Types of Indoor Plant Lights

Most plants being grown indoors fail to flourish because of insufficient light or the wrong type of light. Solve this easily by installing indoor plant lights. Many types are available, and most are inexpensive, easy to install, energy-efficient and provide excellent results. Give adequate light to indoor plants and they'll return the favor with vigorous, healthy growth. This goes for seedlings being started indoors as well as for established potted plants and trees.

Fluorescent Lights

Use fluorescent bulbs for the best results in most indoor plant-lighting situations. Choose "warm-white" fluorescent bulbs or tubes. This kind provides enough light spectrum for good plant growth. Fluorescent lights stay cool, are energy efficient, easily available in many shapes and sizes, and can be used in decorative fixtures as well as in greenhouses. Don't use fluorescent bulbs listed as "cool-white," "white" or "daylight." These do not provide the color spectrum of light that plants need.

Incandescent Lights

Avoid using incandescent bulbs for plant lighting. These nearly outmoded bulbs use more electricity than fluorescent bulbs and fail to provide the kind of light that plants need. They produce too much red-spectrum light and not enough of the blue spectrum for good plant growth. In addition, incandescent bulbs produce heat and should not be placed too near plants, reducing their slight effectiveness even more. Fluorescent lights stay cool no matter how long they are on.

Grow Lights
Install these special fluorescent lights, usually in tube form, for indoor greenhouse settings, not in decorative areas. These lights emit more red light than other fluorescent bulbs, thus balancing the blue and red spectra. They can be nearly twice as expensive as regular fluorescent lights, so many home gardeners intersperse them with regular tubes. A good ratio is one grow light per two regular tubes.

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Lighting for an Indoor Garden

Sunlight is limited indoors, especially during winter's short days. Indoor gardeners use grow lights to give their plants enough of the blue and red wavelengths they need to thrive throughout their growth cycle. A variety of types of lighting exist that are suitable for growing plants indoors. Choose the best lighting for your indoor garden based on the size of the garden, what kinds of plants you are growing and the expense involved.

Incandescent
The advantages of regular incandescent light bulbs are that they are widely available and plug in to existing outlets. The disadvantages are that the bulbs are not efficient, do not last long and get hot. Incandescent bulbs supply a full spectrum of light. Plants use only the red and blue wavelengths. A string of 75- to 100-watt bulbs at 3-foot intervals 3 to 4 feet above the plants will nourish a 6-foot-wide area. A single clamp-on spot grow bulb will nourish a single plant or small grouping. The lights can be controlled by a timer to provide supplemental light when needed.

Fluorescent
The original lights used to grow plants indoors, long fluorescent tubes need a ballast, a component that limits the amount of electrical current running through the tubes. They are cooler than incandescents, so can be closer to plants, but may dehydrate plants if too close. They provide the red-blue spectrum needed by plants, but the expense of installing ballasts and the short life of the fluorescent tubes raise the cost of using them as grow lights. T-5 fluorescent bulbs are high-output lights with low heat and minimal energy consumption; they are best for short growth cycles and rooting cuttings indoors. Fluorescent bulbs are cheap to run, but expensive to install. They have a bluish tinge, which makes them less attractive for living areas and indoor commercial displays.

High-Intensity-Discharge (HID)
HID lighting is efficient, long-lasting and the best choice for large indoor gardens. The lights require an expensive ballast to operate and venting or air-cooled reflectors to reduce their heat. HIDs produce 500 percent more light than incandescent bulbs. They are suited for germinating seeds and lighting indoor vegetable gardens and for starting vegetable plants and flowering plants indoors. They produce high heat, so must be placed well away from plants. High-pressure sodium-vapor bulbs have an orange-red spectrum ideal for flowering or fruiting plants. Metal halide lights provide a blue-green spectrum for the vegetative/growth stage. They can be combined to give ideal lighting at different stages in a plant's growth cycle.

Light-Emitting Diodes

LEDs are more expensive to buy than incandescent bulbs, but are long-lasting, energy-efficient and cool. They plug into existing outlets. LEDs come in colors that can be mixed to suit each growth stage. Purple LEDs combine reds and blues that support plants from germination to flowering and reproduction. LEDs are small and lightweight, so can be used in plant groupings for dramatic effects in home and indoor commercial settings.

Source: http://www.ehow.com/info_8026643_lighting-indoor-garden.html