Grow light setup

[hendi_alex]

I'm often awed by the fantastic seed starting areas that some of you have, with the large banks of grow lights and the massive shelf area below. Mine is just a rigged bunch of odds and ends. Plants start on a Kane heating mat that was stolen from the outdoor dog. Light comes via 6-8 clip on reflector lamps with 23 watt CF bulbs. Doesn't look very impressive, and is not very effective on a wide scale. Thing is, here in central South Carolina, I just need to start the plants, and then they are usually moved outside in the direct sunlight in the cold frame at least 3-4 days per week in January and February. At that point, the lights just supplement in the early mornings and evenings to give the plants 14-16 hours of light per day. By February the plants are usually staying outside in the cold frame over night, except for the occasional time that the temperatures dip much below 40 degrees. So like most everything else, each person's needs are very individual depending upon location and other factors. Here in our moderate zone 8 location, the cold frame is a much more important tool than having a really great light set up. Zone six and colder, I bet the situation would be just the reverse.

Don't laugh at this setup. Well, if you must!

This is my second round of tomato starts. They are planted in small community pots. Those in the foreground were just transplanted today.

[hendi_alex]

If you click to enlarge the image, you will notice my labeling. As most always is the case, these seeds came from mixed containers labeled: black, determinate, small, Roma, large. I don't care what varieties they are, as all taste so wonderful coming fresh from the garden.

[Rairdog]

I am going overboard, but I do it cheap. I got tired of shuffling stuff around and running out of room. When I see it is 75 in the GH and 20 degrees outside (like today), my mind says "don't waste that free energy". So I am trying to cheat mother earth and make the GH zone 8 and seed chamber zone 10 while living in zone 5. The sun doesn't always cooperate so I added some supplemental light which hopefully reduces leggy plants. I had to resort to buying pepper starts the last 2 years because I couldn't get them to sprout so I made a heat mat. I don't work much this time of year and needed a good hobby for in between hunting and fishing season anyway.

[applestar]

I ran out of room.

Here is my temporary stand-by station I whipped up today

- 1 T5 equivalent LED daylight single tube fixture
- 4 double BBQ skewers
- 2 lobster/crab claw bands — you DO save those don’t you?

Very simple to set up and take down.

…for full time, this set up should sit by a sunny . full Southern (or Southeast or Southwest) exposure window … or 2 tubes would be needed, so the design will need to be tweaked.

… In my case, the trays will be rotated in “musical chairs” style scheduled exposure through sunny window-side stations and fully lit up seedling nursery stations, some with bottom heat … and only until I can get the hoophouses ready to sustain the seedlings reliably