I'VE tried starting seeds forever, with varying degrees of success. Light and temp have been issues to conquer, the first attempts were in the basement (too cold) under fluorescent shoplights (too dark).
FAST forward a couple dozen years, over time I've solved the heat problem by moving to the first floor, and the light problem at considerable expense by switching to fluorescent grow tubes. Issues with the grow tubes is they fade, and are probably only good for one or two years. Hurts my wallet just to think about it. Last couple years I ended up buying plants from the garden center, it was cheaper and the quality was better than I was turning out.
WELCOME to 2020, the Year of the Quarantine. Over the last year I've been changing out my cellar and garage worklights from fluorescent to LED. The local home center (a real Valu of a place)
sells a 3 foot LED for just less than $20, escept for when it's on sale for just under $13.
MAN they are bright. Put my double tube 4 foot fluorescents (tired of typing that word) to shame, even with new tubes. I decided to try a Kratky system lit with the new LED lights. I know that's too many variables for a good experiment- would failure be caused by the lighting or the hydroponics?
AS it turns out, the entire experiment was a rousing success. Here's a pic:
THAT'S a week before I ate them. By the time I did harvest them, they were 12" diameter, about 9 weeks old. Buttercrunch seed packet says they should be 5-6 inches when mature. Woohoo!
I looked at the specs for the light, then looked up the specs for a proper LED grow light in the interweb:
Shoplight Grow light
Length 3 foot 2 foot
Watts 33 19
Lumens 3,000 1200
Temp 4,000 K 3,300 K
Price $20 or $13 on sale $39
THE shop light beats on all categories. Cheaper longer higher wattage brighter (Lumens) and more intense (temp). I looked up 4,000K, it is approximately the same as morning or afternoon sun in the spring. Granted the grow light is full spectrum and provides more blue and red wavelengths than the shop light.
DON'T have to be a rocket scientist arrive at a conclusion.
THAT being said, take a look at the photo- the shelves are sitting in front of an unobstructed south facing window, and the plants exhibit NO PHOTOTROPISM toward the window. That tells me the shoplight is overpowering the natural light. While you are looking at the photo, you can see buckets and bagged soil in the background as I get ready to start my outdoor garden season off!
GO grow something
FAST forward a couple dozen years, over time I've solved the heat problem by moving to the first floor, and the light problem at considerable expense by switching to fluorescent grow tubes. Issues with the grow tubes is they fade, and are probably only good for one or two years. Hurts my wallet just to think about it. Last couple years I ended up buying plants from the garden center, it was cheaper and the quality was better than I was turning out.
WELCOME to 2020, the Year of the Quarantine. Over the last year I've been changing out my cellar and garage worklights from fluorescent to LED. The local home center (a real Valu of a place)
sells a 3 foot LED for just less than $20, escept for when it's on sale for just under $13.
MAN they are bright. Put my double tube 4 foot fluorescents (tired of typing that word) to shame, even with new tubes. I decided to try a Kratky system lit with the new LED lights. I know that's too many variables for a good experiment- would failure be caused by the lighting or the hydroponics?
AS it turns out, the entire experiment was a rousing success. Here's a pic:
THAT'S a week before I ate them. By the time I did harvest them, they were 12" diameter, about 9 weeks old. Buttercrunch seed packet says they should be 5-6 inches when mature. Woohoo!
I looked at the specs for the light, then looked up the specs for a proper LED grow light in the interweb:
Shoplight Grow light
Length 3 foot 2 foot
Watts 33 19
Lumens 3,000 1200
Temp 4,000 K 3,300 K
Price $20 or $13 on sale $39
THE shop light beats on all categories. Cheaper longer higher wattage brighter (Lumens) and more intense (temp). I looked up 4,000K, it is approximately the same as morning or afternoon sun in the spring. Granted the grow light is full spectrum and provides more blue and red wavelengths than the shop light.
DON'T have to be a rocket scientist arrive at a conclusion.
THAT being said, take a look at the photo- the shelves are sitting in front of an unobstructed south facing window, and the plants exhibit NO PHOTOTROPISM toward the window. That tells me the shoplight is overpowering the natural light. While you are looking at the photo, you can see buckets and bagged soil in the background as I get ready to start my outdoor garden season off!
GO grow something
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