CFL Grow Lights

CFL standards for compact fluorescent light. These are a miniature version of the fluorescent lights that you see in large stores. Usually they are spiraled up and can fit into a regular light socket. Although they provide pretty good lighting output for everyday use, they’re not perfectly suited for plant growth. Ideally, a grow light would completely replace the energy derived by sunlight. There are several lighting technologies that make a good effort at this but CFL grow lights are still lacking in this department. Most growers experience mediocre results at best.

Although CFL grow lights provide more light output than their regular fluorescent counterparts, they don’t produce the right kind of light. Plants need a variety of light across the entire color spectrum, which CFLs have much difficulty achieving. Of course, you can still use them to complement another source of light or for short term use while another solution is found.

Since the plants in people’s indoor gardens don’t respond well to the light from CFL’s people think they aren’t providing enough light to the plants. A frequent move by new gardeners is to go out and buy even more bulbs or higher wattage CFL grow lights. This will provide a lot more light to your plants (maybe to their detriment), but doesn’t solve the problem. More light does not fill in the gaps that the plants are missing. A better idea is to use the compact fluorescent in combination with sunlight from a window. Even if the sunlight is dim and only lasts a couple hours, it might be enough to fill in the gaps that the grow light can’t provide.

If you’re serious about growing an indoor garden of some type, then you should really consider other types of growing lights. LED grow lights, standard fluorescent grow lights, and high pressure sodium grow lights are all better alternatives to compact fluorescents. These technologies have bulbs and light fixtures specifically designed to provide plants with all of the lighting they need. You will be sure to get results with any of these, but the guarantee of success is a lot more expensive.