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Tue, Jul 27, 10 at 11:18
| Well, instead of building a dedicated structure I've decided to instead start my seedlings in the house. Don't tell my wife, she doesn't know it yet. Anyway, I have numerous (4) foot shop lights in storage and I was wondering what tubes I should use? I'm not really a cheap person but money is rather tight these days so I don't want to spend a fortune if I can help it. I know they do have grow lights available, are these better than regular tubes? BTW...I've always direct seeded so that's why I'm not familiar with propagating under lights. Thanks!
Greg
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by oilpainter 3 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 27, 10 at 11:44
| No You don't need grow lights. What you need is 1 cool light(blue) tube and 1 warm light(yellow) tube. That gives you the full spectrum of light. Have your lights on chains that can be raised and lowered, so you can keep the light 2 inches above your plants. If you are doing it in a cool basement a plastic cover will keep the heat close to the plants at night. Be sure to open it in the daytime though so you get air circulation to keep away damp off |
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- Posted by sandhill_farms 10 NV (My Page) on Tue, Jul 27, 10 at 12:26
| Thanks for your reply, oilpainter I appreciate it. Greg |
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- Posted by wordwiz (wordwiz@fuse.net) on Tue, Jul 27, 10 at 23:25
| Greg, Don't go with the warm light - seedlings need veg light, not flowering. Cool lights provide all the spectrum needed. And I don't keep the lights 2" above the plants but closer to 1/2". JMO, but I grow about 600-800 seedlings a year. Mike |
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| I bought the chrome wire shelves that are four feet wide and two feet deep. (I have them on locking casters if I need to move them, but they are not going anywhere.) I can fit 4 standard nursery flats on each shelf. I have 5 shelves, though the bottom one is used for supply storage. I hang two shop lights for each growing level (4 bulbs total per level) from the bottom of the upper shelf (height adjusted by chains), so, three growing levels (12 flats). (The shelves go just about to the ceiling.) I put in a long 15 outlet power strip with surge protector vertically on the wall so that I could easily connect and disconnect all the plugs for lights and mats and fans. I think it works really well as a self-contained area for propagation, and it looks pretty good too. |
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- Posted by sandhill_farms 10 NV (My Page) on Thu, Jul 29, 10 at 11:09
| Thanks to everyone for your advice, I know how I'm going to go about this now. Greg |
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