Hi again Valray, I think your bulbs are rated at about 2000 lumens each. Two bulbs in the same fixture never equals twice the lumens, but should come close anyway. If your fixtures use reflectors, the seedling will get the benefit of maybe 80 percent of that light. Without reflectors, probably more like 40 or 50 percent. Reflectors make a huge difference. If your fixtures have good reflectors, the seedlings should get somewhere between about 1500 and 1800 foot candles (two to three inches from the light). Without reflectors, probably half of that. Taking tomato seedlings (grown indoors) as an example, they require 650 to 800 foot candles for 16 hours a day for good growth. If they received light for only 8 hours, they would need about 1300 to 1600 foot candles. The lights youâÂÂre using are good, but IâÂÂm not sure if they will have enough coverage area for all the seedlings below them. If your fixtures have good reflectors, you might get by with the eight hour shifts, at least while the seedlings are small. When they get larger theyâÂÂll want more light, so at that point, it gets a little iffy :-) Two final points ⦠if you donâÂÂt have the reflectors for those SunBlaster fixtures, you need to get them. Also, warm ambient temperatures cause plants to grow faster. Keeping the seedlings cool (60 to 65 deg F is ideal) will help prevent leggy growth under low lighting conditions. Hope this is helpful, Art

Terri, Plumerias are decideous trees. They loose their leaves in the winter, which is normal. They aren't evergreen. So, when it gets cool, the leaves will naturally fall off. They aren't dead when this happens, they want to sleep through the winter. It helps them to sleep, they grow better the next year. You don't have to grow them under lights at all in the winter. Cut all the leaves off the plant. Yes, I know, it's hard, but cut them all off. Take them and stick them somewhere where they really won't get much sun. Don't water them at all, well, mabey a couple times the entire winter when they are inside. I have 2 plumeria trees now for 5 years, they will get big! I put them to sleep every winter, because I am in zone 8, and they would die being outside here. Every fall I put them to sleep for the winter, I didn't water them at all last winter, for the entire winter, and they woke up in the spring. They will know when to start growing, they sense it. Then I start watering them, slowly taking them outside in April, and then I feed them Foliage Pro half strength every time I water. If you read the posts in Plumeria Forum, most of the people there are not leaving the trees outside in winter. They all overwinter them, and it is soooo easy to just cut the leaves off, put them in a closet, (I can't do that anymore, mine are too big), or a corner of a room and leave them alone. That's it.

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.

What kind of lights? While they are very young sprouts fluorescent light won't hurt them in any way. In the greenhouse we grow them right along with everything else. Exposure to full sun spectrum only becomes an issue for them (faded colors) once they achieve size and have a couple of sets of true leaves. But even then most artificial lights aren't nearly as strong as sunlight. But if using HID or HP lighting then move them off to the side. Dave