High Intensity Disharge: The best choice for your grow

After deciding on your grow location you have to start thinking about your choice for lighting. Although there are many choices out there most people usually end up going with HID lighting. Simply, it will give you the best result. The two choices are Metal Halide Lamps (MH), and High Pressure Sodium (HPS). If your on a tight budget go with a standard HPS ballast. If you are willing to spend a little more go with a switchable MH/HPS or Electronic Ballast like the Lumatek or the Phantom which will also fire both types of bulbs. You will want the MH for vegetative growth and HPS for flowering. If you're on a budget it is okay to use HPS for both cycles and it won't hurt at all. To determine the wattage you will need will depend the size of your grow. You will want at least 50 watts per square foot of canopy. So if your growing in a 4'x4' area you would most likely go for a 1000 watt system. With today's electronic ballast's most of them can be dimmed for when the plants don't need as much light when their small to save some green while growing your green.

When choosing a Reflector for your lamp digging through all of the choices will give you a migraine. Look for something that will evenly disperse light over your canopy to maximize your crops potential. If your reflectors footprint isn't optimal the plants on the edge of the grow will be long and stretchy, spacing out your internodal growth. Not to big a deal unless you want a BIGGER yield. I like the Magnum XXL 6 Air Cooled Hood. It has a great foot print, air cooled to keep the temps down, and sealed for performance. Feel free to explore your options and let me kn,ow what you have learned for your experience.