African Violets and Gesneriads: Wicking And Shelves, 1 by av_ocd_girl

av_ocd_girl wrote:
Lynn,

The distance from the light to foliage is usually 10 to 12 inches for standard mature violets and 8 to 10" for mini/semiminiature violets. Also the light intensity is not consistent along the length of the lights. If you divide the shelf in thirds .....let's say the middle 18 inches of a 48 inch shelf.....the light will be more intense under the middle of the tubes.

I got these shelves at the local Lowe's store....the shelves are actually particle board that I've covered in self adhesive plastic. My DH is good with electricity, so he actually screwed the fixtures onto the shelves and wired them together. I only grow mini/semis on this shelf because of the short distance between shelves. The two orange racks on both sides of the lighting shelf have no lights at all. They have wheels, so I move them in between the light shelves, and move them out when I need to work. They get plenty of light for propagation and some lower light plants.

The shelving unit I use for my standard AVs are the same ones as Susan uses. I got the wire racks with wheels from Sam's club. I attached a regular 48" shop light to the rack using the chain that came with it and some S hooks.

Rox