How to Purchase an Indoor Plant Growing Light
Plants grown indoors need supplemental lighting since the light from windows or glass doors may not suffice to keep them healthy. When purchasing grow lights, figure out what kinds of lights you want to use. LED grow lights are efficient, but more expensive than compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs. Incandescent lights give off too much heat and don't give off light in the proper spectrums to be useful for growing plants. Plants need light in both the blue and red spectrums to grow well. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Decide how many plants you need to light. The more plants you need to light, the more lights you will need to purchase.
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Learn the differences between the different types of plant lighting. High intensity discharge lights, or HIDs, are the most efficient for lighting plants. However, the metal halide HIDs give off light in only the blue spectrum, while the high pressure sodium HIDs give off light in only the red spectrum. David Trinklein of the University of Missouri Extension Department of Horticulture suggests using a combination of warm and cool CFLs to light indoor plants since they are efficient, inexpensive and give off both red and blue light.
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Purchase the grow light lamp that will accommodate the grow lights you want to use. The local home improvement store should have a grow lamp and the grow light bulbs.
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Install the grow light bulbs into the grow lamps by screwing or snapping the bulbs into place. Plug the grow lamp into a power outlet and place the lamp 6 inches to 1 foot above the plants you want to light. Turn on the grow lights. Leave the grow lights on the plants between 12 and 16 hours a day.
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