Indoor gardening ? : Low E glass - can plants grow?

We have a room we recently put tinting on it that supposedly filters out some UV light / keeps the room cooler.

The guy did a great demo - outside, had us look up at the sun. felt the heat. Then put a sample of the tinting on it. The heat from the sun notciably dropped. And it wasn't all that dark.a tint.

Anyone know if that will keep plants from growing? Or they grow less? any idea a % drop from unfiltered light?

THANKS!

 

My wife kills our indoor plants even if they are not near the low E windows but I think it's her not the windows!

 

Depends if it is just tinted or if it's really low e. Low e filters out uv light, so it could affect plants that need uv light. But every plant is different so there is no way to tell what effect it will have, if any. Tints also have a shading coefficient, which cuts down the percentage of light that gets through. Think of it as having your plants out on a cloudy or partly cloudy day. Doubt cloudy days affect plants too much, although some do prefer full sun... but not all do.

So it comes down to what plants you have and what growing conditions they prefer.

 

If you look the specs for your film you'll see how much visible light you are loosing. Most/all films specify the percentage of visible light they block so whoever installed your film should be able to tell you.

Anything between your plants and the sun will retard their growth. How much depends on how many panes of glass and what film you used. Also, most low E windows have a layer of film already inside between the glass or is a coating on the inside of the glass. Blocking the UV end of the spectrum doesn't contribute much to growth but cutting it out does slow the plants growth a bit.

 

Not sure what room this is (living, bedroom, library etc...) and how practical it would be..... but if your plants require full sun (not many such...most like indirect or partial) - you can always buy a special bulb that provides broad spectrum....they screw in a regular lamp....they run about $10 to $15
You can also try SAD bulb - those are claimed to also provide broad spectrum and are actually designated for people suffering from Season Affective Disorder... might be a neat bonus during the Fall/ Winter for all residents even if nobody in your family suffers from such issues.