[Sq_Ft_Gardener]

Don't waste your money.... Get a cheap shop light and do the same thing for about 1/10 the cost!!! Grow lights and fancy stands are a major waste of money on both the equipment and the electric.

Sue

Amen to THAT, Sue. I bought 3- 8" 2-tube fluorescent lights and 3 "Daylight" and 3 "Cool White" tubes (for a close proximation tho outdoor light, used by farmers around here in stripping rooms because they have to grad the tobacco according to quality) and put one of each in the fixtures. It cost me about one-third what a "grow stand with lights would cost and I had 4' x 8' of "flat room." This is room for 18 flats!!

 

[gobug]

I bought high quality florescent fixtures at an auction - 65 fixtures for $15. Low quality fixtures hum. Garage sales, flea markets, and salvage yards are good places to find them real cheap - like a dollar or two each.

I used broken hockey sticks (saved from my son's various teams) to make light supports. I just had to find a use for those!

My whole table cost less than $20 to build. (not counting the bulbs)

The table has 4 fixtures - 2 bulbs each. I use the cheaper full spectrum bulbs from Home Depot. I've tried cool white, cool white and warm white, high cost full spectrum ($11ea) and low cost full sprectrum ($4). I replace 4 bulbs each year.

I have the table on a timer. Plants do better with a little darkness. I set my lights to run 16hrs per day. Light duration has an impact on flowering plants.

All my house plants go out on the porches in the summer. Some get to be under or near lights during the winter until seed starting time. The big ones get prime window seats.

The plant lights are in the basement near the washer/drier; they get some added humidity, and its also close to my utility sink and work table. I add a gallon of water each day to a little humidifier thats hooked to the timer. The house stays at 19 percent humidity in the winter, but the plant area ranges from 35 to 50%.

I have a small garden, so this setup is adequate (5 boxes 4'x20'). If the garden were bigger, I would need more lights to start more plants.

Diane, ? do you grow spinach and lettuce inside year around??

gobug

 

[diane]

gobug, yes....I grow lettuce (leaf type) and spinach year around. I usually have two or three dishpan sized tubs going at any one time.

I think people are confusing grow lights with those expensive grow shelves.

What we use are some salvaged industrial shelves and chain links and shop lights with growlux bulbs being 1/2 of the bulbs in the shop lights. With hooks and link chain I can raise and lower the lights to my needs, always able to keep light close to the seedlings to avoid leggy plants. I painted the shelves a fairly attractive green. One shelving unit has only four shelves, which makes it useful for taller plants and one has five. I also have a large bench in an alcove that has several lights over it. Currently I only have the four shelf unit and the bench in use, but as we approach spring I will have both shelving units going and another shelf that I "park" flats on to rotate because one unit will be going 24 hours/ day but different plants will be under the lights.

I start all my own bedding plants and veggies, as well as enough for several friends and family members. We think of building a greenhouse, but the cost of building it and maintaining it and heating it always directs us back to the system we are using which provides wonderful plants, sunshine I need to stay sane and an overall happy environment.

 

[TXlightningbug]

I'm leaving my lights on 24/7. Should I be turning them off at night?
Heather

This is a great thread full of useful info that I, a degreed horticulturist, did not know when it came to plant lighting. One thing I do know, plants require rest time just like humans so do turn off the lights for the night. This gives the plants time to change their attention from creating the green stuff in their leaves to feeding their roots. :worship: Judi

 

[diane]

Some of my grow lights

http://img21.photobucket.com/albums/v63/gardiacaprines/Indoor garden/lights1.jpg


http://img21.photobucket.com/albums/v63/gardiacaprines/Indoor garden/one_shelf.jpg

 

[thefarm]

diane your plants look great.. my plugs are now coming up.. yours look like you could almost plant.. I've got two 48"long with two 40 watt bulbs in each.. but some of my plugs are still reaching... ?????????Brenda :waa:

 

[Guest]

Brenda,

You need to put the lights RIGHT DOWN ON TOP OF THE PLANTS. No more than a ½ inch above them. If the lights are up 10"... the plants are going to get leggy.

 

[thefarm]

Thanks I have it under controll now.. Happy Planting.. Brenda

 

[cashcrop]

This is a very interesting thread. I originally planned to use shop lights but, am ordering a ceiling light this week to try instead. It has a wider coverage area and only requires two bulbs for 11" as opposed to the shop light which requires two bulbs and has a coverage area of 6.5". I compared the cost of both units and would save $7.18 savings per 11". I spoke to the local builders supply owner and asked if there was a price break if buying a quantity of 24 aquarium & grow light bulbs. It payed to ask!! Was offered a $2.65 savings per bulb! Did not consider how much I will save in electric, though. Have to see how well it works before I decide whether it will distribute light as well.

I noticed someone commented that you should keep your lights close to plants to prevent leggyness..... do 40 watt aquarium & plant lights give off more heat than a 40 watt cool light? How much does one need to worry about fire. I had planned on using 2x4's as the legs of the shelving and was undecided as to what to use to attach the lights to. I figure for my experimental model I would use the existing plywood and 2x4 shelving in my basement. My basement I don't think it gets over 50 degrees in winter.

Any thoughts in regard to my concerns of starting a fire with the lights?

 

[diane]

I am not sure I am understanding your fire concerns. Poor wiring could be the only reason I could vision a fire problem as the bulbs are not hot enough to start a fire just hanging there. I don't notice a difference in the two types of bulbs in the amount of heat they put off. The fixtures are a little warm, in fact when I am germinating I frequently place a small cookie sheet with the seed starters on it and set it on the hanging fixtures to provide bottom heat and speed up germination.

In the for what it is worth department.....no matter what type of bulb I use, I get leggy plants if the bulbs are not really close to the plants. You really need to have those lights so they can be moved up and down as needed, unless you have a huge amount of shelves and can move your plants from one place to another as they grow. I do have one shelf where the lights are fixed. It is the shelf where I do most of my germination and the seedlings can be there until they get to be about 1" tall and then I move them. It works well for me because I start so many things and some, like snapdragons and impatens, need to be started far earlier than others.

 

[cashcrop]

Diane,

Thank you for your feedback! I worry because I work a 10hr shift and haven't used flourescent lights in years and have never used grow lights before. Years ago I contracted with my old FFA(in S. WI) to grow them in there greenhouse and it was cheaper to do it that way than to grow them on my own! I feel much better now!! I have an alternative. I was offered metal display shelves that the builders supply couldn't use as they didn't fit in the shelf tracks they had but could easily be fastened to 2x4's. Guess I'll have to speak to the owner and see if the offer is still available and take him up on it! Can run wire through the shelves to adjust lamp highth(sp?).

Katie

 

[jack_c-ville]

I used florescents some years back with very good success. My father still uses them to give his vegetables an early start before moving them out to the garden.

I suggest never using any fixtures that are less than 4' long. The last 6 inches on either end of a florescent bulb emit far less light than the middle, so really what you are getting is 3 feet of usable space. Going smaller than that makes very poor use of the power you are using in terms of light output. 8' lamps are ideal.

Florescents do not have very good light penetration, so good placement is the key to avoid leggy plants with anemic lower growth. Put them on chains and move them up every day to keep them around 2 inches from the tops of the plants. A row of 4 or more bulbs is prefered.

Use half cool white and half warm white bulbs in your fixtures. It gives a better approximation of sunlight than 'grow bulbs,' which are a waste of money. Change the bulbs every 6 months even though they still work. Florescent bulbs lose 60% of their output in the first 6 months, but you won't notice because it happens gradually. They are using the same amount of electricity to produce less light and changing bulbs saves you money.

If there is an enclosure around the plants, paint it flat white. Plain old computer paper pasted down will work well, too. This is to reflect as much light back at the plants as possible. Flat white actually returns more usable light to the plants than aluminum foil or glossy white. These are relatively low output lights, so directing every available lumen at the plants will make a noticable difference in your yield. Any bit of light escaping between hoods or other cracks represents smaller plants and money for electricity gone down the drain.

Placing additional fixtures sideways around the plants can help improve light penetration to the lower parts of plants as they get taller.

Remember that many plants only grow strong stems if they are stimulated by motion from breezes. This is not a problem outdoors, but indoors you'll want to point an electric fan at them.

HID fixures are much more expensive than florescents and produce a lot more heat that may have to be vented. But they actually produce more lumens per kwh than any other accessible form of artificial light. They actually produce less heat per lumen than florescents, its just that there is so much more light being produced that the total amount of heat is far greater. Lumen for lumen they are less expensive to operate and will save you money in the long run if you decide that having fresh vegetables all through Winter is something you want to really run with.