Light Essentials: Indoor Counter-top Gardening
By Jordan Freytag Although your kitchen may have an abundance of light, it may not be enough for growing flats of wheatgrass and microgreens—especially this time of year. The lack of sunlight effects everything, and even though your flat may be under a south-facing window, thus, providing them with direct sunlight for a few hours a day—It’s not enough. Your crop will continue to grow but plants may appear yellowish or weaker than normal. Grow lights will fix that.
Indirect sunlight through a window can be an adequate source of light during the spring and summer months; although, flats will need to be rotated as plants will bend toward the window to get more light. But during months of low-light, rotating won’t make up for the lack of UV rays. House lights do emit some useful rays for plants but nowhere near enough—or the desired light spectrum. We highly recommend using grow lights to supplement your counter-top gardening.
Of course, different grow lights let out different amounts of light and heat. We prefer LED lights because they provide your wheatgrass and microgreens with a substantial amount of light without the heat.
50-watt LED Light Panel
- 50-watt LED Light Panel This light panel not only works great for both microgreen and wheatgrass growing, but it also works great as a light to provide garden seedlings planted in plug trays. The high-wattage allows you to raise the light for taller plants because it emits a denser light stream. Covers up to 5 square feet.
14-watt LED Light Panel
- 14-watt LED Light Panel Ideal for microgreens, wheatgrass, and other counter-top gardening methods. Provides an adequate spread of UV rays for 1 to 2 trays of microgreens or wheatgrass. Covers 2.5 to 4.5 square feet.
36-watt LED Grow Light Screw-in Bulb
- 36-watt LED Grow Light Screw-in Bulb Perfect for house plants. Works as a great light supplement to plants that may just need a bit more than what they are already getting through a window, for example. Screw into any light bulb socket where useful.
