Delivery Florist Flower Send

There are a few varieties of bulb around, and a fair few hybrids! This is my experience.

Fluorescent Envirolites, BrightWing they're all great. You need a fluorescent to propagate cuttings and seeds indoors, their blue light soaks your little ones encouraging growth. I've seen crops grown entirely with fluorescent bulbs, but you need to hang them down the side of your plant (you won't get a great yield) Envirolite do a red bulb (better for flowering). The light doesn't spread far from these bulbs so you need to make sure the light is within a few inches of the plant (Moving it daily). I've kept mothers very happy with a 2 tube Brightwing, these are a fave the bulbs are about f3.

Metal Halide I was a great believer in Grolux for vegatative and flowering, until I used a Metal Halide. These bulbs are mega expensive so it's probably best to use them exclusively for vegetative growth (and don't break it!). The plant clearly responds better to the blue light in the Metal Halide, fact.

Grolux Hassle free growing. This lamp has blue light in it (but predominantly red) and can be used, with great results, for Vegetative growth. If you were only going to veg for a couple of weeks i'd recommend this bulb.

Son-T Great for your flowers, this is dripping in red light and buds love it. Similar to a grolux but without the blue. Personally I think the only difference in this and the Grolux is taste (the Son-T being the better producer)

Ballasts You need one of these to start up a Son-t, Grolux or Metal Halide. Fluorescents have them built in usually. If you have a 400w ballast you may only use a 400w bulb, but it can be Son-t, Grolux or Metal Halide.

Timers and Contractor If your grow is automated then you need a timer. Segmental timers are normally good enough for lighting, their 15 minute segments are sufficient for a 12/12 cycle or 18/6. To run a ballast through a timer you need a contractor, basically a relay which stops the current frying the timer. Contractors are easy to use with one lead for the timer, one for the power and a plug for the lamp.

Cooled Reflectors Rock and roll, this is innovation. I really think everyone should be using these, they've got many advantages. By blowing air past the lamps (with and inline fan) it cools the grow space, on average I'd say 10 degrees F. This eliminates the need to constantly extract air from your grow space, allowing you to add CO2 efficiently. The reflectors can be naff, but you can add bits on to get the ideal spread. With good circulation you can get the lamps much closer to your plants.

Happy growing - any questions pop in the shop.

Dane