Growing plants in indoor conditions is a meticulous task that requires intensive research and study. While it is strongly recommended to expose plants to natural sunlight and let them have natural exposure to outdoor lighting, sometimes it is not possible to do so and homeowners keep their plants inside their homes to grow through artificial means.
One of the simplest ways of doing this is by using artificial lights such as LED lights to fulfill the light requirements of a plant. Artificial light can act as a replica of the sun and encourage your plants to grow despite being indoors. What many people don’t know is that lights themselves come in different forms and it is crucial to choose the perfect one amongst them for your plants or otherwise they might not receive their ideal requirements.
According to Cocafish.com, one of the leading product reviewers in Canada, not getting the perfect type of light for your plants can put your green friends in danger of dying. To ensure that does not happen, we are here to help you out. In this article, we list the several types of lights and tell you the ones that are perfect for your plant needs. Read the article till the end so that you don’t miss out on crucial details.
LED lights
LED lights are one of the newer types of grow lights that have started being used for plants. While they are not as effective as their other counterparts for growing plants, they can provide a sustainable and adequate amount of light supply to the plants to ensure that they grow properly.
Not only that, but they are also extremely energy efficient for homeowners and can help you save tons of money on electricity bills. What’s more, is that most modern-day LED lights come with their own smart features. You can close off LED lights with a few taps of your fingers on your smartphone.
If your plants demand it, you can set your lights to emit different intensities throughout the day as per their requirement. You can also set up an auto-shutdown timer that closes the lights at a specific time so that you don’t have to.
Incandescent lights
Incandescent lights are severely hampered by their age limitations. They are not at all energy efficient and can generate copious amounts of heat when emitting light. This can not only make your plants drier but also reduce their access to the minimum requirement of light they need.
While you can technically grow some low-light plants under these lights, we strongly recommend against doing so simply because of the amount of heat it generates. These lights are barely capable of lighting a room and they are not at all capable of providing sufficient light to plants.
Fluorescent lights
Lights that are considered to be the most ideal for growing plants, which are also popularly referred to as ‘grow lights’, are fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lights provide the perfect amount of lights to plants and are also extremely energy efficient.
The fluorescent lights that are particularly large in length are considered to be superior in energy efficiency instead of simple fluorescent light bulbs. This is because the lesser the surface area these lights have, the better they work and provide you more efficient results.
They are immensely better than incandescent lights and only require 34/th the energy of a standard incandescent light to provide the same lighting results. There are also specialized fluorescent lights out there designed for plants that are known as T5 lights. These lights provide light from its entire spectrum and ensure to juice out every inch of light possible from the tube.
Light energy is measured in kelvin, and the lights that most plants require is anywhere between 4000 to 6000. If you find a tube or bulb that can provide this much amount of light constantly, you will be able to mimic outside lighting conditions without any worries. There are a number of plants that can be grown via this method and those that don’t can be made to grow with minor adjustments.
Compact fluorescent lights
Similar to the lighting option above, compact fluorescent lights are also great options for growing plants. Thing is, these lights offer a specific amount of light in a very limited space which might not be ideal for most types of plants but they are extremely useful for people who are familiar with their plant’s lighting needs.
They can provide the perfect lighting environment for carnivorous plants or orchids. However, they have a very varying wattage across the board so it is a good idea that you check your light’s wattage with the vendor or manufacturer before purchasing it. The great thing about these lights is that they can provide almost the same performance as a T5 light while coming at a cost that is effectively lower than half of the cost of incandescent lights.
Halides
These lights are mostly reserved for industrial or large-scale use as they require a large amount of space to function properly. Once set up, these lights integrate into one single vast system of lights that provide lighting to a large number of plants at the same time. However, they also have immense power requirements because of their large structure.
Some of the halide lighting systems have a power requirement as high as 1000 watts, which is simply not feasible if you are looking for indoor lighting for your home use. Choosing a fluorescent light is simply a much more feasible solution for your home.
No lights
It is important that we don’t forget that plants don’t need lights 24/7. In natural conditions out in the wild, plants receive anywhere from 12 hours to 16 hours of sunlight and the rest they spend in darkness which is necessary for their growth.
Always ensure that you keep your grow lights out from time to time, typically when you are sleeping, to not oversaturate your plants with light which can lead to their deterioration.
Conclusion
While there are several types of lights available for growing plants indoors, the best options to choose are LED lights and Fluorescent lights by a large margin. We hope this article was insightful for you and if it was, please consider following our website for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.
