Subject: Q? Plant Lighting

From: Matthew J. Kelliher <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 1995 15:01:53 EDT

Hello, I'm a college student at Central Michigan University.  I've taken
up an intrest in in-door plants and have recently purchased a nice green
floral arrangement from our local florist.
 
When I asked the florist about the fact that the plant would sit on my
office desk in the basement of the campus' Computer Services building
which has *no* windows (for security reasons), constant air-conditioning
(to keep the campus' IBM mainframe nice and cool), and well-lit artificial,
florescent lighting (to help our programming eyes!) that is only on between
the hours of 7am-6pm Mon-Fri, she merely waved the question saying that
the her shop was similiar and that the plants would survive.
 
I'm no plant biologist, and barely know when to water my plants, but
this seems a little strange... can plants really live in this sort of
environement?  Can photosynthesis occur with florescent lighting that is only
turned on during certian hours?  What is the life expectancy of these
plants in these conditions (appx. since, obviously, I don't even know
what type of plants there are).
 
Thanks in advance for the advice,
Matt Kelliher
([email-masked])([email-masked])
 
BTW- I named my plant BOB (which is in *no* way related to Microsoft<tm>
     or its affiliates.  But that probably doesn't matter since they'd
     find a way to sue me anyway... *grin*  :P  )
 
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