Grow Lights

Yup, I reckon. Having seen a recent episode of Gardeners World with great drifts of them I don't think the dozen or so that I have will be enough. I think I'll buy another lamp at the same time as the seeds

 

How do plants go on that live where they get continuous light then dark for months such as iceland?

Grow your dodgy drugs in the basement, apparently police helecopters can see the lighting systems in your loft. Even if you are innocent it would be no fun finding plod had put your door in to check.

I use blue leds to cheer me up on nights and over winter. Apparantly i'm SAD.
Maybe i should try it on the plants.

Cheers
D

 

Progress report:

Seed pods now reasonably well developed (Would you Adam-and-Eve it?!!). How long until they are ripe do you think?

I'm just wondering if I'm likely to be able to sow that "at the normal time" and still get them to flower this year? :D

 

I grow a lot of things from seed under lights (T5 and daylight bulbs) especially over the winter months. My prop is covered with a foil blanket bought from ebay. These blankets are the type used by runners at the end of marathons etc, they are cheap to buy and very reflective. I can recommend them if you want to make the best use of plant lighting.

 

First Canna seed harvest today

8 plants (or this variety), a bit less than half the pods harvested, 105 seeds so far.

The plants are not in particularly good shape, covered in red spider and white fly (I'm spraying, but I reckon not much will improve until they are outside)

From my quid outlay in October I think I might have a couple of hundred plants by the Spring !

 

Kristen - I think what you have done is fantastic. But sorry to hear about the plants.

I have had a catastrophe in my lightbox for the first time. I have had both fungus gnats, which I didn't spray early enough in the belief that they were harmless; and I think I have also had seedlings die from damping off - for the first time ever. I run out of my Cheshunt compound last year and have only just got some more. I also have aphids elsewhere in the house on other plants, which is a common occurance for me. Why I am saying this is that I think one should have a good chat with a local nursery, that grows its own plants, about prevention.

Near me there is a very good nursery that grows and sells a lot of Geraniums (ie Pelargoniums). They would be devastated if they had an infestation of anything. A long time ago I spoke to them and was told that one chap had the responsibility of spraying regularly on a preventative basis. I think that is the key - to have a spraying schedule in place to prevent outbreaks, rather than spraying afterwards when its too late. I also suspect that you need some movement of air. Before Christmas I saw a very cheap fan for sale (who wants a fan in winter?) and bought it for just that purpose, but so far I am ashamed to say I haven't used it yet.

I am taking my recent experience combined with yours as a wake up call.

 

Yup, with you there 100%. In my case I made the assumption that bugs don't grow in winter, so was not expecting an inbound-attack :( And consequently I wasn't vigilant either. On refelction the lamp is warm, and its ideal conditions for bugs.

I bought some Perlargoniums in from the unheated conservatory, and some of their cuttings, to beenfit from the light. I reckon they were the culprits and that's what all the invaders came from. (The cuttings are growing nicely though, although the Fuchsias look mighty badly mauled by the red spider, but I expect they will sprout and come-again)

Next year either nothing will come in to go under the lights (i.e. only new seedlings), or there will be a "nuking" process before they are allowed in.

And I will take up your idea on prophylactic spraying. But I dunno what kills Red Spider that comes as a spray?. (I've been wondering about a dustbin full of made up solution that I can just dunk the whole plant in - i.e. upside down and into the tub).

I'm now thinking about how I get the area sanitized ready for the Spring sowing. I think the Pelargoniums could go out to the conservatory, and probably the Cannas too - I can bring them in on cold nights, and if they suffer I expect they will sprout and get under way when the warmth of spring arrives - what do you think?

Then I could Detol the whole area, or something like that (its indoors, not too keen on Jeyes Fluid on the table involved)

 

The sodium 600 dimable ballast has extra blue light add