I've tried growing plants under incandescent lights but never had any luck with it. Never killed one, but they just do not grow. At present I have a never-used remote ballast and a fixture that will take either sodium or metal halide bulbs out in my barn. (They belong to my brother's widow) The materiel I've read indicates that this unit, 400 watts, will cover about a 4 ft square area. Twenty-five watts, half of what KK suggests. It also says that the intensity is goverened by distance from the plants, so apparently all that is needed to get 50 watts per square foot is lowering the fixture. These units are pretty expensive but the literature says that they are cheaper than buying the grow lights individually? Anyone know? Brother even opened the boxes before he passed away. I looked at the ballast but have not even opened the reflector box. I put my cuttings in a clear Wal-Mart storage box and set it on a hot pad in front of an east-facing patio door. But then I am a widowed hermit and can get away with such. So far they (the ones in vermiculite) seem to be thriving. Last year I put them all in vermiculite and got tremendous results. This year those in perlite went belly up very quickly. Ox

Thank you everyone! If the poster that gave me three of the smaller Plumies would like to ID themselves here, they can, and I give them a big huge THANK YOU! =o) Juicy, I love that buddah belley! I got that over 5 years ago as a very small plant at Ikea of all places. It has to be one of the easiest plants on the planet to take care of, possibly even easier than Chamaedorea Elegans (parlor palm). Thank you Laura! If you are ever up this way during the warm months you are welcome to stop by and have a "cold one" on me under neath the palms and tropicals. =o) We STILL have not gotten down there yet, but we are still planning on coming at some point, hopefully before winter sets in. I'll keep you posted. MerryMike, I lift them all myself. They come inside and most go into the sunroom. It does get crowded in there, but it is worth it to me. Our sunroom used to be a porch that was built out so its all windows, faces south, and has the original hard wood porch floor. It is raised off the ground so under neath the porch is "open air" which makes the sun room cool down at night in cold weather to the upper 50s or so if we close the french doors to it, and it really heats up during the day. It gets full sun, ALL DAY, and is extremely bright. Dpolson37, were you the one that stopped by my place (old place) back in like 2007 and dropped off two Plumie cuttings to me? If so, back then I did not have the space I did now. One of them I rooted and gave away, the other one got damaged by a storm, wind, falling tree branches, then HAIL of all things. It ended up not surviving all that trauma. =o( Roper2008, the BIG palm is a Phoenix Roebelenii. That will come inside and go in the sunroom as it is not hardy here. It is about 6-7 feet tall at its leaf tips so it easily fits inside. Its BIG, but that palm is my pride and joy. Fortunately those to not gain height very fast, and also are very happy in rather small pots. The reason it looks so "tall" is because its got an extra 2+ feet on it because it is sitting on a table. The only palms that will stay out are the in ground Sabal Minor out front on the south side of the house, and the windmill in the pot. I do wrap the pot, and use either xmas lights or a heating cable around the pot itself to keep it from freezing. The sago palms stay out until night time temps go down to around 27 or lower. The banana to the left with the single white chair next to it is a Rojo "blood leaf" or "blood" banana. I have it since it was about 1' tall and for almost 3 years now. This is its third summer out, and it is putting up lots of pups, especially since he got a bigger pot this summer. Only two of the Bananas come in, the others are Basjoo and will go in the ground to overwinter, OR just get cold stored dormant in the basement. Thank you everyone for all the kind words and for looking! It's not the best but its what I can do given what I have. If I actually owned the house, it would look ALOT different, with many things actually in the ground.

There are two issues you need to consider: (1) connecting to the television and (2) connecting the unit to the Internet. (1) To connect the player to the TV, you need a composite connection - the yellow RCA jack (video) plus red and white for audio. Down the road, when she gets a new TV, you'll disconnect the three wires (yellow, red, white) and replace it with a single HDMI cable which will handle digital video and audio. At that point she'll go "wow" and probably wonder why she waited so long to get a new TV. ;-) There's two reasons to connect to the Internet. The first is that the player needs periodic updates. The second is to use the advanced features of the player for things like streaming video. (2) To connect to the Internet the player is going to use either a wired connection (via an Ethernet cable) from the player to the router or wirelessly via WiFi. Frankly, if you want to go the wireless route, investing in a player with built in WiFi is going to eliminate a layer of technology and agnst. How she wants to use the player is going to effect how you connect to the Internet and the cost of the player. If she does not plan on using the advanced features, then a cheaper player, without built-in WiFi, and a length of Ethernet cable will be the cheapest solution. At update time, connect the player to the router via the Ethernet cable, allow the unit to update, and put the cable back in the closet. If she want to use the advanced features (and there is lots of good, free stuff out there) then WiFi is the way to go. Setting up WiFi is much like any other wireless device, you'll select the name of the network from a list and enter the password. Remember that password is not the same as PASSWORD. I hope this clarifies everything for you.

Marcolo, this isn't necessarily for you, but for someone who might be considering linoleum type counters in the future. When we were first married, we lived in an old farmhouse that had red lino floors, and red lino counters, perfect U shape postwar remodel, sigh. (It looked like they used the cutout of the floor to do the counters!) I don't know if the problems came with the age of the lino, or what, but every time I tried to lift something warm up off the counter, it would stick fast. So, things like a bowl of soup or a bowl of oatmeal would stick. When I'd finally pry the bowl up, a small chunk of linoleum would be stuck to the bottom of the bowl. Yuck! We were very happy when we could replace those counters with some laminate. I hope you find that durable finish you are after. Have to wonder if hard wood countertops might be a good option. I think they'd still give you somegrounding with the colors you are considering. This kitchen is especially bright, is it grounded enough?