Best lighting for growing cannabis

When preparing your indoor garden, it is logical to do your best to replicate the cannabis plant's natural growing condition in regards to lighting to reap the largest and most potent harvest possible.

However, it is also important to consider the needs of the particular strain of herb that you will be growing, as the hybrids of today are designed to be much easier to grow. Royal Queen Seeds has a bountiful selection of auto-flowering feminized seeds that will dependably flower and deliver tasty potent buds without the hassle that growers have dealt with in the past.

Please browse through our extensive collection of options and select the seeds of your choice. You'll find a range of auto-flowering feminized seeds designed to grow a variety of heights and deliver the yield quantity you're dreaming of with a choice of THC and CBD levels, and a variety of growth time options.

With our auto-flowering seeds, a lighting system that uses full spectrum florescent or LED lamps on a 16 to 18 hour lighted cycle will deliver sturdy potent plants with a satisfying tasty harvest from seed to bud any time of the year. Full spectrum florescent and LED lamps run cooler, use less electricity, and simplify the life of the gardener greatly.

Choose high wattage lamps that will sufficiently fill the size of your growing environment with the ultimate goal of providing the most possible light to the entire plant. Many indoor gardeners use reflective aids such foil to amplify light and direct it to desired spots.

If you are attracted to varieties of seeds that are not of the auto-flowering family, you still have choices of cooler running florescent lamps along with full spectrum lamps to suit the needs of the sprouting, vegetative, and flowering stages along with the traditional lamps that indoor gardeners have depended on for years. Whichever route you choose, there are basic rules that should be followed to produce your desired yield.

• Cool temperature florescent or metal halide (MH) lamps in the 5000 to 6500 k or approximately 350 to 550 nanometers (nm) spectrum provide a good start during the spouting and vegetative stages. Your specific strain of seed will determine if you use these cool spectrum lights for two to approximately eight weeks.

• The pre-flowering and flowering stages will be successfully induced with orange/red spectrum florescent or high pressure sodium (HPS) lamps in the 2000 to 4000 k, or 540 to 700 nm range. The use of these hot spectrum lamps is combined with an increase of dark time to usually eight to twelve hours, with twelve hours being more typical.

Full spectrum LED lamps are continually being developed and improved. They use much less electricity and aim to provide a more precise delivery of the desired frequencies of light ranging from 420 nm to 750 nm that will grow your plants from seed to harvest. The challenges with LED lamps have been in wattage. Getting the necessary intensity of light can prove to be a costly investment, though new and improved products are evolving all the time. Many growers are satisfied with the results obtained by using an 1000 watt full spectrum LED lights. But untill LED lamps have been futher developed most growers will continue prefering HPS lamps to ensure a bigger and more pottent yield.

Whatever medium you are growing your crop in, from soil to hydroponics, sufficient lighting with reduction of electrical energy usage is the optimal goal of any gardener. Using lamps that generate less heat reduces fire risks from overtaxed wiring systems and plant damage or even combustion if they grow close to the lamp, along with reduced need for fans and cooling systems.