You might want to invest in a fan or too - all those lights are going to generate significant heat. Plus, the fan will help the plants develop thicker stems.

Post a picture or too.

Andrew

You can wire all the fixtures to one or two cords, to gain outlets and make it look more organized. Unless your worried about electricity costs, you can't give your plants too much fluorescent light, at any stage of growth.

I can somewhat control the temperature by opening or closing the space blankets I am using to reflect the light back onto the plants. With one side open the temperature was running around 70 degrees, with it shut and only four tubes lit it was up to 80 degrees. I haven't tried all seven tubes yet with the blankets closed, but I am guessing it would get up to around 90. I also put a humidity gauge in the setup and with the blankets closed it gets up to around 70% and I start getting condensation on the insides of the blankets.
I already have the first shelf completely full and it looks like I will have to put in another seven lights so I can use another shelf.
I still want each light to have its own power cord so I can turn on just the lights I want.

calif I under stand the separate cords. I just added a two bulb 40w t12 to my shelf today. I hung it on its side along the back of the shelf with the 2 two bulb 32w t8s hanging over the top. So now I have 6 lamps to a 1'x4' shelf and 6 separate cords for all the lights and fan. Ha ha they fill up my power strip.Have fun!
Curt :-)

Just finished the second shelf of seven tubes so now have 14 tubes total, seven per a shelf. With all seven tubes on and my reflective space blankets closed up all around it gets up to 88 degrees inside, but by opening one side I can reduce that to 70 degrees. By playing around with how much ventilation I allow I can probably get any temperature I want in the 70 to 88 degree range. I also have a humidity gauge and the relative humidity is running around 70 percent with the blankets closed, in fact I get some condensation on the inside of the blanket. I also installed an insulating rubber pad on the shelf and covered it with aluminum foil to reflect back any lost light.
I am now debating whether I should add a third shelf of seven lights while I can still get the fluorescent strip lights for $1.99 each (just the bare fixture and ballast, no bulb or power cord).