Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I put my BloomInLight?
Unlike many grow light setups, you don't need to place your BloomInLight near a window or keep your curtains open. Our indoor gardening system grows healthy plants without needing to be supplemented by natural light. If the best spot in your room happens to be near a window, that is also not a problem. Put it where it looks good and where you can enjoy the flowers. Living room? Family room? No Window? No problem! Just plug it in and grow. You can place it on a carpet or on a nice wood floor, since the drain pan will catch any overflow. Just make sure you put the drip stopper in the drain hole before you remove the drain pan for emptying. Of course some common sense is needed when handling potting mix and water around light colored carpeting.
What kind of flowerpots can I use?
Your BloomInLight comes with plastic flowerpots. But you can use any kind of flowerpots or growing containers. We discuss the pros and cons of different materials here. Just make sure there is a drain hole in every container. We recommend planting the seeds directly into their final pots, rather than repotting into progressively larger pots. If you do transplant seedlings, move them to their permanent home as soon as they have their true leaves.
How many flowerpots will fit in a BloomInLight?
We provide six 8-inch pots with deep bottom watering trays. With no bottom tray or with smaller standard trays you can use eight 8-inch pots. You can also use twelve 6-inch pots without bottom trays or nine 6-inch pots with standard bottom trays. To start your bedding plants you can use four standard '1020' flats (11" W x 21.37" L x 2.44" D). Using traditional inserts each flat will hold 8, 18, 24, 36, 48, or 72 individual cells, depending on the size of each cell.
What kind of soil do I need?
We recommend potting mix labeled for indoor or indoor/outdoor use. Look for products containing milled sphagnum peat moss (light brown or tan in color), perlite and/or vermiculite, and coconut coir. Give products that contain woodsy smelling ingredients such as compost, humus, manure, peat (black or very dark brown in color), or bark the sniff test before using them indoors. Click here for our guide to getting started with indoor gardening.
What can I grow in my BloomInLight?
Click here for our What to Grow page, which includes a long list of flower choices. You can choose any flower listed to be grown as an annual by your seed company as long as it prefers full sun or part shade and has summer as part of its blooming season.You can also grow microgreens, herbs, shoots, 'baby' lettuce, spinach, kale, etc. as well some vegetables.
Can I fill the BloomInLight with soil and plant my seeds directly?
It is tempting, since the BloomInLight is waterproof and it has a drain hole. However we don't recommend it. Growing in containers will keep your living area much neater, you will gain a lot of flexibility for moving and rotating your plants, and it makes it easier to admire your flowers.
What special equipment will I need?
No special equipment is needed to use your BloomInLight. Just plug it in, set the timer, plant your seeds into your favorite potting mix, add some water and TLC, and grow!
How do I care for my plants when I am away?
The Flowerpots that come with your BloomInLight include deep trays to use for bottom watering or for vacation watering. Water your plants thoroughly before leaving and also leave the bottom trays full of water. The water will be pulled up into the potting mix by capillary action (one reason that we discourage using stones or gravel in the bottom of flowerpots is because it interferes with this capillary action).
Is there a light timer?
Your BloomInLight includes a remote control 24 hour, 7 day programmable timer. You can temporarily turn the lights on or off using the remote control and preset it to automatically turn on and off. We recommend that you 'set it and forget it' for at least 14 hours a day of light, but advanced users can also simulate seasonal changes in sunrise and sunset times starting on any day of the year in any region of North America.
How many hours a day should I keep my lights on?
If you want to set it and forget it, then keeping the lights on for 14 hours a day is a good minimum for strong growth of most flowers.
Will the BloomInLight increase my electric bill?
The electric company bills you for each kilowatt-hour of electricity you use. Where we live we pay about 8 cents for each kilowatt-hour. You can check your electric bill to see what it costs in your area. Each light in your BloomInLight uses 54 watts of electricity, so six lights use 324 watts. In our example at 8 cents per kilowatt hour, it costs less than 3 cents per hour to run the six lights. If the timer was set to keep the lights on for 14 hours a day it would cost about 36 cents a day. To figure your own cost for a 14 hour day multiply your local cost per kilowatt hour by 4.5.
Can my electrical system handle it?
Only a qualified electrician can advise you about your specific situation, but most home lighting circuits are rated to handle at least 15 amps. The six-light BloomInLight takes less than 3 amps.
Is the BloomInLight hot?
The air temperature at plant height in the middle of your BloomInlight will be approximately 5 degrees higher than your room temperature if you keep the lights 12-15 inches above the leaves. The BloomInLight will not warm up your living area by any noticeable amount. The high output fluorescent tubes do feel hot to the touch and you should let them cool down before replacing them. The lights are enclosed in the light hood and the outside of the hood feels warm but not hot.
Are the lights replaceable?
The tubes are rated to last for 20,000 hours of use and they are easily and individually replaceable with 4 foot, 54 watt, high-output, 5000 lumen T5 fluorescent grow lights. These are offered by a number of different lighting companies. You can use any combination, but we recommend 3 full spectrum red balanced (warm white) tubes with 3 full spectrum blue balanced (cool white) tubes. The light fixture is also compatible with grow lights labeled as 'direct replacement' for 54 watt T5 fluorescent tubes.
Should I use LED grow lights?
There are some advantages to LED grow lights. However after our side-by-side growing trials of the same sun-loving varieties of flowers under the same conditions using different types of LED and fluorescent grow lights, we recommend T5 high output fluorescent grow lights. Flowers and leaves look more natural under the fluorescent lights, and they will flower a few weeks sooner with more blooms per plant. If you want to switch to LED grow lights, the fluorescent fixture in your BloomInLight is compatible with any LED grow lights labeled as ‘direct replacement’ or ‘plug-and-play’ for 54 watt T5 high output fluorescent fixtures. We recommend ordering three 41 watt ‘veg’ lights (usually 6000K to 6500K blue-balanced full spectrum) and three 41 watt ‘bloom’ lights (more red with some blue and white) and positioning the lights about eight inches above your plants’ highest leaves. LED lights will use about 25% less electricity to provide about 80% of the light compared to T5 fluorescent lights and the air around your plants will be a little cooler.
What should I feed my plants?
The nutrients present in commercial indoor or indoor/outdoor potting mix are enough to get young plants started and in many cases it is all the nutrients the plants need. As the plants grow you can supplement with fertilizer from the garden center. For most plants a fertilizer labeled as general purpose will do just fine.
Do my flowers have to stay in the BloomInLight?
Just as flowers grown outdoors in the summer do just fine with a few cloudy days, the flowers you grow in your BloomInLight can be displayed anywhere in your house for a few days and still be healthy. A mature plant can use its stored energy and remain in bloom. The number of days outside of the BloomInLight depends on the light needs of the plant and how bright the room is, but 3-5 days is generally fine.