Tomatoes? Really? Get a meter. Any pictures?

There are light meters, and recommendations for tomatoes.

Without specifying the emitting area, one has to presume that as a grow light, you just do the usual thing and place it within an inch or so of the tops of the plants.

Sun-loving plants will want 2000-3000 lumens per square foot, so I'm assuming your lamp area is a few square feet across. In that case, yes, you want the lamp barely above the tops of the plants, such that the plants see light from a full hemisphere.

Ugh I have the hardest time posting pictures on this forum for some reason.

What do you mean get a meter?

I have other stuff besides tomatoes. I've got onions, peppers, lots of flowers, other veggies started. We also have a bunch of raspberries and grapes my husband brought home waaaay too early we had to plant. They're taking up way too much room.

So are you saying I should hang the more powerful lights at the same distance as the smaller lights?

Not sure what the square footage would be. I guess our table is like 4x 8 probably and we will have 6 lights to cover it. Most lights being 4000 lumens.

The power per unit area is about the same, for grow-lights. So yes, more powerful lights are bigger. And yes, they should be suspended the same distance over the plants. These are flat LED lamps, I'm assuming, so we're not talking heat.

So, practically speaking, if you have a 2x4 foot grow light, it's going to illuminate a 2x4 foot area, if it's just over that area.

How big is your 10,000 lumen lamp?

They are all 4 ft long, the smaller lights are just one bulb width, I just opened the larger one and it looks about 4 inches wide

Well, that would only be only 1.2 square feet. 10,000 lumens out of that lamp area is unusually large. This is LED, right? If that's the case, you might want to pull the lamp up some.

Surely, if this was a grow-light, didn't some instructions come with it? Do you have a brand name and model #? I'm not aware of any LED lamps with such dimensions.

i would err on too far away.. and keep moving the lights down.. or the plants up .. until i found the sweet spot ...

i hope the install is adjustable

and btw... etoliated tomatoes can be planted extra deep .. so its not that big a deal with those ...

and make some notes for next year .. less seeds planted.. and dont start too early ..

at worse.. you burn them.. they cull themselves.. and you plant a few more T seeds .. and again.. note the date and see if they arent better timed out for when they can go outside ...

thats was the hardest part for me... having spring fever and starting seeds wayyyyy to early ...

ken

So, um, you establish the "sweet spot" by just next to where the plants die?

The main danger is heat. I would just put a thermometer near the lamps, and find out how close it can be to keep it, say, below 80F. That's where you want your plants. Aside from heat, and possibly rapid soil desiccation as a result, plants won't be bothered by having large amounts of light.

It's not a grow light, I don't know who could possibly afford an actual grow light they're like 30 dollars for a 2 ft light. It's just am extra bright led shop light. Here's the link https://stonepointledlighting.com/portfolio-item/10000-5000-lumen-4-ft-linkable-metal-shop-lightsl4yl10000l/

It took me forever to find that link!! Geez. Anyway yeah I think I'll just keep an eye on temp and soil and such. It doesn't generate much heat so I don't think it'll scorch anything.

I don't think I started too early unless I miscalculated. Tomatoes and other long season things a re usually 8-10 weeks before last frost date right? I think I planted last week of March so around 9 weeks. But we definitely should've held off on the raspberries! I do grow a lot of tomatoes because I can a whole years worth of tomato products for a family of 3. That's a couple quarts of tomato sauce per week plus you need a TON of tomatoes to make paste. I also plan on sharing with family and friends who don't know how to start seeds. But I still may end up culling weaker seedlings lol I did go a touch overboard.