Grow Light Guide For Houseplants

Plants need sun, Right? But what if you don’t have adequate lighting to keep, like a cactus alive?

Well, don’t lose hope.

You have an option and that’s to get some grow lights!

Grow lights come in all shapes, sizes and colors but there are certain things to keep an eye out for when shopping for them.

I’m going go over a full grow light guide for houseplants. I’ll touch on how do grow lights work and the reasons why you should get some for your plants.

How Do Grow Lights Work?

Were going to get a bit scienc-y here but I’ll explain as basic as I can so none of you reading this will go cross-eyed.

As we know, plants take the light rays from the sun and absorb it, as energy and food, which is how the plant can photosynthesize.

A good grow light will provide a light spectrum of warm and cool lights that are similar to the suns rays.

You may notice that some grow lights are purple in color. That is to provide the plant with red and blue lighting that help the plant out in several ways.

Red light– these are important in the plants growth because red light is helpful for baby plants staring from a seed also helping their root/bulb growth. But most importantly red lights promote flowering, and aid in the plant to produce fruit.

Blue light– this light helps with the production of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the pigment in the plants cells that cause the plant to photosynthesize. In return, plants that get a good amount of blue light will have stronger and healthier stems/leaves.

White (warm)– a warm white light has an undertone of green. Green light isn’t super effective in plant growth due to the green bouncing off the plants. Some people like to buy red, white, and blue lights, but it really only provides an esthetic, where there’s not a huge benefit to white lights. But if you don’t want your room glowing purple, you can opt into getting these, just make sure there are a good amount of red and blue lights, too.

See, that wasn’t so bad!

When Buying Grow Lights, What Do I Look For?

When buying a grow light, I would make sure that the lights are full spectrum so that the plants are provided with what they need, as if the were in the sunlight.

Grow lights come in all types of ways. You can get bulbs for lamps or even strips to put on shelves or walls. I’d just be careful to get something like an LED because they produce little to no heat, so you don’t fry your plants.

Make sure your plants aren’t super close to the light source, either.

For my plants I have them on a shelf, so I opted into getting the strips. They are easily hidden away under each shelf.

The lights that I have a remote with three levels of light that you can set. If you get ones like this, I’d suggest you start off with the lowest setting and work your way up. Give it a few days in-between, just to make sure you’re not frying your plants, and also letting them get adjusted to it.

Do I Really Need Them?

I’d say yes. Unless all of your plants are near a window with optimal lighting and their getting all the necessary energy for them to grow.

But that’s not always the case.

My shelf that has my grow lights doesn’t get great lighting since it’s on the opposite side of the room from the window. So, my grow lights are giving them that boost they aren’t getting from sun.

Grow lights are also a good thing to get once the winter comes around. The days are getting darker, and could cause your plants to go completely dormant. Your plants still might go into a mild dormancy, but grow lights will help them stay awake.

Once you have your lights set up, I’d run them when it’s light out, to help mimic daytime. I like to run mine from 8am to 8pm. That provides them with twelve hours of direct lighting and gives them a good amount of darkness that is essential to plant health.

Make sure your plants are getting at least 6-8 hours of darkness, so your plants can get some shut eye.

A Grow Light Guide For Houseplants, That They Will Thank You For

My plants completely did a 360 once I gave them some grow lights. They stared almost immediately started sprouting growth. I use mine all year round, but in the winter I bump up my levels to make it a bit stronger.

When I was picking out grow lights for my plants a grow light guide for houseplants like this one, helped me out so much!

They play a big role in the plants health and growth. So go out and get some grow lights and let your babies shine!

Do you use grow lights already? If not, did this grow light guide for houseplants help you?

Need to get your plants ready for wintertime? Check out Preparing Your Houseplants For Winter.