Lighting Basics

 We’ve all tried to grow houseplants in less than ideal lighting conditions. At first the plant looks great and we pat ourselves on the back. Inevitably, though, your indoor plant starts to lose leaves and look sickly. And if the houseplant is really starved for light, it will die.

Proper lighting critical to indoor plant health

Nurseries might go out of business if indoor gardeners only knew how important proper lighting is to houseplants. Unlike humans and animals, plants produce most of their own food. Light triggers and energizes the process of photosynthesis, a procedure that makes the carbohydrates that fuel plants. Without sufficient light, plants can’t photosynthesize and instead use stored food to maintain growth. As the plant wears down its energy reserves it cannibalizes itself, eventually starving to death.

While some plants die when lighting is poor, others get just enough light to live a feeble existence. You’ve probably had them in your home. They’re the sickly ones with poor growth, sparse foliage, no flowers and pest and disease problems.

Use full-spectrum lighting for your indoor garden

Good news! There’s an easy and inexpensive way to replicate natural sunlight indoors—full spectrum lighting. Used for years to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, (SAD) full spectrum lights simulate the sun at noon, and plants love it.  Manufacturers even produce inexpensive screw-in full-spectrum light bulbs like these, so all you have to do is replace the light bulbs in nearby light fixtures, and voila!—you’ve got happy plants basking in the next-best-thing to sunlight.

Don’t want to bother with lighting indoor plants?

Try low-light plants like Arrowhead Vine; Cast-Iron Plant, Chinese Evergreen, Dracaenas, Peace Lily, Pothos, Philodendron, Radiator Plant, and Snake Plant.

While your eyes can give you an indication of how bright or dim your home is, you can accurately check light levels with a light meter. Find these handy tools on Amazon.