Flower Growing

Garden Grow Lights Help Our Indoor Plants

Garden grow lights can be quite important if you want to have a healthy indoor garden; poor lighting sometimes will cause spindly or frail plants, yellowing leaves and a failure to bloom or to set fruit. Different garden grow lights are sometimes used on different indoor gardens. You need to decide what you want to grow and purchase the proper lighting that will help your garden grow.

Indoor grow lights are used to replace or as a complement to natural lighting for all indoor plants. There are some plants that do not grow well with direct sunlight but will benefit greatly from grow lights. Plants use sunlight to transform carbon dioxide into sugars that they need for growing. Garden Plants such as flowers, herbs, and vegetables need anywhere from 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day so they can set fruit or bloom. Getting six to eight hours of sunlight through a window is pretty much impossible due to the movement of the sun, window screens and trees that are overhanging. This is why we need to provide our indoor plants with additional lighting for healthy growth.

Fluorescent lights are the most common form of grow lights; they are cheaper to purchase and supply an ample amount of light to indoor plants without burning them. Fluorescent bulbs that are labeled T-5 are a good sources of light because they are smaller and can give off a more focused light. This type of bulb is also good for the plants that require shade. Fluorescent grow lights are good for indoor herb gardens and indoor vegetable gardens containing spinach and lettuce.

High intensity discharge lights or HID lights are also a very effective artificial lighting for indoor plants. There are two different types of HID lights, the high pressure sodium or HPS and the metal halide also known as MH. HPS lights can also be classified as Flower Grow lights because they provide an orange or red light which stimulates flowering. MH garden grow lights are suited for inciting shoot and leaf growth because they provide the blue spectrum light that is needed. Incandescent grow lights are generally used to supplement light to individual plants that do not absorb natural sunlight. These lights are a little more expensive and less effective than other types of grow light systems. Incandescent bulbs give off a lot more heat than they do light and if they are close enough to the plants to provide efficient light they will probably burn the foliage. Incandescent lights are better to use when highlighting a group of plants instead of grow lights. 

If you are a gardener with a vast number of indoor plants the mercury vapor grow lights can turn into a very expensive option. Mercury vapor bulbs give off a lot more light and less heat than incandescent bulbs; this makes them an excellent source of light for indoor plants. Light emitting diode or LED indoor grow lights are the newest type of lights for growing plants indoors. These indoor plant lights do not emit any damaging heat and they will send out more light per wattage; LED grow lights can sit closer to plants without causing any damage. 

The lights you decide to purchase need to be placed as close to the plants as needed without burning the leaves or flowers. A 25-watt incandescent grow light should be at least one foot away from your plants; a 100-watt bulb, 2 feet away and 150-watt three feet away so they will not harm them. Your indoor plants will need the use of grow lights around twelve to sixteen hours of light each day. The MH lights, in order to stimulate foliage growth, need to be on 18 to 24 hours a day. The HPS grow lights need to be on for only 12 hours a day for the best desirable light for budding and flowering.

Your plants growth patterns usually inform you if the light they receive is sufficient. The symptoms of a light deficiency generally includes stem lengths too long between leaves, little or no growth, smaller leaves than normal and no buds or no flowers. The leaves on some plants could turn yellow and prematurely drop. If any of these symptoms begin to occur you may want to reposition the lights or to purchase more effecient garden grow lights.

About the Author

Barbara has done some research on garden grow lights and has found that some work better than others. She is always learning thing regarding Gardening and like to share with others. Please visit the website Gardeners Garden Supplies for other gardening aids.

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