Asked by: Latashia Carnero
home and garden outdoor decorating

Are fluorescent lights OK for plants?

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Fluorescent lights are ideal for plants with low to medium light requirements, like African violets. They are also good for starting vegetables indoors. In addition to this, fluorescent bulbs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent lights.


Simply so, what plants do well with fluorescent lights?

  • African Violet. The African violet (Saintpaulia spp.) is one of the most satisfactory flowering plants for growing under lights, states David Trinklein of the University of Missouri.
  • Peace Lily. The peace lily (Spathiphyllum sp.)
  • Snake Plant.
  • Philodendron.
  • Dracaena.

how far should fluorescent lights be from plants? Grow Light Placement Tips As a rough guide, incandescent grow light bulbs should be at least 24 inches over your plants. Fluorescent and LED lights have a lower heat signature, so they can be placed 12 and 6 inches over plants respectively.

In this manner, is LED or fluorescent better for plants?

When your grow requires a long daily run—particularly in the vegetative stage—LEDs can offer a smarter and more efficient choice. Although LEDs often have a higher installation cost, these bulbs last longer and use less electricity. While fluorescent options emit heat and light in all directions, LEDs are directional.

Is a fluorescent light the same as a grow light?

Fluorescent grow lights can be an inexpensive lighting option for a small farm operation, but not every fluorescent light is the same. If you're not using the right kind, you won't have enough light to grow.

Related Question Answers

Eddin Veivelman

Professional

Which flower plant can grow without sunlight?

Bromeliads
Bromeliad is a perfect plant to grow indoors, most of the varieties of this plant thrive easily in a container in shade. Indeed, it is a tropical plant but you can grow it anywhere, indoors. It can even grow in luminescent light.

Shamsa Badt

Professional

Can plants live with only artificial light?

Sunlight is the perfect balance of wavelengths necessary for plant growth and blooming, but you can also use artificial light to help your plants along. In fact, low-light foliage plants (such as pothos and peace lily) can grow quite nicely in windowless offices with enough artificial light.

Aleko Colina

Professional

Can snake plants survive without sunlight?

Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata)
These plants can be neglected for weeks at a time; yet, with their stripy leaves and architectural shape, they still look fresh. Additionally, they can survive low light levels, drought and have few insect problems.

Franciszek Viricel

Explainer

Can plants survive without natural light?

All plants can survive for short periods without light. Obviously, they need to be able to last through the night, but they can also cope with a longer darkness in an emergency. No plant can live without sunlight forever.

Stefano Cabestany

Explainer

Can plants grow under LED lights?

Technically, yes you can use any LED lights to grow plant, but that doesn't ensure your plants will grow healthy or efficiently, as regular LED lights will not contain enough color or light spectrum which plants need to Photosynthesis. So if you want to grow indoor, It's better buy a specialized LED grow lights.

Davi Werthmanns

Explainer

Do snake plants need sunlight?

Light: As we've mentioned, snake plants are very hardy options that are easy to care for. While they can withstand full sun and handle low light, indirect sunlight is ideal for a snake plant. Water: Snake plant can easily rot so make sure the soil is well-drained and don't water it too much (especially in winter).

Icar Salmoral

Pundit

Can succulents survive without natural light?

Succulents and cacti “are very tolerant of low-light conditions. They don't have to be near a window to thrive,” he said. In fact, some succulents will grow in areas where there is no natural light, such as rooms without windows.

Jianfang Siegell

Pundit

Do ferns need a lot of water?

Outdoor Ferns
As a rule, they prefer 1 to 2 inches of water a week, but this also depends on the soil and the growth rate. Ferns grown in light, sandy soil require more frequent watering than those grown in dense clay soil. Check the soil often and develop a watering routine that keeps the soil moist, but not soggy.

Valdemir Larrapota

Pundit

What type of lights grow plants?

Types of Grow Lights
  • Incandescent bulbs cost just a few dollars and are the cheapest option.
  • Fluorescent lights are the most popular choice for home growers.
  • High Intensity Discharge solutions like Metal Halide (MH) and High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights are good choices, though expensive to purchase and operate.

Wissal Contador

Pundit

Will 6500k LED grow plants?

Red light induces flowering. Most plants will grow better around the 6500k spectrum, while flowering plants will grow better in the 2700k spectrum.

Bernabela Mukov

Pundit

Is fluorescent better than LED?

As good as fluorescent light efficiency has become, LED is better (and continues to improve at a more rapid pace). As long as fluorescent lights last, LED light last much longer. Further, fluorescent lamps require the use of a ballast to stabilize the internal current that produces light.

Ayose Badorrey

Teacher

Can plants grow in office fluorescent light?

For example, those in the aroid family, such as Spathes, Sansevieria and Pothos, are all examples of good plants for indoors and that can do well under fluorescent lights. These low light plants are also slower growing. They are that way because of the small amount of light that they need.

Hyun Waidhaas

Teacher

Can I use regular CFL bulbs to grow plants?

CFL bulbs provide the light wavelengths that plant need for growth and produce much less heat than conventional fluorescent or incandescent bulbs. Compared to sunlight, CFL bulbs produce far less light intensity, so multiple bulbs may be needed to provide enough light for healthy plant growth.

Afrodisio Dittberner

Teacher

What does 6500k light mean?

The 6500K is a description of the “color temperature” which compares the color of the light to an incandescent bulb whose filament is operating at 6500K. This would be a relatively blue tinted light, more comparable to natural daylight which includes direct solar radiation and scattered blue light from the atmosphere.

Baudelio Parness

Teacher

What is the difference between LED and fluorescent lights?

A fluorescent light has an average life span of 10,000 hours, whereas traditional incandescent is around 1,000 hours. LED (light emitting diode) is a two-lead semiconductor light source. LED light, while more expensive up front, lasts longer and is more energy efficient than fluorescent light.

Bintu Aderikhin

Reviewer

Do LED lights work for hydroponics?

This is truer in larger gardens where gardeners need a good spread of light. However, generally, the answer about LED lights working for hydroponics is yes, as longs as growers don't expect miracles which are often used as part of the marketing for these new lighting fixtures.

Adelo Jiharevitch

Reviewer

Do you need full spectrum lights to grow plants?

Like plants growing outdoors in the sunlight, indoor plants grow best under full-spectrum bulbs, which produce a balance of cool and warm light that replicates the natural solar spectrum. They're excellent for seedlings as well as houseplants, culinary herbs and other plants.

Zinica Babakulov

Reviewer

How far should a 1000 Watt HPS light be from plants?

So, for example, a 1000w HPS distance from plants for bloom would start at 36 inches and gradually move closer.

Laurice Goebels

Reviewer

Can I leave my grow light on 24 hours?

Because dark reactions do not require the absence of light, plants will remain healthy when exposed to light 24 hours a day. There are some plants, however, that will survive but not thrive without darkness.

Co-Authored By:

EveryThingWhat Staff Editor

15

20th May, 2020

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