How To Grow Plants Indoors Without Sunlight

There are many reasons to grow your plants inside, but it is usually due to lack of outdoor space. For those who reside in an apartment or somewhere without much yard or patio, this can be a great idea!

However, some plants need lots of sunlight. So, how exactly do you grow plants inside?

To grow plants inside, you will need the perfect setup. Make sure you have a grow tent, lights, and space set aside, and the plants you want to start growing.

By using artificial light, and the tents, you can mimic sunlight, making it so that your plants can grow. Additionally, you can set them in the window.

We’ve included everything you need to know about growing plants indoors within this article. Whether it’s houseplants, herbs or vegetables, we’ve got your back!

You can cultivate both long-day and short-day plants in two tiny tents.

The plants in a grow tent receive the same quantity of light that is of the same intensity. Vegetables require six hours of sunlight daily, while herbs require four hours. Other plants will vary with sunlight time.

The required amount of light hours is greater for grow lights with a complete spectrum. Twelve to 16 hours a day are typically spent in full spectrum lighting.

In every situation, plants will require at least 8 hours of complete darkness in order for the photosynthetic stage to proceed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Herbs won’t require light for as long as vegetables do.

You can use two smaller grow tents—one for all the herbs you want to plant and another for your vegetables—instead of one larger one. When you have them, all you need to start the growth process are high-quality seeds.

You’ll need suspended tube fixtures positioned directly over your plants if you intend to undertake any major indoor gardening or start plants from seeds.

For typical houseplants, you can actually use any light or lighting fixture, as long as you select the bulbs correctly and position the lights where your plants may benefit most.

You can purchase specialized grow light kits that come with fixtures and reflectors.

For indoor plants, fluorescent lights are unquestionably the most convenient and affordable option. They are cool enough to place near plant foliage and available in tubes or small bulbs (CFL) that screw into standard light sockets.

Look for “full-spectrum” fluorescent lighting or use a combination of “cool” and “warm” bulbs, as generic fluorescent lighting has a higher proportion of blue wavelengths.

When in doubt, opt for “cool white” products because white light has all visible wavelengths. Place fluorescent bulbs just a few feet away from plant foliage for best results.

Halogen lights can also produce full-spectrum light, but they use more energy and produce a lot more heat than fluorescents.

Try utilizing a mixture of around one-third incandescent and two-thirds fluorescent by power if you wish to combine the two.

Another low-heat, cost-effective source of artificial light is LED lighting. Every LED light bulb is unique because the technology allows for so much customization, so make sure your lights generate the blues and reds that plants require.

The leaves of plants should be put further away from incandescent lights because they emit a lot of heat.

When trying to stimulate plants to blossom, incandescent bulbs can be used to smooth out the spectrum by supplementing fluorescent light with more red wavelengths.

You might wish to opt for horticultural LED grow lights rather than purchasing general-purpose bulbs, since they only provide the wavelengths that plants want to absorb.

Grow lights for plants are often sold in fluorescent tube form. They have all the wavelengths that blossoming plants, like African violets, require. However, other gardeners find that straightforward full-spectrum fluorescents perform just as well when beginning seeds or propagating hybrids.

The bulb light should first be positioned approximately an inch over the plant for your flowers and vegetables. But even then, it might be too near, so keep an eye on them.

When the leaves start to grow, look for browning along their edges. Brown leaves would be a sign that it’s getting too near and releasing too much heat, burning the plant.

Immediately increase the distance of the light in about half-inch increments until the brown stops. Start with an inch because that usually provides enough room.

It’s just a matter of placing your seedlings into the pots and having them ready to go inside your grow tent once you’ve set up the grow tent and figured out the spacing requirements.

For that, you’ll need good soil made for plants that require a lot of water, both of which herbs and uncooked vegetables do.

The finest potting soil for homegrown vegetables and herbs contains vermiculite, since it improves water and nutrient absorption, aerates the soil, and produces hardier plants.

Use a soil containing perlite as an alternative to vermiculite because it also improves plant absorption while being less aerating for the soils than a gardening mix containing vermiculite.

One tip to follow while growing indoor plants, including herbs and vegetables, is to wait until the soil is completely dry before watering. The temperature the plants are developed at will affect how quickly or slowly they move through the water. In general, a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees F is optimum.

Before adding water, you can either use a humidity meter to measure the plant’s water content or utilize your sense of touch. Water it if it feels dry.

What to look out for is a yellowing of the plant’s leaves, which indicates over-watering. If you keep doing that, the roots will eventually decay.

Fertilizers aid in their growth, as they do for the majority of indoor plants. If they are edible plants, it stands to reason that you would prefer to use organic methods. You can only be sure you’re obtaining the best ingredients possible with this method.

Fish emulsion is the fertilizer of choice for indoor gardening of vegetables and plants. You may either create it yourself or purchase it already made and diluted in accordance with the directions on the packaging. It depends on the brand.

Because it has a higher proportion of nitrogen than other fertilizers, fish emulsion is used as a fertilizer for fresh food plants. It is, without a doubt, the most crucial nutrient that a plant needs in order to flourish.

The issue is that plants, especially those grown outside, cannot get nitrogen from the atmosphere. For the plant to take it, it needs to be in presence of inorganic, which fertilizers provide.