I love nearly everything about my new studio apartment—the location, the privacy, the fact that I can cook in my “kitchen” while watching TV in my “living room.” My beloved collection of plants, however, hate my studio apartment and its single north-facing window. After years of believing I had a green thumb, I’m now living in a flora abbatoir. RIP, Calathea Rattlesnake.
Luckily, after trying a bunch of grow light and sun reflector rigs that would make even The Guy from High Maintenance jealous, I’ve found a solution: an affordable sunlight substitute that keeps the plants in the darkest depths of my apartment looking like they were blessed by the Jolly Green Giant.
Soltech Solutions, a small company based in Pennsylvania, makes powerful bulbs that bathe any space in the cool temperature light that plants love. Their latest product, the Vita, is a big deal because it can screw into any existing light fixture or lamp you already have. (In lighting jargon, it’s an A19 bulb.) Which means you can repurpose an old bedside light to supercharge your basil plant. And while you can find cheaper versions littering the aisles of Home Depot and Amazon, they feel it. And look it.
Unlike most grow bulbs, the Vita’s glow is less underground dispensary, more contemporary art gallery—a little warmer and more flattering for everything that’s not growing in soil. And unlike the cheap bulbs, the Vita is enormously powerful. (In case your botanical ambitions are bigger than a plant or two, you could try Soltech Solutions’s flagship product, the wall-mounted Aspect grow light—powerful enough to grow a small forest in your house.)
Not to keep going on about this, but the Vita has made my neglected bedside lamp the best light source in my apartment. The corner, which barely sustained a shade-tolerating snake plant, is now home to a light-hungry money tree. It’s genuinely enjoyable to read under. When the nuclear apocalypse arrives and we’re all living underground, my money tree and I will thrive.
Source link
