Are grow lights a good alternative for my indoor plants? What about LED lights?

Indoor lighting and supplement lighting are big topics. Fluorescent lights have been used to grow seedlings and must be within inches of the plants to be useful. The introduction of LED lights has improved the usefulness of grow lights dramatically. LED lights produce high quality light without the damaging heat of fluorescent and incandescent. Various plants require different light qualities.

• Check the packaging to see what type of light is emitted by a grow light before buying it; grow lights tend to be labeled as blue, red, or white/balanced light.
  • Blue light or mixed light bulbs are suitable for starting seeds and leafy greens, as well as non-flowering house plants.
  • Red light or mixed light bulbs are suitable for promoting bud formation in flowering plants as well as keeping the plants shorter.
  • White light or mixed/balanced light bulbs are suitable for most plants at any stage of growth

More information on lighting from the University of Minnesota Extension can be found here.