What's an ideal indoor light setup for plants such as carrots, tomatoes, radishes, beets, pasley, basil, etc..

Question

I have very little experience with indoor growing, and I was wondering what would be the best type of light to grow with indoors. the plants in question include carrots, tomatoes (small and large), radishes, beets, cilantro, basil, oregano etc..

I was thinking of starting with simple CFL's (compact fluorescents, or maybe even fluorescent tubes. I have a couple 40 watt'ers on them right now and they seem to be liking it.) I was also wondering how much watts would be needed for all these plants? I have about 8 of each of the plants listed above, most of them are still in their seedling stage right now.

also, i was wondering what the technical differences between cool white, daylight, and sunshine light? and which one would be recommended for plants?

thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Your best bet is to stay with fluorescent lighting similar to what you are using.  Don't be tempted by the overpriced brands supposedly ideal for plant growth.  You can get by nicely with simple Cool White fluorescent tubes.  Nevertheless, fluorescent light can be deficient in output at certain wavelengths and this can cause problems with development processes.  So, include a little light from a conventional tungsten incandescent light bulb.  You don't need much of this light.  Indeed, one of the advantages of fluorescent light is its low heat output.  High levels of incandescent light invariably come with a lot of heat as well.  This can be a problem.

Plant will probably always do better with sunlight but you can succeed with indoor lighting using the tips above.  They work for me.