Giving post a push downward.
There we go.

I was looking into some grow lights for my cuttings to help them develop over winter. What I learned is you want about 25W per square foot. Not sure if you flourescent fixture will be enough.

My husband bought me a couple years ago some very large growlights that we put in the basement. Them along with the woodburner kept it very suitable for alot of the warm weather plants I grow. My figs last couple years never went into dormancy, which I will induce them into dormancy this year, I need cuttings for people and like to wait till they go dormant. My figs will be put in the attic most likely where it stays very chilly in the winter, we have no heat up there, this house is well over 100 years old. There was two different types of lamps, one looked more like a regular flourescent lamp, maybe like what you would see in an office, then the other was a very bright almost orangy glow that litteraly mimicked the sun. I grew my herbs, bougainvillea oleander ect ect under them and had continuous flowers the whole winter!!! We payed almost 1,000 $ for these lamps, they were well worth it. The two combined made it look like the full sun down there. The leaves are just starting to turn now, I have a couple handfulls of figs left on a couple of my fig trees, I hope they ripen quickly before they go dormant outside. I will bring them in after they go to sleep this year. Even though my figs were awake all last winter under the lamps, they still produced large crops of delicious figs outside this year. I probably wont do this again, just maybe do like you said martin and wake them up a few weeks earlier from their slumber under the lamps and bring them down to the hotter temps. I will however keep the bougainvillea and oleander and my geraniums and herbs under the growlamps for the whole winter, Italian jasmine may find its way down there as well, Its nice in the white and dead of winter to go downstairs and see all the color at christmas. Ciao ciao, Maggie

Well thanks for the information about the lights, after second thoughts maybe not.I'll just keep moving them in and out of garage for now. Your post steve and maggie are very informative and many thanks for taking the time. I find interesting about your plants maggie how you have them bloom in winter, as for mine they kinds stay green indoors in winter then i bring outside when time comes. I think its great to have flowers though in winter and how you do that.
Martin

Don't give up Martin. The light I was looking at is 4ft with 4 bulbs at about 50 watts each. It cost less than $200. I think that would give you some good supplemental light if kept close to the trees. If they are dormant and have no leaves, shadows shouldn't be an issue.

Steve,
that type of light is that a grow light they call it, it might be a possibility in the coming years, im thinking thats about 200 watts of electricity .
Martin

LOL, Martin: When you go shopping for grow-lights be sure and explain that you are growing figs. Around here they'd think you were growing pot.

Electricity here is less than 10 cents per kilowatt. That translates to about $15 per month here for your 200 watts. A bit more most places, and I suspect Maggie's lights are more than 200 watts, especially the "big orangy one".

LOL Maggie; it must be nice to go down in the basement and enter a tropical paradise. A woodburner too, just like we homesteaders have. I spent part of yesterday cutting firewood (when I was not squeezing figs to see if they were ripe enough to eat!)

Steve, when you did your research, did it seem to make a lot of difference whether the 25 watts per square foot was from one light or many? It seems to me that if you had one powerful light the plants under it would be fine but those farther away would rapidly lose its benefit. Maggie, can you tell us anything about this from what you have seen with your lights?

I will store my potted figs in an attached garage. I would not want them to grow all winter, but I might want lights when I have to start them in the spring. Even if it is possible to wheel them out in the sun on warm days there will be days when they must stay indoors.
Ox

Ox, your last paragraph is exacrly what im aiming for in future, as of now i get a tiny headstart without lights. 15.00 a month for me is a lot though darn it must be expensive to grow that other stuff, maybe i could use 1 bulb just to keep them aggravated and stay awake early spring when i move them in and out of garage till the weather lets them be outside. I personally think that early in spring in my area with the one type of glass inserted panel in top of door helps thats there and the garage being warmer than outside in early spring it helps to wake them up and light for sure would only help more. I think the electric company just went up with there rates again as well as the gas tthem creeps.
Martin

Our lights are 400 watts a piece. We have two of them. The big orangy one is the important one for growing and mimiking the sun. It definitely makes our bill higher by way more than 15.00. It increased our electric bill by about 60.00. Ciao

All - sorry to take a while to get back to the questions about the lights. You can get the 25W per SQFT from a single fixture (it is four 4ft tubes). Multiple lights are best to eliminate shadows. Remeber, the 200W light at 25W per SQFT covers only 8 SQFT or a 2FT x 4FT area. Usually they are kept close to the tops of the plants. If you are using them to supplement outside light or give the plants just a little extra start, I would think you could get away with keeping the light further from the plants and cover more area. There are many types of bulbs available (full spectrum, different color temperatures, and so forth)

Thanks to all for the responses, i might need to trade fig tree for one that grows money in the fruit!
No really i will consider for future thanks for all the information i learned today.
Martin