African Violets and Gesneriads: Grow lights, 1 by critterologist

critterologist wrote:
Plain old 40 watt cool light florescent tubes work just fine. You can get fixtures that take a pair of 4 ft. tubes for about $7 at Home Depot. You can also get fancy "grow lights" but I'm not sure they're needed to promote blooms & growth for AVs, and they sure are more expensive.

Here's a photo of the shelving unit I set up for seed starting. These are "Gorilla shelves" that we got at Sam's Club. They go together *very* easily with a rubber mallot, and I really like the fact that I can use quarter inch wood dowels through the adjustable shelf openings and simply place my florescent fixtures on the dowels. One word of warning though, do not think that you are coordinated enough to adjust the dowels while balancing the lights on them.... take the lights off, adjust the dowels, put the lights back on... I speak from experience, LOL.

This view shows the light fixtures being supported on the dowels. The lights get plugged into a power strip, which in turn is plugged into a timer.