I think twelve hours is sufficient, I'm giving mine ten hours currently. I have heard conflicting information on this very subject so I just air on the side of safety. Being in zone 5 it wouldn't be long until you can plant them out and you could even start setting them out on warm days to bulk up a bit in the strong sun. _____________________________________________ Check out my veggie garden blog: http://veggiegardenblog.blogspot.com/

I'll probably run mine for 14 hours a day (no I don't want to think about my electric bill). I'm going to be using two 1000 watt HID lights. If I can set the timers to go on at 6am, off at noon and back on at 4pm I'll only run them for 10 hours but I'm not sure if the timers I ordered can handle that many settings and I wouldn't remember to do it manually. At least these lights also generate a good amount of heat because the room where the plants will be has slate floors and is quite cool in the middle of the winter. Stephanie have you been back up to the nursery on Good Hope Rd? I was there a couple weeks ago and he had loads of nice citrus but nothing was on sale yet. I still want that Sambo lemon. Karyn

While I am no expert we could use some dialog on this I have some growing under lights. Bloomsdale long standing It is said to be slow bolting we will see. OK It is under 4100k t-8 32's within an inch or two/sometime touching the tubes. 12 hours a day about 80 F with the lights and a small fan operating. about 70 F at night and no fan . So far so good but it is my first go at spinach in this spot? It is about ready for the first light harvest,no sign of bolting yet? All the rest of the greens and the radish are growing quite well for t-8,s I have 6 tubes and 4 10-20 flats with pots in them. I am down to 6 square foot right now. :) Curt

There are certainly a zillion kinds of lights and everyone has a fav. These T-5s are 6400 so I guess I will just see. It would be interesting to know if, on plumerias, anyone notices any difference between the T-5s and Glow Panels. I could just run out and get every new thing that comes along. But I have to remind myself of the many a successful cattleya growers I know who still use standard T-12 fluorescents + a $12 plant light (red wave length). Lol! Hopeful, my T-5s will do the job. I sure do have enough of them.