People ask all the time if side lighting is needed for hydroponic growing. Or, could they can just use mylar or some other reflective material to do the side lighting, and if it would work just as good. Well, I did a little research and found some interesting information.

Side lighting does make a noticeable difference in plant growth and crop yield. Having reflective materials does work some, but not as good as using direct lighting. Using Mylar, Permaflect or Black & White Poly would help but the reflected light is just not intense enough to make a noticeable difference in the crop yield. It does help in confined areas were you don’t want excessive plant growth however.

The most popular form of side lighting is T5 florescent, these are easy to hang and they run cooler than HID lights and you can get cool or warm bulbs (cool = grow, warm = flower). Adding light to the side allows a larger surface area of the plant to be in contact with direct lighting, which in turn allows more of the plant to grow and bloom, giving larger yields. The down side is they do grow more, so if you are limited in space it could become a problem if the plants out grow your area. Also more lights = more heat so keep in mind airflow, good air movement and venting will be necessary to help maintain the temperature levels in your hydroponic growing area.

So if you have the room, good airflow and you want larger yields definitely add side lighting. It will make a better outcome for your next harvest.

Tim

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Hydroponics Growing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.