If you’re serious about gardening, you’ve probably got a lot of gardening equipment. Even if it’s only a hobby, you’re likely to have quite a bit of money tied up in gardening stuff. Some of that equipment is quite expensive.

That is especially true for LED grow lights. As I mentioned in a previous article, I bought a few for myself and was immediately faced with a problem. How do I ensure that my LED grow lights are safe and secure? How do I keep burglars from stealing them?

I knew I needed to get myself a surveillance system, complete with cameras and everything that goes with it. I did a lot of research on review sites and compared various security cameras and entire security systems. These included motion detectors, door sensors, solar powered motion detecting security lights and more. I even looked up fake cameras, in an effort to save some money.

In the end I went with a real security system with real cameras. But I did buy quite a few fake cameras to place around my property as well. The ones I bought look exactly like my real ones, so it makes it look like I have far more cameras than I actually do. Is very hard to tell which ones are real and which ones are fake, especially at night.

I’m hoping this combination will deter any criminals from even trying to break into my home. And more importantly from trying to break into my grow house to take my LED grow lights. If they do try to break in, I’m confident my security system will alert me and alert the police in time and also make it hard enough that they won’t actually get in. But I prefer if they don’t even try in the first place. That just makes things easier.

I think that is probably the best value that a security system offers us. It works as a deterrent to keep people from even trying to take your things. That said, it is also great to know that I have a recorded record of everything that happens. If someone does break in, I will have them on tape and I can show it to the police, making it more likely that they will catch the burglar and return my grow lights or other gardening equipment to me.

My camera system has a Wi-Fi feature, which allows me to view my cameras live from my smart phone. This is so cool. The matter where I am, even if I’m on vacation on another continent, I can keep watch over my home. If my motion detectors sense anything, I get an alert. Then I quickly login and cycle through my cameras to see what is going on in my home. If need be, I contact the police and alert them as well.

This kind of security system is so much better than the old kind where you had to physically be at the location to view recorded tapes. It meant that you wouldn’t know if your house is being broken into, until it was far too late. You would have a video record of it, but it is much better to know when something is happening live. Then you can alert the police and they can get there in time to catch the criminal red-handed.

You can also enable countermeasures. In my case, I have some noise machines that make noise if I detect somebody, so that they are scared off. I also have a fake television, which is basically a set of LED lights that randomly flashes on and off to make it look like a TV is on in the home. It is another great deterrent against criminals.

I’m hoping all of these security measures work and I keep my gardening equipment and my LED grow lights safe and secure. The security equipment did cost me a lot of money, but I hope the peace of mind and the protection it offers is worth it in the end.

The other day I was talking to a neighbor and he told me that he was putting in some fruit trees in his garden. He always wanted to grow his own fruit and now that he had a house with a large backyard, he was making that dream come true. Naturally, in order to put this garden in, needed a whole bunch of gardening equipment.

I say that dripping with sarcasm. You really don’t need all that much, but most people like this guy, and he’s a nice guy, don’t get me wrong, think they need every possible tool ever made. And salespeople in the store see them coming a mile away.

They show them all the latest and greatest, all the most expensive tools and convince them that they need them all. Then these poor saps walk out of the store several thousand dollars poorer and with a whole car full of tools they will never use. Most of them, they don’t even know what they’re for.

This is one of the biggest pitfalls with any hobby, to be honest. People just by way too much stuff. I’m not saying to go back to the stone ages, but you really only need the basics for any hobby. Beyond that, you are just spending a bunch of money. Do you really enjoy it more with all the expensive equipment you don’t need? I doubt it.

Not only do people not use the equipment, they often store it in a location that is not secure. They have no security cameras guarding it and just have a plain lock on the door. This makes them a great target for a burglar. You really need a security system for your expensive gardening tools.

So when it comes to fruit gardening or any other type of gardening, stop buying so much stuff. I’d say you need a wheelbarrow and a shovel. Perhaps you need something to trim the branches and maybe a nice pair of gloves. Beyond that, what else do you really need?

If you are gardening outdoors, perhaps you need things to protect the young trees from pests or perhaps to protect them from adverse weather. You might need a ladder and maybe a tool to help you pick the fruit, although that is debatable.

If you’re gardening indoors, you might need a few more things. If you are doing hydroponics gardening, then obviously you need all the hydroponics equipment. Whatever type of gardening you’re doing indoors, you’ll need some grow lights. As I’ve mentioned before, if you’ve got a large garden, you’ll need powerful lights and in that case 600 watt lights are the best.

If your garden is smaller, go with a different type of grow light that doesn’t cost as much and is not as powerful. In almost all cases, florescent grow lights will be best here. Beyond the lighting and the optional watering system, what else do you really need indoors? I guess you need some pots and some soil, but that’s about it. You’ve got everything you need for your garden right there.

Some people want to grow in a grow tent, to maximize the lighting or to hide their grow from the outside world, should they be growing something that is less than legal, if you know what I mean. But for most of us, grow tents are not really a necessity. Still, you can get one pretty cheaply, so if you want one, why not get one. I wouldn’t count it is one of those unnecessary purchases people get talked into.

So if you’re starting a gardening hobby like my neighbor, just make sure not to buy too many things you don’t need. There is no need to spend so much money and there’s no need to have a bunch of equipment that you don’t even know how to use. Apart from that, good luck with the garden!

In our most recent post, I mentioned LED grow lights for growing plants indoors. That prompted a lot of questions from people asking which types of LED grow lights to get. The main question concerned the wattage. Most were trying to decide between a 1000 watt plant light or a 600 watt one. Both are great, but the 600w variety is more efficient. Any one of the 600 watt LED grow lights in this list are great choices. Basically, you get more bang for your buck with those four lights.

Thousand watt lights are the most expensive and the most powerful, apart from lights with more wattage, but there aren’t too many of those. The best 1000w lights give you a coverage area of 5 by 5 feet. A 600w light, which is much cheaper, gives you a coverage area of 4 by 4 feet. This means you’re not really losing a lot of coverage, but you’re saving a lot of money.

Of course, coverage area is not the only concern. 1000 watt lights are more powerful and will give you more output throughout the coverage area. Most LED manufacturers use PAR to measure light output. 1000w lights will give you much higher PAR values than a 600w light. At least in the middle. When you take the whole coverage area into consideration, the difference is not as great. Again, the money you save is worth more here than the larger PAR values.

So let’s say you have a area that measures 20 by 20 feet. If you went with thousand watt lights, you would need 16 of them to cover this area, assuming a 5 x 5 coverage per light. With six-hundred watt lights, assuming a 4 x 4 coverage, you would need 25.

Most of the good thousand watt lights cost between $1600 and $1800, although they can go much higher. Let’s assume $1700, in which case it would cost $27,200 to cover this area. A good 600 watt light costs around one thousand dollars. Some cost more, some cost less, but let’s go with $1000. That puts the total cost at $25,000.

Since you have more lights, the light reaching each plant is stronger. In fact, each plant might get its own light. This is an added benefit. Not only are 600w LED grow lights going to be cheaper, they actually give you a better light coverage per plant. Even though the light is not as strong, you don’t have as many gaps in coverage. This is the main reason why we recommend getting 600 watt LED plant lights instead of 1000w ones.

When it comes to actual brands, your best options are the big ones. Personally, I feel Black Dog LED makes the best lights. Moreover, they just brought out a new line, the PhytoMax 2 line, and it is unbelievable. These lights are not cheap, but if you can afford them, these are by far the best.

Cirrus LED also makes a great 600 watt LED grow light. These are high technology lights. You can customize them using an app on your phone, whereas the Black Dog lights can not be customized at all. Which light is best for you, depends on how you feel about the ability to customize. Some want the simplicity of the Black Dog, others want the full customization of the Cirrus.

California Lightworks also make a good 600w fixture. They are one of the industry leaders for a good reason. They’ve been making great lights for a long time and they are proven to work. I prefer the other two, since they are newer, but California light works is always coming out with new lights too. Their newest line is fully customizable using a controller that you have to buy separately. But, with that controller, you can control up to 1000 lights.

Finally, there are companies like Advanced LED, Lush Lighting and Kind LED. These are all also good companies, but it’s been a few years since they have brought out a new light. For this reason, I would go with one of the brands mentioned above or wait for one of these three firms to bring out a new line of lights. That should be happening soon and when it does, I’m sure they will be on par with the other ones. After all, they have a long history of making quality lights.

If you are looking to grow fruits or vegetables in your indoor garden and you have decided to go with LED grow lights because they use less power and emit less heat, then 600 watt lights are your best option. They give you the best combination of lower price and high output and are just the most efficient all around.

One of the most important gardening tools many of us buy are horticultural grow lights. If you’re lucky enough to live in a warm climate where you can grow your fruits, vegetables and herbs year-round without artificial lighting, you can safely ignore this article. The rest of us, well, we need to supplement natural sunlight.

In the winter months especially, your plants simply will not get enough light. And due to the climate, most of us will be growing indoors during the winter, which means even less light. Some of us even grow in rooms without any windows, so we need to provide every bit of light our plants need.

When shopping for grow lights, it helps to do a lot of research. One of my favorite sites is called Grow Light Info. They have a lot of reviews of different horticultural lights and they compare them in handy tables. Much of their focus is on LED grow lights, but they also have a few reviews for fluorescent grow lights and HID grow lights.

If you’re asking yourself what the difference between those lights is, that is actually the first thing you need to decide when buying a light. Which one of these three do you want. There are others, but you’ll probably want one of these three.

If your garden is small, you want to go with fluorescent grow lights. These are also the best if you are only supplementing natural sunlight and you don’t need too much light. They are cheap, they don’t use much power, and they don’t produce too much heat. Well, actually they do, but you don’t notice, because people generally only use T5 fluorescent grow lights for smaller gardens. If you were to use them for a larger garden, then they would use a lot of power and produce a lot of heat.

That is why for larger gardens you want to go with HID grow lights. They are made up of high-pressure sodium bulbs and metal halide bulbs. HPS bulbs are more reddish, which makes them good for the blooming stage of plant growth. MH bulbs have more blue in their spectrum, making them good for the vegging stage and also for seedlings. These lights produce a lot of heat, though. They also use a lot of power. That is why lights like this generally only make sense for large gardens, especially gardens that are growing for profit.

Another option are LED grow lights. Their main drawback is the high upfront cost and the fact that there are so many poor lights on the market. That is why I recommend a site like Grow Light Info where you can find all the information you need and be sure that you are buying a good LED light and not a bad one.

The big advantages of LED lights for plants are the low power usage and the low heat output. They also last much longer than the other types of lights without needing a bulb change. They’re easy to operate, too. Overall these are the easiest and best lights to use, but, again, they are very expensive. At least the quality ones are. You can get cheap ones, but most of the cheap ones are not very good.

If you do get LED grow lights, make sure you secure your grow room well. Because they are so expensive, they make a very inviting target for burglars. A few security cameras and heavy-duty secure locks on the doors should do the trick.

Most people reading this will probably just want fluorescent lights. In that case the decision is fairly easy. If you’re supplementing natural sunlight, I would get some compact fluorescent bulbs. Ideally you probably want some with a daylight spectrum. If you are mainly flowering, you might get some with a bit more of a reddish spectrum than daylight. They will be labeled 2700 K or something close to it. The daylight ones with the cooler light will be around 5000 to 6500 K.

For a larger garden, I would recommend LED grow lights. I wouldn’t mess with HID lighting. It is mostly for pot growers and even there, you are better off with LED lights these days. They are the lights of the future and there is no reason to invest in a system that will soon be outdated.

Whichever lighting you decide to get for your garden, look for an article soon on how best to install it and how best to grow using artificial grow lights. This is an important topic and I will make sure to cover it as soon as I can.