As the days shorten, the amount of light that our house plants receive decreases. Many house plant lovers turn to grow lights to supplement the winter light levels. Grow lights can also be used to expand the growing areas within your house. Perhaps you have a dark corner that cries out for some plants, then grow lights used all year round can ensure plants will be happy there.
Shop grow lights on shopgreenrooms.com
Photo by @basillicana of her Ikea Lersta floor lamp with Ikea Vaxer bulb
The wealth of information about grow lights online explaining fluorescent vs LED, warm vs cool and so on can be overwhelming. So we have asked some of our favourite house plant fanatics to share their grow light recommendations to help you get started.
Thanks to our experts @basillicana, @_houseplanthouse, @fairestplants, @flatwithplants and @growtropicals for their advice!
For more information on the basics of grow lights, see our ‘Understanding grow lights’ section below.
Shop Editor’s picks
The top grow lights as recommended by our house plant fanatics
We have split the grow light recommendations into three sections; bulbs, lamps and tube lighting.
BULBS
These grow light bulbs will fit the lamps recommended in the ‘Lamps’ section below. Note, if purchasing an E14 bulb to fit into an E27 Lamp socket you will need a suitable bulb adapter.
One of our favourites the Pianta 18W is a full spectrum grow light bulb with a warm natural colour and a lifespan of 50,000 hours. Grow Gang also sell a simple white cable holder with built-in switch (shown with bulb below). Or the bulb will fit into traditional lamps with a large screw fitting.
Pianta 18W bulb £34.95 (large screw)
MiniSun LED 5W bulb £3.99
E14 (small screw)
Image by MiniSun
Ok, so we sneaked this next one in as the SANSI grow light bulbs aren’t being used by any of our houseplant fans, but they do come highly recommended from many other houseplant owners, so we wanted to include them here.
SANSI Grow Light Bulb LED E27
Image by SANSI
The Philips bulb below came highly recommend from @_houseplanthouse. If this is out of stock we recommend this alternative from Energiser that has the same specifications.
Philips LED 12.5W bulb £7.99
E27 (large screw)
Image by Philips
The IKEA Vaxer cultivation bulb below was a firm favourite amongst our houseplant fans, however these are SOLD OUT currently. It is worth keeping an eye out for these coming back into stock as they were highly recommended.
IKEA VAXER LED bulb for cultivation £10
E27 (large screw)
image by IKEA
TUBE LIGHTING
Tube lights are a firm favourite of both Jake from @growtropicals and Fair of @fairestplants as they can be mounted onto shelving, cabinets or grow tents and can be daisy-chained together to provide light for larger areas.
Sun Blaster T5HO £29-£45
Image from Sun Blaster
Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED Bar £40-£80
Image from Swell Reptiles
Mars Hydro TS1000 £149.99
Image from Mars Hydro
LAMPS
These will work with the MiniSun, Sansi, Vaxer, Philips, Energiser bulbs recommended above.
IKEA LERSTA floor lamp £13 (E27 Large screw-in fitting)
Photo by @basillicana
IKEA TERTIAL work lamp £9
(E27 large screw-in fitting)
Photo by @_houseplanthouse
Please note, this IKEA HEKTAR lamp below has an E14 fitting, so will need and E14 bulb, or a suitable adapter if you are using an E27 bulb.
IKEA HEKTAR floor lamp £50 (E14 small screw-in fitting)
Photo by @flatwithplants
These Mother lights below do not require separate bulbs. Mother say “After 8 years of intensive use, the LED board can be replaced without having to throw away the light module. Once you are registered as a customer you can update your PlantSpectrum forever at a fraction of the cost”
Mother PlantSpectrum grow lights
Photo by @Flatwithplants
Why these were voted the best grow lights and how they are used by our house plant fanatics:
Andrea aka @basillicana, a plant lover based in Kent with a gorgeous collection of unusual house plants, uses the Ikea Lersta floor lamp with the Ikea Vaxer LED bulbs. Andrea uses them for 4 hours a day from 4pm-8pm for her more high maintenance plants like the aroids, which need a lot of light to develop properly.
“It’s blue light with a hint of pink and it’s not too harsh on the eyes. It’s also really powerful and long lasting and relatively cheap and easy to find for everyone.”
Photo by @basillicana of her Ikea Lersta floor lamp with Ikea Vaxer bulb
Dr Laura Jenkins aka @_houseplanthouse is a plant blogger with a great website packed with information and advice. Laura uses the Ikea Tertial lamp with either the Philips LED 12.5W bulb or the IKEA Vaxer LED bulb. Laura uses them for 3-5 hours a day and tends to move her plants around during autumn and winter to give all the plants a fair share of the light.
“I love the Tertial lamps, they are a great design but also really affordable. They have an adjustable clamp which means I can move them around with ease. In terms of the bulbs (Philips LED 12.5 and Ikea Vaxer), I like that they are neutral in colour - with these I can work in the same room without feeling like I'm being interrogated!
Photo by @_houseplanthouse of her Ikea Tertial lamp and Ikea Vaxer or Philips 12.5W LED bulb
Fair AKA @fairestplants is a propagation-mad house plant lover and sells her plants on @asian_aroids. As well as using the IKEA Hektar floor lamp with the MiniSun bulbs she also has prized plants such as Monstera and Philodendrons within a grow tent that she lights with Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED Bars, shown below.
“They come in different sizes and they can be linked together with one socket, so highly recommended. They have holder clips that comes in the box to hold them and I just cable tie the clips to my frame and then attach the led bar to the clips”
Photo by @Fairestplants of the Arcadia Jungle Dawn LED Bar in her grow tent
Alexandra AKA @Flatwithplants uses the 32 Watt Mother PlantSpectrum growlights for their contemporary and simplistic look. She likes how adaptable they are as they can be used either horizontally or vertically, and she finds them agreeable to the human eye, whereas other lights give her a headache.
“I like an architectural look, so I have quite a few of the tall Mother Lights around.”
Photo by @flatwithplants of her Mother PlantSpectrum grow light
Jacob AKA @growtropicals is a rare aroid collector and photographer, selling his unusual plants on his website. Jacob uses the Sun Blaster T5HO tube lighting for his plants as they connect easily to shelving, and can be ‘daisy-chained’ up to 8 together to extend over a large expanse of plants. He also recommends the Mars Hydro TS1000. @growtropicals is a go-to online store for rare and unusual houseplant and growing equipment, and their Instagram is well worth a follow!
Understanding grow lights
Watts or wattage (W) - the amount of power which a piece of electrical equipment uses. LED bulbs are more energy efficient with a lower wattage, and will last longer than incandescent bulbs with higher wattage.
Kelvin - Light bulbs will often be rated with a K number, this is the measure of the colour of light. Lower K numbers are warmer more red coloured lights (good for stimulating flower growth), higher K numbers are cooler more blue coloured lights. For good foliage and root growth a cooler colour light with a kelvin rate of around 6500k is optimum.
Lux (lx) - a measure of the amount of light over a surface area - this is a useful way to measure how effective your grow light set-up is. For this you will need a light meter.
Lux levels for indoor plants (lx):
Direct sunlight 100,000 lx
Indirect sunlight 10,000 - 25,000 lx
Low light plants 500 - 3000 lx (for example Sansevieria, ZZ will tolerate low light, but will grow better in medium light)
Medium light plants 3,000 - 8,000 lx (for example Ficus, Pilea, Peperomia)
High light plants 10,000 lx and over (for example cacti and succulents)
Distance - on the whole LED grow lights should be positioned about 12 inches away from plants, but the distance will depend upon the wattage of the bulb, the type of plant and it’s light intensity requirement, and the ambient light in the room. This is where a light meter will be useful using the lux measurement as a guide.
*Lux levels Source: Lighting Indoor Houseplants - University of Missouri