Additional lighting

Hi,

Wondered of anyone had experience of using additonal lighting in the greenhouse ?

Have got two areas I was thinking of trying out additional lighting, a seed tray sized heated propagator and a larger 4 x2 heated enclosure for orchids and lower light lovers like ferns etc.

Seems a small led unit might be good for the seed tray which will be used for cuttings etc, but so many on the market / ebay , do not have a clue which colours or units are worth looking at.

Same with the larger enclosures not sure if the light spread of leds is enough or if a 4ft fluorescent tube might be enough ?

 

I use LED lighting in and around my greenhouses for decoration. Strip lighting.

I do have LED lights in my indoor seedling areas and am amazed at the deep green the leaves on those plants achieve. Quite astonishing. At one time I was thinking about lengthening my hours of light outside but the cost to heat the greenhouses when it gets bitter outside and makes the use of LEDs to prolong my season a no go. In temperate climates it would be dandy to do what you're thi king of.

The lights that I use for my plants have red and blue LEDs. It is the wavelength variation that produces these colours and makes things lovely.

 

Forgot to mention that no affordable lighting would ever be able to compete with the sun. Even in winter. So if you just want to extend your day to 12+hours, in your climate, it sounds quite affordable. I run mine oof of power collected by my solar panels. I ask Sol to help me night and day

 

@ricky101
I got this Lightimetunnel 300w Led Grow Light Plant Lamps Real Full Spectrum Light UV IR for Greenhouse/Indoor/Grow Tent/Hydroponic Chili Vegetable Plants High Par Value: Amazon.co.uk: Lighting
Last winter, it allowed me to move the germination area into the garage, it worked well with a timer and an enclosure painted white c 2ft*4ft and a heated propagator tray. A little noisy for indoor use and far too bright. Remember to switch off when inspecting plants.

 

Hi,

Was just not sure how good at plant growing those larger panels would be, and did not want to spend £70 to prove the point, but sounds like you are happy with it Nigel.

Have ordered one of these £4 28w bulbs to try out over a seed tray sized heated prop with some cuttings, will be interesting to see how they do.

As I have found with other cheapo electronic devices from China, they can appear to work but can also have problems /limitations.

Did also ask in the uk orchid forum about extra lighting for my phalaenopsis but they reckon its not needed in a south facing situation, but might just try out one of these smaller bulbs on a couple of shielded target plants to see how they react.

thanks.

 

@ricky101 @CanadianLori @NigelJ
another interesting thread im now watching and learning so

 

Not just a response to @ricky101 's post, but also some info for anybody else thinking of buying growlights.

A 'few' suggestions for a greenhouse growbox:

1) Make the internal dimensions on plan suit whatever:

a) heatèd propagators/heatmats
b) plastic 'gravel' trays (for easily removing/replacing lots of individual pots)

you intend using, and if you'll be using more than one, make it suit them side by side (rather than one infront of other) for easy removal/insertion.

2) Construct sturdy enough for plants to sit on top of the growbox on a watetproof lid, then you will actually gain additional space.

3) Make the lid easily removable so it can be lifted off, a 'raising piece' section(s) added, then put back on top, then it can be used to accommodate taller plants when required.

4) If using a paraffin or propane heater, plan cable routes in advance of using the heating and finding the heat is dangerously close to trailing electrics.

5) If using T5 tubes that generate heat, plants will be more snug inside a fully enclosed box than if using LEDs, and some heat will permeate through the top and provide some warmth to plants on the 'lid'.

6) Check out the difference between 'blue' and 'red' lights, I think from when I got mine that blue was for leaf growth and red for flowers, LEDs I believe can have a mix of both, but I think T5 tubes can be one or other and can be a combination of both in the same unit.

I use a box with 2 x 600mm 4 tube T5 lights like those in link (just something to illustrate what I use) Maxibright T5 LightWave - 2ft x 4lamp Grow Light: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors. When plants are out of propagators I keep swopping 2 large trays from inside with another 2 on top to get the most out of the space available.

Before using them 24/7 and swopping around, I use timers to restrict the lights to mainly Economy 7 hours.

I have an even bigger set up indoors that goes on earlier in the year before starting to use the one in the greenhouse.

4ft/1.20m Units can be extremely heavy, I have a 1.20m long x 8 tube T5 growlight in my indoor growbox, and in hindsight would have chosen 2 smaller units even though it would have been more expensive.

With separate units they can be set at different heights to suit size of plants underneath, but another way of dealing with that is to sit shorter plants on the likes of an upturned seed tray.

My greenhouse growbox (and I should of positioned them the other way round so I could have accessed both on/off switches - that black switch on the left hand side - more easily). The lining is reflective Mylar which is supposed to be far more efficient than white surfaces. Thinking of reconstructing it to accommodate a 3rd 600mm 4 x tube T5 light:



OK, it may look a bit messy in there at the moment, but I had to remove another 5 of those thermostatic propagators to take that pic as I keep them in there in winter away from mice which chew up the capillary matting inserts, but it will be cleaned out in March ready for a couple of month's intensive use.

My big indoor growlight box will go on in January, with 3 of those thermostatically controlled heated propagators inside (50w Sankey Plantmaster 2000's), and I have a demountable growbox that sits on a folding table indoors, which enables me to get loads of stuff on the go before having to get the greenhouse heating on.

But it's not just about greenhouse heating, without the additional light from growlights, many early plants started in a heated greenhouse simply wouldn't thrive.