proper lighting...

[Ruffsta]

k, well i recently moved and the other lighting i was using didn't really work that well.

i was using the following:


and




so, i was wondering what would be the proper lighting for an indoor garden.. i once saw someone on here use a pulley system in a video, i think that would be great..

the size of the area i have to work with is like 6' X 2' - i figure i'll use a table so that way i can use the space underneath with a second light.

winter will be here soon in rhode island, so i plan to grow my vegetables to full grown producing plants through the winter. i have already started some seeds and since it's still warm outside - i currently have the plants at the window and they are doing well, but could be doing better if i had the right lights.



thanks in advance.

[CharlieBear]

Cheapest that will do the trick are plain old florecent shop lights. I put a chain on each side down from moly bolts on each side and use s hooks to move the lights up and down. The system has served me well. You can of course get expensive grow lights as well, but the long tube florecents are the best for the money. Even better are daylight ones (full spectrum) like otlights, but they are an arm and a leg.

[Fig3825]

I got lucky. An electrical contractor game me two 400w MH high bay construction lights. I resurrected a dwarf meyer lemon tree over this past winter.

I am so sick of bugs, I think I'm going hydro when we get our new house finished.

[Ruffsta]

i am thinking of doing some hydro planting (see my blog) but i have to get the right stuff (nutrients) first.. already have everything else..

i built a 46 gal setup and a 5 gal setup.. i used the 5 gal one, it did ok but noticed when i added the medium, the plant stem broke (although the plant was doing ok at first..) the water did smell funny guessing because of the
"Recipe for success starter kit" stuff i added to the water.

anyways, staying on topic here.. i currently work for a grocery store and they just did some remodeling.. i should have asked for a light set... but they were really big! so i didn't ask in the end.

i think it would be awesome to grow all sorts of vegetables indoors through the winter that i can harvest (not just to start seeds).. laughing at my neighbors knowing they are waiting for spring to start up while i sit here and enjoy harvesting lol

in that pic i have a purple bean, cucumber, zucchini, eggplant.. and in another window not shown i have cherry tomato, kale, sugar daddy pea,razzleberry tomato, sweet pickle pepper, beefstake tomato and a jalapeno pepper

also thinking about getting a heat mat for starting seeds..

[rainbowgardener]

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page:

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... c&start=45

there's a picture of my seed starting operation. It is double decker, two stacked 8' long shelves. But you could do the same kind of thing on a much smaller scale. You just need a regular shop light fixture with two fluorescent tubes. They are cheap and come with hanging chains so you can raise the light as the plants get bigger. You want the lights down close to the plants. For starting seeds the heat mats really do help. The blue in the right hand corner of the picture is two regular pharmacy heating pads meant for people; much cheaper than the fancy plant heat mats, but watch out for the ones with automatic cut off timer, you don't want that.

[Ruffsta]

nice setup..