Yes. Many growers have a plant room in the basement with little or no light from outside.

Nancy

Hi Ron,
I grow all my av's and gessies under flourescent lights. If you mean will they survive if the lights are on the ceiling, I will say they may but more than likely only barely. My Av's get between 10 and 12 hours a day with the bulbs about 12 inches above the top of the plants.
Hope this helps.
Fred in NJ

Ron,
It depends on how far above the plants those flo lights are.
Thrive? Put the flo lights about 12 inches above the top of the plants.

If you're in an office with flo lights in the ceiling, get yourself a desk lamp and use that with plants on your desk.

Welcome to the forum,
Dora

I have some african violets in a 10 gallon terrarium. Right now I have a 15 watt bulb over them but they are not doing well. Should I get another 15 watt bulb? would that be sufficient?

What would be better, an exo terra hood with 2 26 watt compact fluorescent bulbs, or two regular fluorescent fixtures with a total of 2 15 watt bulbs?

I'm thinking compact fl's in a 10 since it is such a small aquarium might be too hot.

My AV trailer in my terrarium is about 6-8 inches away from a 30W CFL. I have a couple semiminis in another case about 10-12 inches away from a 30W CFL. Lastly, I have a couple more mini trailers a little over a ft away from an 85W CFL. These are all growing well and blooming. My guess is that the two 26W CFLs will do the trick. You might want a small computer fan for ventilation, though. I have one in each of the cases with the 30W, but I didn't have another one for the case with the 85W. However, there are ventilation holes in that case, and the CFL is a fair distance away.

I'm curious why you say the 2 26 watts would work better, since you keep yours under 30 watts, and the total wattage if I went with regular fluorescentswould be 30 watts... ?
I already have the two 15 watt fixtures. Also keep in mind that the lights are only maybe 6" above the plants.

My dad is an electrical engineer and he said he would have to do some research to be 100% sure but he thinks that 2x15 watts would have the same light output as a 30 watt bulb. The only thing is that my fixtures are walmart cheapies and don't have reflectors. I am going to try it anyway. All I know is that the two of them together worked fine for medium-light aquatic plants, so I'm hoping they'll do the same for terrestrial plahts.

I agree with your Dad, terralizzy, the two 15 watt bulbs should equal the amount of light that is given off by one 30 watt bulb. Also, the two 26 watt bulbs might be a better solution, depending on the amount of space that your plants are occupying. I burn two 40 watt bulbs that are covering a plant shelf that is about 8 square feet (4ft. x 2 ft). This works out to about 10 watts per square foot. My lights hang about 10-12 inches above the tops of my plants and this seems to work pretty good for me. I burn them about 12 hours a day.

Curtis

Well, it's good to hear a more definite answer. I suppose it does depend somewhat on how close the fixtures are to one another, for example, 1 in away from each other vs 6 in away from each other. In that aspect, the tubes seem to have an advantage, because you can put the two of them right next to each other and make it more like one light source. That makes me happy, because I have two 15W T5 tubes on a lower shelf that are the only source of light for some extra leaves I have started, and I was worried that it might not be enough light, even though they seem to be doing well there.

One thing I do to reflect some light is place mirrors along the back wall. It definitely seems to help. I get the cheap 4 pack square mirrors from Ikea. I don't even stick them up; I just prop them along the wall behind the plants.

I mainly grow orchids in my terrariums, and the AVs are along for the ride. But they're doing pretty well in there, so I'm thinking of adding more. Most of my AVs are in a south window and not in a case, and I like having them there because space in the cases are at a premium : ) But I've been noticing that the AVs under fluorescent light have been growing these amazing colored variegated leaves, that they only rarely seem to get in the window. Anyone else notice this?

hi
Need some advice. I have grown AV on and off for many years. I have been lucky enough to to have good natural lighting all year long.
Now that I'm retired I and living in Oregon(lots of cloudy and rainy days) I must use artificial light to grow indoor plants, mainly AV.
I need help in making the right selection and combination of flourecent tubes. I will use 40w 48in tubes.I don't want to use special grow florecent tubes. Hobby money is limited

Hello Jose,

You don't have to use expensive grow lights to grow African violets. Some people just use regular cool white bulbs. Others like the warm white in that the light is a little redder and looks more like an incandescent light bulb. I like the daylight bulbs for growing my plants. I like how the light looks in the rooms when I live. They are pretty inexpensive. One can get a 2-pack of 4ft. daylight bulbs for about 3 dollars and change at Home Depot.

I hope this helps.

Larry