical surge creating friction within a light bulb. This light is appropriate for illumination and can power the elementary photosynthesis needed by all plant cells. A light bulb, however, does not provide the valuable vitamin D of sunlight that plants (and humans) need. The choice for indoor growers, thus, comes down to the choice between high-intensity discharge light (known as HID) and light-emitting diodes, also known as an LED light. The difference between the two lies in the power source and the amount of energy needed to fuel your plants’ growth.
An HID light does not produce illumination by friction, as a bulb will. Instead, two conductors are placed apart from one another and a surge is ran through. The gases inside the bulb accelerate the process, while metal salts literally melt into a plasma that will emit radiation in the form of light. Harmful radiation is contained while the light powers a plant’s photosynthesis. HID lights are most often used for large-scale illumination, such as nighttime sporting events, which require significantly more power. Individual units put out less heat than a normal bulb, but in large arrays require significant cooling.
LED grow lights do not have the raw power to light up a stadium, but make up in efficiency what they lack in overall strength. An LED lighting array may consume only a quarter of the electricity than an HID system will, while they produce almost no heat. This keeps your plants from being burned, dehydrated, or withering from oppressive bulbs! Unlike a HID system, that needs fans and reflection units, LED grow lights do not require further purchases. An LED array can run for as much as ten years without interruption, which is ten times longer than an HID outlet.
By utilizing LED grow lights, anyone can grow their own produce year round. With these efficient, simple, and inexpensive arrays, any quantity or quality of fruits and vegetables can be grown for consumption or sale. While a grower has to make difficult choices with regards to soil, water, pH, and nutrients, the decision to use LED grow lights is a snap by comparison.
