Boost your houseplant success and expand your indoor garden with the help of supplemental grow lights! Insufficient light can cause plants to struggle, but advances in lighting technology have made indoor growing more feasible, with energy-efficient options that are also visually appealing. Now you can transform those dark corners of your home into lush, green spaces!
Signs That Your Plants May Need More Light
- Plants are growing smaller leaves than normal
- Variegated or bright foliage is turning solid green
- Plants are growing more slowly than usual (not just in Winter)
- Plants become more leggy or have sparse growth
- Plants have browning leaf tips and edges
- Plants are leaning towards the light
Our Favorite Indoor Grow Lights
Although it can seem a little intimidating to read about different light features, it is really not super complicated. It’s important to understand a few terms that will help you figure out which grow light is best for you and your plants. To make it simple, we have selected the best lights we found to carry in our stores:
We The Wild Instant Sun Grow Bulb
The Instant Sun Grow Bulb is a bulb that can be installed into any E26 lamp base to replace traditional incandescent and HID lights.
- Power Consumption: 10 watts
- Input Voltage: 120-240V
- Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF): 9.0736 umol/s
- Max Brightness (Lumens): 503 lm
- Color Rendering Index (CRI): 95%
- Light Color Temperature: 3000K
- Estimated lifespan: 50,000 hours
MiracleLED Wide Angle Grow Lite Bulb
The MiracleLED Wide Angle Grow Lite is another simple bulb option that can be installed into an existing light fixture or desk lamp.
- 270 degree, wide-angle coverage
- Power Consumption: 9 watts (replacing up to 150W)
- Photosynthetic Photon Flux (PPF): 1900 micromoles
- Max Brightness (Lumens): 1000 lm
- Light Color Temperature: 5000K
- Estimated Lifespan: 20,000 hours
Soltech Solutions Aspect LED Growlight
The Soltech Aspect LED Growlight is a stylish, pendant-style grow light that plugs directly into a wall socket and provides the ideal light spectrum for lush growth while also fitting in with your home décor. It includes a light fixture and bulb, 15-foot cord, timer, and hardware for hanging.
- Power Consumption: 20w (small), 40w (large)
- Max Brightness (Lumens): 1500 lm (small), 3000 lm (large)
- Color Rendering Index (CRI): 97%
- Light Color Temperature: 3000K
- Estimated Lifespan: 90,000 hours (5 year warranty)
Light Placement & Running Times
The distance at which the light should be from your plants depends on brightness and coverage. If using as the only light source, it’s best used for medium to low light plants. The closer the light is to the plants, the brighter it will be, but overall lighting surface area is decreased.
The Soltech Aspect light, for example, can be placed 3 feet above plants and provide light in a 3 by 3-foot area. As supplemental lighting, place up to 4 feet away for bright, indirect light (great for a Fiddleleaf Fig) or up to 2 or 3 feet away for bright light plants such as succulents and cacti.
For most general growing purposes, lights are best run on timers for 12–16 hours each day with the dark period coinciding with natural nighttime.
Grow Light Terminology Explained
Incandescent, Flourescent & LED Lights
- Incandescent lights tend to have high heat output, a short lifespan, and are not energy efficient, but often have a low purchase cost. They must be about 24″ above plants to avoid burning.
- Fluorescent lights have low heat output, last longer, and are more energy efficient than incandescent lights. They often come in CFL form or long tubes and can be 6–12″ above plants.
- LED lights have a very low heat output, are long-lasting, and are extremely energy efficient, but purchase cost is usually highest.
Color of Light
“Full-spectrum” indicates the color and temperature of the light. Filters are used to copy color variations of the white light from the sun, giving off a “warm” light color. “Daylight” bulbs are easily confused with full-spectrum, but are not the same thing. They have a “cool” color or appear as more of a blue-white light.
Colored lights are also available for more specialty growing. A violet-blue light spectrum favors chlorophyll production and vegetative growth while red light stimulates and supports flowering and fruit formation.
Color Rendering Index (CRI)
The CRI helps measure how light appears to our eyes—a way to measure how accurately light renders the colors of objects it bounces off of compared to natural light (e.g. “Does this light make red look red?”). Full-spectrum light has a CRI of 90% or higher while daylight bulbs are only at about 80% CRI.
Light Temperature (Kelvin Scale)
Another way to express the quality of light as cool or warm is by measuring in Kelvins. The higher the number, the cooler/bluer the light appears (6000 Kelvin has a blue-white light; 3000 Kelvin has a yellowish glow).
Watts, Lumens, Lux (Lumens/Square Meter) & PAR
- A watt is a unit of power, measuring the amount of energy used.
- A lumen is the direct measurement of light output or brightness that is visible to the human eye (a 60-watt light will output about 700 lumens).
- PAR (photosynthetic active radiation) is the light radiation that plants use to photosynthesize.
Lumens are for humans, PAR is for plants. PAR levels decrease the further you get from the light source (counted in photons and micromoles).