I have plants on top of my entertaiment center that I want ew lights for. I currently have a lamp with a fluorescent bulb lol. Any suggestions?

How much room do you have? Are you worried about the look or more about your plants getting extra light? I get the feeling from you that you care a lot about your plants.

Also, how many plants and how big are they?

if it's a smaller space, T5 lights would be great!

I'll search for the photo, but I grew and flowered a Oncidium Twinkle (orchid) on the top of our piano with one desk lamp with a CFL.

No one thought it was a plant light. It looked like a piano light. Works.

Light is king!

Jane

I just think my plants add life to my living room. My entertainment center looks so dull without them!!! But there's no window by it. And the lamp works but I want to take some of my plants that need more light off my shelf by the window before winter and put them under lights. My Ficus benjamina since its still quite small and the Ficus lyrata I just propogated.

Oh and the lamp limits the light. I have to bunch them all together.

Did you ever put the benjamina outside? They grow like weeks during the summer months.

Ficus are rather high light loving plants as you know.

What lamp are you currently using?

No I never put it outside. Its so tiny and all my outside plants are big. A small one would dehydrate because I dont water my outdoor ones everyday. I try to but sometimes I forget or Im too busy.

Im using just a regular decorative lamp lol

I'm thinking T-5s will do me. I really need something that hangs on the ceiling. The t-5 are flat and would work well because my entertainment center is pretty tall.

I keep my plants outdoors for as long as possible. When the nights get too cold, I move them into my garage for the night, before bringing them back out in the mornings. I don't do this for all of my plants, just some of them. I also put the cover back over my small greenhouse, and keep many of them in there. I also have one of those large frost blankets to cover them if needed. It sounds like more work than it actually is, but it's not. Then, when it's just too cold outside, I move most of my plants into my garage. Others, I bring into my bedroom and keep them there for the winter. Where they brighten up those dull, dreary, cold winter days.

I used to have one of those large, bulky, old televisions that weighed a ton, lol. It took two people to even lift it. Well, it sat in front of one of my bedroom windows on a tv stand. Well, I mounted a shelf to the wall right above it, to place some of my plants on, so they could take advantage of the sunlight coming thru. I finally got rid of that television and bought a flat screen HDtv. I bought it back during christmas, during Black Friday. It was a camouflage television, so I just had to have it, HaHa! It still sits in the same location, and fits perfectly underneath the shelf I had mounted right above it. I like the way my plants pretty much fill in the space above and around my television. I would post a photo of it, but all of my plants are still outdoors. So my bedroom entertainment center looks bare right now.

I don't really use any supplemental lighting, but I do use those "daylight" compact fluorescent light bulbs for the lights in my house. Though, I've been switching them all out and replacing them with LED bulbs instead. Because they're more energy efficient. I still make sure that they're the "daylight" bulbs. These give off light more closer to that of natural sunlight.

All of my plants are clustered in front of two of three west facing living room windows that provide direct light until mid to late morning, depending on the time of year, and middling-to-poor indirect light the rest of the day. The other windows don't provide any meaningful natural light, and I've already sickened some plants by making believe they'd be okay away from the windows. It's worth some effort to make my plants healthier, but red or blue growing lights or industrial style florescent tubes in my living room is really out of the question.

I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions, Dave. Most of the Growing Under Lights members use elaborate and extremely expensive lighting, but I get the impression that bright CFL bulbs can help a lot without making a home feel like an industrial area.

It sounds like CFLs need to be pretty close to the plants for them to be effective, and all parts of the plants need light, so my current plan is to install a narrow shelf above each window, screw three or four cheap swing arm lights onto it, and get the brightest CFLs I can find that don't make the room feel like a garage workshop.

Does this sound like it would be effective--maybe not as good as a T5 fixture, but enough to keep otherwise healthy plants going?

I have quite a few CFL lightbulbs that I am using for succulents. I have found some vanity strips that hold 4 to 8 bulbs; also made my own using bunch of sockets wired as needed. They are min 23W (=100W) and higher, all 6500k. Plants are on 12 and 16" shelves, lights over all of them. Seems to work well. It is also very inexpensive, both in cost of supplies and electricity use.

Plants could be put quite close as the bulbs don't emit so much heat. I am not sure why do you think they may not be effective if not close? - it wouldn't be different with other kinds of bulbs (I think...). Fluoro tubes actually give little weaker light toward ends. If you have light reflectors, that is even better (vanity strips I use are all shiny).

The best is probably T5HO - when my bulbs give up, that's probably what I'll get (maybe LED is the best? - do not know much about, and they are still quite pricey).

Rina, I repeatedly read the thing about fluorescent lights on the lights forum. It could be that it applies to fluorescent tubes, not bulbs, but they kept saying that fluorescent light loses more of its brightness over a short distance than light from other sources. Who knows, maybe it was a bunch of hooey from people who only think fancy lighting works.

Litterbuggy,

CFL bulbs would work fine in your situation.

Also, if you had 100w fixtures, you can use brighter than the 23w (100w equivalent) bulb. When I was using CFL's, I mainly used the 55w (250w equivalent) 5500k.

Photo,

i also keep them out for as long as possible. Tonight and tomorrow night have lows around 40 so I will bring them in and put them back outside in the morning. Next week, the lows are all above 50 so they'll stay out until the nightime temps start to stay below 50 every night.

All my plants have been sprayed 3 times this month with Bayer 3 in 1 insect disease and mite control. They'll get one more spray a couple days before they come in for good. I battled mites all last winter (I won) but I really want a better head start this time.

this stuff seems to kill any bug it contacts. After spraying I always see random dead bugs sitting on the leaves.

So I chanced it and left everything outside, with temps dropping down to below 40! Hope there won't be any casualties...

litterbuggy

I believe that it was in reference o fluorescent tubes rather than CFL's. I have only couple of them (T8), so can't comment. One of our members that posts mostly on C&S forum has done lots of testing-measuring. He grows mostly succulents, and they are great looking plants. He uses T5HO; and he keeps plants that grow well in lower light levels (like Hawortias) on 'outside'.

For one of his threads, -click here-

Thanks, Dave and Rina. I'm sure 250w bulbs would be excellent for the plants, but I think I'll stick with 100w bulbs to preserve the living-room-ness of the room.

Brining back in most of the small stuff this weekend. Larger plants will stay out until it's just too cold.

Brining plants? When did that get to be a thing?

litterbuggy-LOL :p

Haha. Bringing. Guess I forgot a letter.

I promise I didn't brine any of the plants pictured :)

Love those wide window sills, I have one but wish I had 6 more. Beautiful window Dave....Yes, it was cold here too last night...I only have 1 plant outside left to bring in. It's a zonal begonia that hangs under the soffit. well protected...But it will be coming in very soon. I will spray it today with 3 n 1 spray. Thanks for sharing.

This is my kitchen window. My Mr. put up a shelf for me. This is where I do all of my water propagation. The little square black pot on the bottom is a onion I have rooting.

This is my set up. The top light is a T5 which probably isn't enough, but my plants look good. the bottom light speaks for itself..there's a cheap fan in there to circulate air & moisture. and a heating mat under my herb seeds in the tray. The second shelf down are my dying plants that I don't think are coming back. A Chinese evergreen & a Rubber tree plant.

Debra

May I ask what is the reason for keeping plants indoors in the 'greenhouse'?

Dave, I love your kitchen windows. Makes me want to see the rest of the house.

Debra your window is great too. I also wonder about the indoor greenhouse!?!?

rina_Ontario...I have an Anthurium, Calathea, Alocasia, 2 marantas & others that need very high humidity. This greenhouse greatly helps keep that humidity inside for them...

Alocasia care

Maranta care

Anthurium care

Calathea care

Escargot Begonia care

Satin Pothos care

These are some of the humidity loving plants I have in the mini greenhouse.