Denine Fucci dfucci at
Wed Apr 8 19:33:35 EST 1998

"Jill " <bite at> wrote:

>Exactly *how much* sunlight per day is enough for a plant to live and
>I know it depends on the plant, but my reason for asking is that I live in
>an apartment and first of all- all the sunlight that enters is indirect and
>not very bright, and on a good day my plants only are exposed to indirect
>sunlight for a couple hours.

Here's what I've read about this....MOST houseplants (excluding cacti,
etc...) are able to grow in the house and are chosen as the most
popular indoor plants because in the wild (most often tropics) they're
the ones that are on the shady forest floor, with the tall trees
shading them from the harsh effects of the sun.  So they are able to
be brought indoors because they don't need the bright BRIGHT sunlite. 

>Does just the light that brightens up a room when you open the blinds
>count? I mean, if I have a plant across the room from the window, and no
>actual sun rays reach it, but yet there is light coming in....will that
>plant have enough light for photosynthesis etc?

Even after what I said above, my answer to this is probably not.  Also
depending on how far the plant is across from the window counts, but
as a rule I would say no, better to put it a little closer.  

Denine Fucci

More information about the Plantbio mailing list