A Hydroponic Lighting Guide

For a lot of us, we enjoy our hydroponic gardening indoors. And I have been asked many times ‘what are the best hydroponic lighting procedures to follow’?

So what are the best hydroponic lighting procedures? With artificial lighting in your hydroponic garden, the main goal is to mimic mother nature. Days and nights. You should plan your system based on a 24 hour day. You should have at least 14 hours of bright artificial light, followed by 10 hours of darkness every day.

There are various factors that you must take into consideration as a gardener trying to grow your plants indoors hydroponically such as the intensity of the lighting, the duration of the lighting, bulb wattage, and the distance between the plant and the light source.

Lighting Fixtures For Hydroponics

Your first concern about proper hydroponic lighting is acquiring the proper fixtures needed for the job.

Choosing the best lights for your hydroponic system can intimidate a beginner. There are so many options out there and depending on the size of your garden and type of plants you are growing, some lighting types may be better suited or more efficient than others.

There are various grow lights for indoor plants in the market. Each product will have a negative as well as a positive effect that you may need to look into before you purchase it.

LED grow lights

These light-emitting diode lights are by far the most popular today. Not only are they tremendous energy savers, but they will also give you up to 50,000 hours of shelf life. They produce the full spectrum of light that is perfect for photosynthesis to take place. These lights also produce much less heat.

Incandescent lamps and bulbs

  In today’s world, these are ‘old-fashion’.These are the usual household bulbs that are used to light up your house. They are inefficient and produce unwanted high heating for your garden. The light that they produce is nowhere near the full spectrum that’s needed for properly growing plants. They would also be a strain on your electric bill.

Fluorescent lamps

 These lamps are usually the go-to lighting source for hydroponic beginners. They are about three to seven times more efficient as compared to incandescent lamps and because of that, they will be easier on that electric bill.

The bulbs in the 6500k tend to be the best when it comes to growing plants because of the higher spectrum of the lighting

However, when it comes to your larger plants, you may need to place more lighting on the sides to make up for the deficiency of not having the lighting capability to penetrate the plant as high-intensity discharge lamps do.

Compact fluorescent lamps

The CFL has a longer lifespan and use less power than the incandescent bulb. They are efficient for the hydroponic gardeners who are on a budget because there is no need for a ballast or any fancy wiring. (plug & play)

Fluorescents provide the best spectrum of light for seedlings.

HID lamps (high-intensity discharge)

The HID lamp lighting has a particular bulb as well as an electronic ballast. The ballast starts and maintains the arc through the bulb and, therefore, ensures the lamp stays on at a regulated voltage. They are quiet and are cost-effective which means they will not give you a shock when the electric bill arrives.

The light produced is about four to eight times more efficient than the incandescent lamps. For these reasons, it is what has made the HID lamp the best choice for indoor hydropic gardens.

However, they were originally used in warehouses, parking areas and streets due to their high light output. Because of this high heat output, extra ventilation will be a decisive necessity.

Schedule Your Lighting Times

The easy part of hydroponic lighting is picking out and purchasing the lights you wish to work with. The hard part is determining which plants will do their best in a hydroponic lighting schedule.

Different plants require different needs. If you have a mix of these in your hydroponic garden, you will need to figure out a custom schedule. I am going to list some general guidelines.

Short day plants

These plants necessarily require a specific amount of artificial light time, however, they do require a specific amount of darkness. These are the type that will require a long period of darkness to photosynthesize and produce flowers. If they are exposed to over 12 hours of light per day, they will not flower. Poinsettias, strawberries, cauliflower, and chrysanthemums are short-day plants. You will have to strive for 12 on and 12 off. The short-day cycle copies mother nature for plants the flower in the spring.

Long day plants

As the name suggests, these plants need a longer “day” period, meaning that they need more light during the course of 24 hours. These are the sun lovers and will require up to 18 hours of artificial light per day. They include lettuce, potatoes, spinach, bromeliads, and turnips. The long-day cycle mimics the natural environment of summer-flowering plants.

Day-neutral plants

These are the most flexible. They produce fruit no matter how much light they are exposed to. Some examples include eggplants, roses, zinnias, tomatoes, and strawberries, as well as many other similar fruits and vegetables.

So what do you do if you’re growing more than one plant type and it just so happens that these plants have different lighting needs? For example, what if you’re trying to grow tomatoes in your hydroponics system, but you would also light to grow cauliflower, which is a short day plant?

The solution: If you must mix sort and long-day plants, it is best to compromise their needs and pick a lighting schedule that is right in the middle, around fourteen hours of light per day. Finding a balanced timing schedule is crucial here. You will not be able to offer either of them the perfect conditions, so it’s best to settle for that compromise.

If you can isolate them in your growing space, that would be a win-win, but that’s rarely a possibility.

Needed Lighting Requirements

There are many factors to consider when purchasing a grow light. The primary factors that you will need to consider are your budget for the lights themselves and the cost to run them Also the garden enclosure type & size, plant type, and ventilation.

A simple solution:

If you’re growing anything that needs a lot of light, having a power-efficient system pays off, so instead of using high-intensity discharge hydroponic lights, such as metal halide or high-pressure sodium lamps, you can DIY homemade hydroponic lighting with some fluorescent lamps or some red-blue led lights.

These won’t be as powerful and they won’t give your plants a full spectrum of light temperatures, but they will still provide the essential light components, at relatively low power consumption.

However, that’s not always the best solution.