Under-shelf small t5's - Anyone else use these?

[tcrane]

I've set up a new shelf in my office with three tiers of plants, but the plants get little direct light and I think in order for them to really bloom I'm going to need more light.

Found these on Amazon -

Amazon.com: Good Earth Lighting, Inc. G9712P-T5-WHES 12-1/2-Inch One-Light Fluorescent Light Fixture, White: Home Improvement

They are small, one-bulb florescent lights which people use for under-counter lighting. You can link them together easily, and they are the perfect size for the shelves I have.

I'm less sure about the output - anyone have an opinion on if the output from these is at all decent?

Ideally I'd be mounting one per shelf, just over the plants.

Thoughts?

-Tristan C

[Daethen]

I would say better than nothing. Can you get grow light bulbs for it?

[okieOrchid]

Walmart has a 2 ft long plant growing light (wide spectrum ) for around $10. If a 2ft light can fit under your shelf, I would get the 2ft light for $10.

[Jayfar]

Originally Posted by okieOrchid

Walmart has a 2 ft long plant growing light (wide spectrum ) for around $10. If a 2ft light can fit under your shelf, I would get the 2ft light for $10.

What do they call it?

A search of walmart.com for grow light brings up only "Radio Flyer Grow 'N Go Lights and Sounds Bike" and search for plant light brings up "The Inside Light: New Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston." Don't know how they manage to have such a useless search feature on their website.

[Ray]

What is the wattage? I'm guessing around 12W (probably something in that range), so it's only putting out about 1000 lumens, meaning that it would almost have to be right on top of the plants to provide any reasonable light intensity.

[tcrane]

Good guess, ray! The are13 wats I believe. And you are correct, they'd need to be close. But that'd be the situation, right on top of the plants so I'm thinking it would help. Anything larger wouldn't fit on the shelves and would possibly be too bright as well.

Tristan

[weta]

Hi,

I have been using the T5 linkable flurolights for about 1 year now with great success. In Australia there are two wattages available, the 16Watt or the 20watt.

I use mainly 20wat, but have a few paphs and a phal under the 16 watt.

Had great flowering from my phrags and paphs.

I posted a similar question about 1 year ago and got the response '...T5, what is that'?

Ray is right though, the output is a challange and I ended up spending quite a bit on multiple lights per shelf just to ensure the right amount of light output.

So far, I have only had to replace two of them ... and they are not cheap.