subject: What To Bear In Mind When Selecting Greenhouse Lighting [print this page] Gardening is a very popular hobby particularly among homeowners, which means the over-thirties to be honest. A nice-looking garden certainly does make a house look better. However, bedding plants and fruit trees can be quite expensive, so a lot of gardeners want or already have some form of greenhouse so that they can propagate plants themselves and grow more exotic flowers and fruits.
It really depends on the kind of greenhouse you have and where you live, but many greenhouses can be 'adjusted' to grow most varieties of plants from around the world. Global warming has helped in this respect as well. In most places, you can grow grapes from France or orchids from Thailand where normally such plants would die outside.
Therefore, having a greenhouse is a bit like keeping a tropical fish tank. The gardener has brought those plants to a part of the planet where they cannot support themselves. They should not be there, so it is up to the gardener to create the circumstances in which those plants can thrive. This has mostly to do with aeration, temperature control, humidity and lighting.
Lighting is especially important in the winter in the temperate zones, because the duration of sunlight can be as low as two or three hours and the quality of light can be very bad. Just because it is light enough for you to see where you are going does not mean that it is bright enough for a plant to sustain itself.
Light in the tropics is always strong for most of the day and there is possibly only an hour difference between daylight hours in the summer and the winter. Normally there are about twelve hours of light and twelve hours of darkness.
Clearly, this means that is likely that you will need to provide some sort of artificial lighting if you have a green house. I have never seen a greenhouse in the tropics.
Which kind of greenhouse light you buy, really depends on the type of plants you propose growing. If you want tropical orchids, for instance, you will need a high level of humidity, which means that your light will have to be water-resistant or even waterproof.
Another aspect to bear in mind is the photo period - the length of time you will have to provide light. This could be as much as twelve hours at a time in the winter, so you will need a light that can cope with that without becoming over heated
Different lights produce different wavelengths of light, that is light from different parts of the spectrum. These different wavelengths of light produce different results, so you will have to know what you want to accomplish before you can buy a greenhouse light. Spectrum colours are good for encouraging the growth of orchids, but you will have to do some research, once you know what you want to cultivate.
In conclusion, if the greenhouse light is to be used for many hours a day, look out for an energy efficient light. It may be more expensive, but it will pay for itself. Cheaper lights often waste energy by generating heat, but more heat is not always a good idea. It is far better to regulate the temperature separately.
