At Madame Grow, we will soon have surprises related to lighting for indoor cultivation. From the famous bulbs for marijuana, to the most modern led grow systems, which improve efficiency and energy consumption.

In this article we are going to focus on the accessories and bulbs to grow marijuana, the different powers that exist, for which space they are most appropriate and how much harvest can be obtained according to the watts they project.

We will also talk about the benefits and differences of using spotlights from different technologies.

Types of lighting for indoor marijuana cultivation

Lighting in indoor crops is one of the main parts that every good grower, whether new or professional, must take care of in detail. For this reason, we have prepared this marijuana lighting system guide, so that you can learn about the different solutions offered by the market.

Currently, in our grow shop, we have LED systems, they are the most modern, but as we said at the beginning of the article, in 2023 we are going to give many surprises with these products and we are going to tell you everything.

HM or metal halide lamps

These metal halide lamps for indoor growing are also known as metal halide, halogenated mercury or metal additive lamps, and project a high pressure discharge.

They are ideal for the growth phase of marijuana, since they have the right power for this first stage, they are also the cheapest on the market.

The performance they offer compared to other lamps for marijuana cultivation, is somewhat lower than sodium vapor lamps. The durability they usually have is about 20,000 hours.

 

HPS high pressure sodium spotlights 1,000 W

These spotlights usually come integrated in a lighting kit, consisting of a ballast, a reflector and a bulb. In the past, the components were separated by cables and a lot of energy was wasted, in the form of electricity, and therefore they were less efficient than today’s.

This lighting system is perfect for the flowering stage. They produce a lot of energy in the form of heat, and it is very important to have a good ventilation system installed in the crop with these bulbs for marijuana, so you can produce the maximum and with good quality.

1,000W LEC spotlights

The bulbs for growing marijuana with LEC (Light Emitting Ceramic) or CMH (Ceramic Metal Halide) technology, also come integrated in a lighting kit made up of Double Ended bulbs.

The advantages offered by these bulbs for marijuana, with respect to those of HPS, are:

• Greater color coverage. A broader spectrum makes plant buds generate more resin, thanks to ultraviolet light, it also makes them mature more naturally by infrared light and develop faster in the growth phase.
• Better durability. A longer lifespan of the bulbs, they will reach 24,000 hours. And one of their best features is that they lose only 20% of their effectiveness, compared to other lights of the same power.
• Different varieties of color temperature. In the market there are bulbs ranging from 3,000K to 10,000K. If the value is high or close to 10,000K, they will be more conducive to the flowering phase, because the buds will generate more resin.

 

1,000W LED spotlights

The most normal thing until very recently was to find LED lighting systems for indoor cultivation, with a maximum of 600W, we recommend the 1,000W ones, which are now easier to find.

This LED technology offers more advantages with respect to the other lighting systems that we have named, they are the following:

• Selective Color Range. We can improve the distribution of light power in the colors we choose. Fully customizable, we recommend choosing the colors between blue for the growth stage and red for the flowering stage. Thanks to this configuration, the harvest will be more profitable.
• Longer duration. Let’s say that this LED lighting system doubles the useful life of the other marijuana lights that we have mentioned. It can reach 50,000 hours of useful life at maximum power.If about 1,000 hours are needed for a crop, we are talking that with this system we will be able to do 50 crops with the same focus, one pass.
• It doesn’t generate as much heat. One of the main advantages of LED systems is that they hardly generate heat. They are the lighting kits that we recommend if you live in a place where temperatures exceed 40 degrees in summer.

What focus for marijuana is recommended for each growing space?

These are the best-selling and most productive lighting systems and spotlights for marijuana that you can currently find on the market. The power of 1,000 W is a guarantee of a great harvest, although not everyone has enough space at home to put a focus of such power, the most normal thing for small domestic crops is to use powers between 400 W and 600 W.

We are going to leave you a list with the power of the bulbs and the recommended cultivation space for each of them, they are the following:

• Spotlights for marijuana or lighting equipment of 400 W, having a lower power, are used in small spaces. They are usually mounted in growing spaces of a square meter or so (it also depends on the reflector used).It also depends on the technology, with a grow led system for 1 m2, we will need a power of at least 200W, depending on the manufacturer.
• For 600 W lighting equipment, they are usually mounted in spaces from 1 square meter to 1.5 m2, also depending on the reflector used.
• We can install the 1,000 W spotlights in spaces of 1.5 m2 to 2 meters, which is recommended, and a total of 20 plants can be placed in 16-litre pots or 36 plants in 11-litre pots.

The intention, when grown in small spaces, is to get the most out of the harvest, and we will always have to seek to harvest an approximate ratio of 1g/1W.

As a last recommendation, to choose between the different lighting systems and spotlights for marijuana, we must be clear about what phase of the crop we are going to use it for. A bulb for growth is not the same as for flowering.

The bulbs, for the growth phase, should give a whiter light and for the flowering phase, we will need a more orange or red light. There is also the option of mixed bulbs, which have a spectrum more suitable for growth and flowering, all in one.