So you've decided to try your hand at indoor gardening. One thing is for sure: you're going to need lights. Check out our guide to choosing the right lights for your plants and get started!
These days, growing plants indoors isn’t just for professional horticulturists in greenhouses. Anyone can grow healthy plants indoors with the right hydroponic supplies! Light is absolutely essential for creating the right conditions for healthy photosynthesis. Finding the right grow lights for your plants isn’t as hard as it sounds, so let us do the research for you and get ready for happy, healthy plants in any room of your home.
The most inexpensive kind of light used for growing indoor plants is traditional incandescent bulbs. These bulbs sell for as little as a dollar and come in many shapes and styles to fit the fixtures you plan to use with your indoor garden. Incandescent bulbs work well for growing common houseplants, but there are better bulbs out there for real indoor gardens.
Fluorescent bulbs are best suited for growing herbs and other types of plants that don’t require strong light each day to thrive. Regular fluorescent grow lights, however, shouldn’t be used for flowering plants as they don’t give off enough light for these plants.
CFL bulbs are brighter than normal fluorescent lights and are great for all plants, since they give off a lot of light and are more compact in size and use less energy than fluorescent and incandescent alternatives.These bulbs are generally recognized as the best light source for your hydroponics system. The light output from CFL bulbs is optimal for plant nutrient production, and creates healthy soil conditions for your plants.
For very large indoor gardens, High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs are highly recommended. These bulbs are very large and are not for the average indoor houseplants, as they produce a huge amount of light compared to typical grow lights. There are many types of HID bulbs, but the only types an indoor gardener would need to consider are High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide. High Pressure Sodium bulbs produce a reddish light that is good for flowering plants, and Metal Halide bulbs produce a blueish color good for leafy green plants.
Turns out you don't need a green thumb for happy and healthy plants. All you need is the right light!
