What are Indoor Plant Lights?

Indoor gardening is one way to add delight to your home. Small flowering plants, a few types of cactus and many others can be grown inside. They are refreshing and include certain therapeutic effects. However, more care is essential for indoor plants when compared to outdoor plants because of many reasons. One of the most important factor to be considered for indoor gardening is lighting.

Adequate amount of lighting is necessary for indoor plants. When your home does not have enough lighting conditions, then you need to arrange artificial lighting. Grow lights are the electric lights which are designed to stimulate plant growth. Four types of grow lights are used for indoor plants. They include incandescent lights, fluorescent lights, high pressure sodium lights, and LED lights.

Incandescent lights, though considered as grow lights, are not that efficient. They are mostly used as highlighting devices for indoor plants. They convert much energy into heat rather than light and hence are least used as grow lights.

Fluorescent lights can be used at any desired wattage and color temperature. Cool spectrum fluorescent tubes produce light mainly in the blue range and are helpful for vegetative growth phase of the plants. Warm-white tubes produce more red rays and help in development of flowering and fruiting stages. Fluorescent lights are much beneficial as they have blend of light colors, broad even coverage, and reduced electric requirements.

High pressure sodium bulbs produce reddish orange light. They stimulate the growth of budding and flowering plants. LED lights are the other grow lights which are being developed recently. They are developed to produce the exact spectrum of light that is needed and is perfect for plants. In addition to these lights, a combination of metal halide lights and high pressure sodium lights is also used for indoor plants.