This article is brought to you courtesy of the LED Grow Lights Review.

Indoor gardening has long been used by greenhouses and other professional nurseries. It’s now becoming more popular among average gardeners. Some gardeners like to get their plants started indoors and then move them outdoors. Others like growing the plant from start to finish indoors. Growing plants indoor is especially popular in places where the sun is lacking and cold weather is prevalent.

Two Popular Lights for Growing Indoors

There are two types of lights that are very popular for growing plants indoors: LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lights and HID (High-Intensity Discharge) lights. HID lights have been used for a longer period time and they are still the most popular indoor growing lights on the market. LED grow lights are newer, but many people believe that they are positioned to become the #1 selling grow lights in the next few years. Let’s take a look at some of the differences in these lights.

LED Grow Lights Provide Control over Beam Angle

HID lights are a lot like your traditional light bulbs. They shoot light out from a bulb in a 360 degree angle. In other words HIDs shoot light out everywhere and the beam of the light can only be controlled by a reflector of some sort. LED lights are different in that they really have no need for a reflector. The light beam that comes off of the light-emitting diode can be controlled, or pointed, in whatever direction the manufacturer chooses. This means that LED lights are more efficient than HID lights because they don’t have the light being sprayed off in all directions. The light can be pointed directly at the plant. None of the light becomes weakened by having to bounce off of a reflector or a wall.

HID Lights Put Off Heat

HID lights are very powerful lights. Something with that much power is going to put off some heat. The heat on these HID lights is diffused through the light bulb itself. Many first-time HID users are surprised by how hot these lights get. They can raise the temperature in your growing room dramatically if you don’t have a cooling system in place. LED lights on the other hand do not generate much heat. Most people prefer to have lights that don’t generate a lot of heat, but keep in mind that heat isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s nice to have your lights heating up your grow room a little bit.

LED Grow Lights Allow Control over Color

Light from the sun has a full array of colors in it (think about rainbows here). LED lights provide a very unique opportunity in that they can be designed to generate only certain colors (or light wavelengths). This is interesting because many scientists believe that plants only need certain colors of light to grow. For example, experts agree that blue light is very helpful during the vegetative (seedling) stage of the plant’s lifecycle. Experts also agree that red light is most helpful when the plant is flowering. LED lights can be specifically designed and optimized to help plants grow in the vegetative or flowering stage. HID lights are more like the sun in that their light colors cannot be controlled (the shoot off the full spectrum).

Conclusion

Growing plants indoors is becoming more and more common. There are two popular types of lights for growing indoors: LED grow lights and HID grow lights. Some people swear by HID lights while others are just as adamant about LED lights. The main differences between the lights include the way the beam angles are controlled, the amount of heat they put off, and the way colors are controlled by the lights. Hopefully knowing some of these differences will help you conclude which lights are best for your indoor garden.