You can easily grow culinary and medicinal herbs year round indoors, and have a continuous supply of the fresh herbs you love.  There are many herbs compatible for container gardening. These herbs are not only lovely to look at but they also add wonderful scents to your homes. Having the right organic herb garden lighting is the key to grow your herbs all through out the year..

Light Requirements

To avoid buying an expensive organic herb garden lighting system, you should know first what your herbs’ light requirements are. All plants need light for photosynthesis. For any ecosystem, plants manufacture all of the food by combining carbon dioxide and water in the presence of chlorophyll and sunlight to make sugars, and these sugars are necessary in providing the building blocks for all other nutrients.

Plants have different light requirements. Some plants would grow well in the shade and some plants would prefer to grow in full sun. Although most herbs grow better under full sun, yet there are some exceptions. For more information on the light requirements for the herbs you plan to grow, a local gardening expert or a good organic gardening book can be of great help. Plants also need periods of darkness for optimal health. Most plants will grow under 24/7 lighting, but with several hours of darkness every day, they can grow better.

Incandescent Lights

Though they are called “grow lights”, incandescent lights are not really a very good choice for organic herb garden lighting. They emit light that are too hot to stimulate plant growth. Incandescent lights are an excellent choice for display lighting on your indoor herb garden, provided that they must b

Fluorescent Lights

Fluorescent lights are a good choice for your indoor organic herb garden lighting.  They cost less, easy to set up, have full-spectrum lighting, and the availability is not a problem at all. Fluorescent lights should be placed at the maximum of four inches from the plants, have full-spectrum lighting

High Intensity Discharge (HID) Lights

Even better for organic herb garden lighting are high intensity discharge lights.  They are very affordable and more efficient than fluorescent lights. MH (metal halide) and HPS (high pressure sodium) are the two types of HID organic herb gardening lighting

Giving off energy in the blue end of the light spectrum, similar to the light at midday in midsummer, are the MH lights. This light stimulates plant growth, especially on the leaves and very ideal for many herbs and for leafy vegetables, like lettuce or spinach. HPS light is similar to evening light or fall light, but it gives off energy in the orange part of the spectrum. Orange spectrum light encourages flowering and fruit production. With HPS organic herb gardening lighting system, herbs like nasturtium, calendula and lavender will bloom well.

You can start seedlings under MH light and then switch to HPS light to encourage flowering through using the combination and convertible HID organic herb garden lighting systems. Adding an organic herb garden lighting system to your indoor herb garden will ensure that you have plenty of fresh, healthy herbs all year long.