Hi, I'm in Ontario and not where the wine grows! For the past two years, I've been trying to grow Mesembs, as in Lithops, Conophytums, etc., under lights. These are plants that on average will rarely exceed one inch in height, give another inch when flowering and are quite stingy in their water requirements.

My current setup is a basic Floralight three shelf cart with 3 levels X 2 X 48 inch Floralight Full Spectrum Ultragold fluorescent bulbs.

Please forgive my ignorance: Might these be T8s? It doesn't say on the bulbs and I assume each is 40W? Can I do better? They are 8' to 4' (inches) over the plants. During the summer, I was running the lights for 16 hours and now for the fall, I've chopped it to 14 and soon will reduce yet another two because some of these plants are "winter growers". Any idea what "ballast" I'm running?

I've kind of got a handle on soil and water/humidity (or lack thereof) as well as PH but I need better control of light. Any idea what "lumens" my bulbs are delivering? Does anyone know if, despite the full spectrum claim, the bulbs are truly delivering full spectrum? For now, all I can play with is the height above the plants of the bulbs. Can I add something to enhance growth and eventually blooming? How about LEDs? My electricity bill is a concern.

I thank you in advance for your comments.

R.