How to Choose the Best Indoor Lighting For Your Plants

When searching for the best indoor lighting systems for your plant growth facility, the various metrics used by companies can make it difficult to know which lighting solutions are the best fit. Growing plants indoors without having a solarium or a greenhouse doesn't need to be a difficult task. With the correct equipment, plant growth and stimulation can happen at a rapid rate.

While there is a variety of lighting solutions out there, it is vital to find the correct equipment that aids the growth of the plants without running the risk of damaging them.

This article is a complete guide on horticulture and will describe what plants are best suited for an indoor growth facility and what type of lighting system is best suited for this.

What is horticulture?

Very briefly and simply put, horticulture is defined as the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants. Of course, if you're searching for the perfect lighting solution for your indoor plant facility, you're familiar with this term. This is a complete guide though so we need to start from the beginning.

What plants can be grown indoors?

Some plants thrive better than others in an indoor facility, the following are the types of plants that grow well under artificial lighting;

• Vegetables: Lettuce, radishes, peppers, kale, chard, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and bush beans.

• Herbs: Chive, catmint, cilantro, basil, parsley, oregano, lavender, and rosemary.

• Flowers: Geraniums, petunia, candytuft, roses, alyssum, and daisies.

• Fruit: Citrus, strawberries, blueberries, and apples.

• Houseplants: African violet, croton, aluminium plant, cast iron plant, asparagus ferns, orchids, and spider plant.

• Succulents: Jade, aloe vera, panda plant, zebra plant, flaming Katy, and burros tail.

Typically, artificial lighting is ideal for the following applications:

• Farming: Growing crops for food, fibre, and fuel

• Research

• Horticultural therapy: using horticultural methods to treat patients

• Arboriculture: the care of trees

• Household plants

What type of grow lights are best suited?

There are various types of grow lights, all have their pros and cons and can be used in different ways. Commonly, fluorescent, LED or incandescent lighting solutions are used for indoor growth plantations.

• Fluorescent

Fluorescent lights are an economical and easy choice. They come in tubes or compact bulbs that screw into regular lamp sockets, and they're cool enough to put close to plant foliage. Generic fluorescent tubes and bulbs are higher in blue wavelengths, so be sure to find full-spectrum or include a mix of cool and warm bulbs. When in doubt, buy cool white products, since white light contains the full spectrum of wavelengths. For maximum effect, position fluorescents about a foot away from plant foliage.

Until recently, fluorescent grow lights output was too low and they were too big and bulky to be very useful except as a grow light for seeds or seedlings. Generally, fluorescents are a poor choice for flowering and budding plants because of their low lumen (brightness per unit of energy consumed), but they are a great source for herbs and other plants that don't need a lot of light

• Incandescent

Incandescent lighting solutions give off a lot of heat and should be placed farther away from plant foliage, otherwise, they can cause major damage. Incandescent bulbs give off more red wavelengths, therefore, they can be used to supplement fluorescent light and balance out the spectrum, especially if you're trying to encourage plants to bloom. If you want to mix the two, try using a ratio of about one-third incandescent and two-thirds fluorescent by wattage.

There are far better lighting solutions for horticulture than incandescent lighting though, such as using LED lights.

• LED

LED lighting systems are a low heat, energy-efficient artificial light source. Because LED technology is so customisable, every bulb is different, therefore, ensure your bulbs produce the blues and reds necessary for plants. Horticultural LED grow lights produce only the wavelengths most utilised by plants which means you may want to look for these bulbs rather than buying LEDs meant for general use.

LED lighting has been proven to stimulate plant growth by 40% and is durable and long-lasting without drawing too much power. Our Gro-RACK X is the perfect example of a horticulture LED grow light that. It is a newly developed high output LED grow light with state-of-the-art passive cooling aluminium fins to achieve ideal heat dissipation.

 With its high energy efficiency of up to 2.5μmol/J, it is able to satisfy high-end commercial users and home growers alike. We have a variety of horticulture LED lighting solutions that will make growing plants indoors so much easier. These products include;

• Gro-SLIM

• Gro-SPEX

• Gro-FAR

• Gro-RACK

• Gro-BATTEN

Overall, even though there are many horticulture lighting solutions available, LED lights are the best option for you - both in terms of environmental impact and the impact on your budget. Our LED products are engineered to be energy-efficient, economical and effective to specifically meet the exacting needs of plants (in contrast to multi-purpose LEDs). 

How should these lights be used?

There are many aspects that need to be considered when growing plants indoors, both on large scale or home growers. There are 3 factors are vital to the health and longevity of your plants.

1. Duration

The duration refers to the number of hours the light source sheds its radiation on the plants.

2. Intensity

Light intensity refers to the strength of the light emitted which is usually measured in foot candles.

3. Spectrum

Plants see light differently to humans. Some of the light spectrum that the human eye is most sensitive to is used the least by plants. The light spectrum is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and is a representation of multiple electromagnetic waves with varying frequencies. These varying frequencies are how light colours are categorised. 

Finding the correct horticulture lighting solutions and ensuring they are used correctly doesn't need to be a difficult task. Our products are at the forefront of the horticulture industry and we look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions.