The conventional advice was to turn lights on for 16 hours each day. Most vegetables and garden plants require at least 16 to 18 hours of light each day without enough light, they get pale and leggy. There's still debate about how many hours of supplemental light is ideal when starting seeds and growing plants indoors. In general, the leaves should be about 2 - 4 inches away from the light source (assuming use of a fluorescent bulb – see below). So, for example, a brighter bulb that's farther away from the plant could provide the same light intensity as a dimmer bulb that's closer to the plant.ĭifferent plants have different light intensity needs, but most seedlings grown for the garden will need higher intensity light to flourish. The intensity of light that a plant receives is determined by the wattage of the bulb and the distance between the plant and the light source. Lamps with a rating of 5000 Kelvins will appear bluish, while those with a 2500 Kelvin rating will be reddish. You can tell which color a grow light produces by looking at its Kelvin rating. Blue light regulates plant growth, which makes it ideal for growing foliage plants and short, stocky seedlings (but too much will result in stunted plants). Red light stimulates vegetative growth and flowering (but if a plant gets too much, it will become tall and spindly). Sunlight contains the complete spectrum of light, including all colors of the rainbow.Īlthough plants use the full spectrum for photosynthesis, red and blue light seem to be most critical. Light color is also referred to as color temperature, with cool light describing the blue end of the spectrum and warm light being the red end. This primer on indoor lighting for seed starting will help you choose the options that work best for you. But for the rest of us, an indoor lighting system of some kind is a necessity. For those of us lucky enough to have a south-facing window with 12+ hours of full sun, lighting isn’t an issue. Anyone who’s tried growing plants from seed knows that proper lighting is critical to producing an abundance of stocky, green seedlings.
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