HPS bulbs, also known as high pressure sodium grow lights, are used in a variety of indoor gardening settings. Greenhouses and home gardeners use them to grow superior plants, and so do those who practice hydroponics, a type of indoor gardening where the plants are not grown in soil, but instead utilize a growing medium. Because all plants need light, water and food to flourish, it is important to select the correct grow lights, and many hydroponic gardeners use HPS bulbs to great effect with their indoor-grown plants.

An HPS bulb utilizes sodium gas inside the light bulb. It is the sodium gas that gives an HPS bulb its distinctive red to orange color spectrum. The color spectrum of light is important to hydroponic gardeners because plants need certain types of color spectrum light at certain points in their growth cycles. While red color spectrum light, such as is produced by HPS bulbs, is a great choice for those gardeners who want to get their mature plants to produce ripe fruits and vegetables or to get flowers to bloom, young plants like seedlings that you want to grow leaves and stems require blue color spectrum light for this purpose. This is a major reason why hydroponic gardeners, especially those with large greenhouses who sell produce or flowers at market, need the appropriate types of lights in order to get the plants to respond in the desired ways.

The size of HPS bulb that you will need to produce adequate light for your hydroponic plants will depend on several factors. If you are growing a large number of plants, you will need more grow lights than if you are growing only a handful of plants. Grow light sizes range from a 1,000 watt HPS bulb, to a mid-sized 600w HPS bulb, or a smaller 400w HPS bulb. A larger 1,000 watt HPS bulb will put out a brighter light than a smaller bulb, and if used in conjunction with reflectors, will shine that light out over a larger square foot area. You will want to determine the square feet of table space you want to light, as well as the distance of the 600w HPS bulb from the plants, in order to determine how many bulbs to get for your growing space.

A top manufacturer of the 400w HPS bulb so popular with indoor gardeners is Hortilux Bulb Company. Their Hortilux Bulb grow lights are environmentally friendly and function very well in the indoor growing environment, whether at a residence or in a commercial greenhouse setting. You can learn more about these lights from online discount gardening suppliers.