Just a guess but if you did have to much lighting on them for to long wouldn't the leaves show some signs of burning via discoloring or other signs of stress ? Under the "normal/natural" rules what a plant need to flower are right lighting (for AV's case it would include time and itensity) right watering right air tempature ( with right watering makes for ideal humidity conditions for flowering as well) right fertilizing amounts (and type) Leaves healthy or not can always be removed. In your case to it could help expose the hard to see or breaking out flowerings (thats just my thinking thou maybe you'll get a second opinion befor doing that) With all of the factors to concider, I think if your AVS where slot machines in Vegas you hit the mother load jackpot of jackpots. Should you make changes to what you already are doing and what sounds to me as your doing right...... well, If it isn't broke don't fix it.

hi.. I've been spending a lot of hours researching on lights best for sowing seeds, regular houseplants (foliage only), houseplants that flowers. the basic answer i can answer you is that 4100 is not good enough to grow plants. 4100 is more greenish/yellowish light which will not help plants to produce pothynothesis because green light reflects, it is no benefit to plants. To sow seeds, blueish light 5000-6500 K is the best. I have done a lot of testing in a week, and I find Home Depot's 27w CFL at 6500 K and at 1680 lumen each works for my regular houseplants I have two 27w "Daylight" CFL in my kitchen. They're growing crazy right now, Pothos, especially had grow about two new leaves just in a week. For flowering plants, both blue and red light combo (2700-3500K) and 6500 K would give you the best lighting. The higher lumen the CFL or light will be the best. To sow seeds, i find under 6500 K and higher lumens works beautiful. It is all depends on what you are trying to grow. All light lumens reduce over time. So it would be best thing if you replace the old lights you have. I'm sure you can find more information from other people and throughout this forum. I got those information from this forum and decided to try. Good Luck.

With all due respect, ncrealestateguy, considering the definition of a troll, that is somewhat redundant. ;-) I will grant you that it was less than kind for me to tweak him like that, and it is true that his lack of manners does not justify ours. At the same time, if he is not made aware of how he comes across, how can he (hopefully) correct his behavior? Perhaps he was born in a different culture - that would be easier to let slide. Yet even then, he still would need to learn how to assimilate & he doesn't come across as the type of person who will accept a singular gentle correction - more like a plurality of bluntness - maybe. :-D At any rate, moving on to a more constructive line of thought, I not only do *not* disagree with your opinion about internet business for PB's, I would assert that it is already happening currently since I have been able to communicate successfully with at least one online about our interest. But note that this part is about the potential customer seeking out the PB who has put his internet shingle out rather than vice versa. The one point where we seem to differ is on the suggestion that good PB's are going to be cruising help wanted boards looking for pool jobs. If you want to grow your business, you are going to target the areas that will make the most of your advertising time & dollars rather than trying to hit up every possible avenue - because not many have that kind of time & money to spend with so little potential return on investment. Even if internet usage on that point changes in the future, it still seems on par with putting an ad in the paper - I can't see most people being willing to hire someone for a job like this based on who responded to their ad. There will always be those who prefer to go as cheaply as possible and cross their fingers, but I believe most of us would rather seek out the best and the brightest to increase our prospects for a quality job with greater longevity.

I can't answer your question exactly, but I have some info that relates and may help you. The color of your walls, ceiling and even cabinets and countertops will also affect how much light is enough vs. too much. I have a main above cabinet light in my family room. It uses up to eight four foot fluorescent tubes (40W ea. x 8 = 320 watts). My family room has pine walls and ceilings. They suck up the light. If I had those bulbs shining directly into the room instead of at the wall and ceiling it would be so bright our local airport could use it as a backup to land a 747 at night, but because of the wood color (which isn't even very dark) that light is not much at all. I only tell you so that you can take the current and future likely paint colors into account when you plan how much light to use. Reflected light is always less efficient (in terms of lumens per watt) than direct light which makes fluorescent an excellent choice. Whatever you do make sure you choose a fixture that has WARM color bulbs available for it. Guessing exactly what you will need is hard to do. There are some calculations of lumens/per square foot, but it depends on so many factors including personal preference. So here's a recommendation I have. If I were you I would consider having fixtures that allow you to do one of two things or both. Either aim high and then not put a bulb in each fixture if it turns out to be too bright or use a fixture that fits different watt bulbs. That seems like a cheaper, safer solution for OVER cabinet lighting. You wouldn't want to have too many empty fixtures in VISIBLE areas, but over the cabinet it will be invisible. - Jim