elitemittens
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Can Christmas lights work as grow lights?

this may sound a little stupid of me asking... but would white christmas lights work as grow lights? I plan on starting all of my plants as seeds(probably about 300 seedlings) I've gotten a few boxes of christmas lights on clearance a couple days ago. Would it work do you think? I have a plant stand that would be great for seedlings. Let me know what you think!! Thank you :)

mauser
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I think it would be more trouble then it was worth. Shop lights and natural light bulbs are what most people use because you have to keep then at the plants hight so you end up raising them all the time. Doing this would be a pain with Christmas lights.

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applestar
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Are they incandescent or LED's? Incandescent lights are too dim even if you clustered them and too hot to position close enough to the foliage. Not sure about the LEDs -- maybe depends on type? Are some of them brighter than others?

I've seen a DIY instructable somewhere for making a light system by meticulously mounting the tiny lights through closely spaced holes drilled in some kind of a insulating and reflecting board -- I don't remember the details very much because very early on, I decided it was way more detail work than I would have patience for. Did not save the link.

Depending on HOW you propose to use them, they might provide some supplemental light if the plants already get a fair amount of natural direct sunlight through unobstructed windows. This will also depend on what kind of seedlings.

All in all, yeah, there are other, better alternatives. I started out with a fluorescent desk lamp removed from its gooseneck and a freebie aquarium light strapped onto underside of bookshelves.

elitemittens
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I believe they are LED's.

imafan26
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I don't think they would give off enough light and they probably would have a high burnout rate. It is usually why I learned years ago, it really was not worth saving the lights once sections started going out.

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah, people sometimes use (non-LED) Christmas lights as a heat source in a seed starting set up. (LED lights don't give off appreciable heat), but I don't think they are very workable as a light source.

elitemittens
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So, for stoplights I should buy a T8(or T5?) Bulb, one warm and one cool, correct?

imafan26
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Make sure when you mount the light you can adjust the height.

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applestar
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For growing seedlings to transplant size, you could just use cool white, but I use 6500K daylight deluxe. "Warm" uses yellower light spectrum that are mostly needed for blooming and fruiting.

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rainbowgardener
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T5 are more energy efficient and longer lasting. They also cost anything from half again to twice as much, they are harder to find, they tend to come in odd lengths. You have to have a T5 fixture for them.

For me T8's have always worked fine. Eventually I would like to switch to LED, but I'm not sure the time is yet. I will be buying lights for my new seed starting operation, so I've been looking in to it, but I just find LED very difficult to figure out what I need and what I would be getting.

elitemittens
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I bought my light today! I did end up buying a warm and cool(most things I've read say to get a warm AND a cool) I'm not sure if this is a normal thing but, on one of the lightbulbs its dimmer in the middle. The outside is the brightness of the other lightbulb, its just the middle thats dimmer. It happened with a warm bulb on that side as well. I'm not sure if its the light bulbs or the fixture...

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applestar
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Look at them after they have been on for a while. Especially when bulbs are cold, it takes them a while to start glowing evenly along their lengths and at max brightness.

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rainbowgardener
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Did you get T8?

elitemittens
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rainbowgardener wrote:Did you get T8?
Yeah, I did.



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