going to run out of light space when can I remove?
Hello everyone, Well my seedling are doing good and I just up-potted my peppers and eggplant and soon my tomatoes. The problem I am going to run into is I will not have enough room under my existing light set up. After I harden the plants off(thanks for the great tips in my other thread by the way) can I start putting them outside and use natural sunlight instead of artificial light? if so how many hours a day is sufficient? Or should I still keep putting them back under artificial lights? I have more lights I would just have to buy more bulbs for them. Next week the night time lows are going to be in the low 40's but I can move them into my insulated shop to keep warm enough. Thanks all.
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pepperhead212
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That's the problem with starting tings too early - they have to be put into larger pots, and less will go under the lights. I only start a very few peppers early, to the point that I will be re-potting them, and they will get large, before going out. And last season, with a very cold May, I had to re-pot them again, into half gallon pots! Fortunately, many of my other pots were already gone from the lighting, but if I did that with tomatoes, I would have had nowhere to put them!
I have my tomatoes hardening off now, and I would normally bring them back in, and put them under the lights, but I had knee surgery a while back, and walking up and down with trays is not an option! So I am just leaving them on the back porch in the window - not as much light, but the coolness is probably stunting them some, to keep them from getting too lanky.
This is one of those things we always have to balance out with limited lighting - grow more, but in smaller smaller pots, and grow the plants smaller, or grow fewer, but in larger pots, and start earlier, and get them larger, before planting?
I have my tomatoes hardening off now, and I would normally bring them back in, and put them under the lights, but I had knee surgery a while back, and walking up and down with trays is not an option! So I am just leaving them on the back porch in the window - not as much light, but the coolness is probably stunting them some, to keep them from getting too lanky.
This is one of those things we always have to balance out with limited lighting - grow more, but in smaller smaller pots, and grow the plants smaller, or grow fewer, but in larger pots, and start earlier, and get them larger, before planting?
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rainbowgardener
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If you are hardening off your plants, it is time to get them out from under the lights. The idea of hardening off is to get the plants used to outdoor conditions including temperature, wind, and natural light. The only way to get them used to outdoors is for them to be outdoors, not under lights. Your question as stated didn't quite make sense to me: "After I harden the plants off can I start putting them outside and use natural sunlight instead of artificial light? " How could you have hardened them off with out putting them outside in natural sunlight? That is what it means.
If you are hardening them off, but the nights get too cold for them, then just bring them back indoors for the night, but not with lights, just in to a protected spot (your insulated workshop would be fine).
If you are hardening them off, but the nights get too cold for them, then just bring them back indoors for the night, but not with lights, just in to a protected spot (your insulated workshop would be fine).
Thanks for the reply, I guess what I meant was will they grow fine by not having 16/hrs. of artificial light?, or should they go back under the grow lights after being outside for the day so all total they still get 16/hrs. of light? With my schedule (third shifter) I can only put them out for around 6/hrs. a day except on weekends. Will being in the workshop with no light source for the rest of the time slow there growth that much? The good thing is the nights are warming up so I can probably start leaving out all the time eventually.rainbowgardener wrote:If you are hardening off your plants, it is time to get them out from under the lights. The idea of hardening off is to get the plants used to outdoor conditions including temperature, wind, and natural light. The only way to get them used to outdoors is for them to be outdoors, not under lights. Your question as stated didn't quite make sense to me: "After I harden the plants off can I start putting them outside and use natural sunlight instead of artificial light? " How could you have hardened them off with out putting them outside in natural sunlight? That is what it means.
If you are hardening them off, but the nights get too cold for them, then just bring them back indoors for the night, but not with lights, just in to a protected spot (your insulated workshop would be fine).
Thank you for the reply, Great infopepperhead212 wrote:That's the problem with starting tings too early - they have to be put into larger pots, and less will go under the lights. I only start a very few peppers early, to the point that I will be re-potting them, and they will get large, before going out. And last season, with a very cold May, I had to re-pot them again, into half gallon pots! Fortunately, many of my other pots were already gone from the lighting, but if I did that with tomatoes, I would have had nowhere to put them!
I have my tomatoes hardening off now, and I would normally bring them back in, and put them under the lights, but I had knee surgery a while back, and walking up and down with trays is not an option! So I am just leaving them on the back porch in the window - not as much light, but the coolness is probably stunting them some, to keep them from getting too lanky.
This is one of those things we always have to balance out with limited lighting - grow more, but in smaller smaller pots, and grow the plants smaller, or grow fewer, but in larger pots, and start earlier, and get them larger, before planting?
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rainbowgardener
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They are looking good. The ones still in the little cells need to be potted up.
Yes they will grow fine without 16 hours of artificial light.
The reason why we give them 16 hours of artificial light, instead of 9 or 12 or whatever they would be getting outside is the extra hours are to make up for the artificial light being so much less intense than sun light. That's also why they have to be hardened off -- even though they have been sitting 2 inches away from the fluorescent tube for 16 hours a day, if you put them directly out in full sun for 8 hrs they will burn up.
Our eyes adapt so well, that we don't realize how much more light there is outside. Go stand outside on a sunny day and look into your house, see how dark it looks.
The idea is that you are getting them used to the natural world, so you have to do that.... let your babies fly a little!
Yes they will grow fine without 16 hours of artificial light.
The reason why we give them 16 hours of artificial light, instead of 9 or 12 or whatever they would be getting outside is the extra hours are to make up for the artificial light being so much less intense than sun light. That's also why they have to be hardened off -- even though they have been sitting 2 inches away from the fluorescent tube for 16 hours a day, if you put them directly out in full sun for 8 hrs they will burn up.
Our eyes adapt so well, that we don't realize how much more light there is outside. Go stand outside on a sunny day and look into your house, see how dark it looks.
The idea is that you are getting them used to the natural world, so you have to do that.... let your babies fly a little!