"Roger Van Loon" wrote in message
...
mira wrote:

Hi Oliver,
Flourescents are useless, you will need a 400w son-ti-agro or similar.
contact these people and they will give you the proper advice, they also
have a very fast delivery:
http://www.growell.co.uk/
(snip)

I'm on the continent (Belgium). Are we talking about the same
measuring units (W) and products here?
For my indoor seedlings and cuttings, I use a normal 18 W fluorescent
tube (which is some 60 cm = 23 inches long) and I put that some 25 cm
= 10
inches above the trays. I leave the light on 16 hrs out of every 24
with a time clock (some people leave the light on constantly, I don't
think it makes much difference). I'm quite happy with the results. (I
grow things in a cupboard).
I'm now trying out rhododendron and camellia cuttings by this method,
not the easiest things. They seem perfectly okay after 3 months and
show some growth but it's still too early to judge how well they root.
There are (over here) special "gro-lux" tubes available for plants,
but when using these on my aquarium, I never saw any difference in the
plant growth. So I did away with them altogether. Way too expensive
for no better results...
And I heard from other people too that normal fluorescent tubes seem
to be quite all right.
Best of luck
Roger.

Yes I would agree, if tubes will grow plants in the hostile environment of a
fish tank, + the diffusion effects of water, then it should be o.k. for
garden seedling forcing. Although I might be tempted to trick the plants,
by increasing lighting from 12 hours now, to 18 hours by 1st of March.

Regards ......... Paul