Can Lucky Bamboo Grow In The Dark?

Lucky Bamboo is one of those indoor plants that can grow with limited resources.

It doesn’t ask for much. 

But can it grow in the dark?

Does this plant survive in low light?

When you get this plant home, these are some of the questions that come to your mind. 

To address this topic, I have shared some details on how you should go about planting your Lucky Bamboo plant in the dark.

So, let’s get started!

Can Lucky Bamboo Grow In The Dark?

No, the Lucky Bamboo plant cannot grow in the dark.

Even though there are many claims on the internet about the plant’s ability to thrive in darkness, it doesn’t do well in such conditions.

What could be the reason for it?

Well, like any other plant, the Lucky Bamboos require light to prepare their food.

Photosynthesis is essential for this process.

Without this process, the plant will not be able to produce ample resources for its growth.

Hence, it’s important to provide enough light to this plant.

If you keep the plant in a dark room, it will have difficulties growing at a standard rate.

Due to a lack of light, its growth will remain stunted.

And if you continue to grow it in the same place, the leaves might turn yellow, and the plant may not even survive for long.

So, these are the issues that you might have to face if you try to grow this plant in darkness.

In the next section, you will find some useful insights on growing this plant in low-light conditions.

4 Things To Remember While Growing Lucky Bamboo In Low Light

Let’s see what you can do to tackle this interesting situation –

1. Place The Lucky Bamboo Plant Near Artificial Light

Don’t have a place to keep the plant near sunlight?

No worries!

You can also place it near an artificial light source in the room.

Yes, if natural light is not available, this can be a great option for your plant.

Now, while placing it under artificial light, you should try to keep it as close as possible to this light source.

Since the intensity of most indoor lights is not high, you will have to work on such adjustments for the betterment of your plant.

Note: You can also use grow lights, which are quite efficient in providing decent sunlight to such plants.

Some of these light setups do allow you to play with the intensity of light.

So, that’s another plus point for using this type of light for your plant.

2. Do Not Water Your Plant Heavily

When you wish to grow your Lucky Bamboo plant in low light, you need to make some changes while taking care of the plant.

And one of these changes is the watering frequency.

As you know, indoor plants generally do not require a lot of water, and they do just fine with a limited water supply.

However, when you move the plant to a dark room, the requirement for water goes down even further.

Since there isn’t much heat from natural light sources, the water will remain in the soil in the form of moisture.

It will take more time to evaporate from the soil.

This is why you shouldn’t water your Lucky Bamboo plant heavily.

Also, you should reduce the frequency and water it only after 10-15 days.

3. Limit The Fertilizer Usage

In general, fertilizers are meant to boost plant growth.

But when it comes to indoor plants, you don’t have to use them as often as you’d use them for outdoor plants and trees.

The indoor plants do not grow quickly as compared to the outdoor ones.

On top of that, if you have placed a Lucky Bamboo plant in a dark room, it will require even less fertilizer during its lifecycle.

Well, it’s pretty similar to watering the plant in these conditions.

When you keep it in such an environment, the plant’s requirements decrease significantly.

So, even if you fertilize the plant once a month, it won’t make much of an impact on it.

These added nutrients will just stay in the soil and may get washed out when you water it next time.

Therefore, it won’t be a great idea to keep fertilizing the plant.

For these conditions, you can fertilize the plant every quarter or so, which is an ideal period for refilling the nutrients in the soil.

Having said that, you may also reduce this frequency even further to twice a year.

Your Lucky Bamboo plant won’t mind this new fertilization cycle because it will only grow at a very slow rate in low light.

4. Try To Provide Natural Light For A Few Days

The plants that are kept in natural light always do better than the ones you grow under artificial light.

So, try to move your plant near a window for a few days, which will allow it to absorb a decent amount of sunlight.

You should perform this task during the summer or spring season, as these are the best seasons for growing any plants in your garden.

Also, the sunlight we get during these months is far better than most of the year.

Once this period is over, you can put the plant back in its original place and continue to grow with the same watering and fertilization schedule.

If you perform this routine every few weeks or even every year, you won’t find many difficulties growing it in low light conditions.

The other benefit of this practice is the leaves will get a nice shade of light green color.

Generally, when you provide low light to the plant, its leaves tend to turn dark green.

It’s a sign of a lack of sunlight, and you can fix this problem with the above suggestion.

Moving on, let’s check out the FAQs related to this topic.

FAQs