Lighting for Starting Tomatoes Indoors

[JayPoc]

So, new for this year I figured I'd pick up a little supplemental lighting for my indoor starts. In the past I've relied on keeping them near windows, putting them out when its nice, etc., etc.

I decided to try to provide them with a little supplemental light on the cheap. I picked up a couple of 60 watt "plant grow" incandescant bulbs (regular style bulb, not spot light style bulb...they had both), and screwed them into some reflector type fixtures I had on hand.

Last night, I set them up on a rack about 12 to 14 inches above my little containers (seeds not up yet), which were themselves down in a foil lined box leftover from my kid's science fair project. Problems I see with this set-up:

1) heat built up in the box fairly quickly...getting to 90 degrees F right on top of my containers in just a couple of hours. I'm gonna try them out of the box tonight and see how the surface temps run.

2) the heat from the lights seems to dry the surface of the soil pretty quickly. That can't be good.

3) The light is fairly intense directly below the bulb, but drops significantly near the edges of the reflector...I can't get all my my plants directly in the "bright spot". I suspect all the plants on the edges will "lean" into the light and get leggy.

So...any suggestions on how I can best make this work with the equipment I have? I don't feel the need to get a more expensive set-up...I'd pretty much only use it this time of year and only for starting things like maters and peppers.

Alternately, if anyone knows of a small fluorescent fixture that wouldn't break the bank, I would consider that as well...

[applestar]

I use 100W equivalent 23W or 26W 6500K Daylight CFL bulbs. The incandescent 60W is not bright enough and too hot as you have discovered. CFL is cool enough that you can position them as close as 1" or so for MAXIMUM brightness.

BTW be careful not to get "Natural" light bulbs which are only 5000K color range not optimum for plant growth. That's all they had at Home Depot around here.

Oh yes, get a socket extender and a Y adapter/splitter and use TWO bulbs in the same fixture.

P.S. It's good that you are taking temp readings. I'm finding this to be a critical part of seed starting process.

[JayPoc]

Are these just "regular" CFL bulbs or something made specifically for plants?

[applestar]

Regular, just "bluer" and bright. I prefer them over the yellowish "soft white" colors and use them for regular lighting too though I don't need the 100W equivalent most of the time. 6500K fluorescent tubes are labeled "cool deluxe" for what that's worth.

Plants use the light spectrum in the 6700K range (If I remember correctly) for foliage growth, so 6500K is the closest standard bulb you can get. Seedlings are mostly about foliage growth so they are ideal.

Local Ace hardware had the GE brand when I went to their annual "20% off everything" sale, and Lowes is supposed to have the Phillips brand according to their website. Don't know why HD doesn't.

[JayPoc]

I may even have some of those around the house. I'll look into it when I get home. Maybe rig up something with both the CFL and Incandescant....or just go with the cfl...

[gixxerific]

"Rig it up" they said.

Years ago I 'rigged' it up and have been building it better since than. I actually stole 2 big 4 bulb shop lights out of my garage 1 at a time, than started getting new lights.

As Apple said 6500K is great for propogation. Look on the bulb it 'should' have the color in Kelvin on it. You can get fairly inexpensive set at lowes if need be. I would suggest against incandescant as they waste too much energy don't put out enough usable light and put off too much heat that can burn tender seedlings.

T12's are fine but if you can swing for a T5 they are much better.

[gixxerific]

By the way that was not a bash on you with the 'rig it up' comment. A lot of us around 'rig' stuff up a lot.

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

[JayPoc]

what is a T12 and T5?

[gixxerific]

They are differant types of flourescent bulbs. With T12 being a higher power lesser output bulb and T5 being a lower power user and higher output light.

Basically T5 will work better and more efficiantly than a T8 or than a T12.

They are differeant sizes as well.

[JayPoc]

gotcha, thanks