African Violets and Gesneriads: Hi! and plant stand question..., 1 by SaraCatherine

SaraCatherine wrote:
Thanks for the advice everyone! I forgot to say that the lights are two 32W T-12's only a few inches apart, with a reflector behind. I do have other houseplants, but mostly they're at work, and none are really shorter than the african violets, so if I make the fourth shelf much shorter to give the others room, I probably won't be able to use it for anything but storing supplies.

In fact, to get enough space for the other shelves, I think I'd need to take out a shelf (and its light entirely), which seems sad, but may be what I have to do.

But the idea of trying things carefully and seeing how the violets do is appealing. Since the violets are babies they're in shorter pots than bigger plants. And I don't have the wicking stuff set up yet, so they'll be lower down still because of that. With both of those, they'll be 10" from the lights, which seems about right.

Thanks,

Sara

Here's a photo of part of the shelves, with one of the lighting
fixtures attached using plastic tie wraps (the lights came with a
chain, but I couldn't adjust it as well as I wanted to):