Lighting Of Indoor Plants, Light-loving Plants And Shade-tolerant Plants, Partial Shade Plants, Home Garden Alphabet - 1

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Light in the life of indoor plants

It's hard to imagine a house without flowers. And it doesn't matter where he is: in a noisy city, a suburban village or in a small village. Since ancient times, it is common for a person to decorate his home, including flowers or at least their images.

“As a gardener is, so is a garden,” they said in ancient times, and this remains true to this day. Of course, each of us has our own preferences in the world of flowers, in the style of decorating the house and home garden, even if it fits on one window sill. But before starting a new plant, you must try to find out what living conditions are necessary for it. After all, we are responsible for those we tame …

And in the case of any plant, it is important to know how it relates to light, moisture and air temperature, what kind of soil suits it, what maximum size it reaches, in what conditions it should winter, and whether you can create all the necessary conditions for it.

Sunlight - all the basic functions of plants are associated with it. Only by light do they produce nutrients, providing themselves with energy for life, and us - with oxygen, while absorbing carbon dioxide and many products that litter the atmosphere of our life due to imperfect technological processes of various kinds. On a planetary scale, plants enable us to live on Earth. People and animals are closely related to the plant world and are a necessary condition for each other's existence.

Therefore, it is so important to protect and breed plants wherever possible. In fact, we are doing this to improve the quality of our life. The beauty of flowers, apparently, cannot be quantified, but it is one of the best and noble pleasures of man. “The garden is the purest of all human pleasures. It refreshes the spirit of man most of all; without him, buildings and palaces are just crude creations of his hands; and it will be seen that in the course of time, when civilization and taste for the graceful develop, people will learn to build beautifully rather than plant beautiful gardens; it turns out that the cultivation of gardens is a more subtle occupation and requires more perfection. " This is what Francis Bacon (1561-1626), an English scientist, philosopher and … gardener, wrote in his essay "On Gardens". For the arrangement of the royal garden, Bacon proposed a composition of plants,which in due time would bloom every month of the year.

In the northern latitudes it is impossible to admire the blooming of an open summer garden all year round, so we tirelessly create home winter gardens, filling them with southern plants, which most of them are, only in the pot culture.

So how much light do plants need to live comfortably in a home? It depends on the specific type of plant, but most of them are quite enough 5,000-10,000 lux for full development. (One lux corresponds to a uniform luminous flux of 1 lumen per square meter). For example, in summer, in the bright sun near the south window, the illumination can reach 100,000 lux. It is important for plants to receive uniform lighting for 6-8 hours. But it is precisely the uniformity of illumination that is most difficult to achieve: a cloud reduces the illumination by half, let alone a cloud and cloudy weather. In the morning, the intensity of the sun's rays is weaker than in the evening. Considering this, eastern and northeastern windows are more suitable for plants with an average need for light; on the western and south-western, southern windows, light-loving plants will feel better.

The distribution of light in a room has its own mathematical expression. Its intensity falls in proportion to the square of the distance from the window. Plants receive the greatest amount of light within 1 m from the window. At a distance of two meters, it decreases by 4 times, at a distance of three meters - 9 times. Plants are much stronger than humans, lack light and grow poorly. Therefore, if you want to place flowers in the back of the room, you need to provide additional lighting for them. In this case, it is important that the radiation spectrum matches the solar one as much as possible. This can be achieved with fluorescent lamps, "daylight" lamps, aquarium lamps and high pressure lamps: mercury, metal halide or sodium.

The height of the lamp location has a significant effect on the lighting efficiency: for decorative deciduous species, 30-60 cm above the tops of plants is enough, for flowering - 15-30 cm. Such light sources can be suspended, or can be made in the form of table lamps, on clamps and clothespins. The duration of daylight hours in the autumn-winter period in total should be at least 10-12 hours, taking into account natural lighting and additional in the mornings and evenings, when it is still or already dark. If the plants are only in artificial light, then it should work for 12 hours in a row.

The length of daylight hours and the intensity of illumination are of particular importance for many seasonally flowering plants. In crop production, there are concepts of "short day" and "long day" plants. Short-day plant species form buds only when the daylight hours are less than 10 hours. Such plants include azalea, begonias, chrysanthemums, Schlumberger, Kalanchoe, poinsettia. To provide plants with a "short day", they resort to artificial reduction if it is too long: cover the plants with dense opaque caps, or transfer them to a room, a pantry without lighting. Each species has its own mode of the duration of the short day period.

Long-day plants form buds and flower under intense light for 12 hours. Allamanda, bougainvillea, bells, gloxinia, stephanotis, saintpaulia and others need this mode.

In appearance, even without knowing the name of the plant, it is quite possible to understand what kind of lighting it requires for normal growth and development.

In the bright sun, succulents (cacti, fat women, milkweed with a whitish color due to the presence of a waxy layer on the surface of stems and leaves) and species with dark green, dense leathery leaves feel comfortable. These species generally tolerate low light well.

Blooming and variegated species require a lot of light. Ornamental deciduous plants need much less light, among them there are many shade-tolerant species. Plants with thin delicate leaves of a lighter color prefer diffused light, direct sunlight burns them. East, north-east windows are ideal for them. Such plants can also be kept on windows with a south orientation, but with the obligatory tint of glass in the middle of the day with openwork tulle in the style of rustic curtains.

In order to choose the right plants for your home garden, we present a detailed list of genera and species adapted to different conditions. If the same plant appears in different lists, then it can equally withstand the lighting conditions indicated in the headings.

Sun-loving plants

They are located on the south window or within 1 m from it: agave, adenium, acacia, aloe, anisodontea, bovea, bokarnea, brugmansia, bougainvillea, gasteria, hibiscus, jasmine, Kalanchoe, callistemon, cassia, catharanthus, cleistoxactus, cordianna southern, cotyledon, crassula, kumquat, lithops, lobivia, mamillaria, mandevilla, euphorbia, notocactus, oleander, prickly pear, sedge, parody, pachypodium, pachyphytum, pelargonium, paprika, rebutia, roses, strepukatus, strepucatosia variegated, cesalpinia, cereus, ceropegia, cestrum, cephalocereus, citrus, aeonium, erythrin, eukomis, echeveria, echinocactus, echinopsis, echinocereus, yucca, jacobinia, jatropha.

Light-loving plants

They are located within 1–2 m from a well-lit window: abutilon, avocado, aglaonema, calamus, akalifa, allamanda, alocasia, alpinia, pineapple, anigozanthos, aporocactus, araucaria, asparagus pinnate, astrophytum, aphelandra, begimenes, bananas and Mason, Beloperone, Breinia, Brovallia, Brunfelsia, Wanda, Washingtonia, Gardenia, Hemantus, Gymnocalycium, Gloxinia, Gloriosa, Grevillea, Gusmania, Dendrobium, Dixonia, Diplademia, Dieffenbachia, Dracaenia, Jacquemiranda, Zamaranda, caladium, calamondin, calanta, calliandra, calceolaria, saxifrage, cariota, cattleya, clerodendron, codiaum, coleus, small-leaved columbus, cordilina, corynocarpus, coffee tree, groundwort, ktenanta, cufea, livistonia, lily, manila, euphorbia sparkling and most beautiful, monstera, muraya,oncidium, pandanus, passionflower, pachira, pachistachis, pelargonium, pyzonia, plectranthus, primula, radermacher, rheo, roses, sundew, cycad, sarracenia, saintpaulia, serissa, syngonium, sparmannia, spatigisyllum, stigonium leaves), tunbergia, phalaenopsis, ficus, philodendron, date, chamecereus, chlorophytum, chrysalidocarpus, cellogyne, cyclamen, cymbidium, cyperus, shefflera, exacum.

Penumbra plants

They are placed within 2–3 m from a well-lit window: aglaonema, anthurium, ardisia, dense-flowered asparagus, asplenium nesting, hybrid balsam, begonias - Bauer, hogweed, royal, tall, tuberous; bilbergia, budra, ginura, zhiryanka, calathea, callisia, erect cypress, clerodendron, clivia, klugia, koleria, hybrid columney, cryptantus, bashful mimosa, nepentes, nertera, odontoglossum, pafiopedilum, pellischonia, pestisopia ripsalis, rhododendron, roicissus, sundew, saintpaulia, syngonium (with green leaves), streptocarpus, tillandsia blue, tradescantia (with dark leaves), climbing philodendron, fuchsia, helksina, antarctic and multicolored cissus, glauzergera.

Shade-tolerant plants

These species grow better with sufficient light, but put up with the lack of it and can be located at a distance of 3-4 m from a well-lit window: aglaonema changeable, maidenhair, crystal anthurium, Scherzer; sickle asparagus, aspidistra, onion-bearing asplenium, araucaria, aucuba, begonia - white-spotted, metallic, rex and others; bilbergia, blehnum, venus flytrap, davallia, darlingtonia, dracaena bordered, doriopteris, clivia, equifolia bell, arrowroot, miltonia, monstera, muhlenbeckia, neorehelia, nephrolepis, nidularium, phontoglossum, oncidiumiumium others; ferns (maidenhair, asplenium, derbyanka, goniophlebium, leaflet, etc.), pellea, peperomia, pittosporum, platycerium, ivy (with green leaves), pteris, rodea, sansevieria, selaginella, sparmania,strelitzia, scindapsus (epipremnum), tolmeya, fatsia, fatshedera, elastica ficus, dwarf and rooting, philodendron, fittonia, fuchsia, chamedorea, chlorophytum (with green leaves), hoya (wax ivy), cyperus, cytomiasis; shititnik, creeping episode and others.

It remains to be noted that in winter in our conditions, almost all plants need additional lighting, especially flowering and variegated, as well as those that are further than 1 m from the window.

It is important to understand that, having provided the plants with the necessary lighting, watering, it is imperative to properly and fully feed it. This is all the more important if we supplement the illumination of the flowers, and they continue the growing season, and some even flowering. We, as a rule, rarely do the transplanting of large specimens, and even medium-sized pets do not receive fresh soil every year, at least in the upper layer. And here, at the most opportune time, AVA will help us out - a complex, and now complete (in powder with nitrogen) long-acting fertilizer with a full set of macro- and microelements, but without chlorine. AVA-N pellets or capsules are best used for growing pot and tub flowers. They are buried 3-5 cm closer to the edge of the pot at any time of the season, the amount depends on the volume of the dishes with the plant. And all that remains is to water in accordance with the requirements of each type of plant. And even in the fall, in September - October, the introduction of granules and capsules (their gelatinous shell dissolves and enriches the soil with nitrogen in a minimal amount, but important for vegetative flowers) is very important. You will be able to prolong the flowering of those species that usually go into a dormant state without additional lighting and nutrition: fuchsia, pelargonium, hoya, jasmine, violet and others. Trust me, you will be pleasantly surprised by the result.

In recent years, the richness of the selection of new, little-known and completely unknown species of flowering plants is so great that it makes collectors' hearts sigh with a premonition of meeting a rare and desired flower. Many species are quite plastic and take root well under conditions that do not fully meet the requirements specified in the reference literature. It is important not to commit gross violations of the regime: overdrying or overmoistening of the earthy coma and air, overheating or overcooling of plants. But we will talk about these needs of different types of flowering plants in subsequent articles.