Houseplants Under Lights

Lesson 4: Proper Plant Selection and Care

Plants must be matched to the size of your light garden. Alternatively, you may design your light garden to match the needs of your plants.

Light Gardens

Goal: Student will make decisions about their light gardens and select plants suitable for it.

Resources: All of the recommended books in the Resources will be of help to you. In addition, the following Internet sources may answer your questions:

Tropicals and Exotics

HOUSE PLANTS

Georgia Extension Tele-tips: Houseplants

Botany.com: Index of Houseplants

Using your favorite search engine, type in the name of almost any plant species you are interested in to find one or more websites about this plant.

Indoor Gardening Styles

There are several types of indoor gardeners. Which category represents you?

Office worker-wants green plants around for decoration and for their health benefits.

General plant collector-simply picks up whichever plant catches their eye at the local florist or greenhouse.

Specialized collector-has identified a particular type of plant to collect. Examples: cacti, succulents, Hoya, Euphorbias, African violets, Streptocarpus, Gesneriads, Philodendrons, Aroids. This collector seeks to build a collection of the species within that genus or all the color variations within the species.

Compulsive collector-wants 1 of every plant known to man!

It's confession time. What type of plant collector are you? Your answer will determine the size light garden you need.

This course has operated under the assumption that you have or will soon invest in plant lights. You have many options:

• Professionally built systems (range of shelf sizes, number of shelves, and type of frame).
• Home-built utilitarian system located in basement or other out-of-the-way location in your home.
• Home-built system suitable for use in general living areas.

Your cost for this system varies widely. Search the internet for terms such as lite-cart, floral-cart, plant-cart, home-made light cart, or hydroponic systems. There are many manufacturers producing plant carts in a wide variety of sizes and prices today. Some units allow for additional shelves. The unit may use adjustable or non-adjustable shelves. If possible financially, always choose an adjustable shelf unit.

Whatever you do, be sure to allow for GROWTH of your plant collection. I've heard of too many newcomers buying a lite cart that just holds their current plants without consideration for collection growth. This is expensive since it is less costly to add additional shelves to an existing unit than to purchase entirely new units.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Various Systems

Home-built light carts are normally less expensive than commercial units. Users of the various plant email discussion groups frequently discuss their plans for home-made units. I suggest you join one or more of these groups (most often found at yahoogroups.com) and ask their members to make recommendations. I've been truly amazed at the various models individuals have constructed. Some have been built for only $50-$100 dollars while others have cost $1000 or more. It all depends on what you choose.

I was fortunate to find a used commercial model at a local hydroponics store. May I suggest you locate this type store near your home? Alternatively, Burpee and Park Seed both offered models this past year. Several friends that specialize in Gesneriads built their own carts.

Review lesson 1 for choosing your lights. If you choose to build your own cart, be sure to plan ahead for the type light fixture you will be using. Some fixtures are cool enough that they can be as close as necessary to your plants while others emit so much heat that they will have to be far enough away to avoid cooking your plants. The type plant you want to grow will determine the number of footcandles of light needed. You must take this into consideration before investing your money in plants. If you want to collect Euphorbias, for example, you will need lights emitting higher footcandles than those needed to successfully grow and flower Gesneriads.

Another important consideration is the size of the plants you wish to collect. In general, only small plants (usually 18" or less can easily be grown on a light cart. Example: I collect Pelargoniums. As full sized plants, their flowers reach above my lights. Therefore, I hung two 2-tube shoplights over my entertainment center to provide adequate lighting and growing space for these plants.

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