Beginning Gardening Vegetbale Gardening Guide.

If you have decided to grow your tomatoes inside under artificial lights, you will need to have some information. There are three basic types of artificial lighting for growing your tomatoes.

The first, fluorescent lights are what most people use. The four types of fluorescents are compact fluorescents, standard fluorescents, high output fluorescents and HID hybrid lights.

Advantages of fluorescent lights are that you can move the lamps closer to the plants because they do not give off a lot of heat which can ruin your plants, and that fluorescent lights offer full spectrum lighting.

Disadvantages of using fluorescent lighting are their inefficiency and poor light penetration. A large collection of compact fluorescent lights will use as much energy as one HPS (High Pressure Sodium) light, but will not produce nearly as much usable light for your garden.

Indoor tomato growers also have HID grow lights, metal halide grow lights, LED grow lights and incandescent grow lights available to them. All of these lights work well for indoor gardening use, but are hard to work with. Keep it simple and use fluorescent lights for your tomatoes.

Some of the benefits from using artificial lights to grow tomatoes include be able to jump start the growing season, having homegrown tomatoes all year round no matter what the weather is outside. You can also determine the amount of light your tomatoes receive and when they get it. Using artificial light makes it easier to give more light (by moving the lamp closer) or less light (moving the lamp further away). Plants also can grow larger, have less diseases and pests, and thrive under artificial lighting.

It is best to use the HPS light in your indoor tomato garden. The size of your garden will be the determining factor in the wattage of the HPS bulb. I believe the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages when growing your tomatoes indoors and using fluorescent lighting.

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