By necessity most indoor garden plants do not have access to the light of the sun as often as they need. Compact fluorescent plant light bulbs give indoor garden plants the light they need not only to survive, but thrive.
The benefits of using fluorescent plant tubes and compact fluorescent light bulbs in your home garden are many. Due to the very low energy consumption of these types of light bulbs, heat produced is minimal. Compact fluorescent light bulbs also offer color temperatures from low 2000K to over 9000K; this fact coupled with wide color spectrum output along could make the case for using CFLs for your indoor garden plants.
Although compact fluorescent light bulbs are the ideal for indoor garden plants, they are not without minor flaws. If the light bulbs are not appropriately placed, they can be very inefficient and lead you to install more bulbs than would normally be necessary.
There is a cheap and effective way to aid in the positioning of your indoor garden plant light bulbs; purchase some reflectors and attach them to your compact fluorescent grow light bulbs. Compact fluorescents emit 360 degrees of light, but most of it is wasted. The most efficacious part of the bulb is just 90 degrees of that 360 degree spread. Reflectors can help direct the light to a single chosen location. Get an assortment of compact fluorescent light bulbs in varying wattages and size, so you can wage the most optimal light doable throughout all stages of your indoor garden plants’ lives.
Remember what I stated about compact fluorescent light bulbs causing very tiny heat? This is a large boon to indoor garden plants; you can place the bulbs close to the plants to grant for maximum light penetration without having to worry about burning them like you would with a fiery hot incandescent. This isn’t everything about indoor gardening, but it’s a good primer. Go forth armed with this knowledge, and create beautiful indoor gardens!