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nyamo_gw

Dorm Room lighting

Nyamo
12 years ago

Hey guys, this is my first post here though I often come to this site for my questions.

Before I ask about my situation, I want to be perfectly clear that I have a brown thumb. Like, REALLY brown. I've killed almost every plant I own but I love them to death and keep trying.

So, right now I'm in a dorm room with pretty much little to no good sunlight through our one window so I've tried to make my own little garden set up.

The plants I currently have are: 2 African violets (one currently suffering from crown rot and I dont know if it'll make it), 1 aloe plant, 1 orchid, 1 christmas cactus and 1 Serissa (snow rose) bonsai tree.

I have a humidifier going 24/7 and my hydrometer (sp?) says its always about 50-60% humidity in the room. I also have a desk lamp fitted with a 60 watt CFL (concentrated fluorescent light) shining on them.

I guess my main question is, is this set up going to work? What should I do differently? Please remember, I'm a complete newbie and I easily kill everything haha thanks!!

Comments (4)

  • jll0306
    12 years ago

    I suspect you will be able to keep the plants alive, but you may need to swap bulbs from bright white to sunlight tint (blue to red in the spectrum) in order to get flowers. I would also add another small CFL light, just to boost the lumens -- 6000/sq. ft. is my self-imposed minimum for indoor growing.

    Small lamps are cheap at thrift shops, but get the biggest CFL you can find that will fit the socket. Usually you can find the color spectrum of the light and the lumens on the side of the package.

  • TheMasterGardener1
    12 years ago

    Nyamo,

    I cant grow African violets with cfl lighting either!!! lol I would not even want to try unless I had a hps. Every plant I ever grown under an hps has never had any thing wrong, I suspect the high uv keeps plants really healthy killing any chance for disease. I never really had luck growing house plants and special flowers that grow so slow they get disease from bad temps and low indoor lighting. I can grow huge harvests of peppers, tomatoes, and other veggies outside or under hps lihting. When they sit under fluorescents lights it seems like they do not even grow? I used blue spectrum hps bulbs and I can grow plants start to finish under it. Dwarf and cherry tomatoes are my favorite thing to grow indoor.

  • TheMasterGardener1
    12 years ago

    This is why I will never answer one of these questions again because no one comes back. Why would you post a question then never come back to it?

  • mistascott
    12 years ago

    MasterGardener, how do you know he or she hasn't come back?

    OP: I don't know much about your specific plants, but the idea is to replicate these plants' ideal conditions (see link below for a good write-up on African Violet). The humidifier is definitely a good idea. However, a 60 watt incandescent equivalent (14 watt) CFL isn't a lot of light given little to no supplemental sunlight. African Violets need about 80 watts of fluorescent light (not incandescent equivalent) according to the write-up. You can easily go to 100 watt equivalent (~27 watt) in that same lamp but that is still not enough. You can get flowers with any fluorescent bulb provided there is enough of it -- the red/blue thing is largely a myth -- all fluorescents cover the light spectrum well.

    Here is a link that might be useful: African Violets