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Sunlight vs florescent

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Posted by grow-anything (My Page) on
Wed, Feb 17, 10 at 16:39

I now have all my seedlings inside a heated greenhouse. They are getting natural sunlight from 7:15am till 6:15pm. I am not using any artificial lighting at this time. If you could use natural sunlight for eleven hours or florescent lighting for whatever time you wanted then which would you choose? It is too much trouble to mount lights now that would not block the sunlight and be difficult move for the different growing rates of my seedlings.

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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Ther e is no comparison.... sunlight is FAR beetter

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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I agree. No fluorescent light/light system will ever be able to match the power & advantages of the Sun. =) Hence, why I start my seedlings in a sunny windowsil or two instead of under a light setup.

- Steve

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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Sunlight hands down, I think the UV in the sunlight stops a lot of the damping off problems of artificial lighting. I could be wrong but it seems that way to me and I do both. The days are starting to stretch out fast now yee haaw.

Curt :-))

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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Seedlings prefer sunlight, just as they perfer warm temps than what we have in WI right now.

Your plants will s-t-r-e-t-c-h to get the sunlight so they will be quite leggy in a few weeks. Also there is about 17 hours of sun in the summer and right now only 10 or so... so I prefer flourescent lights because I can contol their not-so-natural environment and keep them from getting leggy.

Keriann~

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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If one didn't have a greenhouse then I'd prefer fluorescent lights since the total environment can be better controlled while still providing sufficient light.

This time of year there just isn't enough hours of sun, the right spectrum, or the right intensity of light (not to mention how windows reduce it further) for seedlings unless one lives in the southern hemisphere. Leggy plants is the result.

The ideal set-up for this time of year is a greenhouse with supplemental lighting systems. Failing that, we all just do the best we can with what we have to work with. ;)

Dave

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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Thanks for the input. Actually right not the plants seam more short and stocky than normal. I think the cold weather is causing some of that. I placed all the seedlings inside the GH as soon as they sprouted and have kept the temp between 42-65. They are getting sunlight for the entire time the sun is up which is eleven hours right now. No windows involved they are outside with full sun. The only tray that seems leggy is the African Daises, but all the rest are fine, so far. Even if the tomatoes get somewhat leggy I plan to repot all those and can bury them deeper anyway.

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Lucky you - I'm getting sunlight, from very weak to decent from about 8 am until 5 pm on the few days the sun shines. (The GH gets shaded by the house after 5 or so.) The lower temps will help keep the plants from stretching, especially if you don't give them a lot of moisture or use ferts high in Nitrogen.

I plan on moving my seedlings to the GH in late March - by then I should be getting a lot more light.

Mike

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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I have my small portable GH setting on my pool deck right now. I built it just for my seedlings and so I could move it to face the full sun as needed. I do have a fixed GH too. Here are my seedlings today.
Photobucket

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RE: Sunlight vs florescent

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I have seedlings located in the gh and in my basement. I depend on mother nature to provide the light for the gh.
A warm sunny day the seedlings they will jump in stature. Inside the the house those seedlings are getting constant light and 70 degrees

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening by the Seat of my Pants

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