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stella1751
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Posts: 1494
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:40 am
Location: Wyoming

Lighting Ideas Please

I started seeds early this year, just a few. Two plants are about to top my grow lights. Normally, when they reach this size, I begin leaving them outside during the day, no matter how cool it is. However, the temperatures refuse to hit the requisite 40 degrees that I need to put them outside.

I have no other grow lights and no space to set one up if I did. I am about two weeks away from starting pepper seeds in earnest, and I have two other little seedlings that have begun to suffer because I raised the light for the big two.

Can these two plants survive in a windowsill without becoming excessively leggy? The windowsill will be cold, but not freezing. Does anyone else have any other ideas for them? I just need to keep them alive and healthy for (I hope) another month; then I can start putting them outside during the day.

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rainbowgardener
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Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

You didn't really say two plants of what. Makes a big difference. You mentioned about to start planting peppers. Are the two also peppers? OR?

Can't you just raise the grow lights? My shop lights are hung on chains so I can raise them as plants grow. If not, then I'm guessing you need to put some more light somewhere. The shop light fixtures with fluoro tubes are cheap and you can get them in 2' lengths that don't take up so much room. Or you can use clamp on trouble light if you aren't going to have a bunch of plants. Or you can use a multi-head gooseneck floor lamp, if you can get the plants on a table/ shelf close enough to the lights.

If it's peppers, they might be slow enough growing to be ok on a window sill for a little while. I tried it with tomatoes one year, when they outgrew my space and they got extremely leggy, practically over night. It was amazing.

It depends on the window some too. If you have a really good south facing sunny window, that helps. (I don't.) Also on your climate. Cincinnati is very cloudy/ hazy / overcast much of the time, not a lot of good sun to start with.

So as usual, the answer is it depends, but I hope that helps some.



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