When you first begin entertaining the idea of an indoor cannabis grow facility, you may realize the complexity of everything involved. A grow facility requires the proper temperature, humidity, watering, ventilation, and lighting. Many could argue that lighting plays the largest role in a grow room. How can lighting help your cannabis grow facility? Keep reading to learn how GCE National can help your facility succeed!
Lights Can Make or Break Your Grow Facility’s Success
Lights control the growth rate, quality, and health of cannabis plants. When marijuana is grown outside, light is provided naturally. The sun provides adequate lighting for growing; however, indoor lighting must try and imitate the sun’s power.
Your lighting also controls the quality of your plants. Good lighting can improve the THC levels of your cannabis. THC, also known as tetrahydrocannabinol, is the key component of cannabis. Bad lighting can lower the THC levels of your plants.
While normal lights can help some indoor plants grow, this does not include marijuana. Cannabis requires different lights for different growing stages. The three main growing stages are as follows: clone, vegetative, and flowering. Each stage requires a specific light spectrum and intensity.
Risk of Choosing Subpar Lights
What happens if you choose the wrong lights for your grow facility? Choosing the wrong lights can result in wasted money, high energy output, damaged plants, and stunted growth.
If you choose lights that are not energy-efficient, you could see extremely high electricity bills. Energy-efficient lights can save you money and still provide good results. Not only will bad lighting cause a spike in your power bill and energy output, but it can harm your plants too!
Good lighting must reach every plant and cover the entirety of your grow facility. Lights are what allow cannabis to grow. Without proper coverage, your plants will not grow properly. Likewise, lights that are too overbearing can burn cannabis plants.
It is vital to choose the right lights to lower your costs and energy output. The correct lighting will also aid your plants in growth and quality.
How to Choose the Right Lights
Look for Adequate Coverage
As stated previously, indoor cannabis requires adequate coverage. To ensure that your plants are receiving the right amount of light, you must first consider the size of your grow facility. The size of your grow facility and the number of plants inside will determine the number of lights you need.
After determining the size of the facility and how much you are going to grow, you can find the amount of wattage you need. A larger area will require more wattage. The lights in your grow facility should reach every plant.
Find Adjustable Lights
Lighting a grow facility means choosing easily adjustable lights. Your lights should be able to adjust their height. As plants grow, the light must move with the plant. A light that is too close to a plant can cause burns, and a light that is too far from a plant can cause a stunt in growth.
Cannabis also requires a different color spectrum for different stages of life. For example, your lights should emit tones on the blue spectrum during the vegetative stage. The red spectrum is for the flowering stage. To save yourself money and hassle, you can purchase lights that contain tones from both spectrums!
You should also be able to adjust your lights with a timer. In addition to sufficient lighting, cannabis requires four to six hours of darkness every day. Automated lights can eliminate any confusion and hassle.
Focus on Safety
Growing marijuana can be dangerous if it is not done properly. For example, those that have indoor grow rooms and pets. If you have an indoor grow room, you will want to protect your plants and your pets. Animals can easily be harmed by ingesting copious amounts of cannabis. Not only will your animal experience negative effects, but you will lose product as well.
For a facility, you will have to be wary of fire hazards. Fires often happen in one or two ways. Firstly, fires are caused by overloading your power system. Before buying lights or plants, you should check your breaker board and your cities energy codes. Overloading electricity and power can cause fires and loss of power; both are not good for you or your grow facility. Secondly, the heat of your lights can cause fires. Your lights can overheat and catch fire. It is pertinent to choose the right lights to avoid fire hazards.
Hire a Professional to Find the Right Lights
The most common bulbs found in a grow facility are as follows:
- LED
- HID
- MH
- Fluorescent
LEDs are probably the most common lights because they do not emit a lot of heat, and they are energy-efficient. However, they are the most expensive of the four types.
HIDs are perfect for smaller grow facilities and are easy to maintain. The biggest downside is that they are not as strong as LED lights.
MH lights emit a strong light from the blue spectrum; this makes it the most ideal bulb for the vegetative stage of cannabis growing.
Fluorescent bulbs provide great coverage at only a fraction of the cost of other lights; however, they are not energy efficient. People often complain that fluorescents are high-maintenance.
