Grow Lights

Grow Lights

I bought an incandescent grow-light 60 watt bulb at a hardware store for $7.72 for my indoor early starters. Although I have the grow light 3-4 inches above them, they already look a bit spindly. I watered them thoroughly today, removed the plastic cover, and put the grow light closer to them (about 2 inches above them). I am aware of the recommendation for fluorescent lights for seedlings. That will require help from my husband, who hates my gardening, so I thought I\'d try the incandescent bulb first. I am puzzled as to why it doesn\'t provide enough lumens for a 4\" square area, though. If it can\'t provide the light, then why do they label it \'grow light\' and charge $8/bulb for it? This is all experimentation on my part, trying to see what works and what doesn\'t.

Wendy

A 60 watt bulb is way too little light to grow strong seedlings. The symptom of low light is weak, spindly seedlings. Fluorescent tubes work better. A workshop fixture with 2 48\" grow lights will illuminate your trays properly if you keep the light suspended only a few inches above the seedlings.

George

The incandescent lights are marketed to supplement the spectrum for your established house plants. They are just not capable of providing the energy needed to feed seedlings. There is one possible improvement you could try (as an experiment, since you already have the bulb): fashion a parabolic (bowl-shaped) reflector/fixture for the bulb and set it up above your growing area. The parabolic reflector will help concentrate the light and may give you more coverage, or at least deliver better lighting to the coverage of the reflector. You don\'t need to buy those expensive fluorescent grow lights either. Just regular fluorescent bulbs in a 4 foot fixture will do quite nicely (I can vouch for 20 seasons getting their start this way).

Roger

I can vouch for Roger\'s comments, as I also have almost 30 years experience starting seedlings with regular fluorescent bulbs. You have to get them close, though, about a foot or the seedlings will be spindly. This year, however, I have the opportunity to do something different. The hydroponics equipment, including halogen lighting has arrived. This was purchased by TT Inc. for the hydroponics work here at TT Inc. Headquarters. When I saw the size of the halogen bulbs I just had to hook one up to see how bright it was. Geez!! The 1000 watt bulb was so bright, at about 15 feet, that you couldn\'t look at it - like looking directly at the sun and a big blue spot in your vision for an hour afterward! Since we won\'t be actually starting hydroponic growing until after the gardens are in, I plan to use one of these lights to start the seedlings. The 1000 watt unit with reflector will light an area of 64 sq. feet as bright as the noon sun. It will be really nice to be able to put healthy plants into the cold frames to get ready for planting.

Ron

Record: 1

Title: Grow-light up your life!

Authors: Long, Cheryl

Source: Organic Gardening (2001); Feb94, Vol. 41 Issue 2, p68, 2p, 1 chart, 1c

Document Type: Article

Subject Terms: *SEEDLINGS*BREEDING

Abstract: Tells how to start seedlings under lights for about $25. The advantage of fluorescent lights over a sunny windowsill or incandescent light bulbs; Comparison of types of light bulbs; Number of plants to grow under four-foot long lights; Comment by lighting specialist T.W. Tibbitts (University of Wisconsin); How to set up lights; Distance between plants and light; Watering.

Full Text Word Count: 1056

ISSN: 0163-3449

Accession Number: 9401177764

Persistent link to this record: http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,url,uid&db=aph&an=9401177764

Cut and Paste: Grow-light up your life!

Database: Academic Search Premier

GROW-LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE!

Contents

Plant light low-down

Save money! Choose from a wider variety of varieties! Start your own seedlings under lights! Starting your own vegetable and flower seedlings indoors is just as easy and as much fun as gardening outside. And by starting from seed you can grow plants you would never, ever find at your local garden center; you can get a headstart on the season and pick ripe tomatoes, peppers, even sweet corn weeks ahead of your neighbors; and you\'ll save money (you can grow dozens and dozens of plants to fill your beds for much less than you\'d pay for them at garden centers). You\'ll also be able to avoid starting your garden off with pesticide-drenched nursery plants; you can grow your own happy healthy, organic seedlings instead! Ready to give it a try? Here\'s a terrific seed-starting set-up you can create yourself for just $25 or so. Two points first. One, a sunny windowsill often isn\'t sunny enough to start plants, and the temperatures can become too cold very quickly. Two, incandescent light bulbs, even the ones sold as \"grow lights\" don\'t provide the right kind of light for good plant growth and they can produce too much heat. Your best choice for low-cost seedstarting is to use standard fluorescent lights; the perfect starter set-up is one of those extremely inexpensive fluorescent shop light fixtures. You can usually find shop lights that hold two 4 foot long fluorescent tubes on sale for $10. A pair of these (a total of four tubes) will provide all the light you need for two 21 by II inch flats. If you plant your seeds in recycled garden center six-packs, those two flats will hold 10 dozen plants (even more if you double-up on smaller seedlings). If you already have some fixtures, be sure to buy new tubes for them. These tubes can lose much of their light intensity and still look fine to the naked eye. Write the date on the end of those tubes so you know when to replace them (after about 2,000 hours, or four months of 18-hours-a-day use). There are lots of different kinds of fluorescent tubes on the market: \"cool white,\" \"warm white\" and expensive