Indoor Plants, Very Low Light

[Chris0909]

I'm looking to start up a (very small at first) indoor garden. I've done this before without much of an issue, but that was a couple years ago and the situation now is a little different. I live in a house with roommates and pets (dog and cat), so the only real place I can put a plant or three is going to be in my bedroom. However, I live in the Pacific Northwest and work nights, meaning the shades are drawn during the day and almost no real sunlight gets through. This is especially the case in winter, given that we don't have much sun to begin with and I am guaranteed to be sleeping during that time.

Are there any good, easily-obtained plants for a situation like this, or am I going to just have to deal with not having any plants until/unless I move to a day shift schedule? Low maintenance is a plus, but not 100% necessary. In the past, my favorite plants were a spider plant and a snake plant.

Alternately, is there an easy and hopefully cheap set up for a grow light or two that I can run at night when I'm awake? I've not had any indoor plants for about a year and I'm missing having some around.

 

[LordJoshaeus]

A simple daylight bulb or cool white LED bulb (between 4000-6500K color temperature), easily found at walmart, will grow plants reasonably well as long as it is close to the plants. I'd recommend getting a light meter (about $15-$20 online) if you go that route to make sure the plant is getting enough light. Here is a calculator that allows you to convert lux (lumens per square meter) to light plants can actually use; https://www.waveformlighting.com/horticulture/convert-lux-to-ppfd-online-calculator

To calculate how much useful light the plant is getting, get a lux measurement (if the light meter only does footcandles, multiply the foot candle value by 10.76), use the calculator, and multiply the resulting PPFD (photon flux) value (in umol/s/m2) by 3600 and the number of hours the light is on. Most low-medium light plants (chinese evergreens, african violets, etc) do well at 4-6 million umol a day (or 4-6 mol...a mol is 1,000,000 umol).

Here's an example. Let's say you have an african violet under a 4000k cool white bulb that is on 12 hours a day, and your light meter shows it is getting 600 footcandles of light. 600 times 10.76 gives us 6,456 lux; putting this into the above calculator shows us that the plant is getting sbout 115 umol/s/m2. Multiply that value by 12 (hours) and 3600 (the number of seconds in each hour) gives us 4,968,000 umol/day/m2; if you want mol, dividing this by one million (1,000,000) gives us 4.968 mol. Either way, that is adequate for an african violet.

 

[oneeye]

Find a spot you want to grow in your room, take measurements and that will determine what type of light to buy. I run many grow lights during the Winter to keep my plants healthy. I use lights for cuttings, seedlings, house plants, cactus, succulents and even a 8x7ft Ficus benjamina, and large rubber tree. I just love my lights and my plants love them too. The trick is to use a appliance timer to turn the lights on and off everyday exactly the same time everyday. You can mimic Winter with short days or Summer with Long days, it all depends on the type of plants you want to grow.

 

[oneeye]

I paid $40 bucks for the shop lights at home depot and a case of bulbs. The shelf plants are a 2 bulb T12 only uses 80 watts. The other photo is two 4ft 4 bulb T8s shop lights 300 watts total in a closet. I have LEDs also but for the money you can't beat low wattage fluorescent lights. I know they work just by looking at my plants. My plants grow better in the Winter under lights than outdoors in the Summer I love my lights.

 

[oneeye]

I forgot my snake plants, they grow in a closet too, "kind of beat up" but they are the easiest of all the plants to grow indoors.

 

[musicalplants]

Aspidistra (Cast Iron Plant) is a good classic. Snake Plants are ok and Marantas don't mind low light. What about considering a lit terrarium and grow your own plant world?

 

[oneeye]

I'm surprised how this cactus orchid is thriving growing under fluorescent lighting.

 

[oneeye]

I have a new baby about 45 days old under two 40 watt bulbs, (80 watts) total. It takes a while but once this plant starts growing a stem, you can see it grow a little each day. Amazing Plant and so much fun to grow indoors!

 

[oneeye]

The method I use to tell if and when to fertilize my plants is the same method greenhouse growers use. Its so easy to do and the accuracy is amazing. I take clean rain water and test the the water and then water my plants. Collect a little water in the drain tray under the plant and test it again. Its so easy with a TDS meter. The first photo plain rain water. The 2nd photo is the test. The 3rd photo is fertilized plant. And the last is drain water you catch in the bottom of the tray. Just takes a few minutes to test. Never over or under fertilize your house plants again using this method.