by Lisa M LaVergne

Created on: March 05, 2009

Using grow lights to start your seedlings early is a great way to get a jump start on the gardening season. For the beginner however, using grow lights may seem a bit daunting. Fortunately, it is really quite simple to use grow lights to start your garden plants, and once you learn the basics, you'll be able to garden like the pros.

The Different Types of Grow Lights

The first step in using grow lights is to determine which type of plant grow lights will work best for you. There are a number of different types of grow lights available, and each works differently depending on your specific needs.

Fluorescent grow lights are some of the most commonly used lights for indoor gardening. Within the fluorescent grow light category, there are a number of different lights to choose from including standard fluorescents, high output fluorescents, compact fluorescents and HID hybrid/ High output fluorescent lights. For the beginner gardener looking to start seedlings for their garden, standard fluorescent grow lights are the best choice.

The other types of grow lights that are often available to the home gardener include LED grow lights, high intensity discharge grow lights, metal halide grow lights and incandescent grow lights. While some of these lights work quite well for indoor gardening, they can be a bit difficult to use. So for the sake of keeping it simple for the beginner indoor gardener, using standard fluorescent lights is the best choice.

Setting Up Your Indoor Garden Grow Lights

For the most part, people choose to use grow lights because they are unable to provide their plants or seedlings with natural sunlight. While seeds can be started indoors on a windowsill to expose them to natural sunlight, this isn't always an option which is why so many people turn to using grow lights for starting their plants.

Having a place in your home where you can set up your plants where they will not be disturbed and where you can adequately place your grow lights is the first step in getting started in indoor gardening. You will want to make sure that you have easy access to electrical sockets to plug your lights in, and determine how you are going to set the lights up.

When you set up your grow lights for your plants, keep in mind that your light needs to be no further than 5 inches away from the top of your plant containers. Your light will need to be adjustable as well, so that as the plants grow, you can move the light higher accordingly. You do not need to worry about the light bulb burning your plant, as fluorescent lights burn very cool and do not produce a lot of heat.

Turning on the Lights

In order to be successful in using your indoor grow lights, you will need to establish a pattern for when the lights will be on, and when they will be off. Just as there is day and night in nature, plants that are started indoors need their "day and night" as well. The easiest way to achieve this, is to set your grow lights on a timer which will turn the lights on and off at the same time every day. A good rule of thumb is to provide your plants with twelve hours of light and twelve hours of dark, until they are ready to be hardened off and transplanted outside.

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