We often recommend placing the plants that are going to be kept at home in a room where there is a lot of light; that is, in which there are windows through which sunlight enters easily. And it is that all of them need light to carry out photosynthesis and, therefore, to be able to produce their food and grow. But, Is it possible to have healthy plants with artificial light?
The short answer is yes, you can.. Now, it is important to choose the artificial light for the plants well, since not all of them will work. In fact, the light from the bulbs that we usually have in a home are not the most adequate to guarantee good growth. To do this, we will have to get specific lamps or bulbs.
What light do plants need to grow?
Plants began their evolution about 400 million years ago, in the oceans. At that time there were only algae, in addition to microorganisms such as bacteria. But over time some would begin to surface, as happened with the Cooksonia, which carried out photosynthesis through its stems since the leaves had not yet appeared. Later, somewhat more complex plants would grow, such as mosses, ferns or cycads. And about 150 million years ago, the early flowering plants.
Why do I tell all this? Because plants depend on sunlight for everything: breathe, photosynthesize, grow, flourish, etc. Through their photosynthetic parts, that is, those that contain chlorophyll, which is the pigment that gives them their green color, they transform sunlight into carbohydrates. But to understand this more, it is important to know more about solar radiation.
Although it might seem to us that it is more or less always the same, the human eye and plants “see” the world in a different way. And it is that the Sun, although it emits ultraviolet, visible and infrared radiation, people only see the visible one, that is, when the wavelength is between 380 and 780nm. In addition, we are able to see three colors: blue, red and green, and their many combinations.
Plants, on the other hand, although they are sensitive to wavelengths between 400 and 700nm, only absorb red and blue light, and reflect green, which is why we see them in that color. But also, this is one of the reasons why we cannot use traditional lamps for them, since these are made for us humans, so that we can see, not for plants.
