Artificial lighting (again again)

[AnTTun]

Most articles I found said distance should be 30-40 cm from top of plants. Of course there was a bunch of suggestions too so I had no choice but to take some average & most common value.

Right now, lights are on 13 hours straight (19:00 - 8:00) every day. As soon as spring returns plants will go out. That should be short enough for red/blue (aka pink) tubes. I hope.

Again thanks for comments and suggestions y'all

[anttisepp]

Most articles I found said distance should be 30-40 cm from top of plants. <...>

Tops of usual plants or cacti? It's very great difference!

[AnTTun]

I agree anttisepp, but these 7 lamps heat chicken box to 30 C. I think my plants might get a bit roasted if I move them too close. 35-40 cms seem OK to me

[iann]

As I tried to explain already, in an enclosed (reasonably reflective or white) box, it makes no difference whether the lamps are 5cm or 50cm (actually 5cm would be worse for a number of reasons). I'll draw you pictures if you like, or give a lecture of any required length and detail, but I'm hoping for everybody's sake that won't be necessary

[AnTTun]

I don't think we said anything about pests and other joyful things... Once a week, or every two weeks I spray with captan solution because I had fungi appearing on soil surface.

I'm also testing two aquarium algacids because algae started to spread over the soil. I'm aware they are not (too) big deal but I doub't aztekiums, strombocacti and other dust sized seed species are happy with them. So far I didn't notice some success in killing 'green carpet' but it seems they (at leats) stopped spreading.

And, of course, recently I had to add some liquid insecticide to that 'magic mist'. Mealy-wooly-whatever bugs popped up twice so far.

I hope I won't get slugs & snails in the middle of winter

Anyway, other artificial-light-forumities use some kind of protection?

[Torbjorn]

AnTTun
I recognize the situation.
I have a setup very similar to yours.
What I have tried, and partly succeded with, is to sterilize the substrate and pots carefully, sow the seed, and saturate the substrate with boiled water. Then I place the pots in growboxes, maybe 30 - 40 pots, 5 cm or 7 cm in one box, put on the transparent lid, and seal it with scotch tape.
I separate the species a little according to how long I expect to keep them sealed.
Normally this is limited to late December, to early April. After this I move the boxes from the appartment kitchen to the summer place.
During those months no extra water is added, and with luck, the mold, algae, and "flies" are kept out.
This setup has been quite successfull for many speccies, but I still think the baggie method has advantages for the slow growing kinds, but to mee it seems more work. But I will use it again...

[anttisepp]

May be I didn't find here in the forum and it was discussed, but I want to ask about experience with new artificial light equipment - LED. I have not yet but it looks very promicing...

[Aiko]

Sorry, not going to read all through the previous pages. Just beginning to think about using artificial lighting for my own plants for the winter months, and really do not want to get swamped with too much information about this sort of topic.

First a very rookie and basic question to base a next step on: can a Lithops grow (even very slowly) on a desk under regular office lights that are on all day long? Or is this even out of the question? (Background story: I seem to have made a few colleagues enthusiastic with a small Lithops I gave them. Try to encourage the enthusiasm a bit.)

[iann]

Cant' recommend it for Lithops. Grow, probably. Grow too much most likely. You'd get flabby tall plants that would collapse into mush at some point. Even a small amount of sun a few times a week would help greatly. Very difficult to produce that sort of light intensity artificially and regular office lighting certainly won't do it.

[Odin777]

Aiko the green ones would probably be best. Maybe try C345A, C036A, C362, C351A. Also if they can get close to a window it would be a good idea. I have a friend in South Korea who grows heaps of Lithops along the windowsill in his office at work. Controlled temperature, long hours of artificial light supplemented with some sunlight from the window.