windycitypeppers
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:06 pm

Indoor Pepper Plant Lighting

Hello Everyone,

I apologize if this is a duplicate forum topic. However, I would like to discuss / learn more about the different types of grow lights and how they affect pepper plant varieties with 100% indoor grow operations.

I live in a small apartment in Chicago, and am attempting to grow various pepper plants from seed to fruit without ever moving the plants outdoors.

I want to learn more about the different stages of growth and which lights / light levels are the best for healthy and productive plants.

Thanks!

No_Shade555
Full Member
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:58 pm

Hello there and welcome to the forum!

Although I am rather new at growing peppers, I have successfully grown multiple varieties of hot peppers completely indoors. I also live in an apartment that does not have the room (or the weather) for an outdoor garden. I can tell you exactly what I did for the lighting, what worked, and what I will be doing differently in the future.

The first thing you want to ask yourself when buying indoor grow lights is "what type of lighting do I want to use?". The two big main categories are LED and HID lighting. I will go over LED first because that is what I use and know the most about.

LED: LED (light-emitting-diode) based grow lights have a lot of pros involved. For example, They are very energy efficient (they will be nice to your electric bill). Because of this efficiency, they will also give off much less heat than xenon bulbs(HID). For someone in Chicago however, this could be a positive or a negative depending on if you plan to grow in the winter season. Another positive about LED lighting is that you can purchase lights that allow you to customize your spectrum (R-W-B). This is a benefit if you are looking for the most amount of yield possible. I can get more into the customization of the spectrum if you are interested.( used to work in optics/photonics). Now the one big downside to LED lighting is the $$$$. A quality light setup with LEDs will have a large up front cost. However, because of their natural efficiency, chances are high you will not need to replace them for years to come.

HID: HID (High-Intensity-Discharge) lights used to be the gold standard for all things indoor growing. examples of HID lighting would be HPS or MH (High-Pressure-Sodium, or metal-halide). From my experience in the photonics industry I can tell you for certain that if you use something like a HPS light, you will use A LOT more electricity. This is due to the fact that HID lighting is much less efficient that LED lighting and wastes a lot of energy in heat rather than in light emittance. So keep in mind that things will get toasty in the environment that the lights are in. You will also need to change out bulbs on a semi regular basis in order to keep the same level of intensity.

In short, LED lighting will be more expensive up front, but will save money and electricity in the long run and will run cooler. At the end of the day both types of lighting will give you a yield so long as all of the other factors are taken care of as well. You can also find LED light arrays that don't have customization knobs and those are fine for a first time garden.

Now getting into the nitty gritty of it all, the most important factor for light in my opinion is making sure that your PAR measurements are in the correct range. Whatever you end up going with I strongly suggest purchasing a Quantum-Par meter and doing some research to see what the PAR should be for your specific species of peppers at their specific stage of growth. For example. It is recommended that the Chinense I am growing should get at least 450 PAR for a full 15 hours.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask. I can also show you my set up and the lights I use if you are interested.

Good luck,
-Shade

No_Shade555
Full Member
Posts: 26
Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:58 pm

windycitypeppers wrote:
Fri Aug 13, 2021 12:19 pm
Hello Everyone,

I apologize if this is a duplicate forum topic. However, I would like to discuss / learn more about the different types of grow lights and how they affect pepper plant varieties with 100% indoor grow operations.

I live in a small apartment in Chicago, and am attempting to grow various pepper plants from seed to fruit without ever moving the plants outdoors.

I want to learn more about the different stages of growth and which lights / light levels are the best for healthy and productive plants.

Thanks!

Hi there,

If you are still looking for help please feel free to respond on this thread



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