Winter is fast approaching, would you let your potted plants go dormant or use growlights? Growlights have kept my African violets blooming all through the winter months, so have other my houseplants like verbenas and peace lilies. My ficus Benjamina did not lose a leaf all winter. Do you use grow lights for your indoor plants or for the plants you bring indoors for winter?
I recently started looking up grow lights for my veggie container garden. I grew a few varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce etc. I would like to keep my garden growing through the winter and thought about grow lights. They are pretty expensive so I will keep on looking.
iluvmario, Actually the ones in the market are really expensive. I found a few on sale, these are solar powered and are awesome for my indoor plants, they look fancy too. I put them in pots outside during the day and when they are charged I use them for my indoor plants. I have had my local electrician fix up led bulbs for most of what I use in my balconies. You could get this done too. These are not fancy stuff but serve the purpose very well and at such affordable prices.
You are giving me an idea to use lights, not necessarily "grow lights", but just regular light from a run-of-the-mill lamp. I know that will work too. It may not work as well as a grow light, but still. The solar powered ones that you wrote about sound good (and cost effective); I'm going to have to look into solar powered grow lights. I have one plant in particular that is not growing because it is not getting enough light. It was flourishing for awhile when I had it right in front of a window that got good sun. Now, I have moved the plant into my kitchen and it is having a hard time. Although the plant is right in front of a window, I keep the blinds closed and the curtain drawn on this particular window because if I open them, anyone who happens to be outside can see right into my house. Also, the apartments that are right next door to me would be able to see straight in as well. Artificial light is definitely in order. What is fabulous to me is you writing that your African violets bloomed all through the winter months. That is great! I love the purple blooms on African violets. I have a couple of African violets, but they are dormant (hopefully just dormant) after being in storage for a couple years. I don't know if I can make them come back or not. Gonna give it a try though.
The ordinary lights surely work, before the grow lights were there I used tube light for my plants. With the regular bulbs you have the chances of burning a plant. My friend burnt her Ficus benjamina with that. So ensure you put them at the right height. These bulbs consume too much electricity. The LED bulbs in the grow light don't consume much electricity. The red, green and white lights help plants differently. Red light promote flowering and this is what I have for my African violets. I have some heliotrope and pink ones too. They look awesome on my coffee table where I often display them.
I haven't had a problem indoors yet to need grow lights. Most of my growing until now has been in containers outdoors and it doesn't get cold enough where I have to worry about my plants that much. I'm expanding now so I'll have to see how things go, but I'm not sure if I want to use grow lights or not. I suppose if I had no other options I would have to, but so far my indoor plants seem to be getting enough light.
I use regular lights for my indoor plants when it is overcast outside as it is today. I have a peace plant that has been put in the lower level that is dark and cold. I will need to put a lamp close to the plant so that it does get better light. If I had more room I would have more plants and would probably look into getting a grow light.
Pat, most of my plants are indoors and are very healthy. If you get a grow light you could group at least around ten to twelve small pots under it. My peace lilies are looking good and always in bloom. I need to separate the plants and re pot them as they have got over crowded. My tomatoes are ready to give fruit. I enjoy my indoor garden so much that I keep talking about grow lights all the time. LOL
I have a peace lily that I rescued from my aunt. She wasn't watering it enough and it was often droopy. It has gotten too large for the pot it is in so I want to divide it into several smaller plants. I have been thinking about trying it outdoors as well since I have such limited space indoors. Right now it sits on top of the refrigerator and gets decent sun from a nearby window. I'm hoping I can just position the plants I have now where they can get enough natural light without having to worry about a grow lamp.
I am sure that your peace lilies would love to be out. I had planted peace lilies and cana lilies along our apartment block's driveway when I was the president of the association. They look fabulous now.. the purple and white fluttering in the breeze. Peace lilies are such non fussy plants and can take anything.
Well that settles it then! We have some other lilies in the back yard that I am guessing are day lilies that my grandmother planted so long ago they may have been around longer than I have. They have been mistreated quite a bit by contractors and trampled by children so much that I feared they wouldn't bounce back. The leaves are back and I am waiting to see flowers, but I have been thinking of digging them up and potting them. Also, I am now starting to think they are too dense and need to be separated. I hope they can survive the transplant after being in the ground for so long.
Lily bulbs are so hardly that they withstand any kind of treatment.. I had some day lilies in one container.. but for some reason it dried out..I dug out the dirt added fresh soil to it and planted some other plants in the container thinking that the lilies were dead... The other plant did even have a chance.. some little bulb hidden somewhere.. grew out and spread itself all over the container. I am guessing that you are finding yourself some nice treasures.
Wow, Maddie, that lily was a serious survivor! These lilies have certainly been through some stuff, and have fared far better than my grandmother's last surviving rose bush. I am so angry over what happened with that, but I won't go into it. I only hope it is in a dormant state and can come back next year. I doubt I would see any growth before then since it's technically winter, but it's so frustrating to even think about. I may put the lilies in bags until I can come up with a better permanent home for them. Right now though, I am overrun with garlic, lol. I think I got a little carried away.
Actually, most plants reflect a majority of the green spectrum, so green is unusable. NASA did a study, and found that red and blue were the best colors for promoting plant growth and flowering.
Thanks for that information.. I need to check this out. All my grow lights have either red green or white/yellowish light in them. I may have to replace the bulbs, I have been using these over the last two years and my plants have done wonderfully.
