Choosing Plant Lights for Your Greenhouse

When choosing plant lights, or any other equipment for your greenhouse, there are a number of factors to consider. Greenhouse equipment is a vast field, and all the choices can be overwhelming. You need to consider the kinds of plants in your greenhouse, the function of the greenhouse, your energy costs, and other conditions, such as impact on the environment of the materials you use.

Plants growing in the open air have different light requirements and so, naturally, do plants growing in a controlled environment. There are different greenhouse lights available to meet the needs of different plants. Fluorescent lights are low intensity lights that need to be close to the plants and are suitable for growing seedlings, herbs, or low-light plants. High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights come in various sizes and wattages and can be used in most greenhouse situations.

Other Factors to Consider

In setting up your greenhouse lights, you will need to consider whether the plant requires lots of light for growth (“high energy”) or is a low energy growing plant. This will help you determine wattage and placement of the light. You will also need to plan for how long the light should be on; that is, how many hours of light per day does the plant need? This will vary with the stage of growth that the plant is in. A third variable is temperature. Light gives heat, so you will need to make sure the lights do not provide more heat than the plant wants.

In operating your lights, you also want to look at the light provided by the sun. Besides providing natural light to the plants, the sun also gives energy that can be used in either active or passive solar construction for heating the greenhouse. If you think of your greenhouse as a place that integrates heat, light, and moisture for plant growth, you can make your equipment choices by considering their place in the whole system.

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