In our Spotlight Series, we give the mic to people who have had unique experiences with their LED light bulbs. In today’s feature, a couple recounts their experience with an underachieving plant.
It was just one of those house plants you grab from the grocery store. All leaves. And ready to sprout flowers galore. My wife set it on the living room table. Her pride and joy.
But the flowers never appeared. What?!! We switched to a bigger, sunnier window, checked for pests, fed it nutrients and fertilizers. Months rolled by. Not even a bud. My wife’s legendary green thumb had met its match.
I did some research. Found an article about grow lights. Said people were using LEDs to help indoor plants grow. Hmmm… I delved deeper and found what seemed to be the perfect solution — VividGro PAR LED from the Lighting Science Company.
Discovering the Grow Lamp
VividGro PAR produces the kind of light that promotes photosynthesis. So indoor plants naturally develop as they would in big, outdoor sunshine. Makes sense. But these LEDs also provide sufficient amounts of white light humans need for clear vision. Good for plants. Good for people. That settled it. I decided to give the VividGro PAR LED a whirl.
I was surprised to learn that too much light actually can inhibit plant growth. Just as much as too little. I acquired a grow light timer to ensure our underachiever got just the right amount of exposure. Ideal for this plant was 12 full hours. Luckily, LEDs are extremely energy efficient.
Putting the Theory to the Test
We set the VividGro PAR LED in a lamp and positioned it about a foot away from our plant. Then I set the grow light timer. Ours was an analog device, which is fairly straightforward. You just turn the dial so that the arrow aligns with the current time. Since we wanted the light on from 5am to 5pm, I pushed down all the dial knobs from the starting time to the stopping time. That let the timer know it was supposed to switch the light on at 5am and off at 5pm.
As the final step, I plugged the lamp into the timer. Then we braced ourselves – would we finally see flowers?!
I’m happy to say we did. Oh, it took a few weeks. And the flowers didn’t just bloom all at once. But once the first one made its appearance, the rest just naturally followed. Our little underachiever is now in full bloom. I have a funny feeling we’ll be doing the same for the other dozen house plants my wife just brought home.
