What kind of lights?

[GardenerKid]

I haven't ever grown plants indoors but I'm wanting to start some plants indoors over the winter so I was wondering what kind of lights I need for them.

Are the average florescent tubes like [url=https://www.amazon.com/Eiko-15512-Straight-Fluorescent-Light/dp/B001HXFC34/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1260845415&sr=1-13]this[/url] ok or do I need lights that give off UV light?

[joshbuchan]

I have allways fort that u can start them off under a flouresent strip light, but once they get like 3 leaves or so u have to put them under a bigger light that gives of UV rays. this has always worked best for me.
but I would wait for some better adive.

[rainbowgardener]

Just answered this question for someone else:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20608&highlight=

Here's what I said:

I start a ton of stuff from seeds in my basement every winter to have ready for spring. But I grow them until they are 6-12" tall and by then they can get moved outside. For that the fluorescent shop lights, which is what I use, work just fine.

If you are talking about growing them to maturity indoors and getting tomatoes and peppers, etc indoors then you do need to be more picky and make more of an investment in bright, full spectrum lighting.

If you are going to put them outside in the spring, you can grow them to more than three leaves under the shop lights. What you aren't very likely to get that way is flowering and fruit production.

But you need to be a little careful about what to start when, knowing your climate (although depending on where you are in California, this is not so much an issue for you, much of California has year around gardening). For the rest of us with cold winters, we have to be careful. One year I tried starting my tomatoes in January and before they could be put out they were tall and spindly. I didn't have room for big tomato plants under my grow lights, so they were just in windows, which was not nearly adequate. Works much better for me, here in OH, to wait on the tomatoes til mid Feb.

[MysticGardener67]

If you rember a few things.. Plants really don't need UV to grow, actually too much UV can cause leafe damage. what I like to use is a combination of coolwhite florescent tubes and warmwhite florescent tubes. They are cheap, as are the fixtures they go in and the combination of the two provide a nice deep collor spectrum at both the redd and blue ends of the color spectrum. I have als o had good luck with the "daylight" or "sunilght" colored forlescents.

you will have to keep the light fixtures about 4 inches above the top of the plants at all times, raising the fixture as the plants grow. it doesn't hurt at all to have a set of tubes set on edge to provide a bit of side lighting either.

[Bear in the garden]

I use shop light for all my plants in the winter, I even start cuttings and seeds under them, they cost less to use and there cheap to buy, I over winter over 300 Epiphyllums and other cactus along with house plants in my basement and find they all do well with reg, fluorescent shop lights. you can use day light forlescents they will do the job.

Bear