Can You Grow Plants With Only a Heat Lamp?
- White light, such as sunlight, includes light of all colors. Plants, however respond primarily to the blue and red areas of the visible spectrum. A heat lamp's incandescent bulb will not produce sufficient blue light.
- A heat lamp's incandescent bulb will generate too much heat and not enough light. Indoor plants, especially vegetable seedlings, need intense light to grow properly. In order to get sufficient light from an incandescent bulb, you would have to move it so close to the leaves that the bulb's heat would be detrimental, or even fatal, to the plant.
- An incandescent bulb converts approximately 90 percent of the power that it consumes to heat instead of light. If you are illuminating many plants for 12 hours every day, incandescent bulbs will waste a lot of money.
- Fluorescent lights -- whether tubes or bulbs -- are the standard choice for indoor plants. Their light spectrum is better, they generate much less heat, and they are more energy efficient.