I'm really getting into the cacti as of late. I have a few started right now but thh are getting insufficient light. I would like to germinate from seed some 30 or so cacti as well as other psychoactive babies.

I live in Washington, which is dim as is but my house isn't in the best place for natural sunlight. So i ask you, what are some great setups for synthetic light that won't draw much on the electricty bill so much? I live in a home with 8 other people so this is crucial. What is the best setup for my dollar that meets this requirement? I'm also interested in heating S I know this is crucial to not only germinate but also to sustain the life of the plant.

At the moment I have awaiting germination some 75 seeds of San Pedro and peyote, 4 san Pedro have germinated. The others are slow and I'm concerned they will not due to insufficiency lighting and perhaps the soil mix I made.

Any suggestions are good suggestions!

http://www.hydrogrowled.com/

You find great LEDs. Pricey but certainly worth it!
If you don't want to spend that much money go for LSR. Try to figure out which light spectrum your cacti needs.
Light colour 865 is for growing

my future setup which i am gonna most probably going to build tuesday is gonna consist of a tool rack (4feet long x 18 inch wide) with
with 1 or 2 of the shelves taken off so there's 4 big grow spaces and each shelve will have 2 x 54 watt T5 fluorescent from a Hydro shop (there something like 30$ each with light bulb,fixture)except the shelve for the seedlings and grafts.This one will have a 2 x 4foot long standard fluorescent with proper bulbs for growing plants.
Also, i will add to one side of the shelve a white window curtain made of a synthetic material so it reflects light.
Will post pictures as soons as possible.

wow those LEDS look sick , check out this setup its 1300 $ but they state that it covers 75 sq feet !!!!!! and takes only 600 watts .
incredible.

I've been using ~40W (at 30cm) cold-color CFL with great results for germinating cacti. They are ideal for a cheap setup because, as opposed to LEDs, CFLs produce heat and help maintain a good growing temperature of, in my experience, 26-28°C. Provided that you have good seeds, germinating cacti is really simple.

It's also a good idea to have a garden thermometer in the growing chamber.

Edit: Taking things too seriously can be counter-producing. At least T. pachanoi only requires a temperature of 26-28°C, a lot of humidity and light to germinate. A desk lamp, a 40W cold-color CFL, 1/3 soil, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 sand, and a microwave for sterilization is all you need.

40w shot floros are great for seedlings, or grafted petes on pereskiopsis
hid lighting is needed for good growth on mature trichs
what part of WA?
i have a friend on lopez island wa with huge cacti in his outdoor greenhouse

Great input guys. Thanks. Will be looking into those more seriously in the coming weeks.

@dg- I live in Seattle. Not sure where that is in relation to lopez island. I don't know much of the cities around here anymore. It's a gorgeous state though.

lopez is north, and west of seattle in the sanjauns
when i last visited him it was a very cold winter, he had 8" of snow! his greenhouse has a tree fall tru it. i salvaged a trunckfull of sweet cuttings, good times

Wow dg, glad some could be salvaged. It's always heartbreaking to have something like that happen to something you've put so much time and care into. I'm assuming you were here two winters ago. I hadn't moved back here at that time but peope still talk about how much snow there was.

What is the average addition to the electrical bill to some of these setups? I'd rather not have it be a big issue every month. Mine are coming up quick now! Don't know what I did but I now have 8 San Pedro seedlings but still no lophs. Them boys need some light!

Okay so I checked out some of those links and they are way out of my price range at the moment. I will consider them for the future though. In the meantime, I went out and bought a full spectrum regular lightbulb from walgreens. It's one of those spiral ones that are supposed to save energy. It produces 800 lumens and uses about 13 watts. It gives off no heat.

I'm wondering it this will do the trick until I can afford something more. Since it is full spectrum I don't see why not. As an added bonus, I put the bulb in two days ago and already have 8 little peyote! And I also have 12 San Pedro now! I'm guess it worked then! Just double checking.

Also two or three of my san Pedro are pale and thin. Don't really know how to fix that since the light is there and soil is moist but not soaked. Suggestions?

I think it should be fine when they're seedlings maybe get fluorescent tubes(T8, or T12) those are cheap and the fixtures are too. Make sure if you using low wattages light to have them only a couple inches away from the seedlings and they should be fine once they are ready to grow in the sun, how big/old are they? If old/big enough give them enough nitrogen during the growing season and they seem to thrive especially trichs.

I can't afford anything better at the moment as I lost my job. Wish I could.

The peyotes have been sprouting over the last two days only. The Pedro have been sprouting off and on since about a month ago. Probably less than that. The most pale ones are the oldest but They also weren't getting enough light for a while. I'm hoping that changes with the bulb I bought.

dual 4' shop light $20, or a 24" is ok if you have few seeds.
2x lights $8 ($4 each) get one 2500k and one 6500k to cover both red and green ends. avoid "full spectrum" 5000k lights.

get an extension cord to wire it $3-5

$30-40 setup and your good for germinating seeds.

for larger plants, especially grafted plants, you want stronger light to avoid stretching....low light causes stretch and gives the false impression of good growth....stretched plants, especially grafts....*especially* peresk grafts, are easy to rot in this kind of situation.

seedlings are growing up now. peyote are healthy minus alot of etoliation. and I just inherited 31 san pedro. so now i need better lights. I have some lights in mind. two lights, both T5 4 footers. one for red, one for blue. Having troubles finding a fixture though, i need something cheap. Strips would be okay but any suggestion helps. It's winter here and the lights are going dim in the sky. any help?

About a year ago i was looking into LED lighting for plants/cacti. but there seems to be a lot of misleading marketing going on.
It is not so eay as it seems. wont go into details. From what i hear (from guys growing cannabis) LED is not (yet) the way to go...

Compact fluorescents (cool white, color 32?) are good though. You can use a cfl in a closet and grow multiple cuttings on a small surface. Perhaps install a 12V pc fan if temperatures run too high. Such a fan can be powered by a common 12V telephone adapter.

I have read somewhere San Pedro can grow about half its lenght in one year.. optimal conditions of course.
Dunno how much lumen one would need for that.. 20.000?

In the past some dude used about 4x60cm to obtain about 100g of dried green flesh without skin
On another occasion he got about 70g out of 5x30cm of cuttings.

I'd rather go with the flouros. I'm Not having much luck with the cfl rig I have now. Plus I have So many now that it is necessary I have a larger light radius. Just awaiting suggestions on a fixture...

T5's I don't think will be powerful enough long term unless your just using this for 1st year overwinter then they'll be too tall to get good growth after that so T8's,T12, or a fixture that does both are a good cheaper temporary solution for starting seeds, seedlings and younger cacti . The sun provides the best growth after next growing season you just bring'em inside and let'em go dormant. I heard good things about this company and T5's are expensive I'd be surprised(correct me if I'm wrong) if you could find one for this price including both mixed lamps in store.
http://www.htgsupply.com/viewproduct.asp?productID=54208

Thanks! That looks like a good setup. I have some cacti that are larger but under 5" still. Will this work out? I'd like something more long term but they get so expensive!

well long term if it's too cold to keep cacti outside you just bring them outdoors spring and back in around fall in a garage,or basement and they go dormant lights even hps can't compete with the good fat growth you get with the sun. Of course if they're seedlings still then they can't handle the sun yet so a shady spot,or lights are better til they can. Here's an article that's also on other forums like the nook and corroboree.
http://www.cactus-mall.com/ccc/index.html