Hey Redshirtcat! Your trees look fantastic! I can tell you that at once, I too use to use the lights as you and enjoyed lot's of growth and flowers too all winter. But I also had to deal with pests as you mentioned, not to say a much larger electric bill, and I just got to tired with it. Not only did they infect my trees, but all my other houseplants too. This was years ago, before I knew what I know of these plants now and how to prevent infestations. I have never given it a chance to this day though. I don't think I am willing to take the chance either. It use to be that I would have to spray dozens of plants ail winter long with pesticides and oils, and I couldn't put up with it anymore. There were many citrus I had that did fantastic new growth, and then some with spindly growth, and these were what the mites loved the most. I also had a hard time getting the lights close enough to the trees as I wanted since I had many of different sizes. The light had to be just right and strong enough to do a good job at growing good growth and you certainly have it figured out! Great job. I just chose to save myself the expense of lights and time it took to keep pets away, and all the headaches along with it just for a couple of months of growth. As it stands now, I still have lots of buds and flowers, green plants, but just not the huge amount of new growth, although I am still starting to get some, in which mites and others have nothing to forage on.. Once again, I think you are doing a great job with the lights and added growth, and I hope you don't get tired of keeping up with it as I did. Some are willing to in order to enjoy what you are and I at one time did. Maybe it might of be different if I only had a couple of trees. You can still have healthy vibrant trees with flowers even without the added possible headaches. Have a great night and thanks for sharing. You gave great advice for anyone that wants to "continue" lots of active growth. The way light is provided was addressed and hopefully many can mimic what you have done if they choose to do so. Now to get rid of those buggers!:-) Don't be surprised if any of your trees shed the leaves grown under lights once the outdoor sunlight gets to them. They will be replaced with a whole new set of leaves and growth if so. Mike

I'm not seeing a big push to add IC to my setup. Your thoughts? Like I said before, my experiment suggests that a negative light-dark temperature differential negates phytochrome mediated far red responses. With a positive temperature differential, you would likely see longer stems, maybe bigger plants, with incandescent supplementation. However, I am most interested in increasing photosynthesis via the Emerson Enhancement Effect. Since this has nothing to do with temperature differential, I conclude that there was negligible effect under this combination of wavelengths. In my next experiment, I am going to look for Emerson like enhancement between near violet and far red wavelengths.

If your fluorescent bulbs are warm white, then all blue LEDs should be fine at half the wattage of the fluorescent. Otherwise, you might want to add some red or warm white LEDs along with the blue. If you are considering using LED chips such as these, http://www.ebay.com/itm/10W-365NM-395NM-UV-red-660nm-445nm-royal-blue-green-10000K-30000K-LED-light-bulb/291463169216?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D30424%26meid%3Dc1d9eb0a4c6e4eb382a8a14236153830%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D301623486723&rt=nc then I point out that the red chips are typically more than twice as expensive as the blue or white ones therefore you could save money by using 3000 K white instead of red. Also, the 660 nm ones have a lower forward voltage, higher maximum current which makes it difficult to find a driver that will operate them at 10 watts. A typical 30 watt LED driver rated at 20-40 volts and 900 ma will operate three 10 watt blue and/or white chips or four 660 nm chips connected in series. These 10 watt blue chips are even cheaper: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cool-Warm-RGB-White-30Mil-SMD-Led-Chip-Flood-Light-Bead-10W-20W-50W-100W-10000LM-/261635571617?ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&tfrom=261735590773&tpos=unknow&ttype=price&talgo=origal

Sarah, I think I was more concerned about the money spent than too much light. As you mention, window light is hardly anything compared to the lights, especially in winter. Sun in the summer is decent. At this point I need some time to go by, maybe even a couple of seasons, to really see exactly how well the lights doing for the plants. My Echeverias are coloring up well. As far as cactus flowering, I'll have to see. The only thing I can do for the lower level is to raise the plants. I could possibly add another Sunblaster to the middle level (upper one in the latest photo), but I don't know if it will be optimal. I hope it's enough to at least prevent etiolated plants, which is what caused me to give up on Echeverias and lose some interest in growing succulents. My plants are increasing enough already that it's the basement where I normally grow seeds, cuttings and Coleus that might need more lights, but that's another story.