Propagation Lights

Whether you are using the greenhouse or are growing plants in a special room or area in the home, regular attention is essential to success with artificially lighted plants just as with sun-lighted plants.

Try to keep daytime temperatures between 70 and 75 degrees with the usual 10 degree drop during the night. Increase humidity by setting the pots on moistened pea rock. Grow the plants in sterilized soil. Water them regularly, according to the needs of each plant. Spray plants with insecticide every second week, as a preventive. As plants grow, shift them to the next larger sized pot. Leave the lights on flowering plants 12 to 16 hours each day; 4 to 8 hours per day for foliage plants.

If the plants produce long willowy foliage, they are too far from the lights. Set them on boxes or inverted flower pots to boost them closer. If leaves turn yellow and hug the pot, plants are probably getting too much light. Move them farther from the lights.

With stationary fixtures, aim for 18 inches between light tube and plant table to allow head room for plants in 4-inch pots. If you grow larger plants, fasten the lights a greater distance from the table or, better still, operate them on a pulley so you can regulate distances to suit plants.

As you experiment, you will find the proper distances. Here is a rather general rule to guide you. Light-loving plants, such as gloxinias and many other tuberous gesneriads, cacti, coleus, and wax begonias grow best with about 8 inches between light fixture and pot rim. African violets, rex begonias, and episcias, among others, thrive when space is about 11 inches. Foliage plants, philodendron, ivy, and cissus can be set 18 to 24 inches from the source of light.

The most popular plants for propagating under lights are the gesneriads. Leaf cuttings or plant divisions can be rooted by inserting them in your favorite rooting media-vermiculite, peatmoss, sand, sphagnum moss, or a mixture of these. You can speed rooting by putting a transparent plastic “tent” over the pots or flats and placing them about 6 to 8 inches from the lights. Transplant the small plants as they appear, which sometimes is but a matter of 3 or 4 weeks.

Start any of the gesneriads from seed by sprinkling the seed over sterilized, milled sphagnum moss, sand, or vermiculite. Cover the planting with a pane of glass or slip it into a transparent plastic bag. Seeds will sprout in a dark, warm area (70 to 75 degrees). As soon as you see the green flecks of new plants, place the planting as close as 3 inches from the light tubes. Here the seedlings will grow with amazing rapidity. By careful timing as to fertilizing and transplanting, you can have flowering gloxinias in 3 to 5 months and African violets in 4 to 6 months.

ADDITIONAL GROWING SPACE
If you want still more room, add fluorescent light setups to the dark areas of your house and turn them into plant-growing spaces. Basements, attics, closets, windowless walls, utility rooms-all become propagation areas when supplied with fluorescent lighting.

These lights work on ordinary household current. However, before installing more than a pair or two of them it would be wise to check with your electrical company to find out if your present electrical wiring can stand the additional load.

If you need only a small additional propagation area, you may find it advantageous to buy one of the commercial fluorescent light stands with two to four shelves. A model with three shelves holds two hundred 3-inch pots. There are models available with or without wheels.

Check out Backyard Greenhouses for growing guides, guides on choosing a backyard greenhouse, and more.

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