HelpfulGardener.com

My hubby surprised me with a 2 ft. T5 grow light for my plants, needless to say I was VERY surprised. I never thought he would get me one of them, the question is I have that on and also the flourescent lamp I had on before, it sure is lit up in my corner! The plants seem to love it already, my 2 amaryllis are growing really well, the Apple Blossom is growing both leaves and scapes at the same time and the Star of Holland is growing 2 scapes at the same time as well. The baby apple blossom is really doing well, it is growing leaves like nobodys business! All my plants are doing good, here is a picture of the setup, I would like opinions and advice from you fine people about my little indoors garden.

Oh! Oh! pick meeee!

...based on my various cobbled together indoor lighting set ups, what I would do here would be to put a shelf directly above the tube fixture and the plants that would extend as wide and as deep as is occupied by the plants. The shelf should be bright white or covered with reflective Mylar on the under side, and bedecked with shelf skirts also made of Mylar so it reflects the light back to the plants and not blind you from looking directly at the light.

Instead of the newspaper clipping, put a mirror or white or reflective Mylar on the wall as well.

On the cheap, you can use inside of chip bags, I also bought a 10-pack of emergency Mylar "blankets" which have been working like a charm. -- I'll post some photos later.

The wall under the clipping is white, I moved the clipping and just have the white wall, would that be all right? I could put a towel that has white on one side under the plants on the bookshelf but I can't put a shelf on the wall, it won't support it, the walls are kinda weak you might say. I can put a couple pieces of aluminum foil under the plants on my desk and maybe that instead of the white towel, which do you think would be better, white towel or aluminum?

Here's a couple of pics of the Mylar film emergency blanket: I think it's actually the same material sold for covering windows to deflect glare from the sun - it's reflective and shiny but you can see through it ...like sunglasses. Here's how it looks from the other side: