Shop light with 49 watt fluorescents --all from Wal-Mart

Sweet set up!!

Nice but I have no where to hang a light. I don't want to drill in the ceiling and don't have any shelves.

Earlier set up. Small plastic shelves with boards. Don't do the top shelf if you don't want to drill.

A single 2 light fixture can be suspended or propped between chairs, boxes, crates, etc. and should easily handle 30 plants unless you start really early and pot up into large pots. Be sure to keep the tops of the plants within an inch or two of the lights. It makes a huge difference in the growth. I set pots on various things to adjust the heights for different growth rates..just make sure you don't set them on anything that can't handle leaking water.

I don't suggest this set up...but it worked when my other lights broke and I couldn't repair them immediately. It's mostly tomatoes under this setup and I wanted to keep them close to the tubes. Sometimes all the "junk" in the basement comes in handy :)

Hahahah! Nice stack.

I agree!

What about bulbs? I hear 2 cool white, 1 warm 1 cool, 2 daylight.

How tall do people let the seedlings grow to before they are planted out?

for seedling's i have had amazing results with 2 cool blue 4' bulbs. i put the light about 4 to 6 inches off the tops of the seedlings until the first set of true leaves appear then i drop the light to two inches off the top. i think the daylight bulbs might be to harsh for the seedlings.
also you can get the fixture at home depot for 10 bucks and 2 cool white bulbs for another ten bucks. the daylight bulbs are ten a piece and i use those for mother plants or overwinter plants or what ever i want to keep inside. or whatevers my hydro system.

i take my seedlings out side when they are 3 to 4" tall transplant into 3" pots in limited sunlight for the first two weeks and then full sunlight after that. after they hit 6 to 8" i put them in the ground. works well for me.

CHEERS!

I would think after 6-8" tall would be enough if not lanky, but really would depend of temps and weather more. Timo

is a 400 w hps too much for jalapeno seedlings? about 12inches away

I would say so. Another issue is why would you spend money having a 400w light on 16 hours a day when you can get away with 80W?

i didnt mean it like that. its just that i have some seedlings inside a shed under that light. i have other plants too and the seedlings only have their first tru leaves and they are very very soft and curling up along the edges. im tryin to figure out if its the temp, light, ventilation or something else. the temp usually doesnt go under 60 degrees.and doesnt go over 80.

another thing, i only had the light on for 12 hours a day.should it be on for longer?

If you take the time to just brush the plants or fan them a little every day, then you'll avoid the tall lanky plants.
I have the Fluorescent lights on for around 14 hours.
I've tried all cool, mixture of cool and warm and have not had any major problems. These days, I exclusively used Plant and Aquarium lights however. I did a small test on some Medusa Pepper plants and it sure seems like they liked the P&A plants the best.

I started lots of plants last year, and I even had green peppers on the plants before I could put them out. Started Habs Jan. 7 and took them outside in June! :) Not doing that this year!

You can leave the lights on 24 hours for growing starts. I leave them on all the time and end up with very healty, stocky plants.

{{gwi:232924}}

Here is a Thai pepper on the 20th of July. It was about 4' tall and just as wide.

The 48" shop light fixture I just bought at WalMart for ten bucks says that 32 watt T8 bulbs will burn brighter in it than regular 40 watt T12 bulbs. Does this make any sense? I'm not sure I believe that, or maybe I just don't understand it.

I was pondering using aquarium lighting as well. I have a spare 175w metal halide pendant I thought about using. It has a older 20k (really blue) bulb which I undoubtedly would need to replace, but if you guys are using far less wattage fluorescents, maybe I'll use it for hardening off my plants in a couple months and save a few bucks on the electric bill.

Being I grow coral and have an extensive salt water aquarium setup, I have pretty good knowledge of lighting. Do any of you know the color temperature of the lamps your using? It would be much easier to figure out what lighting works best that way. For example, I have 2, 20 watt T12 5000 kelvin lamps in a Lowe's 24 inch shoplight that I use for mangroves in my filter setup and they grow like weeds. 5000k is a full color spectrum light. So I would imagine that should be a good temperature?

Rick,
T8 bulbs produce more lumens per watt than T12. They are also more expensive for the fixtures and the bulbs. If you want to keep the fixture, it will work fine. Just get the recommended bulbs. T12 produce about 65 lumens per watt. T8 produce about 85 lumens per watt.

T12 = 2 bulbs x 40 watts x 65 lumens/watt = 5200 lumens
T8 = 2 bulbs x 32 watts x 85 lumens/watt = 5440 lumens

I buy the T12's because they are cheaper.
Rick (from VA also)

I always enjoy seeing Fiedlermiester's pictures of his lighting because this is my speed...cheap walmart flourescents... I stuck a bunch of seeds in damp rockwool cubes in a covered tray and they've all sprouted, no heat they sit on the filing cabinet. The register is below, floor level and it was enough to germinate them in 6-7 days. I did nothing else. They will go to pots or glasses soon and on the shelves with the lights. I know a lot of you are more experienced at all aspects of raising seeds, last year was my first of growing from the seeds to fruiting. My point is that it doesn't have to be so technical or costly, the basics will still grow peppers. Flourescents fit my budget and it would be nice to have all the bells and whistles but it's not necessary...if it's not broken don't fix it. Jackie

From Rick in VA to the other Rick in VA:

Well, there goes my special claim to fame!

Thanks for the clarification on the fluorescents. I guess T8 must be newer technology. I can get a pair of T12 40w "residential" bulbs (4100 Kelvin) for $4 whereas the T8 are $10 up a pair. I would only save 16 watts with the T8 so even running them 24x7 for a couple months...

Hey wait a minute! It doesn't make any difference, does it? As long as the bulb is matched to the ballast...

Yeah Rick. My point, because I'm basically thrifty, is that it the 32 watt T8's are about the same as the 40W T12's functionally and that you should really compare Lumens/$ including the fixture and bulb cost. I agree that the 32 watts you're saving on your electric bill is negligible. If you don't care about cost, go to T5's. You can really get some light out of them. Unfortunately the cost is around 5x that of the T12's for fixtures and bulbs. Since I'm using 15 fixtures (I believe in alot of light) the cost is significant.

How does all this affect your power bill? I'm just curious because I am borrowing a light from someone. Is it nominal?

The cost to run 60W is about $0.00037/hour.

My system consists of 15 fixtures of 40W bulbs.

If I'm running all of them.

15 fixtures x 2 bulbs/fixture x 40 W x .00037/60 $/hr = $0.0074 / hour

Or, about $16 to start 12 standard trays of plants.

Simkar Lighting Co. estimates the annual kilowatt cost of a single 48" 32w T8 bulb (12hrs x 365 days) is $12.70. The annual cost of a 40w T12 bulb is $16.20.

So the cost per 48" bulb for the 8-week sprouting period would be: T8 = 98 cents and T12 = $1.25.

That seems pretty negligible, unless you go totally bonkers and fill your whole house with banks of shop lights, as some of our more prodigious trading partners are rumored to be doing.

Source: http://www.simkar.com/t8.htm

Sorry, that's the 4-week cost. Eight weeks would double that to T8 = $1.96 and T12 = $2.50. Still....

oh wow that's not bad at all. Thanks Ricks! :)

Below is a link about fluorescent lights-Ballasts etc.

here is more info

http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications/freepubs/HGA-00432.html

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/kobayashik/Supplemental.html

There are links to links to links...

Here is a link that might be useful: lighting info

FWIW, there's an FAQ on this topic. I don't know squat about lumens, tigers or bears, so I can say how accurate the article is.

It was a nice read though!

Rick (in VA, not to be confused with the other two ;^)

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ growing under lights

You guys keep this up, I'm gonna change my name!

OK, I have to chime in on this one. My setup was copied directly from john's and I have to say this thing works like a champ. I used to use the cheapest bulbs I could find but last year I stuck some warm whites in the mix. Right now I have 31 fixtures. I can pump out over 600 seedlings, last year close to 500 not counting tomatoes.

Dale

{{gwi:26137}}

re: aquarium bulbs
I use some small CFL aquarium bulbs for my newly hatched plants and they work well. You can get them in the pet section of WalMart for ~$5. I've also seen the Aq bulbs in the regular replacement bulbs for larger fixtures. Sometimes there'll be a light spectrum chart on the side of the box - with peaks in the red and blue range, which plants love.

Looks really good Dale. ( I tried fancier bulbs to compare and couldn't see a noticeable difference)I think there needs to be a distinction made. I, and some others, use this set up for temporary lighting of seedlings which will eventually be outside. If you are raising plants entirely indoors under lights then another form of lighting is called for.

john

Smokemaster's link above (the first one) has research reported by Univ. of Alaska. Tests of gro-lights, cool white, and warm bulbs showed the cool whites do as well or better than the others.

http://www.uaf.edu/ces/publications/freepubs/HGA-00432.html

BTW Dale, I never received my seeds from you - are they on the way?

I just started this as a hobby because my son had a science project. I love Jalepeno peppers, so I am giving it a shot. Growing the peppers would be fun for me. What kind of lighting would I use (for a novice) for one of the kits that comes with a cover dome, 2 rows of 6. I just planted the seeds, and I have only just had "Direct daylight" on them. What should I start with?

Rick, you've got mail.

Dale

I have my seedlings under good ole' regular shoplights with cool white bulbs for about a week to 10 days after the majority have germinated. After that I switch to the big guns so to speak. Got a decent tax return couple years ago and invested in HID lighting...one of the better investments I've made, at least IMO. I run a 1000w Metal Halide lamp a Hortilux bulb at about 3 to 4 feet over the seedlings, the height can be adjusted same as shoplights. Just produces the nicest stocky seedlings. Yes its a power hog and a fairly substantial investment without question but I never worry about that in late May when those seedlings are going into the soil or pots.

Ok, just got back from Wally World.. ended up with the 32w Cool Daylight and a rack where I can adjust the shelves so I can just put the lights up and leave them and just worry about placement of the plants. So now I have a project.

I hope the bar doesn't go bankrupt without me!

Oh yeah, the grow light I was supposed to borrow from a friend "mysteriously" disappeared. Don't you hate when inanimate objects just walk off out of your garage? Luckily this thread has so much different info in it, I knew what I wanted and where to go. Thank you!

Is it alright to us only 2 bulbs in a 4 bulb t5 fixture? Does it suck the same amount of electricity as using 4 or not?

rick_in_va:
Sorry, didn't get to read all the links. I'll have to find a 10w cool white and do some tests against the Aq bulb myself. Looks like I'm also at the low end of the intensity scale with roughly 1 sqft boxes, but they are lined with tinfoil for reflection. That might be an old wives' tale too? Anyway, I supplement with outdoor time. The indoor lighting is for extending the day to 14 hrs in winter and only for all day when it's too cold, etc.
c.

Great thread, I want to get some peppers and toms started real soon. It sounds like lighting is alot more affordable than I had anticipated.

OK, got a pair of CFL 10w "daylight" 6500K bulbs at WallyWorld ($6) and they appear brighter to the naked eye than the Aq bulbs of same wattage. My newest babies will be getting experimented on. Let's see if they make for more compact jalapenos for a start. I also just sprouted some Caribbean reds, Hawiian sweet hots, tabascos and orange habs. So far bells and jals seem the most light hungry. A couple of cloudy days and they really stretch.

Hey fiedlermeister - do you worry about Spiders in the room? I remember having my setup in the basement below my living room last year and all of a sudden I had a Spider invasion. It was sick. I had like 15 Spiders in my living room every other day.

I figured out it was from the dirt down below.

My sole problem is I dont have a room with consistant heat for the seedlings.

Have only had a few spiders.More would be welcome. They are our friends. They eat other insects.

john

Ok.. I have my set up in my bedroom as well. Spiders are not welcome. If they want to hang out with the plants OUTSIDE I am fine with that. Inside.. not so much.

John, I will send any spiders I find inside your way, if I don't smash them first. Oh, we get black widows here too. Glad they are welcome at your place because they are NOT welcome here. :)

Plant count a little out of control. Had to make return trip to Wally World for another light. The plants that are already under the lights are very happy. I'm very, very glad I went this route. Thank you so much everyone for your input, I have learned a lot.

Erin

I have an single bulb 8 foot fixture that uses single pin bulbs.Right now it has a 60 watt T12 in it.Just looking for your thoughts as far as how good it is for starting/growing plants and also the difference in energy consumption compared to say a 4 foot T12.I also wondered when is the right time to change the bulb.These 8 ft. bulbs are close to $10 I think.
Gene