Fixture Garden Indoor Light

About Indoor Lights

Indoor garden lights come in a wide variety of fixture these days. Gone are the days when you had to have a lot of space to install a shelf with a long fluorescent bulb to help your plants grow.

Those options are still available, of course; now however, grow lights can be installed in a wide variety of fixtures. You can buy light fixtures that were designed with helping plants grow in mind.

Probably the most popular option for true garden enthusiasts who have a lot of money and space for their indoor growing space are the metal light fixtures and hoods that use specialized bulbs to help plants grow.

These fixture garden indoor light options include those aquarium-style grow lights, as well as smaller hoods that look more like spotlights. Different kinds of bulbs may be used, including high-pressure sodium bulbs and metal halide bulbs, which produce more light in the blue spectrum. These bulbs help vegetables and flowering plants grow stronger.

If you don't have space for a large indoor greenhouse setup and are looking for other fixture options, you can also buy grow bulbs that fit into light fixtures you already have in your home. This way you can put a single plant under a grow light to keep it happy during the winter, for instance, and then change to a regular bulb when the plant goes back outside in the spring.

There are also spotlight-type grow light fixtures that you can buy to use with these bulbs. They are much less expensive than the larger options and can be moved more easily if you don't need them year round. They are great for lighting orchids.

Buying Fixture Garden Indoor Light Products

If you have a local garden supply center that focuses on houseplants, orchids or other indoor gardening, you may be able to find indoor garden light fixtures there. Alternatively you should be able to find basic grow light bulbs and some fixtures to fit them at your favorite hardware or home improvement store.

If you'd rather shop online for these products, check out the following websites:

• Specialty Lights has a huge selection of grow lights and fixtures, most of which are on the higher end of the price scale. There's lots of good information here about the differences between different kinds of lights, how to position your lights and more.
• Home Harvest sells a basic spotlight grow light fixture and bulbs that can be used in their spotlight or in any fixture that uses standard bulbs. They also have fluorescent grow light systems.
• Gardener's Supply has a two-tier grow light unit that looks like a bookshelf on wheels with lights attached. There's also a three-tier model and a tabletop-sized light for those with larger or smaller spaces.

Build Your Own Frame

If you buy a fixture garden indoor light that does not come with a frame, you will need some kind of mechanism that will hold the light and allow you to adjust the height of the light from the plants as they grow.

The good news is, this kind of construction project does not have to be difficult or that expensive. The Salt Lake County Cooperative Extension Service has great, simple plans on its website for a grow light frame built out of PVC pipe. You can change the width of the frame to suit your needs and the size of fixture you have. Adding chains to the light and hooks to the frame allow you to move the light up and down easily.

Being able to grow plants inside is a great way to extend the season and to keep gardeners from getting itchy thumbs when they can't go play in the dirt outside. Setting up a proper grow light system will give your plants the best possible start.