Supplemental Lighting

18 years ago

Hi,

I have a glassed in covered deck where I grow Begonias and other tropical plants. All of my plants prefer 60% shade. All the plants within 8 feet of the windows do great but the one's against the back wall do not grow as well since the natural light level is lower.

Is there any type of light I can hang that would just supplement the natural light? If I hang it from the ceiling it would be from 4 to 7 feet above the plants as they are on 4 shelf units. This would be just for foliage growth not flowers.

Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Paul

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Comments (4)

lermer
18 years ago
(Lermer) If you have 4 shelves, and they are on top of one another, that presents a problem for lighting that would be 4 to 7 feet away. Because light does not shine through shelves. You could do a sidelight, but then, the plants would lean toward that light.

Please give the dimensions of the room and shelves.

Without the shelves, I would probably use a 100w Ceramic Metal Halide with parabolic reflector (PAR) built into the bulb. For ballast, use either the Life Light digital ballast (unfortunately, comes only with bulb and reflector) or magnetic metal halide ballast.

The PAR reflector beams the light with minimal spreading. The distance determines whether you should go spot or wide.
paul224
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for your reply. The room is 12 x 14 and there are 4 shelf units running across the back wall which is 14' long. The shelves are actually free standing units, 48" long, 19" deep, & 60" tall. The shelfs are just a crisscross open pattern, not solid. I had 6 of these in a greenhouse where all the natural light came from above and my plants did great.
I will look into the products you mention. Is there anything that you would suggest that would not have to have the separate ballast? Thanks,
Paul
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woodyguthriefan
18 years ago
what about tube fluorescents. My sister recently purchased four at $5.00 apiece on e-bay. The T-5 and T-4 are very sleek and modern looking. I'm not sure of your configuration but she has them mounted under the shelf that is above the plant she wishes to light. It seems to me with such a large area to cover you may be better off with numerous small, high-output lights instead of one large light so you can get them closer to the plants. Just a suggestion. please let us know what you end up doing and how it works.
paul224
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi,
Sorry I could not continue my posting but I had a serious illness in the family. I am back to trying to create more light for the rear wall of my plant room. These are the shelves on the left of the picture. These plants like 60% shade so I just need to do something for the 1st half of the day. The rest of the room is bright enoug. These are open wire shelves so it would not be practical to put lights on each shelf as the water would run through. Any suggestions would be apreciated.
Paul

Here is a link that might be useful: