To maximize natural light for houseplants, start by cleaning your windows and adding grow lights. Change to sheer curtains for south-facing windows that are too bright. Rearrange furniture to make the most of the light. Keep plants clean and keep doors open. Enhance plant growth with full spectrum LED or fluorescent lights, mimicking sunlight. If you are serious about your houseplants, it may be necessary to get artificial light. To measure light for your plants, use specialized devices called PAR meters.
The best rule of thumb is to choose a spot, determine your lighting, and then choose your plant. Light is one of the most important factors for growing houseplants, as all plants need different levels of light to convert carbon dioxide and water into energy. The easiest and cheapest light you can provide is the natural kind, which is achieved in most cases by placing the plant near a suitable window. Bamboo LED Grow Light Gardens allow you to grow light-loving plants in any room.
To ensure proper plant care, monitor watering, fertilization, repotting, fighting off diseases and pests, and using grow lights during winter when light is scarce or in areas with low light. Use a different light fixture that provides additional or fewer lumens/PPF, raise the light intensity (DLI), move the light fixture closer or further away from the plants, and change the length of time the lights are on.
For plants requiring direct light, four or more hours of exposure to the sun’s rays is best. Ambient light levels can be increased by reflective, light-colored surfaces inside the room. Increase the light intensity by moving the plants closer to the tubes, increasing the number of tubes, and using either fluorescent grow lights or special LEDs to fulfill your plant’s lighting needs.
📹 Easy Beginner’s Guide To Grow Lights For Houseplants 💡 GROW LIGHT 101 🌱 Why, When + How To Use Them
—————————– In this video we look at all the basics you should know before investing in grow lights for your indoor …
Can LED light replace sunlight for plants?
LED grow lights are a unique type of light source that provide a high light output, unlike regular LED lights which focus on lumens. Grow lights, on the other hand, focus on PAR (Parabolic Reflectance) and are designed to grow plants with the lowest light requirements. Regular LED bulbs have a low PAR, meaning they can only grow plants with natural sunlight. Therefore, if you plan to grow larger herbs indoors, you need to invest in a grow-specific LED light with a higher light output. You can find grow-specific LED lights at various online retailers.
What makes a good grow light for indoor plants?
In order to cultivate plants indoors, it is necessary to utilise full-spectrum lighting with a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) rating of at least 85. It is advisable to select lighting with a closer rating, as this will facilitate optimal plant growth. It is essential to ensure that an adequate number of light fixtures are purchased to ensure an even distribution of light. This is because seedlings located along the perimeter require the same amount of light as those situated in the center.
How do you fake sunlight for plants?
Full-spectrum LED or fluorescent grow bulbs are suitable for plants due to their balance of red and blue light needs. Positioning grow lights is crucial to balance the heat source’s output with the plant’s light needs. Experiment with different distances or time periods to adjust the light intensity. T5 Fluorescent bulbs are low heat and can be placed 3 to 12 inches from the plant, while LEDs should be 12 to 24 inches and HID 24 to 60 inches.
Keep a close eye on plants during the initial period after placing lights to detect signs of heat stress or damage. By adjusting the placement of grow lights, you can ensure the plants receive the necessary light and avoid burning.
How do I make my plants brighter?
Mirrors can be used to create a natural DIY grow light by adding more light to a room, especially with south-facing windows. Mirrors can be placed close to the window, making the space feel larger and more open. In a North-West facing window, mirrors capture the setting sun and reflect it back onto the Western wall, providing decorative plants with more light. Although this setup is not suitable for edible plants, it offers decorative plants more light and expands the view, making the room feel larger. Overall, mirrors are a versatile and effective way to add light to any room.
How do you increase light intensity in a grow?
Growing plants requires different levels of light depending on their growth stage, and growing closer to the plant can increase light intensity and maximize photosynthesis. However, too close lights can cause wider, sprawling growth or damage. LED grow lights emit less heat than traditional HID and fluorescent T5 lights, so their proximity to the canopy varies. This article outlines the different lighting needs for various plants, including cannabis, based on their growth stage.
It also discusses determining the proper distance of LED lighting from the plant canopy to nourish plant growth and the importance of Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density). PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) describes the visible spectrum plants use for photosynthesis, while PPFD measures the amount of light a plant receives over time. PPFD represents the light density a plant receives over time, measured in micromoles per square meter per second.
Does a lamp count as sunlight for plants?
Light quality is a significant concern when growing plants using artificial light. While sunlight is best for plant growth, artificial lighting can improve the quality of light plants receive. When supplementing natural light, the spectrum (colors produced by the lamp) is important, with red, far-red, and blue wavelengths being most important for plant development. For healthy plants, all three wavelengths should be supplied.
Lack of light can cause indoor plants to become spindly or leggy, develop a lean, fade leaf color, diminished flowering, and poor growth. Brighter light results in more compact, better branched, and normal-sized leaves. Houseplants can fail after a healthy start due to inadequate light, and moving indoor plants back inside after spending the summer outside can cause leaf drop and yellowing. It takes time for plants to adjust to lower light conditions inside homes.
How can you increase the intensity of light?
To augment the luminosity of a given light source, one may consider increasing the wattage of the bulb, modifying the aperture on a camera, or employing supplementary light sources or reflectors to enhance the illumination.
Can I use a lamp as a grow light?
Incandescent and halogen lights are not recommended for grow lamps due to their high temperature, potential damage to foliage, and inefficiency in energy usage. Fluorescent lights are cheaper, more effective, and more efficient alternatives. Fluorescent lights are often used as grow lamps due to their availability, full spectrum lighting, and energy efficiency. They emit less heat and require fewer watts to produce the same amount of light.
Compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs can also be used as grow lights for small plants without a full grow lamp setup. For optimal results, ensure they offer full spectrum lighting and consult a gardening expert about the appropriate bulb type for your plants.
How can light quantity for plants be increased?
Plants are classified based on their light needs, which include high, medium, and low light requirements. The intensity of light received by indoor plants depends on the proximity of the light source to the plant, with southern exposures receiving the most intense light. Other factors such as window direction, weather, season, shade from other buildings, and window cleanliness also affect light intensity. Reflective surfaces inside homes or offices tend to increase light intensity, while dark surfaces decrease it.
Day length is also important for plants, with some flowers only occurring when days are 11 hours or less (short-day plants), while others are not sensitive to day length at all (day-neutral plants). To compensate for low light intensity, plants can increase their exposure time, as long as their flowering cycle is not sensitive to day length. However, plants require some period of darkness to properly develop and should be exposed to light for no more than 16 hours per day.
Additional lighting can be supplied with either incandescent or fluorescent lights. Incandescent lights produce a lot of heat and do not use electricity efficiently. If artificial light is the only source of light for growing plants, the quality of light or wavelength must be considered. Plants require mostly blue and red light for photosynthesis, but infrared light is also needed for flowering. Fluorescent lights vary according to the amount of phosphorus used by the manufacturer.
Cool-white lights produce mostly blue light and are low in red light, but they are cool enough to position close to plants. Foliage plants grow well under cool-white fluorescent lights, while blooming plants require extra infrared light, which can be supplied by incandescent lights or special horticultural fluorescent lights.
How to get more sunlight for plants?
To ensure your plants can tolerate low light, elevate them near windows with plant stands and tables, use grow-lights to supplement winter lighting, place plants near windows and bright walls, dust leaves to absorb sunlight, and clean windows well. Low light areas, such as near north-facing windows in winter, are ideal for plants that can tolerate it all. Cast iron plants, Chinese Evergreen, Snake Plant, Pothos, Ivey, Calathea, Rex Begonia, and ZZ Plant are low-light houseplants that grow well in shaded conditions and require minimal maintenance.
Is lamp light the same as sunlight for plants?
Sunlight is more efficient than artificial lights due to the spectrum produced by sunlight, which includes blue and red light for plant growth. Most artificial lights only produce green or yellow light, while a few emit both blue and red light simultaneously. This results in plants with weak, spindly branches and pale foliage, while adequate lighting can lead to smaller, stronger branches and dark green leaves.
However, artificial lights offer numerous benefits, such as customization of the garden. They allow for precise control over the wavelength of light emitted, the distance between the lights and the plant, and the amount of energy the plant absorbs. This allows for a more personalized and effective gardening experience. However, not all artificial lights can achieve the same results.
📹 Natural Lighting for Houseplants Tips & Tricks! | Indoor Plant Lighting!
In this video I talk about about natural indoor plant lighting! I discuss how much light indoor plants get from each direction window …
You also have to keep in mind obstruction outside. I have north facing windows in my bedrooms, but they’re actually brighter rooms because there’s no obstruction outside the windows, whereas my south facing living room is much darker because of the balcony overhang, pine trees and other buildings obstructing the light.
Hi Harli, I watch your articles all the time and they’re the best! This article is especially useful to me because I have a lot of plants and have been overlooking the importance of lighting needs for different types of plants. Some of my plants aren’t growing well. They’re alive, but they’re not looking the best and not growing well. After perusal this article, I’ve realized that I need to go through each of my plants and figure out if they’re getting the right amount of light. I’m actually going to re-watch this article just so I can take down notes to help me out. Thanks again for this great article; it’s a great help!
Hi Harli! I went a bit overboard as a new plant owner with a whole bunch of houseplants without really doing much research beforehand (very smart of me) but your articles are helping me feel a bit more confident about keeping them alive! The information is super helpful. I have a weird apartment set up – two E facing windows and a S facing window that opens up to a covered porch with a big tree in front… Kind of weird and difficult for me to tell where the best light is, but I am moving the plants around based on their preferred lighting and keeping a close eye on them. Thank you for all of these fantastic articles! Keep them coming!
Some good observations about lighting there Harli. It illustrated to me once again just how bright our light is here in New Zealand, we have possibly the most intense sunlight in the world due to our low air pollution and our proximity to the hole in the ozone layer. We are also closer to the sun in summer and winter than the northern hemisphere is, due to the elliptical orbit of the Earth – or so I’ve read. I have had to move plants away from south windows (equivalent to your north) and shift cacti to west windows from north (your south).
Thank you, this was so helpful! I live in So. Calif and since I’ve started growing plants I’ve become more observant about where the sun is. At this time of year, the sun sets in the northern sky, so my west facing windows get minimal direct sun late in the afternoon/early evening. My north windows, however get a lot of light, including a little direct sun and eastern exposure is the strongest. And although we have a lot of south facing windows, they get absolutely no direct sun at this time of year! Would love to hear from others who live in the southern parts of the country.
Fairly new plant mom here and loving it! Thanks for this. I continue to experiment with lighting, especially when trying to place grow lights this winter. So using a compass, I found out I have NW-facing windows (more W than N). The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so it makes sense that there’s more light in the afternoon onward. I use insulated sheer curtains so I don’t worry about cold drafts in the daytime anymore.
This was an important subject Harli, thank you for dealing with it. I’ve got a south east exposure with a somewhat spindly evergreen in front of it but all the plants except the Crassula’s like it all year round. The succulents need the southwest exposure of my screened porch in Summer. It’s important that your walls and ceilings are white for maximizing light levels throughout your home! A lot of pictures and things can lower light levels generally.
Looove your website! It’s very relaxing listening to your articles while working and learning how to better develop a green thumb 🙂 I unfortunately live in an apartment with predominantly west-facing windows, so it’s incredibly difficult getting my plants to thrive! I always want more plants, but it’s such a sad trade-off when I don’t have the adequate light to nourish them. Some day!
Helpful. Your articles are becoming my new favorites. I’m learning a lot about my plants from you. What I like is that you explain general stuff so I can help my plants even without specifically researching each one. I do that too though. If that makes sense. Like basically you give things to look for watch out for and ways to observe a plant and it’s behavior (growth/changez) and what that might indicate is needed to have More healthy beautiful plants. Today I was walking around homes depots. They had birdof paradise plants. Single pots for like 29 and bigger pot for 39 one plant per pot. I walked all over the sore determined just having a feeling there was going to be a less expensive one. I noticed a b.o.p. leaf poking out in a display of different large plants. I went over to look. It didn’t have the ID tag that all the others had around the stem with a picture and full lable. l picked it up and it had a tiny white price tag on the lower part of the pot that said “birdof” and was priced at 19.99 with two big bop plants in the pot. Hidden GEM im so happy Woohoo!!
Hi Harli! I absolutely love your articles! I love that you not only talked about the lighting but also mentioned the type of plants go best where. Question, I’m wanting to get a rubber tree but my apartment is east facing only. Do you recommend placing a rubber plant in my east apartment? Thank youuuuu for all that you do for us plant lovers!
I’m so jealous of all of your huge windows! I have windows in all directions but my east facing windows have a porch over them and the southern facing windows have another house blocking the light! So my house is LOW LOW light! I just moved in here and I’m trying to make sure they’re thriving! I just bought grow lights to see if they’ll help!
Hey Harli! Don’t know too many others with our name, so that was a cool surprise when clicking on this article 🙂 Anyway, great article and definitely helpful! The only two windows in my apt are south facing so I appreciate you explaining how many feet away they should be. If you do make another one of these anytime soon, the only thing I ask is maybe just holding the camera and showing the window and the plants in the same frame just to see the exact placement in reference to the window, a little better. But again, super helpful article, many thanks!
I don’t know if your croton is still in that spot, but I have learned that a Croton really wants a lot of light and direct sun, that seems to be true for mine, and lots of water too. just a tip ( let it gradually get used to more sun, but I am sure you know that right?!!) I love how you break up the windows, that was really helpfull. There are apps that measure the lux/lumen, comparing that, or putting that in would be really helpfull too, because that would give us exact numbers to go by. Love your article’s, have a great day! 👋🏼
Very helpful article. One of the most helpful articles I have found so far on natural lighting. I would like to see an update to this article in the future. I am also curious if your pet (can’t tell if it’s a cat or dog, I assume dog) eats or chews on your plants. I see you have a lot of plants that are highly toxic to cats & dogs. I would like to see a article on that (if you have one already please let me know).
Hey! I love your articles! You have such a bubbly fun personality! Thanks for explaining lighting. I am new to house plants and I live in Ohio where it seems to be gloomy most often. I also don’t have very many windows in my home. I have held back on getting plants that I really love because of my lighting situation. Do you think you could do a article on artificial lighting for people like me who struggle with proper natural lighting?
I have only 1 small southern window in a bathroom and that’s the darkest room in my house. I’ve even had low light plants suffer in there. My bathroom with a north window (larger window) is better for low light plants. Most of my plants are in my “plant room” which has, believe it or not, a west window😆 I just crack the blinds and don’t fully open them – and the only plants directly in front of the window are high light plants. The rest are beside the window or across the room from the window (so like 12 feet?) I feel like I’m doing everything wrong but it works in my house. And no, I’m not turned around on my directions. The sun sets in the plant room window👍I don’t even have a tree shading that window or anything and the room is blazing hot every evening compared to the rest of my house. 🤷♀️ I should also add I’m living at around 1250ft altitude so maybe that’s why. I never heard anyone mention the altitude component ☺
I understood your explanations well 🙂 thank you! I fell into the trap of buying all these plants and not researching or determining my light sources first. All of my windows are north facing and I’m bummed because it’s the lowest amount of light (my north windows face a side walk with light posts so I get artificial light at night? Not sure how strong it is though) So far most of my plants are surviving but I know they’d be happier with more light. I was going to buy more grow lights but I also thought of getting mirrors to bounce the light around??? Maybe it might be more complicated than it has to be but as you can see Im back at the drawing board 🤣 that ends my rant.
WOW!!! That was the best explanation and use of examples of light i have ever heard. I have been perusal and enjoying your articles for a while now but have never commented but for this i must and let me just say, “you know your stuff.” Everything you’ve shared I’ve tried with much success, thanks. I think I understand the lighting in my small space a little better now too, lol I’m still moving some of my babies to better living situations lol “thanks to you ” What’s Next? 🙂
You explain so well, but I still struggle with light. I have two windows, and I kinda have to do my best with what I have. And I try to keep my eye on stresses in the plants and relocate if I see any signs that disturb my plants. I wish there was an easy to read chart to follow and BOOM success but Im afraid it’s not that simple 😛 Maybe you could make a article about how to make room for lots og plants when you have little space? (:
I only keep house plants in my room because I don’t have my whole house to myself and I have one east facing windows. My plants are doing well right now:) I used to set my arrow head outside to get more light and the edges got crispy! And I was exactly like you! Before I got into plants I put one in my bathroom with no windows and I was like omg why did it die?! Hahaha 😘🤣🧤🌱👑
This is a great overview! I keep hearing the terms “bright indirect light,” “medium light” etc. and have really struggled to put those together with the facing of windows. I just bought a maranta and am trying to guess where it will be happiest. Right now it’s pretty close to an east facing window (I’m at high altitude too), and it gets a little from the west facing window on the other side of the room. Maybe I should pull it off to the side of the east facing window. 🤔
But my house has in-between directions. My windows are north east, south east and south west. I also have awnings over the majority of my windows. It’s all trial and error. I have heard bright indirect means the plant can see the sky but not the sun. I have some plants in my bathroom and changed out the light bulbs for 5000 Kelvin daylight bulbs and so far so good.
I love my place. The location in town, the layout is nice and amount of space has been working now for a couple years except the lighting! Most my plants would be dead if I hadn’t started using growlights to supplement the fact that my places only has a north facing sliding door and window also facing north in the bedroom. Hence why I’ve been interested in starting vivariums that have lots of plants and animals like frogs and small lizards. Gonna be a fun project!
ya i think the article was good. You couldnt really compare what the low, medium, and bright light looks like to put it in perspective so hard to know for sure. But i do have another question related to this article you may know the answer to. Here goes if your growing indoors and dont have any sunlight such as in a basement or other area of a place that just sun doesnt reach it. Is there better artificial lighting and what is your opinion on the best artificial lighting as well as the brightness levels compared to the lumens/lux of the artificial lighting source. ???
Hey Harli—have you ever seen a straw flower cactus? They’re pretty common in the big box stores in my city, and I wondered if you’ve ever come across them. They’re mammilarium (sp?) cactus that have a hot glued flower on them and I was wondering if you had any tips on removing the fake flowers without damaging the plant.
lol i was kinda shocked when you said you will only place low light plants in a room with a north facing window… I have a North-western window and i have a dieffenbachia, Alocasia’s, String of etc, Maranta/Calathea, Monstera, pilea, peperomia, scindapsus, hoya’s and pothos :p Oops They seem to be doing fine alltho i noticed plants do A LOTT better in my windowsill. Now with winter comming i am really struggling with light :p Thinking about buying growlights.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I’m so curious to know other people’s experiences with growing hoyas in eastern exposures. I thought hoyas were off limits for me because everything I’ve read/watched indicates that they need south or west facing windows, and I only have East facing. I’d love to hear others’ input. 🙂
You need about 400 lumens to 700 lumens of light for low light plants to be comfortable and grow. Here in the UK a lot of homes are dark but some house plants will be happy with artificial lightening from regular household bulbs or office lighting. My home is very dark, I get a bit of light on one side of the bedroom and the kitchen is the only bright place, the rest of the rooms in the house are too dark for house plants so I’m planing on running some extra lighting from solar power.
Hi harlii, I know this article was from awhile ago but I was wondering… I have a frosted glass window on the north-east side of of my house (southern hemisphere) and it gets great light. I was wondering, does frosted glass effect the amount of light that plants are getting? Does it become diffused? I’d love to put a plant infront of that window but hoping it doesn’t make it too diffused
You can say “the more light intensity there is” or I guess it would also be ok to say “the more intense the light is”. Anyway, intensity (power per a unit of area) is a physical parameter:) (Yeah, already you said it at the end ;)) ps. sorry for editing this comment for the third time, but I just want to say that you could show the light exposure by some mobile app that measures illuminance in luxes, at least it gives some idea on the light:)
I would just think that direct light is when there are no obstructions for the sun to shine on the plant. And indirect would be like ambient light or filtered light. In my mind that has little to do with directions. Also, it is really important to let your plants get slowly used to bright light, the same as taking them outside. First just 15 minutes of direct light for a few days and then increasing the time gradually until they can be left there. Just putting them next to a South facing window will burn them if they are not used to it.
I found a free app (Android) called Light Meter and it has helped SO MUCH. It uses your phone camera to measure the light intensity and it really helps to have actual numbers to work with. The app shows light readings in two different units – lux or foot candles. Guides I’ve found online say that between 25-250 foot candles is “low” light, from 250-1,000 is “medium” and anything above 1,000 is high.
Hey Harli, question! I live in an apartment with two big, Southeast facing windows. We get great morning light, and then it’s pretty bright all day. I have a grow light for my succulents, but will the southeast windows be enough for my other plants- I have two peperomias, a hoya, and a dracenea (and I plan on getting more)?
Thank you Harli !, Yes it did make a lot of sense and you covered many things I have not heard before and wondered about. I live in an area with intense heat most of the year and did notice that placing plants on the window sill just cooked them, so I did move them back to a more indirect location, and all is fine. I am just getting into indoor gardening and learning from content providers such as yourself. I think your cute personality comes through and makes things very understandable. Thanks again.
Hi, Harli! I grow almost a 100 plants and I live in two rooms apartment with only north facing windows and they seem to grow very fine. I grow cacti, calathea, succulents, monsteras, and lots of different plants (you can find them in my YouTube chanel). 🌴🌵🌱🌿 It depends, but to be honest with that light I dont have too many problems 🙂 I just try to keep plants closer to the window 🙂 And it seems to work 😎
I really Love house plants but I get absolutely almost no sun light through my windows. I get a fair amount of light in 2 windows come late fall through winter. Otherwise my windows are in a horrible position compared to where the sun is. Even then I can’t put plants in front of the window because that’s where my couch sits. I have a decent sized house but it has small closed off rooms. I also don’t love all my neighbors who walk the neighborhood to see into my home as they are trying to be nosy walking by. I typically only keep our blinds and curtains open in the living room. I have tried keeping them open for the plants but almost no light comes in this time of year. If I could I would much rather have sun light in my than to have to turn on my lights. I just don’t seem to get enough though. I have been using some plant light to help keep them alive.
So I have a south-west facing window, but there’s so many trees that filter the light, so I actually have my lower light plants like my Belgian waffle plant and prayer plant, and peace lily in that window. My succulents get bright south-east sun and they’ve been loving it there. Should I not have those plants in that west window orrr?
I’m so confused about where to put my peace lilly. It’s off to the side (about 4ft) of an east facing window and a north facing window. It constantly gets brown tips on its leaves and blackish spots in the middle of its leaves. Now that it’s winter it’s not browning but it’s not getting any new growth. 😕 I’m so frustrated. I can’t tell if it’s getting too much light or not enough.
My mom has some bamboo growing hydroponically in the basement that gets no sunlight and it’s fine it’s been growing for like 10 years and it’s like the curly bamboo and she has another like I think it’s called silver Ivy that grows in the basement with almost no natural light at all barely any light and it’s doing pretty good while it’s doing OK
I live in the top floor of a high rise apartment building, and only have SW facing windows, most of my plants do really well, but I have a jade plant that sits about 6 feet away, definitely not in direct light and it is super leggy and doesn’t grow anyway but up, do you think it is unhappy where it is? Should I re pot? Help!