Grow Lights

Hmmm .... several smaller lights ... they cost about the same as the bigger ones though :( Pity the ballast from a 400W light is too powerful for a 250W bulb - otherwise I could just run a lowered wattage bulb when I had fewer plants. I think I'll just fill it up with next years Fuchsia plantlets and last year's Cyclamen plants that are just starting to flower

I've decided to try 3 Counties Hydroponics - http://www.3ch.co.uk/index.php - if nothing else their kit seems to be competitively priced, and they have several shops around the country, and speaking to them on the phone they seemed knowledgeable. Their advice was that the cheapest reflector didn't make a lot of difference to the more expensive flex ones.

 

Hex - what sort of plants are you growing under your lights and how big are they (the plants)?

 

Hi Peter
I only use them to get an early start on the season for the usual stuff, i miss timed it and ended up with a jungle of 18" tall/wide tom plants begging to be set free by about march
After that, i found its more efficient to grow fewer plants to a larger size, top them and take cuttings from the best ones for the garden.

 

I'm quite excited about being able to do SOMETHING during the Winter month and/or make an earlier start in the Spring - when everyone is chomping at the bit and saying "I'm a newbie, my Tomato plants are on the dinning room table and are two feet tall already but only have one leaf, is that normal?"

I'll reserve judgement a bit until I see how many lights I need in reality. If its only one then £100 purchase to bring forwards the season doesn't feel too extravagant.

 

Thanks Hex. I also like to give things an early start. The light box does very well because of the warmth as well as the light. But the big problem is - when you have got all those cuttings rooted and seeds into decent sized seedlings - what do you do then - where do you put them? because the box is needed for the next batch.

You are right Kristen about doing SOMETHING during the winter months. I find it very exciting coming down and the first thing I do is to look in the box and see what has germinated or even started to flower.

 

My toys have arrived

 

(The pillow is a big bag of Perlite ... costing my a fortune buying it in small bags from the garden centre, and not organised enough to get to a DIY shed)

Planning on putting a old table that I have spare - about 2' 6" wide and 3' - 4' long - in my office, and mounting the light above it. I figure if its in my office I'll remember to keep an eye on it, and notice if the light is not working. I'll run the light at night because we are on economy-7 - midnight until, say, noon or 6pm for 12 / 18 hours per day.

Just need to figure out how high above the table to make the lighting frame to give me enough vertical height (when the light is at its highest possible position) to clear the tallest plant I ma likely to grow .

 

Grow light installed (seriously Heath Robinson, so NO pictures available!!!)

Canna's have broken the surface with their first leaf, and are now under the light.

The surplus light provides all that I need in my office in the evening, so I've set it up to run from 6pm to 8am for now (dunno if the plants will need 18 hours, but I need office light from 6pm onwards, and a bit in the morning, so that saves the normal lights being used plus it uses economy-7 for most of that period). I have easily enough light in the office to be using my computer to type this at 10pm :thumb:

I'm really excited about it thanks all for your help.

 

That's great Kristen.

If you are on economy7, it sounds as though you use storage heaters - ie heat the house with electricity. In which case the extra running cost of your lights should be pretty small as all the energy used will end up as extra heat at the same cost per Kwh.

 

Don't know why we are on economy-7 actually, no storage rads, its a conventional wet radiator system. The previous owners must have had it installed.

My DW complained that she woke up several times last night because of the light outside :D:D:D perhaps I'll close the curtains in my office tonight ...

 

one month since sowing, Canna's were pricked out to 3" pots on 7th November.

They have been through 4" and potted on to 5" just the other day, and 37cm / 14.5" of growth above pot soil level.

First Burg germinated. Didn't realise it was advisable to Soak then Peel the cork off the seed - so I peeled the cork off 14 days into germination - probably not ideal! Not sure how many more are going to germinate ... but I rather fancy getting some more colours anyway

 

P.S. I am using a Vegetative Fertilizer brand name "Canna". My DW remarked "How extrordinary that you can get a fertilizer just for Cannas" - pleasantly naive!

 

Cannas now now 97cm tall

53 days old ...
... 171 days until last frost ...

:(

Mind you, the bonus is they will probably be in flower for Christmas!

 

Kristen - thats amazing growth in under 2 months under any circumstances. It sounds as though your grow lights are a real winner. What type of Canna are they? With good grow lights they really could be flowering for Christmas.

I must thank you for starting this thread, not only has it prompted me to Google further and learn more, but you also enthused me to set up two sets of grow lights in my house, in addition to my light box. They are only low power, each 120 watts of fluorestent tube, and the object was simply to over winter a number of tender plants, which I thought might need to be a bit warmer than just frost free.

So far they have been a great success. The light level is quite high at the tops of the plants, but very low lower down. Even so the plants seem to be growing slowly and both of my Brugmansias are flowering.

 

"thats amazing growth in under 2 months under any circumstances. It sounds as though your grow lights are a real winner."

Indeed, I'm well chuffed. Not to mention having some "gardening" to do during the winter - and in the warmth of my office too! Strongly recommended - although maybe start your Cannas off a bit later than October!

"What type of Canna are they?"

The ones with the completely unpronounceable name beginning with "W" and purple-ish leaves. They are not too tall, and are a pot size (some are 2 pots sizes) behind the others which are taller - they are Tropical Red.

"With good grow lights they really could be flowering for Christmas."

Oh I do hope not! I come down each morning hoping they have slowed down!

My Hydrangea cuttings which had obviously rooted, but weren't doing much, have flourished and one is trying to flower - daft thing!

I've put my Fuchsia cuttings under them - they were struck around August I suppose. They have bulked up nicely.

Lots needs potting on ... but if I do that they won't all fit under the light. Been too busy at work recently, but I've decided to buy a second light - no sense growing these things on and then leaving them pot bound through lack of lighting-space.

"it prompted me to Google further and learn more"

I can't imagine what type of plants you found to read about nudge-nudge wink-wink :D

"They are only low power, each 120 watts of fluorescent tube, and the object was simply to over winter a number of tender plants, which I thought might need to be a bit warmer than just frost free."

I've been thinking about that. We have an log-fired boiler in the garage. Its reasonable warm in there because of the boiler - albeit that there is a cold draught under the garage door. I wondered about setting up some strip lights in an insulated zone in there for the over-wintering plants. They are in a cold conservatory, but I expect the Brugs I'm trying to raise from seed (only managed one from the first batch) would prefer something a bit more toasty next winter.

Glad its going well for you too.

JWK I'm surprised you haven't joined in too ... just you wait until you see my walking stick cabbage !!