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Growing under Lights

Growing shade-loving trilliums under lights

7 years ago

I'm trying to film a time lapse of trillium sprouting and blooming. Got it in a pot from my local nursery, and keeping it under lights to completely control the environment for the camera.

Looking for recommendations on how bright, what color temp bulbs, and how long I should light them. I know they're shade loving, so they shouldn't need anything too intense, but I don't know how a CFL compares to sunlight for intensity.

Right now, I'm using 2 450-watt daylight CFLs (5500K), and 1 23-watt warm white CFL (2700K), all about 2' from the plant. I'm thinking about 12 hours of light per day. Any thoughts?

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St. Rodrigo.
Original Author
7 years ago
EDIT: I meant 45-watt CFLs, not 450-watt.

I have since read an article that has helped me a lot, and will be upgrading my lighting significantly. The article is here:
https://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/articles/techno/lamps/lighting.htm

I'm moving to 4 bulbs, 3 of them 45-watt 5500K, and another 55-watt 2700K to encourage flowering. I may add another 2700K bulb again when the plant gets close to flowering time.

I'd be curious if anyone else out there has experience growing shade-loving plants under lights. What kind of setup do you use?
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