I use artificial lights for my largely South African / south Californian winter growing bulbs. I run the lights for about 12 hours a Day through the winter. In my experience, the bulbs do better with more/brighter light. I just bought some new fancy LED “full spectrum” grow lights (designed for the cannabis industry), which are much brighter (and make for much nicer photos) than the blurple ones I had before. The bulbs seem to like them—they’ve been growing better with the brighter lights. But we do have very dark winters here due to low angle sun + very tall trees, and very frequent cloud/fog cover. I’ve had some winter growers go dormant earlier than I expected in the past, but I think that was either from the temps in the greenhouse getting too warm, or the pots getting too dry, or both. This winter I’m trying not to let the temps get above 60F until the outside temps are doing the same. So far things are looking better than last year. On Thu, Feb 24, 2022 at 8:16 AM Arnold Trachtenberg via pbs < pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> wrote: > Ken > I turn the lights on as soon as there is visible growth. > Many of the plants will grow longer into the early spring and I give them > all the light I can. > The days are still much too short to rely on natural light. > Arnold > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kenneth Preteroti via pbs <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > Cc: Kenneth Preteroti <k.preteroti@verizon.net> > Sent: Thu, Feb 24, 2022 11:10 am > Subject: [pbs] Supplemental winter lights > > Question for those who use supplemental lighting in their greenhouse for > winter growing bulbs and other plants. This is my second year using lights. > The first year I started too late December and had the lights on for 4 > hours. This year late again, December but for 8 hours. Next year i will > start in October for 8 hours. A number of bulbs are showing signs of going > dormant while others are still going strong. I think now here in the NE > with longer daylight hours and the sun higher in the sky I don’t need the > supplemental lighting. Should I stop now or wait till the end of March? > > Ken P > New Jersey, USA > Zone 7a > > The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. > George Orwell, 1984 > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net > http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… > Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>