Grow Lights for Herb Gardens

Plant Selection

• When creating an indoor herb garden, select herb types that will have a good chance of doing well in such a setup. Some types of herbs do best being grown outdoors -- especially large plants such as dill -- but others can flourish in the confinement of an indoor garden, using nothing but artificial light. Examples of these are thyme, parsley, chives, arugula, sage, basil, mint and oregano. Keep the garden manageable by selecting dwarf varieties that grow no more than about a foot tall. This helps to maintain a consistent distance between the plants and the grow lights.

Light Requirements

• Plants require adequate light to be able to grow properly. Light must meet three conditions in order to satisfy the plants' needs. First of all, the light must have the right "quality." This means that the light waves the bulb emits must be the right color for the needs of the plant. Foliage plants such as mint and parsley require mostly blue light waves. Plants that are expected to flower, such as lavender, must have red light waves as well as blue. The light must also be present for an adequate length of time, which is the "duration" of the light. It also must be bright enough to benefit the plants, which is the "intensity" of the light.

Bulb Types

• Regular fluorescent bulbs provide mostly blue light waves, and these will work well to grow many different kinds of leafy herbs. Because these bulbs are often lacking in intensity, place them quite close to the plants, usually no more than 4 inches away. Incandescent bulbs provide a large amount of red light waves, but very little blue. These can be used to supplement fluorescent bulbs, but incandescent bulbs get too hot to be placed closer to plants than 24 inches. Fluorescent grow lights provide both red and blue light waves and can be used to grow almost any kind of herbs.

Setup

• A good setup for an herb garden is to place the plants on a shelf and have grow lights on a movable track above them. This allows the lights to be readily raised and lowered for easy maintenance of the garden. Lights are also moved up as the plants grow, keeping a consistent distance between the lights and the plants. Such frames can be purchased or built.