Hi,
I'm a chef by trade, but plant dad at heart. I recently took a job where I finally get my own corner desk in a decently put together office, but the room feels... sterile? Classic white walls, light floor, brown desk, with notices and guides all over the wall, like an office in a high school.
I would love to get a plant for my desk and maybe my managers desk as well, but the room has literally no windows and the door has to stay locked, so there's fully never any natural light, just fluorescents.
Is there any easy to care for plants that can handle being under a fluorescent light all day? Any help is much appreciated.
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For many indoor tropical plants life in the office is slow death. You may feel that way yourself after a bad day! With minimal light levels and good watering practices most tropicals will live for a while. The ones that require high light will draw on their stored resources in the roots and gradually go downhill. Tropicals that tolerate low light levels for a long time are
- pothos - indestructible and common
- aglaonema - and its relative spathiphyllum
- sanseveria - not the prettiest plant but tough
- philodendron - look for smaller varieties as some can get quite large
- aspidastra - hard to find and can get spider mites
If you don't mind some extra work most palms (date palm, canary palm, bella palm) will tolerate low light levels for many months before needing a refresher session in higher light. Ficus have an undeserved reputation for being finicky about light levels. Most new plants are inadequately conditioned for low light and drop many leaves with a change to lower light. An older plant grown in lower light will thin out but look quite acceptable. Particularly if it's height allows the foliage to be closer to the lights.
A faraday cage has no influence on plants that I know of but too much water will. Water thoroughly and let dry out. Constantly wet soil means root rot: the number one killer of tropical plants. If you don't mind a little extra work the self watering pots or making your own with a capillary wick are an excellent way of providing a good water cycle. I use strips from self watering mats rather than the acrylic string indicated in the link.
You could get multiple plants and rotate which one is in your office every few weeks, bringing one home on a Friday night and then the next one in on a Monday morning.
Honestly I had no idea what kind of stress these changes would put on a plant compared to staying in the office full-time, but I suspect it would work.