Thanks RG, I'm not looking to start a farm. I'd like to grow a dozen plants, enough for fresh maters with dinner and maybe enough to put up a few jars of sauce.

For a dozen plants, a cheap 4' shop light will get you started in the simplest way possible. But, search through some threads, you're bound to find a wealth of info.

A 4' shop light with at least two bulbs. I am using a shop light with four, but have used the two bulb kind more or less successfully in the past. Most important is to keep the bulbs as close to the tops of the growing plants as possible. No shop light will produce as much light as sunlight outside; so maximize the light that you give them. IIRC when you double the distance between you don't just half the light you quarter it; so the closer the tubes the better and the stockier your seedlings will be. Most shop lights come with chains that allow you to raise or lower the fixture pretty easily.

Hi OldDutch,

A very common mistake about the intensity, when you double the distance you get a quarter of the intensity, that is right when you have a point source of light. A tube light is a line and the light intensity is about lineair with the distance inside the length of the tube, For example, you have a 4 Foot light, you double the distance the illuminated surface is twice as wide but the length of the surface is still about 4 foot and not 8 foot. how smaller the distance and how longer the tube light the more lineair it will be.

No one said to get a shop light with fins. The fins are on the side of the fixture and direct the light down on to your plants. Without the fins the light is spread out and doesn't do the plants any good. 1 shop light with fins should be all you need. It should be suspend it above your plants on chains that can be raised and lowered.

I have 3 such fixtures suspended from the basement rafters over a table. We bought extra chain to hang from the rafters and the lights ate hooked into them with the s hook that comes with the fixture. They are all plugged into a surge protector. There are many ways of hooking up lights so use your imagination.

As for the fixtures--I've had my shop lights for a few years now and they work great for starting plants. Keep the lights about an inch from the top of the plants. I don't remember what it cost but I know it wasn't much. Probably less than $100 for all the fixtures and supplies.

I bought this one last year and like it: http://www.groworganic.com/green-thumb-2-foot-light-system.html