I was mainly curious to see if anyone else has been trying things like this. It seems the world of house plants is often very conventional. People don't like trying new things because they often don't understand why their old approach worked in the first place. I don't think I'll be pumping hydroponic nutrients into every plant I grow, but it has been interesting to grow plants like this. The apartment plant enthusiast is frequently dealt a bad hand, and I'm curious what can be done to mitigate that. I'm not interested in luck. regards, -max

Home Depot or Menards near you??? Fluorescent BASICshop light 4' one is only like 8.00 at Home Depot! The bulbs you want to use is one soft bulb (acts as the warm light) and one cool bulb......thebulbsarelike 5.00 per pack of two! So you haveto buy one two pack of each! The shop lights come with a chain and are best just attached to a shelf and the seedlings put under it....you plug them into a standard plug! Otherwise....if you only have a FEW to light up.....get a reading light that can take any style fluorescent bulb...you might want to find the bulb first then the light...buy a cheap fluorescent in soft light and place it over them for 16-18 hours per day...close range...like within 6"! Reading light = 20.00 bulb = 5.00 maybe!

Hi Mariava: Thanks for writing. I looked at your search results and found a lot there. Or it seems like you found a lot. The HID lighting systems seemed VERY cheap and I'd be a tad suspect. But then that could be US pricing. I paid over $200 for mine which included the ballast and the bulb etc. Currently I'm using a crossover Metal Halide bulb for mine. Those LED lighting systems seem like the cats meow but I'm not sure how efficient they'd be for Amaryllis. Amaryllis need at LEAST 1000 foot candles to do half decently well. As seedlings, the fluorescent lights would be great but not as they mature. I'm finding that my 400 W setup is BARELY enough as my bulbs from last year didn't size up all that well although some of them will rebloom. They certainly aren't as big as others' bulbs on here who are able to have them outdoors etc. I'd hope that if you order from an ebayer at that cheap price that you don't get shafted. You should be able to get those HID grow lights at any hydroponics store but be prepared ... they might be expensive. It appears that Hans is using fluorescent lights in his set up however I suspect that he shifts them out to better light when they reach a certain stage. I hope that helps you out.' Cheers, Gerard.

maybe that's how they grow , see the link http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoVx9gU1SxgMAT0CJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTFxMmNrcDdrBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZANiNjdmMjg5Njc0MGE4MGEwOTA3YmI2NjViZWEwMTMzYQRncG9zAzE-?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dcoreopsis%2Bseedlings%26sado%3D1%26n%3D30%26ei%3Dutf-8%26fr%3Dyfp-t-900%26fr2%3Dsg-gac%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D1&w=1024&h=683&imgurl=seagreenandsapphire.files.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F04%2Fcoreopsis-seedlings-1024x683.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fseagreenandsapphire.wordpress.com%2F&size=422.7KB&name=%3Cb%3Ecoreopsis%3C%2Fb%3E-%3Cb%3Eseedlings%3C%2Fb%3E-1024x683.jpg&p=coreopsis+seedlings&oid=b67f2896740a80a0907bb665bea0133a&fr2=sg-gac&fr=yfp-t-900&tt=%3Cb%3Ecoreopsis%3C%2Fb%3E-%3Cb%3Eseedlings%3C%2Fb%3E-1024x683.jpg&b=0amp;ni=160&no=1&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=119b3achs&sigb=140ahbnve&sigi=12gkoeavt&.crumb=hS7MQ8WJI48&fr=yfp-t-900