why do some plants grow better outside?

Question

why is that some plants grow better outside? what does it have to do with light intensity and photosynthesis? why are room lights good enough?

Answer 1

Light is measured in 2 ways with respect to plants.
One is lumens. That's the brightness. The other is
called color temperature which is measured in Kelvins.
That is the light frequency which is to you, the color. Sunlight
is white light which is made up of the whole spectrum(i.e., all
the colors of the rainbow). Normal house light is largely the
lower frequency light and relatively low in lumens. Plants
that, in the wild, grow at forest bottom under the shade of many
trees find indoor home light quite adequate. But plants that ,
in the wild get direct sunlight, need that and don't get enough light
in a house.

Answer 2

Every year, my mother brings in plants that she had growing outside to winter them over in her office.

Every year, most of them die.

It's mainly the light--indoor plants just never get as much light as outdoor ones. Even glass blocks UV light. And plants need UV light to grow--some need only a little teeny bit, but regular indoor lights just don't provide the UV rays plants need.

There are "grow lights", favored by die-hard gardeners (and probably a few pot farmers who have to grow their crop in closets.) Apparently, they give off some kind of UV rays (A? B? Don't know if it's one or both.) They're more expensive than regular light bulbs and I guess they work, but I've never tried them.

Temperature usually isn't an issue as much as temperature issues, like drafts, hot and cold spots, and dry indoor air. Outdoor air is usually moister than indoor air if the indoor air is heated and cooled.

Some plants do just fine inside. But some mope and turn yellow and sulk and never do well. Another issue is tropical vs. temperate--some indoor plants are marketed as houseplants due to the fact that they can't grow in cool temperate regions. But they love tropical sun (bright and at a different angle) and never do as well inside as they do outside in the tropics.

Even good gardeners can't always predict which plants do well as houseplants. There are issues with exposure, light intensity, temperatures, humidity, and pesky kitties eating houseplants or laying their big fat bodies down on Mommy's pansies in the windowboxes and squashing the life out of them (that might just be *my* cat doing that.) My mom's a good gardener, but she kills off plants every year when she brings them inside. Oh, well.

Answer 3

It is a function of how much sun they get. Temperature differences play a minor role.

Will