How to Grow Weed Indoors with Indoor Grow Lights

By Jared Perkins

The two most basic things every plant needs are water and light. For the indoor grower it is very important to know what type of light to give their plant. Without knowledge in this area your harvest will be very disappointing. While hard to crack, once you gain understanding in lighting you will be on the fast track to growing success. In order to get there you are going to need to understand both old and new concepts.

The Kelvin Scale is where we will start our understanding. The Kelvin Scale (K) rates Color Temperature. Warm colors (Red) rate a lower K on the scale (2500-3500k), while cool colors (Blue/White) rate higher (5000+). Each bulb should have the K rating on its box. 6500k is the right light to use during the vegetative growth stage. 2700k is the proper frequency for flowering (budding). Many growers swear by mixing the frequencies during each stage. A common mixture is 70% the suggested frequency and 30% the other.

Lumens are the next important topic to be aware of. Lumens measure the strength or power of light as seen by the human eye. The more lumens your plant gets the better. The sun is said to provide 10,000 lumens per square foot of surface space. In order to provide anything close to that you are going to need the right light. HPS ( High Pressure Sodium ) bulbs are the preferred light of choice when it comes to flowering due to the high lumen output. Low lumens will mean fluffy loose (light) buds. Here is a little scale to show the power of an HPS vs a CFL ( 100 Watt equivalent CFL = around 1,700 Lumens vs 400 Watt HPS = around 50,000 Lumens ).

CFL bulbs have burst onto the scene and have many growers rethinking their light setup. CFL bulbs can be bought for very little money at almost any grocery store and use very little energy. A few 6500K CFL bulbs can be more than enough to get a plant through the vegetative cycle. However, though you can grow a large plant with CFLs, there are questions about their ability to produce bud. Many growers experience great vegetative growth with CFLs but are disappointed that the buds produced are often light and fluffy compared to the highly sought after dense buds which are more common when using a high pressure sodium bulb. The reason for this is thought to be that the lower lumens of the CFL bulbs lack the penetration required to produce dense buds.

Indoor grow lighting is just one step in how to grow weed indoors. However it is possibly the most important.

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