Plant Grow Lights Important For Bonsai
For growing bonsai plants, indoor light often becomes inadequate. So plant grow Lights are better outdoors, which is the reason why bonsai plants are mostly grown outdoors. It may be imperceptible to our eyes, but the truth is plant grow light levels drop sharply, the more you are away from a natural source of light.
It is said that indoors, the light levels reduce by half, with every 50cm from the window. This means light for plant growth is too low, even if you are having a bright window sill. Glass cuts off most of the UV rays that plants need for photosynthesis. Bonsai trees near windows facing south may fail to get enough plant grow light, but the sun might burn their leaves.
Inadequate light is certain to hamper plant growth. Any attempt made to grow will result in long internodes, and the plants tend to become ‘leggy’. In the effort to catch maximum light, leaves will become over-sized. To get the required plant grow light, trees grown indoors should be placed near sunny window-sills or provided with fluorescent lamps above it. This could be more than enough for many tropical plants but not so for ordinary woody temperate species.
Aquarium lights or ordinary fluorescent lamps kept about 6 inches above the tree for 14-16 hours every day can be used as supplementary lighting arrangement. Also it is not advisable to place trees near window-sills, closed with curtains during night. The temperature in between the curtain and window can dip rapidly at night.