Price: $547
Best for Plants: flowers, strawberries, vegetables
Best for Systems: large greenhouse systems
Manufacturer: Control Wizard
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Control Wizard Sunmaster Cool Deluxe 1000w MH System
Price: $456
Best for Plants: strawberries, lettuce, long-day plants
Best for Systems: all
Manufacturer: Control Wizard
The light bellow is sold by Kalyx.com, our recommended and trusted online store for all your hydroponics needs. To buy the lamp, go to Kalyx.com, click on the “Hydroponics” section and choose your desired lamp.
The Sunmaster Cool Deluxe and its 1000 watt metal halide lamp is truly an outstanding piece of hardware and if you have a large enough hydroponic system to use it on, it's definitely worth the buy. The power hungry bulb may cost you a few more bucks on the bills every month, but your plants will never miss out on any light. The convertible reflector that the system comes with can propagate light extremely well amongst your plants and it can easily cover several smaller systems, or a larger one. It's great for use in large rooms or greenhouses and it's best used on light-loving plants that can truly appreciate its power.
This light is sold by Kalyx.com, our recommended and trusted online store for all your hydroponics needs. To buy the lamp, go to Kalyx.com, click on the “Hydroponics” section and choose your desired lamp.
Sunlight Supply 250w Sun System 2 MH Enclosed Ballast System
Price: $222
Best for Plants: small vegetables, short-day plants
Best for Systems: compact growth tray ebb and flow, drip, water culture and NFT systems
Manufacturer: Sunlight Supply
The light bellow is sold by Kalyx.com, our recommended and trusted online store for all your hydroponics needs. To buy the lamp, go to Kalyx.com, click on the “Hydroponics” section and choose your desired lamp.
Sunlight Supply always had a reputation for their great line of lighting products and with the bigger 1000 Watt behemoths already conquering the hydroponic lights market, it was about time that the smaller brother, the 250 watt Sun System 2, would do the same.
Being an enclosed ballast lighting system, the Sun System 2 is great for leafy plants that need light from all angles, in order not to get overshadowed. This also works with compact hydroponic systems, where the plants tend to bunch up together and steal light from one another if you're not using an enclosed system. Its size (22"L x 13"W x 7"H) makes it perfect for most small and middle-sized systems, especially those with classic growth trays (systems that use planters are not really suited for an enclosed ballast lighting system). If you're looking for a relatively cheap, low power consumption and a solid lighting set for your homemade hydroponics system, the Sun System 2 is a great option.
This light is sold by Kalyx.com, our recommended and trusted online store for all your hydroponics needs. To buy the lamp, go to Kalyx.com, click on the “Hydroponics” section and choose your desired lamp.
Control Wizard 250 watt MH System
Price: $279
Best for Plants: short-day plants, small vegetables
Best for Systems: hydroponic systems using planters
Manufacturer: Control Wizard
The light bellow is sold by Kalyx.com, our recommended and trusted online store for all your hydroponics needs. To buy the lamp, go to Kalyx.com, click on the “Hydroponics” section and choose your desired lamp.
The 250 watt metal halide system from Control Wizard may not be powerful enough to cope with greenhouses or larger hydroponic systems, but it's definitely a great choice for small and medium-sized ones. For the home user, it's especially important to get a metal halide lamp that is not overpowered (and that's a serious issue nowadays), that can provide the right amount of light for growing plants and that is power efficient as well.
The cone shaped reflector lets you cover a wider area, which is especially useful if you're using systems with planters, which tend not to be so compact. It also provides good downward reflection, which comes in handy if you're growing something with a lot of foliage, which could overshadow other plants if the light doesn't come in from the right direction. If you're looking for a small, compact but still impressively efficient lighting system based on a metal halide lamp, Control Wizard's 250 watt line of products is probably one of your best choices.
This light is sold by Kalyx.com, our recommended and trusted online store for all your hydroponics needs. To buy the lamp, go to Kalyx.com, click on the “Hydroponics” section and choose your desired lamp.
The question in the title is pretty much a rhetorical one for people that are informed regarding hydroponic systems for growing garden plants year round. But there's still a small group of people out there that come forth with such questions and it's important to know how to answer them.
Never let your guard down when it comes to hydroponic grow lights, since they are the cause of numerous greenhouse accidents. Find out how to keep your greenhouse, your plants and yourself safe, with the help of a few easy tips.
What was just recently science fiction seems to have a very real future up ahead. Lunar and Mars hydroponic systems can provide us with the means to advance and live on a planet other than Earth.