African Violets and Gesneriads: Grow lights, 0 by sarahjo80

sarahjo80 wrote:
I caught some fixtures on clearance at Home Depot and (sorta) fashioned a shelf out of that grate stuff that you build into different shapes with the little plastic connectors. Sort of like "build your own flimsy milk crates". Anyway, later I found instructions for a PVC plant stand, I have yet to do it, but I plan on it. And I discovered that my local Habitat for Humanity Thrift store sells 4' fixtures for $2 apiece!!! and bulbs for a buck. They say you should use one warm and one cool 40w bulb in the fixture for av's. Which is fine, if you can afford warms (cools are cheaper, by a lot). Or if you can find warms for a buck at the HFH thrift store. On the other hand, my grandma has won best species at shows with her avs, and she has only ever used 2 cools.

I'm using two cools about... well, suffice it to say, my lights are a lot closer to my plants because of the arrangement. I don't have a lot of height to work with. But the one I'm growing right now (which my g-ma propagated for me), is about 50% bigger than hers. They were all grown together with the same mix of stuff, except mine are closer to the lights. I know she does 12" on hers.

Here's a pic of my av from a few days ago. Maybe it's too close and that's why it's so white? dunno

Sarah