From
http://ioannis.virtualcomposer2000.com/spectroscope/elements.html"Plant Growth: The optimal choices are the PLANTA specialized metal halide, followed by the tungsten halogen, the color corrected mercury and the blended light lamp. Although many people who grow plants think that the high pressure sodium lamp is a good choice, the above choices easily outperform it because their spectrum matches the photosynthesis curve better, so there's no need to spend a fortune for plant growing if one knows what to look for (even though the PLANTA metal halide is not that cheap)."
So to summarize, if you don't want to spend a fortune on a plant growing lamp, get a coated MV lamp.