Best Growing Equipment-Selecting the RIght Equipment

Home medical marijuana cultivation has long been misconstrued as too difficult, too time-consuming, and too complex a process for the average patient to undertake.  In reality, home cultivation offers many advantages to a variety of patients who might benefit from ease-of-access, specific strain selection, and the self-reward of a successful harvest.  Home cultivation is certainly not the mysterious process that so many make it out to be.  Oftentimes, the most in-depth part of the process is simply selecting the right growing equipment for your setup.

Selecting the right growing equipment is a crucial step in developing a successful home growing operation, whether it be for the novice patient looking to begin their first grow, or the seasoned veteran simply hoping to increase annual yields.  One of the most important pieces of growing equipment is lighting.  Selecting the right equipment means finding the best growing lights for your setup, in order to maximize yield potential and keep your plants happy and healthy.

As most know, each and every plant that grows here on Earth requires sunlight, in order to promote photosynthesis and growth.  Typically, those plants (marijuana included) that grow closer to the equator receive a significantly greater amount sun, and thus grow both taller and more robust.  As a result, one should seek to simulate the sunlight present in these natural conditions when choosing growing equipment, in the interest of optimal indoor growth potential.

The first step in choosing which growing lights will work best is to assess how much natural sunlight the gardening area will receive.  In the best interest of home medical marijuana cultivation, there are two different types of lights available.  Metal Halide (MH) lights are a type of High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting that are best suited for primary light source installations.  When there is either very little or absolutely no natural sunlight available for grow operations, MH lights are the preferred growing equipment to use as a primary substitute for sunlight because they provide a substantial amount of light in the blue spectrum, most closely replicating that of the Sun.

Conversely, High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights are a type of High Intensity Discharge lighting that are best suited for secondary light source installations.  When there is either a significant amount of natural sunlight or some other primary light source (i.e. MH lights), HPS lights are the preferred growing equipment to use as a supplement to the primary light source because they provide a substantial amount of light in the red spectrum, which promotes vertical growth and flowering.

It is often thought to be disadvantageous to use either solely MH or solely HPS lighting within home growing operations for a number of reasons.  While MH lighting may be the ideal growing equipment for lush and leafy growth accompanying compact yielding buds, using only MH lighting will result in a considerably longer period to harvest and smaller plants in general.  Moreover, while HPS lighting may be the best growing equipment in terms of cost, efficiency, and lifetime, using only HPS lighting will oftentimes lead to excessively tall and lanky plant growth lacking in substantial bud size.

Thus, the best idea is to use either MH lighting or natural sunlight as a primary light source, and supplement that light source with HPS lighting in order to promote growth speed and quantity.  More and more, growers are turning to LED lights, due in large part to the fact that they consume far lest energy and make for a less expensive operation.  In other articles at Dr. GreenLeaf, we explore more of the fine points of choosing the right equipment and the potential usage of LED lights.  As for the basics, Following these simple guidelines herein will ensure that one’s home medical marijuana cultivation experience will be not only an enjoyable one, but a rewarding one as well.