Light Levels Necessary for Indoor Bamboo
Q. I am a landscape architect working on a new building in Los Angeles. The owner wants to put bamboo such as Bambusa vulgaris in the lobby, which has 25′ glass windows on 2 sides and 10 foot-candles of light from the ceiling. What type of additional lighting would you recommend for the bamboo and how many additional foot-candles? Thanks, Claudia Kath - Laguna Beach, Ca
A. I would recommend 1500 foot-candles. This is the equivalent of the light a plant would get sitting in a south facing bay window. I would suggest Metal Halide lamps as your additional lighting source since their spectrum is the closest to natural sunlight. You will have to work out the calculations for how many watts you will need since the distance the lamps are from the plants will determine it.