Arguably the most important piece of hardware in your grow room, a reliable, good quality lighting system built to withstand the harsh environment of a grow room is essential. Progrow knowing the importance of quality lighting built its early reputation on selling Canatronics beautifully made rugged systems.
When Progrow started retailing Lighting systems, the market in the main consisted of either 250 watt, 400 watt , 600 watt and 1000w magnetic ballast systems using either metal halide or high Pressure Sodium lamps, with fluorescents used for vegetative growth. Progrow knowing the importance of quality lighting built its early reputation on selling Canatronics beautifully made rugged systems. Horticultural lighting has come a long way since then through advances in fluorescent lighting such as CFL from Envirolite (Compact fluorescent) opening growing up to hobbyist with only small spaces to utilise.
Lamp developments such as ‘Groluxʼ lamps with extra blue in the spectrum have also endured. Ballast technology has moved from Magnetic ballast to Digital ballasts that will switch between lamp sizes and dim, such as the excellent Adjuta -watt ballast. Now our Full Lighting Kitʼ section also contains Ceramic metal Halide systems and 400volt systems from manufacturers like Solistek, Gavita and Adjusts-watt.
Full lighting kits will contain just that, everything to make the light work, typically a ballast, a lamp and a reflector, these kits will be discounted over buying the items individually (Unless there is a power controller built into your ballast or lighting system you must also purchase a ‘power controllerʼ or ‘contactorʼ to be able to switch your lights on and off). Digital lighting kits make up the biggest part of this section, becoming the best sold lighting kits we supply over the older magnetic ballast lighting kits. Each kit comprises of a digital ballast to ignite and power the lamp, the lamp is fixed into a reflector to direct the lighting down towards your grow. Magnetic ballast kits also comprise of Ballast, Bulb, and reflector, are cheaper but less efficient and susceptible to degradation over time as the copper core wears. This said magnetic ballast have their uses to those wishing initially to stay within a budget and discover if hydroponics is for them. These systems will typically power 250watt, 400watt, 600 watt and 1000watt lamps with as previously stated more technical ballasts enabling you to switch between lamp sizes (an undoubted benefit to mirror a plants development). Other systems such as those from Gavita enable dimming via controllers sympathetic to the conditions in your grow room or tent. Gavita systems are renowned industry leaders their quality lighting systems utilise 400volts to produce 10 – 20% more lumen output and less heat than 240 volt 1000w systems. Air cooled reflectors are matched to the same ballasts and lamps to provide Air cooled lighting kits from manufacturers such as Maxigrow and Sunlight systems. with the advantage of removing much of the excess heat produced by the lamps growers are able to position their reflectors closer to the canopy of the crop. When purchasing a full light kit consider the area you are intending to use for your indoor grow room. Progrow recommend a 600w lighting system to adequately illuminate a 1m2 area for fast growing plants with up to 1200w per meter as a maximum should your ventilation system be that effective. It is advised if your grow room or tent need multiple lights that they are all of the same power thus maintaining an even canopy. Progrow offer over 70 different lighting kits so we are confident we have the kit for you, our Adjusta-watt twin lamp kits provide a metal halide lamp for the vegetative stage and a high pressure sodium lamp for the flowering cycle. Coupled with the Adjusta watts switching feature it enables the grower to seamlessly provide the right amount of light to your plants throughout their stages of development.
The ballast
All digital and magnetic full light kits are provided with a ballast to specifically power at 250 watt, 400 watt, 600 watt and 1000 watt lamp, the exception being those ballast such as Adjusta -watt that enable you to switch between lamp sizes and also ‘boostʼ your lamps output. This is the ‘powerhouseʼ of your lighting system it is to be relied on day in day out to ignite and smoothly power your lamp and as such needs to be of supreme quality. You can be confident purchasing a ballast from us that it has been thoroughly tested and will perform well, since our inception we have always strived to bring you the best quality lighting systems we can, aware of their premier importance to good indoor growing. So if your budget dictates using a magnetic ballast you can be sure you are receiving a quality product that wonʼt let you down, you may find slightly cheaper alternatives elsewhere, our advice would be to be sure your product is covered by guarantees and that the reseller is confident of their performance. Progrow work closely with all manufacturers providing feedback to maintain quality, all manufacturers guarantees are upheld and managed smoothly and efficiently should you have a problem.
The reflector
The job of the reflector is a simple but important one; to concentrate the light you are using over the plant canopy. A professional reflector has been designed to spread light evenly and intensely over the growing space giving uniform growth and higher yields. The types of reflectors we recommend are the closed ended variety as they are the best at focusing the light downwards, they do however need good air movement around them and may not be the best for growing in confined spaces as the heat from the lamps can become trapped inside them unless there is sufficient space around the outside of the reflector for the warm air to escape. If you are growing in a small space then the open ended variety maybe a better choice as they allow the heat to escape from the sides of the reflector. Air cooled reflectors are a good choice as the heat from the lamps is removed using an extractor fan. This means that the reflector can be brought closer to the plants without burning. As all our products Progrow have thoroughly tested and conducted their own lighting experiments to determine each reflectors individual performance.
The lamp
Progrowʼs Lighting kits are supplies with Horticultural lamps from Sol-digitals range. Sol-Digital Super HPS lamps have an enhanced colour spectrum with more ‘blues and redsʼ to produce a higher amount of PAR light for faster growing, higher yielding and better quality plants. They have enhanced spectral stability over varying power outputs making them perfect for use with variable output and ‘dimmingʼ digital ballasts. Sol-Digital Super Metal Halide lamps have been tuned with a precise gas combination that increases blues and reds delivering higher levels of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) for excellent results in the vegetative growth stage. Super HPS have enhanced spectral stability over varying power outputs making them perfect for use with high voltage variable output digital ballasts.