Indoor garden are an amazing way to house great plants and enhance your home decor at the same time. Gardening enthusiasts love to establish an appealing garden indoors, which makes up for a mesmerizing site in their home.
Some of these indoor plants need more light as compared to others. On the same note, there are many spots in the house which are good for planting, but receive less light.
Indoor garden lights, which can help in growing plants in spots, all across the home, come into picture at such times. These lights can help your little green buddies into growing as per their full potential. They are a great substitute for natural light. Plants that required longer periods of sunlight, benefit a lot for these indoor garden lights. These lights are a great boom for people who have less light spots in their home.
So, let us have a look at the benefits of installing best indoor garden lights for plant growth.
Growing Plants
There are some indoor plants who just won’t grow no matter how much you try. These plants need more sunlight than others. Orchids, fruits and vegetable crops are some such plants.
Indoor garden lights ate also good for seed starting as they help ensure stocky green seedlings. Winter harvest of herbs and salad greens can also be grown with the help of these lights. They are a great boost for plant growth.
Before installing a plant in your indoor garden, you should know about the duration and type of sunlight it needs. Some plants require less intensity of light for longer lengths of time while some thrive by receiving more intense light for short periods of time.
Either way, having prior information about this is essential to ensure that your indoor plants receive the amount of light that is perfect for them.
The Right Color
Sunlight contains the complete spectrum of light, which includes all the colors of the rainbow. Like any other plant growing under natural light, your indoor plants would grow perfectly well, when placed under a light source that has full spectrum.
Indoor plants do well under full spectrum bulbs. Full spectrum provided both warm and cool light. This replicates the natural light which plants love.
So, while buying lights for your indoor garden make sure that you buy a full spectrum light source that caters to the light needs of your indoor plants. A full spectrum light would make your plants more delighted and they will grow with ease.
It would also help you keeping plants at the otherwise light deficient spots of your home. It is a win-win situation for both you and your little green buddies.
A full spectrum light source is great for both seedlings and indoor plants. Seeds require optimum light too. And a full spectrum light source helps them get the best out of their immediate environment.
These lights compensate for the lack of natural sunlight and allow indoor plants to thrive. With a full spectrum light will allow a gardener to install plants in every corner of their home, which would have otherwise remained empty.
LED vs Fluorescent
Talking about full spectrum light brings us to the age old debate of LED vs Fluorescent. Both offer full spectrum light to plants and both are a good substitute for natural light. The fact to be kept in mind is that LEDs are good for both, the environment and also your wallet.
LED lights are energy efficient, economical and effective for plant growth. That makes them a better option than fluorescent lights.
Good LED lights are those that deliver the exact intensity of light that indoor plants crave, along with an additional spike of blue light for stronger root growth. This also enhances photosynthesis and ensures peak growth of indoor plants.
Most high tech LED lights available in gardening stores are made to aid in the growth of indoor plants. So, using them as the light source of choice for plant growth, is right.
The Right Intensity of Light
Indoor plants require light at different intensity as compared to their outdoor counterparts. Even indoor plants among themselves have different light intensity requirements.
A good indoor garden light for plant growth is one that delivers the right intensity of light that is good for your green buddies. An intensity subpar or more than the optimum intensity is deteriorating for your indoor plants.
Intensity of the light depends on 2 factors. The brightness of the bulb and the distance of the bulb from the indoor plants it is catering to. Different indoor plants need different intensity of light.
Flowering houseplants need to be kept 10 to 12 inches away from the light bulb. Orchids and citrus on the other hand, need to be kept closer. So, you should decide the intensity as per the needs of your plants.
The Right Duration
No matter what kind of plants you grow in your indoor garden, they all need to rest. Plant respiration occurs only when it is dark. It is essential for good plant growth.
So, you need to turn off the light source to allow plants to respire easily. This period of darkness is called as “rest time” in plant world. Rest time is vital for many biological plant processes. It is essential for plants to have rest time.
You may not always be able to switch of the indoor garden lights. Sometimes you may forget to switch them off, sometimes you may be outside.
But no need to worry. There are many indoor garden lights for plant growth that come with a built in timer. These are essentially power strips with built in timer to provide your plants the essential rest time that they need for their growth.
A good light strip with built in timer would allow you to provide light to your plants till the time they need them, and switch off the light when it is not required. You can set the timer according to the type of plant you are using the light for.
You can adjust the settings on the timer to either completely switch off or dim the lights as per your needs. This is a boon for gardeners who may forget to switch off the lights.
Factors To Consider While Choosing Your Growing Lights
So, you have decided to install the plants that you always wanted in your indoor garden. Now you are ready to buy the best indoor garden grow lights for your little green buddies. We will now discuss the key things that you need to keep in mind while buying the lights.
- The type of plants that you would be growing in your indoor garden.
- Will you grow year round or starts seeding in spring?
- How tall will the plants be?
- What would be the location of the lights?
- Would you want the lights to be mobile?
Depending upon the above questions, you can decide the kind of indoor garden grow lights that you want for your home.
There are 4 different kinds of indoor garden grow lights that you can purchase for your plants. These are-
- Modular Bamboo- With high output LED and modular stackable 3 inch wide units, this indoor garden grow light is a favourite of many gardening enthusiasts. It has a galvanised tray. The optional rolling unit at the bottom, makes it mobile.
- Large Capacity Sunlight- These lights can house more indoor plants than you can think of keeping. Grow thriving seeds and herbs and watch them flower under these lights. The sturdy aluminium frame never rusts.
- Space Saving Sunlight – This comes in 3 heights and can cater to many indoor plants at one go. You can use these lights which have casters, so you can roll the whole unit whenever you want to.
- Modular Stack and Grow Lights- With energy efficient LEDs and plastic frame, this is a great set of indoor garden grow lights for your green buddies. You can make this set, a mini garden and watch all your plants flower.
These are some indoor garden grow lights which can help your plants reach up to their full potential. Install them and make your plants happier than ever!
Sam is a graduated biologist who sub-specialised in Botany in his final years. With a passion for human health and food, this was the perfect marriage of his interests. Having been born in the country but spent most of his life living in cities, this blog was his answer to learning how to grow a garden indoors if you didn’t have ample space outside.