This may be a dumb question, but....

Many moons ago when I was young, there used to be lights that were called "grow lights" used for indoor plants. Does normal fluorescent lighting cover this now, or is there a special type of light source for starting plants inside from seed?

the only dumb question is the one that is left unasked...

the 'grow lights' are usually a different level of the spectrum than the regular fluorescent lights...

they still make them and i use them in my plant stand.

Home Depot here sells the fluorescent grow lights for $14.95 each. They also have the bulb type $4.95 each but these only last two days . I took them back every two days till home depot told me they would not take anymore back. These were made by Phillips but no telling ho wlong they had them in stock. Carolyn at Wal-Mart here is ordering some for me as well as for herself she also has a lot of plants to take indoors in winter.

"Most" plants will grow fine under the regular fluorescent tubes, you should try to get one cool white and one warm white if you are using the shop light fixtures that use two tubes. By getting a Warm and a Cool you provide a larger color spectrum for the plants. So the cheap shop light fixtures and regular fluorescent tubes will work well.

I have had a hard time finding the warm florescents for my shop light. Although I love the price of the cool white because it's only .97 cents at my wal-mart. I also have one of the CFS lights and it is supper fantastic. And you don't have to get the plant as close to the light as you do with the regular florescent lights.

They are hard to find unless you go to somewhere like HD or Lowes and places like that for tubes. I personally use the dollar tubes in all of mine and they seem to do fine, The warm ones are alittle more exspensive also..about $3-$5 for them.

So are my seeds laughing at me for putting them under a regular desk lamp in a simple attempt to warm them to see if they germinate?

My moved-in plants are at an east-facing window and so far so good, but I've been thinking about lighting for later when I might take that giant leap of faith and try to germinate some of my seeds early next year (instead of waiting too late, as usual). Is that the kind of growing light we are talking about here?

Or are you talking about growing stuff during the winter with these lights?

Well that is what I use to start my seedlings every year for my garden, They are under lights for about 2-3 months depending on what it is I am starting. But I use the same set up for growing african violets under, cactus that won't fit in the window and a couple of Aloes, so the answer is Yes we are talking about the samething