Best Sunlight Levels for Indoor Houseplants

INSIDE : Learn how to know the best Sunlight Levels for Indoor Houseplants?  And gain the keys to having thriving plants, basic Sunlight 101 for Indoor Houseplants. 

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There are typically a few key items to keeping your indoor houseplants alive and thriving in your home.  However, I would say the main two are water and light.

Today, I am going to dive deep into the three different types of sunlight levels for indoor houseplants.  If you can master the best and most ideal sunlight type for your plants, you already are winning half the plant battle!

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How do I know what type of sunlight my indoor plant needs?

Thankfully for most of us, often times when you buy plants they come labeled with information about their sunlight preferences.  However, there is an occasion where the plant tag may not specifically call out what sun needs it has.  If that happens, you can simply Google your plant and find out online.

This is one of the first things you should find out when looking to buy a plant and when bringing it home.  If you give your plant too much or not enough sunshine, your plant can quickly become stressed and stressed plants typically don’t live a long healthy life.

The three main lighting types for indoor house plants are Bright Light, Indirect Light and Low Light.

BRIGHT LIGHT:

Bright light means a sunny southern or western facing window with bright, direct light all day long. It should get a minimum of 5 to 6 hours of direct sunlight each day and sometimes more.  These are typically very strong hardy plants.

Examples of indoor plants that like Bright Light are – Jade Plant, Croton, Hoya, Umbrella Plant, Norfolk Pine, Cactus.

INDIRECT LIGHT:

Indirect light can be an east facing bright window, or in the interior of a room that receives full light from a southern or western facing window.  Plants with indirect light needs should not get direct sunlight rays, but they will still need light for at least 5 to 6 hours per day.

I would say most houseplants fall somewhere in this category.

Examples of indoor plants that like Indirect Light are – String of Pearls, Fiddle Leaf Fig, Rubber Plant, Monstera, Calathea.

LOW LIGHT:

Most rooms are probably considered low light if the plant is placed away from windows.  Rooms with north facing windows are still considered as low light situations.

A helpful tip for knowing if a room is low light or not, if you can not easily read a book, then it is probably low light.

Examples of indoor plants that like Low Light are – Ivy, ZZ Plant, Snake Plant, Staghorn Fern, Maidenhair Fern, Philodendren, Marimo Moss Balls.

How long should my indoor plant be in sunlight?

It took some moving around before I found the perfect amount of low light for my Maidenhair Fern and now she is doing wonderfully!

Keep an eye on your plant those first few weeks and slightly move it around if you notice he might be getting too much sun or not quite enough.