When most or all of the seeds germinate, you are confronted with a tiny seedling forest. It is tempting to let them all continue to grow, but your seedlings will be better off if you cull the weakest ones.

After your seeds have sprouted, choose the strongest, stockiest seedling in each cell and snip the remaining seedlings at the base. Throw the excess seedlings on your salad or feed them to any critters who would appreciate some greens.

Gardening Under Lights Book

There are plenty of low-light tropicals and blooming plants that you can grow successfully indoors with good ambient light, and you can maintain certain light-loving succulents for a while in a windowsill.

But even a bright windowsill is typically not the right location for plants you intend to harvest for food. The same goes for heavy-blooming plants. Reproduction is an energy-intensive process. Producing flowers, fruit, and seed requires a lot of juice. Plants need enough light, and the right kind of light, to get the job done.

Gardening Under Lights Book

HPS lamps were the most common type of plant lighting in greenhouse growing operations until LEDs gained popularity. They are used primarily for supplemental lighting where natural sunlight (more blue light) is also present, such as in a glass or poly greenhouse. HPS lamps are also used to extend photoperiod.

Their light spectrum is heavily weighted to yellow, orange, and red, with only very small amounts of blue light, which is why they are used for supplementing ambient natural daylight.

Gardening Under Lights Book

Dill is one of those herbs I plant outdoors because it's so versatile and beatiful, and I grow it indoors because I'm addicted to its flavor and I need it year-round! Use fresh dill on vegetables and dishes, or add to pickles and preserves. When left to flower in the garden, plants make beautiful edible ornamentals that attract many beneficial insects.

You can easily grow dill in containers. Pests are not common on dill, especially indoors, other than occasional aphids. Outdoors, several types of caterpillars feed on dill foliage. Grow in a cool spot with LEDs, HOT5 Fluorescents, or CFLs.

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Scout regularly for signs of insects and disease. Treat or remove infested or infected plants immediately. Aphids are a common pest in cooler, damp conditions, so become familiar with ideal insect situations to ward off infestations.

If you are growing edible crops, be thoughtful about the treatments and chemicals you use. Avoid any systemic insecticide or fungicide on edible plants. Systemic products are absorbed into the internal plant tissues and may persist for long periods to provide ongoing insect- or disease-killing effects.

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Certain fluorescents even provide narrow spectrums of light—focused in the upper red, blue, pink, and even green spectrums—plus UV radiation. These narrow-spectrum fluorescents allow you to easily trigger or maintain specific growth and development phases.

I mix different color spectrums with different lamps in this large T5 fixture, depending on which plants I’m growing.

Gardening Under Lights Book

Want to grow strawberries indoors or in containers? Strawberries are great for small spaces and containers, and they grow 8 to 10 inches tall and 12 inches wide. A 6-inch pot per plant is adequate, or you can group plants in larger containers, hanging baskets, or grow towers or bags.

Make sure to give strawberries even, consistent moisture that drains quickly - fabric pots help. Do not overwater, especially in cooler temperatures, as crowns can rot quickly.

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Many orchids are day-neutral- meaning they do not require a specific photoperiod (hours of light/dark), to produce flowers. They instead flower in response to cooling temperatures in fall and winter.

Some orchid types, such as Zygopetalum spp, may not require short days to bloom, but can flower faster and better when grown under short days combined with cool temperatures. That makes them facultative short-day plants.

New BOOK! Gardening Under Lights: The Complete Guide for Indoor Growers