Dual Spectrum Grow Lamps

As we have said above, the Sylvania Grolux lamp is currently the best selling grow lamp in the UK, it has far overtaken the Osram as the lamp of choice for indoor growers. It has done this in two ways, by dropping the price of the lamp at a wholesale level, and more importantly and the answer to your question, by marketing the lamp as Dual Spectrum or "blue spectrum enhanced". Basically, Sylvania have said that this lamp contains 15% more blue than a standard sodium lamp.

However, standard sodium lamps contain almost no blue at all, so 15% more than nothing is, well, pretty much nothing. The Grolux and Sunmasters are first and foremost sodium lamps.

Where it is slightly different to standard sodium lamps however is that the sodium output from the Grolux & Sunmaster lamps have been tweaked to be more suitable for plant growth, and this is what gives it the status of a horticultural lamp. So what does Dual Spectrum actually mean? It should mean that these lamps contain the perfect blend of blue and red spectrum for all stages of plant growth, but what it really means is that they come in a pretty box. The truth of the matter is there is no such thing as a lamp that is perfect for both vegative and flowering growth, you always need to compromise somewhere but these lamps are probably the best possible compromise available to indoor gardeners today.

Not really, both sodium and halide lamps tend to be a bit strong for young plants, have a look at blue CFL lights or our PL2 propagtion lights for this purpose.

Probably the most common mistake people new to using grow lights make is not realising that you can't just plug a sodium or halide lamp into a socket and turn it on. There are two or three other pieces of equipment that are required to make the lamp work.

The first is a reflector, this contains the lamp holder that you screw the lamp into and reflects the light down into your growing area. The second is what's known as a ballast, this is basically the equipment required to start the lamp up and regulate the current to the lamp when it's running. It's impossible to even turn the Grolux lamp on without these two other products, which is why nearly everybody buys these systems as a package, it works out much cheaper to do this than buy the indivual parts seperately.

The other item you will probably need is a controller to turn the light on and off at your desired times. Click here for further information on this product.