Collin College Fall

Light ‘em up now for better garden results


by | Dec 6, 2017 | Life & Style

By Melinda Myers

It’s time to break out the seeds and potting mix to start your garden plants indoors.  It’s a great way to keep your green thumb in shape over winter. Plus, you’ll save money, increase your variety of plants and jump start the growing season when you start seeds under LED grow lights.

Indoor growing conditions often offer limited light and that can mean tall leggy transplants with weak stems.  You can greatly increase your success by investing in quality grow lights.  Adding artificial light to your seed starting regime results in stout transplants with strong stems and deep green leaves.

Invest wisely when shopping for indoor plant lights.  Fluorescent tubes used to be the standard because they provided a wide spectrum of light needed for plant growth and flowering, were relatively inexpensive and readily available. Unfortunately, they used significant amounts of electricity and needed to be replaced every few years. Then many gardeners shifted to full spectrum fluorescent grow lights.  Many last longer than the older and larger fluorescent tubes, but new LED grow lights (gardeners.com) provide even better light intensity with much less energy.

For the full story see the December 6 issue or subscribe online.

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