Whether you need an extra 4’ feet of indoor gardening area or an entire room, it can be acquired by installing fluorescent lights.
Artificially lighted indoor gardens can be made in closets, attics, and basements; cabinets, bookcases, and planters; and in various kinds of lighted plant carts available by mail and locally, ready to use.
Artificial Lighting For Growing Plants
Growing plants by artificial lighting, a process termed “phyto illumination,” is so practical that gardeners everywhere enjoy its advantages.
With the possible exception of some orchids, geraniums, cacti, and other succulents, all house plants thrive and bloom under fluorescent lights.
Bulbs, tubers, and cuttings root quickly. Seedlings, too, are easy to grow because they bask in the light that knows no long or short seasons and no cloudy, snowy, or rainy days.
Ordinary Light Bulbs
Plants placed directly under the lights grow symmetrically with never a turn. Ordinary light bulbs were once used along with fluorescents, but we know now that they are unnecessary supplements.
All plants need properly balanced red and blue light rays to promote good growth and flowering.
Make an initial light setup using a pair of 40-watt fluorescent tubes labeled “daylight” and the other “natural.” Or, combine one “daylight” with one “deluxe warm white.”
GroLux Fluorescent Tube For Plant Growth
The increasing popularity of Phyto illumination has encouraged research, and recently a fluorescent tube designed specifically for plant growth, called GroLux, has been placed on the market.
Results have been strongly on the plus side, especially for plant propagation.
A Timer Is A Boon
Suspend tube and reflector (with chain, rope, or wire) about 18” inches from the plant table.
Burn lights 12 to 18 hours out of every 24, for example, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. A pair of ordinary 40-watt fluorescents, starters, and a reflector cost about $20.
Switch lights on and off manually, or purchase an automatic timer to do the job. A timer is a good investment, especially valuable at vacation time or for the gardener who leaves for work very early.
Operating Cost Of Artificial Lighting
The operating cost of artificial lighting varies from one locality to another. In my area, it is approximately one-fourth cent per hour for two 40-watt tubes.
Tubes last approximately a year, but the quantity of light they produce diminishes with age, and replacement yearly is wise.
The amount of bloom given by house plants depends on the foot candles of light they receive.
Foot-Candle: Measure of Illumination
A foot candle is a measure of illumination. African violets, for instance, need 300 to 600-foot candles of light.
Their requirements vary with age. Seedlings need more than older plants. Generally speaking, flowering-age African violets do well about 12” inches below the tubes.
Set Newly Planted Cuttings And Seedlings Closer
Set house plant cuttings and seedlings of all kinds as close as 3” to 4” inches from the tubes.
This good lighting will promote rapid, compact growth. Use lights to hasten growth on newly planted gloxinias, other gesneriads, tuberous begonias, and caladiums.
Dwarf Geraniums
Dwarf geraniums beautifully grow when given 18 hours of light per day and spaced, so there are about 6” inches between the plant tops and the tubes.
Begonias of all types flourish under lights. And to help forced bulbs develop perfectly, grow them under the lights while leaves and flower buds are maturing.
My First Light Set-Up
My first light setup, made several years ago, was a pair of light tubes in a 12”-inch reflector suspended by a chain over a collection of African violets, gloxinias, episcias, begonias, and oxalis.
My favorite now is a three-tiered portable cart which gives 24 square feet of ideal growing space.
Combination Case
Another unit I like is a bookcase with lights above the top shelf and books the under the shelf.
This combination case is 51” inches long, 32” inches high, and 18” inches wide. It is encased with sliding glass doors to maintain humidity.
I use this area as a display space for specimens of African violets, rex begonias, gloxinias, and episcias.
You may favor a light setup in an old-fashioned radio, television, or music cabinet. First, paint the interior of the cabinet white.
Set a plastic or galvanized tray on the bottom to hold the plants. Or, make an entire plant room in a cellar or heated attic.
Fluorescent Light-Grown Plants
Some enthusiasts grow hundreds of plants in such areas, and it is not unusual for fluorescent light-grown plants to win top prizes at major flower shows.
Tend an artificially lighted garden just as a window-sill collection.
While Phyto illumination takes the lighting problem out of indoor gardening, temperature, humidity, soil, and pest control are still important steps to success.
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