I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some insight. I just moved into an apartment and realized that absolutely no direct sunlight comes through the windows and it seems to get very little reflected light. This is of course a concern for me and my plants. I think maybe on a good day they might get a little bit of reflected light because, well, light obviously peeks through the windows or else I couldn't see.

But now I am worried that my cacti won't get enough of the feel-good juice they need. I know that they usually do fairly well if they get a good amount of reflected light, but I am not sure if they'll get enough.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Can I just leave my plants by the windows and hope for the best? I was even thinking so much as to put a mirror on the wall to help things along. I don't really have the option of putting them outside unless I want everyone in the world to see my plants, and I don't want to have to look out for them all the time.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

I've only had this for a month or so, but a similar model was recommended on another forum and it seems to be working well for me so far. It's easy to set up and the UV wavelengths are supposed to be optimized for vegetative growth rather than flowering.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/...&hash=item20fbe9113c

I was going to buy an actual grow tent, but a large mylar auto sunshade (10 bucks) does a prettty good job.

I built a grow tent/hydroponics systems for about 120 bucks, I reckon you could go that route.

**A bit off topic**

Out of pure curiosity, how much does it cost to maintain that setup, 1ce?

Thank you for the recommendations. I hadn't considered growing indoors although I suppose it would be possible.

But I was wondering how much a light like that would raise my electric bill? I can't really afford to have a huge electric bill every month. That is my main concern there.

It is quite a pickle.

edit: Wait I didn't realize it's an LED light, which I know is better for energy consumption. Does it work well for cacti? I'm just wondering because my only experience with this sort of thing was for growing the weed.

I've had my LED light going for about a month, and I'll find out soon just how much it impacts my bill. I'll update you when I know.

I live in the sun (and Bible) belt and I was surprised to have to buy a light for indoor growing. After 3 years of drought here I bought cacti thinking they could stay outside. It then promptly raiiiiiiiiiiiined like heck all over us in record levels for months. I also realized my temperature zone gets way too cold in the winter for cacti, so I've had to change my game plan to include indoors and lights.

Thanks!

Yea where I live it rains all the time. Although for the past couple weeks we have had a good amount of sunny days, which has been nice for my plants. My main concern right now is making sure my one bridgesii doesn't etiolate on me! It's been getting a great deal of sunshine but hasn't straightened itself out yet. It's coming along, though.

I hope your plants are growing well! It's always nice to talk to fellow cactus enthusiasts

Just thought I'd update, it seems that summer is over just as quickly as it came. I am pretty bummed because our growing season was so short. It didn't get warm until July and we basically had nonstop rain until August. This summer was a bust, and after our 5 months of winter last year I am not looking forward to what's ahead. I didn't even try to germinate the seeds I have because it never got consistently warm enough. And overnight it went from 85 degree days to 70 degree days.

Anyway... I guess this might be good for my plants to go dormant so I don't need to have a ton of light on them at my apartment.

To Wolfnippletip, did you find out how much that light runs your electricity bill? I might have to resort to such a thing. I'm really bummed that the weather changed just as soon as my bridgesii started growing.

While I can't help with your current plant situation. I can suggest plants that work well indoors from personal experience. All of these are plants I have and love. I'm sure I'm missing some of my babies in this list since I'm walking around the place in my head only.

Any of the Vines:Ivy plants, hoya, arrowhead, and pothos. English Ivy in particular does just fine in low light as indicated by my favorite hole-in-the-wall bar. I had miles upon miles of these vining plants in my one bedroom apartment. I loved it. Brought in lots of green and life. Pothos will just go crazy, and roots easily in new pots from the vine.

Spider Plants Are pretty easy to get along with. They like bright indirect light for the best and fastest growth. But they'll tolerate low light just fine. Easy to spread, they send out little vines which will reach 12-24 inches looking for a spot to lay down some roots. Let this shoot grow into some soil in another pot for a couple weeks before cutting him off from the mother plant. Boom, easy propagation.

We'll get Lucky Bamboo out of the way. It likes a rich loamy soil that is kept evenly moist. You can get it for dirt cheap and it propagates like CRAZY. Let each stem get a few larger shoots. Wait for them to get relatively healthy, cut them with a clean sharp knife, peel back and remove the lower leaves and let root in water. You can have a forest of 'bamboo' in a year.

You've got Parlor Ivy, Why not Parlor Palm.

Peace Lillie will bloom multiple times a year.

Dieffenbachia: Clumps of upright leaf stems with larger leaves, companion in a large pot with numerous ivy or philodendrons plants, makes a cool effect. Similar effect can be had with Anthurium, but pot seperately as this one likes moist soil

ZZ Plant Try to kill it, I dare you, I DARE YOU. Leave it in the unused kitchen where the only light it gets is when you cook and open the fridge in the middle of the night. Then remember to water it all of a sudden after 6 months of sheer neglect for it to spontaneously resurrect and say "Hi, miss me?"

Speaking of trying to kill plants the Cast Iron Plant is only named that because it's tough (or it should be). Paradoxically: the more you mistreat it the happier it seems to be.

Snake Plant: Why should you have it? It's other name is "mother-in-laws tongue"

Ferns are an easy way to get a full bushy foliage plant inside. Companion plant with an upright plant that tolerates similar watering for an attractive pot. (fun fact: Ferns can have up to 630 chromosome pairs ) I have both Boston and Bird's Nest ferns inside.

Aglaonema: I actually just got this from Homo Depot this year. I LUUURRRRRRV the color. it seems to not be picky about watering.

Corn Plant does well in low light. You can find it in a clump or as a single stalk. it'll grow about 5' tall. This plant's attitude can be summarized as "meh"

Add Peperomia to break up the smooth leaf cavalcade thus far. It has tectured leaves in rich colors to add easy to care for variety. There's a large variety of these plants that all look gorgeous.

Put a prayer plant on your night stands in your room. Stays nice and contained, nice colored lines on a green and yellow/cream leaf. It does NOT like direct sun.

Dracaena or dragon plants. I don't have any of these because they're toxic to the furreh pets which seem drawn to chew on them, especially kittehs. I also don't like how open and spiky they are, I tend to prefer the softer plants that flow. But they do ok in an indirectly lit room without pets. Pretty tolerant of neglect

Speaking of softer plants, Orchids These get a bad rap for being hard to care for, most people tend to over water them. Moth Orchids are pretty easy

Columnea likes darker rooms and has beautiful red flowers, Another easy going plant in my experience.

Mint does ok inside. Provides a nice subtle pleasing scent and you can pick at it for leaves to add to your tea.

Starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel that is my noggin...
Bromeliads are said to do ok indoors. I personally don't care for how they look generally. That said I do have a bunch of Tillandsia or Air Plants. No soil, no pot, They just sit wherever and are content. Once a week I'll dunk them in a dish of some water for a few minutes, then sit on a waterproof surface until they dry up. Easy enough.

Just ran the math. Electricity here is about 13 cents per Kwh.

~15 hrs per day @ ~150 gross watts = ~ 2.25 KWh/day x 30 days = ~ 68 KWh/Month = ~ 9 dollars/month

And that's rounding all numbers up, to figure fat. Those numbers jibe with my new bill, which was slighlty higher than last month's.

So about 30 cents per day, or $9 per month, @ 13 cents per kilowatt hour, light on 15 hours/day.

Awesome! Thanks for the information. That's a lot less than I thought it would be, so I think I could do this. I hope your plants are doing well

To OrionFyre, I appreciate it! Although for now I only have my cacti and an aloe plant. I'll expand my garden when I have more space

I've found used/new grow tents online for about 50 bucks. Usually in 2x4/4x4 dimensions. The 2x4 could fit comfortably in a closet even. Kick in an LED light and you're pretty well set.

I've got 4 bridgessi plants growing under artificial LED light in a tent, and 2 phalaris aq1 plants. They're doing quite well for themselves. During the summer I've been putting my plants outside when I leave for work, and bringing them in in the evening.

Maybe the simplest idea would be to MOVE to somewhere more suitable.

Eh, that's not really an option right now. I moved into this apartment while I finish school and once I am done I want to get out of town and see a different part of this country.

im in the,
" high intensity LED lights and a flight case on wheels" camp.

preferably hydro.
ya want results.

stopping a grow is not an option ,
just because the sun wont come out.

Nice anne

I wish I could. I don't really have space for anything like that. My apartment is pretty small and just about has enough room for my plants. I didn't know you could grow cacti with hydro.

the hydro part is pretty obvious......

gardens 3x3x2 can have massive output in months.
price is comparable to a good fungi farm.

Annie - I just HATE your bilious green FRANKENplants - but then you KNOW that !!!! LOL !!

dont take them personal spanish
its about biomass fast in a box...........

hes in a small apt.
he needs lophs before the lease is up in less than a yr.
naturally,
id wish him a 30 yr low interest mortgage on a palatial home,
with green house...............
but, in the meantime,
ill merely offer advanced hydro cactus teks,
wich can grow 30 yrs worth of lophs in a season!

never accept " no lophs" as an option..........
im just that kinda girl.

always good seeing ya spanish.