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Review on 🌱 Agrobrite FLC26D 26W Spiral CFL Grow Light Bulb (130W equiv., 6400K) by Dustin Mitchell

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Gardenia with fluorescent tubes

Every autumn I bring plants from the street, such as potted orchids, Kalanchoe, Christmas cacti and foliage plants. Window lights and conventional incandescent or compact fluorescent lamps worked fine. This year, in October, when the first frosts were predicted, I brought in a 4 foot tall potted gardenia that I had bought in the summer, counting on seasonal use only. It started shedding leaves fairly soon after being indoors. I ordered 2 of these 32 watt compact fluorescent lamps as a test. The light was so bright I only fitted one into a three bulb reflector and left the other two with regular 16 watt CFLs. After a week, the leaves stopped falling and new growth began. I turn the plant slightly every day to get more light for the whole plant. Now at least 20 flower buds have formed in late December and I expect to have fragrant gardenias blooming indoors in January and February. Imagine. Fantastic lamp. Edit: It's now mid-March 2013 and time for a follow-up. The light has been on 12 hours a day for about 4 months. Gardenia flowers. The light also illuminates 6 orchids and 4 large potted plants (outside in summer) on the table and shelf by the window. The orchids on the windowsill are in full bloom and the potted plants look like they are in bloom outside in summer. In decades of bringing plants indoors, they never looked like this. When they hit the streets again at the end of April, they'll look like they just bought them from the garden center. Another great lamp.

Pros
  • Few competitors
Cons
  • unreliable