Hi, Kathy,

Welcome to the forum. I have a couple of questions about your stand. How wide is wide, and how far apart are the shelves? Is it at all adjustable? What kind and how much natural light does it get? Is it in front of a window? If so, what is the exposure (north, east, etc.)?

This info will give us a good idea of what you are working with, and hopefully there is an easy solution.

Thanks,

Barbara

The stand has 5 non-adjustable glass shelves. The top shelf is approx. 14 x 13 with 9" between 1st and 2nd shelf.
The shelves and space between gets bigger, with the bottom shelf being 19 x 21" and is 17" from the 4th shelf.
The room has windows on 3 sides with east, north and south exposure. The stand is against the only wall without windows. This is our breakfast room and there is not room to put it in front of a window. It gets a fair amount of light on a sunny day, but during the winter it gets very little light.
Thanks,
Kathy
PS does anyone know where I can get 24" flourescent fixtures with hanging chains so I can adjust the distance from the plants on a 36" stand I am putting up in the basement. Once the shelves are in place, they can't be adjusted, so I would like to be able to adjust the light fixures. The only lights I found so far at Home Depot, etc. fit flush with the shelf.

Hi Kathy,
Glad to have you with us on the forum. I have included a website that should be able to supply all your needs for lighting fixtures. My one problem is that you need 24" fixtures. Bulbs for these fixtures tend to be more expensive than the 48" ones.
In any case, follow the link and I am sure you will find something there you can use in spite of the cost.
Fred in NJ

Here is a link that might be useful: IGS

Kathy -

For the basement:
if you can - buy a 48 inch shelf. 24" light is not enough for 36" shelving unit, and 24" and 36" shoplights are 3 times more expensive. Better get wide shelf - wire racks thing - Sam's or Costco sells them for around $70. And put 3 working shelves only -plus one on the top. You can see your violets, you can adjust your shoplights with chains if you need - you can stick another shoplight if you want to grow something with 4 tubes - streptocarpus loves 4 tubes - or phalenopsis or paphiopedilum orchids - they actually rebloom every year under 4 tubes.

The glass shelf is a blah. Sorry. My best guess would be to use "growsticks" - single tube 24" fixtures - I think WM carries them - on the bottom 2-3 shelves.You can glue them to the underside of the shelf above. The top shelves are for knick-knacks.

Good luck

Irina

Walmart has light sticks, I used them on a shelf. About $10. It doen't go all the way across the shelf, so it's in the center and most of the plants are in the lighted area...The ones that end up on the end, I move them around...they also get some window light and that helps too. I also have other light shelves, so some do better here and others do better there. tish

Thank you all for your help.

Kathy

I received a 24" light fixture from IGS which I hoped to use on a 36" stand. It comes with 2 20 watt bulbs. I realize this is not ideal and plan to use it only as an isolation stand. Is this going to be enough light to keep small starter plants and leaves on for approximately 6 months isolation. I believe I read you should use 2 40 watt bulbs.

A 24" light on a 36" wide stand is enough for me to keep AVs in constant bloom. I just have less light at the ends. The key to using the smaller light might be the distance from the plants.