As with CFL lights HID lighting are also available in blue (Metal Halide - MH) and red (High Pressure Sodium - HPS) spectrums. However, they are generally more powerful than CFL lights and this makes them more suitable for covering larger areas, or for replacing sunlight all together.
Metal Halide lamps are effectively the next step up from CFL lamps for propagation and early stage plant growth.
Where CFL lamps need to be used as close to plants as possible and therefore will only really cover the area directly under the reflector, MH lights put light down over a larger area, around 1square metre for the top selling 400W version. Typically this light would be used by people looking to establish larger numbers of plants into their final growing pots before putting them outdoors, or as a total source of light in indoor situations for early stage growth before switching over to HPS light for flowering. Prices for the 400W versions start from around £70.00 for a decent quality budget system, but you can pay as much
as £150.00 for a high end version with quality reflector.High Pressure Sodium Lamps should only really be used with chillis for flowering, although they will make a plant grow in the early days, but the growth tends to be leggy and uncontrolled. Because of this HPS lights are generally used as a complete source of light for chillis grown indoors, the 400W and 600W versions are the top sellers. Wherever possible these lights should be purchased with Grolux lamps, these have been slightly tweaked for horticultural use and chillis generally seem do slightly better under them. Expect to pay around £70.00 for a basic 400W version, the sky’s the limit for high end 600W versions.
Both MH and HPS grow lights of 400W and above will require a special timer unit to turn them on and off, if you try to use a normal household it will normally fuse together and stop working. Ask your retailer which product is suited to the light you plan to buy, they start from around £20.00 for a one light controller.



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