Let's Talk about grow lights

So my mirror experiment on my balcony, to increase sunshine for my plants to compensate for dappled sun that we only get in the morning and very early afternoon is coming to an end, partly because it hasn't really helped after a couple of weeks, and partly because my mom came over and is afraid I'll accidentally start something on fire, oops.

So now I'm finding myself willing to consider something I'd hoped to avoid, growlights, to add more "sunlight" each day, a few hours, so that the plant babies can adequately photosynthesize.  They grow, but they grow so much sloooooower than they did at my old apartment, where they had tons of sunlight all day.

My MIL has those long bars, you know like a florescent light in a classroom, but pink.  Is that what I need?  
How close do the lights need to be to the plants so they can photosynthesize if I'm only using them as supplamentary sunlight equivelent, since there is a bit of sun, just not enough.
How horrid will this be for my electric bill?
Is there a particular company that people recommend?

Since you're just trying to augment low natural light, the color, intensity, and general quality probably matters less for you than if you were trying to supply all their light. The pink T5 florescent bulbs are probably great for you.

I've been using cheapie LEDs for the last few years in my basement grow-room but I'm currently experimenting with some pretty expensive lights to see if the difference is worth it. (I'm not sure yet.)

I know some folks that swear by the newer LED, red and blue lights.  I ordered some a few years back.  I've given them all away now.  Think I'll remain a middle of the road type for now.  I could not say that I noticed any improvement with my plants during the lower light levels of winter.

It will not hurt to try, LED's, two foot or four pink tubes or what ever else may be on the market today.  Good luck.

Peace

I have bought the flexi-amazon special LED grow lights and I like them. The trick that I have found is putting the light right above the seedlings and adjust them higher and higher as they grow. Too much distance (above 4" over the plant) led to leggy plants in my experience.

Try to put the light as close as possible without burning them, since have halogen lights 3" to 6" should do the trick. Check for dehydration and adjust the distance to lower that side effect

Since this is on my balcony and I want them to get as much real sunlight as possible I'm trying to figure out how I would rig up something to get the growlights really close to them like that.  Just thinking about maybe I could set them on the chairs and scoot the chairs up next to the pots?  We'll see, I look forward to more opinions too.

Hi Riona,
The pink and blue colors lights are more about energy usage on larger scale. It is to give them maximum amount of the kind of light plants need most for the least amount of power. For most people, regular "shop lights" will work just fine. I personally would not go with halogen as they get VERY hot, and I seem to recall some nasty things inside if they break. I like LED because they use less power for the same or more light.

Specific for your situation, I would get as much of the surrounding material to be reflective as possible. I know you mentioned trying a mirror... which might be overkill in the reflective department :). I used to start seedlings in a closet with lights and I ended up taping white pieces of paper on the brown walls. It really made a difference. That might be a cheap way to get as much light as possible, is to maybe put a white sheet around the backside, or tape some white paper to some cardboard and set it around the plants.

People have already mentioned that you want the light source close, so that the plants don't get leggy... then you move it up as the plants grow. Once word of caution is that if you have some high end bulbs... or the styles of bulbs that get hot, you can actually burn your plants if they are too close. For most lights, this is not a big deal, but keep it in the back of your head, just in case.

If you're just looking for supplemental light, a 2-bulb 4' flourescent long shop light should be fine. If it's your sole source of light, you'll want a 4-bulb unit. Just a cheapie from the hardware store, You'll want the "daylight" bulbs that have the bluish tint to them for vegetative growth, or the "normal" bulbs with the yellowish tint if you're trying to induce fruiting in something (think of how sunlight naturally works for plants.....in the summer, when plants are putting on vegetative growth, sunlight is more intense and the days are long, hence the  bluish "daylight bulbs". In the fall, when the sun gets filtered though more atmosphere (shifting light towards the red end of the spectrum) and the days are shorter, it signals plants to hurry up and make fruit so it can make seed to pass on it's genes before winter, hence the yellowish bulbs).  Again, cheapies from the hardware store work well.

As far as hanging them, the shop lights come with a chain to hang them. Hang them from where ever is convenient. Right above the plants if it's your sole source of light, otherwise you can probably go 1-2" above if you're just supplementing. As bright as those flourescent bulbs are, they're nothing compared to the sun.

My MIL has some extras I can have, so we're going to find out just how useful they can be as supplament.  As we draw closer to equinox the sun is shifting south meaning that the plants get even less sunlight, and we can't really trim the maples since this is an apartment where I can't control landscaping choices.

I'm really excited to see how this goes.  The plants that have done well here so far are:  Blueberries, ripened up nicely though started at the other apartment.
Astroemeria flowers, they love it here!  but other than that things haven't been growing and producing well here.  I'm not counting my potatoes, because those were grown mostly at the old apartment, only the last bit of their life was here.  And my daikons I planted in late July in the hopes of harvesting in Nov. or Dec.?  Well they were tiny the whole time, and finally whithered and died the other day after limping along for the whole month of their life  I think next time I'll plant daikons at the same time as I plant red radishes, and see if they will grow in spring for a summer harvest, but I know that risks bolting, that's what happened to my MIL's daikons this year.  I know its too late to try again this year, but I'll plant red radishes in early Sept. to harvest in Nov. or late Oct., and hopefully they'll grow here with growlight help, plus spinich, plus my mid-July planted cucumber, plus my lettuce.  Really trying to make things happen here, and not wanting to be limited to shade-loving herbs.  My mint is already done for the year btw,

I've had good results with standard fluorescent lighting. I've had good results with LED arrays (from the Aerogarden). The only thing that didn't really work where cheap LED "wands" that just didn't produce enough light to make a difference: total amount of LUMEN seem to matter more than the type of light, as long as it doesn't produce heat and burn your plants to a crisp.

One thing to keep in mind is that LED arrays eventually fail. My Aerogarden is already missing a couple of LEDs after two years - not enough that I've seen an effect on growth, but eventually performance is going to decrease. Fluorescent tubes can be changed more easily without throwing the whole thing in the garbage.

Another thing to keep in mind, perhaps, is esthetics. I keep my herbs hydroponics setup in my kitchen so I need something compact that looks sort of tidy: LEDs are a little better in that regard. Seedlings get started in the basement, and there I don't care so much about a larger footprint and a more industrial look, so fluorescent it is (less expensive, and easier to maintain).

In response to the post just above, I've had the same experiences with the 'wand' lights, even when they have three wands on goosenecks. They're more than adequate for the normal sort of 'houseplant' plants, but not for growing vegetables.

On the other hand, I've had better luck with LED panels. I have no dead LEDs on a 6-year old Aerogarden and one dead LED on a much larger 2-year old unit. I have six cheap and seven fancy LED panels (ages 2-7 years) for hanging in plant tents and I think that not a one of them has a dead LED anywhere. Also, at least until they don't have them due to product replacement, you can buy replacement LED panels from Aerogarden for home repair instead of tossing the unit.