Indoor Lighting?

[wolfcry]

Hi all,

I can't seem to find a suitable answer on this.

Are basic 40, 60, 100 watt light bulbs ok to use as grow lights? Meaning, is it ok just to turn the light(s) on in the room and leaving the plants soak it up?

how about the longer tubed lights? The type in office buildings?

Thanks for the help.

[rainbowgardener]

It would help to know what you are trying to grow and for what purpose... I mean what kind of plants and are you just trying to start seedlings to be transplanted out later, or are you trying to grow the plant totally indoors.

But the general answer is that light is light and plants need plenty of it.

Light diffuses by the inverse square law. That is, if I have a light bulb 4 inches above the plant and I move it twice as far away, 8", the plant is now getting 1/4 the light it was. If I move it 4 times as far away, 16", the plant is now getting one-sixteenth the light it was! So it doesn't matter what kind of light you have, if you are talking about flipping the switch and turning on the light fixture in the ceiling, that is useless (unless of course you have suspended your plants so they are a few inches under the ceiling fixture )

If by the 40, 60 etc watt bulbs you mean the old style incandescent bulbs (which will no longer be sold in the US starting next year), no won't work. They give off so much heat, that by the time you get them close enough to the plant to do any good, you are frying your plant.

But yes regular fluorescent bulbs, not sold as grow lights, like the office tubes will work fine for a lot of uses. But here is where we need to more about what you are trying to grow. If you are, for e.g., trying to produce ripe tomatoes indoors, you would need a more specialized set up.

[malkore]

a 60watt screw-in incandescent is a HORRIBLY inefficient method of lighting. you'll use more power to produce heat, than light.

the screw-in power compact fluorescents (spiral screw-ins) give you a LOT more light (lumens) per watt (power consumed) and significantly less heat (wasted wattage). these bulbs can be used for small plants

office lighting (normal output fluorescents) work great for seedlings and early growth phases.

high output fluorescents (T5's, T8 HO, and Power Compact tubes) produce even more lumens per watt

then you have metal halides and such for bigger operations with more lighting needs.

[wolfcry]

Hi all,

My bad, I thought I did mention my purpose and plants in my original post. Sorry about that

I have numerous seedlings that I'm trying to save from the weird, inconsistent weather here. It's been raining pretty much non-stop for almost a month and when it doesn't rain, the sun heats up everything too intensely and fries what doesn't get killed by the rain. I've already lost 75% of my original plants. But then again, so has everyone else around here

So, what I'm trying to save are the following:

Tomatoes
hot and sweet peppers
cucumbers
cantaloupes
variety of onions

my broccoli, beets, carrots, brussel sprouts, peas and beans are doing excellent (knock on wood), so I'm not to worried about them at the moment.

All my plants are being grown in containers, which originally sat on my wrap around second floor deck which faces the south side. I've since then moved everything into a single room that has two windows (regular sized facing south and south / east) with the long tubular lights you find in warehouses or businesses hoping the light would be sufficent enough for growth. The lights are installed into the ceiling and the plants are currently resting on the floor which is approximately 8 feet away.

I did have a regular lawn garden as well but what the weather didn't destroy the bears did so I'm trying to find a happy medium lol.

Now, I'm assuming from what rainbowgardener said regarding to just flipping on the light switch and walking away not working, does anyone have any suggestions that are tried and true methods that are cost effective? I would hate to have a killer electric bill.


thanks for the help.

[rainbowgardener]

The onions can be planted out. When you say "my broccoli, beets, carrots, brussel sprouts, peas and beans are doing excellent" you mean outdoors? All of those except the beans are cold weather crops that can tolerate some frost. My broccoli and carrots get planted in the ground outdoors a month or more ahead of my average last frost date.

the

Tomatoes
hot and sweet peppers
cucumbers
cantaloupes

are all warm weather crops. The tomatoes and peppers can tolerate a little more cool and not as well warmed up soil as the cukes and melons.

If you are having inconsistent, cold then hot weather, you should be using that to get your seedlings hardened off. Put them outside but in a protected location, not full sun, when it is warm and bring them back in when it's too cold. Once they've been well hardened off the tomatoes and peppers can tolerate quite a bit of cold. Mine were in the ground when the weather went back down into the 30's and survived it just fine.

Re the lighting, I start about 500 plants indoors every winter for planting out in spring. Here's my setup:

[img]https://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/rainbowgardener/seedlings3-16.jpg[/img]

For fewer plants it wouldn't need to be a double decker, but you do need a way to suspend your lights over the plants so they can be close and can be raised as the plants grow.

[wolfcry]

Hi rainbowgardener,

I really appreciate your help.

The onions can be planted out. When you say "my broccoli, beets, carrots, brussel sprouts, peas and beans are doing excellent" you mean outdoors?

Some. I have some in containers and some in the ground. All are thriving and doing quite well. Again, knock on wood

That's a neat little setup you have. I have a room that's 10 x 20 with built in shelving and I was considering doing something similiar with the space. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what does something like that run you in electricity monthly?

I start about 500 plants indoors every winter for planting out in spring.

When do you start your seedlings in the winter and do you start them all the same time or depending on the plant?

[rainbowgardener]

I wish I knew about the electricity costs, but there's too many variables. I just get one electricity bill and it doesn't tell me what is what.

I start the earliest seeds about mid Jan, cold weather crops, cold hardy perennials that I am starting from seed and very slow growing things (rosemary is a good eg of the latter). So at that point just the first couple lights are turned on. Then through the winter more and more stuff is planted, timed the best I can by the needs of the plant, and the first stuff is spread out (I plant thickly in each cell, then transplant to be 1 per cell and then transplant to 3" pots), so gradually more and more lights are coming on. And first one heating pad and then one more, for germinating things that like warmer soil. By March some of the early/ cold tolerant stuff is going out, but some of the warm weather quicker growing stuff, like zucchini, is still getting planted up to the beginning of April.

So re the electric bill, the number of lights on is changing week by week, but through that time of course a lot of other things change too... is it a big week for laundry, did I cook more that week. So I've never really tried to figure out the cost. Maybe I should some time.

[wolfcry]

That makes sense about the electricity bill. Mine is the same way so I guess what I'll have to do is find the kilowatts of any equipment I use (lights, heaters, fans etc.) and determine the hourly rate based the KWH rates multipled by 28 for the monthly total. Here it's 6.3 cents so I'm figuring probably about an additional $40.00 to $50.00 dollars a month for everything which isn't all that bad.

At the moment I'm in the planning stages for lowering the impact on my wallet by building a solar powered generator to power my lights and equipment so that'll be a huge bonus. Used with a timer, I'll be able to harness the sun's power and maximize it's usages while conserving even more energy. Or so I hope lol.

Thanks for the help and wonderful tips!

[DesertHydro]

I would do some research on LED grow lights. They are gaining more and more great reputations lately. LED is the way to go.

[wolfcry]

All the research I've done, including on a site that specializes in manufactoring and selling LED lights (can't remember the name though), they all said that LED's are to be used in conjunction with Hylides or CFLs that are already supplementing for natural light (sun).

I'm very interested though because from the watt usages (9 - 10), you can't beat that and it'd be really great to be able to fully utilize LED's while not impacting your electric bill at bare minimum.

Thanks for the tip though. I'm definitely going to keep researching this.