Befitting any area expected to grow a lot of plants, indoor grow rooms need the right lighting configuration to help plants grow to their fullest potential.

No matter what you grow – or how you grow it – plants of all kinds need a healthy infusion of light to keep them healthy and bountiful. Indoor grow rooms, accordingly, face a fairly unique set of challenges. Whereas greenhouses allow for constant infusion of external light thanks to their windowed design, most indoor grow spaces tend to not let that much sunlight shine through, and that means you need to be a little more clever in how you get light to your plants, whether from specialized grow blacklights to indoor LED lighting that can help stimulate the growth of indoor plants.

However you grow your plants and whatever your light source of choice may be, there’s always a few things you can do to ensure light gets to your plants more effectively and help you maximize the available light in your grow room:

Arrange your lights to the layout of your room

Wherever possible, make sure your lights are arranged as closely to the actual layout of your grow room as possible, to maximize exposure to the light and make sure it’s not being lost in ambient light between the ceiling and your plants. Rearrange your lights to adhere to the layout of your grow room shelving, and make sure your shelves and trays are positioned as close to each light as possible.

Find the ‘sweet spot’

This will vary depending on the specifics of the lights you use, and will require a little research on your part, but for many indoor grow lights there exists a ‘sweet spot’ that can maximize the light your plants receive without causing further damage. Adjust the distance between your lights and your plants (moving them up and down on your dispensary tray trucks or placing them higher/lower on your wire shelves as needed) to make sure they’re getting as much light as they need without getting burned or fried by being too close to the lights.

Prune as needed

A common cause of plants not receiving light, both in nature and in grow rooms like yours, is a ‘canopy’ of plants growing taller than the others and hogging all the available light. Every so often, take a look at the heights of your various plants and make sure nothing is starting to overgrow anything else – and if it is, it might be time for a trip to the trim table.

Cycle your lighting to mirror natural light

Many indoor plants require various light cycles to reach their fullest potential, and for many of these plants you’ll want to make sure your lighting systems can mirror the sort of light they would receive in nature. Research the sort of light cycles your plants require and set your timers (or just turn them off and on yourself) accordingly; for example, plants may require 12 hours on and 12 hours off at certain stages of their life, but then need 18-on and 6-off, etc. By researching how much light your plants need you can keep everything as healthy as possible and ensure nothing gets too much – or too little – light.