High Pressure Sodium
High Pressure Sodium Lights: The Pressure is On
When growing plants, there are several kinds of lighting devices or grow lights, such as high pressure sodium lights, which are used in order to assist in the life processes of the plant. This is especially true for indoor plants, since they require no sunlight but only heat and artificial source of lighting.
This is where high pressure sodium lights are efficient. However, they do not emit a good quality lighting as they only produce yellow lighting. When it comes to its color-rendering index, it does not perform very well as shown in its numerical index of only 22. But still, their importance to the industry of indoor plant growing is undeniable.
High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps are widely used in horticulture to create the right environment for plants to grow in the dark season.
Traditional enclosed gardening projects require the use of high-intensity discharge lamps (HID) to replicate the frequency and intensity of the sun’s rays. The most commonly used types of HID lamps are metal halide (MH) and high-pressure sodium bulbs
High Pressure Sodium
If indoor plants could talk, they would tell you: if you give plants no light, there would no growth. If there is no growth then there is also no flowering. This shows the dependence of every indoor plant to illumination and the need for light to grow even just as close as being natural. This is why high pressure sodium lights are in demand in this kind of industry.
These lights assist the plant in their growing functions as well as with the flowering processes since high pressure sodium lights are known to be the main catalysts in their flowering and fruiting. The only concern in using these high pressure sodium lights is that the plants tend to have longer legs and appendages with their growth of internodes in an increased pace due to the luminous emissions of high pressure sodium lights.
It is also instructive to note that the orange and red spectrums emitted by high pressure sodium lights are the ones being used by all indoor plants in their processes that involve fruiting and flowering which makes the harvesting time more productive than in normal times. However, the plants under these conditions and circumstances tend to look paler than usual and unhealthy because of the aforementioned low quality of color rendering by these kinds of high pressure sodium lights.
As opposed to other kinds of lighting devices, these high pressure sodium lights have a longer duration of bulb life given the low power it requires for it to function properly. In this regard, they still emit six times more lighting than the conventional incandescent light bulb.
Philips has developed three different lamps with specific light recipes for different plants. The Philips GreenPower LED interlighting module is a great example of the new possibilities opened up by LED. The combination of LED interlighting and High Pressure Sodium creates a flexible lighting system that provides optimum control over the plant’s growth process.
The high efficiency of these lighting devices are highly regarded in the whole planting industry in addition that they are the preferred equipment for supplemental devices in any greenhouses.
High pressure sodium lights emit a higher amount of heat
High pressure sodium lights emit a higher amount of heat which may lead to longer branches and appendages. However, the quality of the flowering and fruiting processes are not compromised by this fact.
In fact, they are more improved and developed over time as these kinds of lighting devices are used. If you, as a planter, do not want this occurrence in transpiring ever at your greenhouse, you may want to install air cooler bulbs to offset the heat that the high pressure sodium lights emit. Nevertheless, the quality of these high pressure sodium lights cannot be denied, according to the users.
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