lighting Help with grow lights

[roadhouse]

Hello,
My first post here, and I'm a total noob to growing in general. So far I have planted about 20 varieties of seeds in two 72 cell trays. Right now most have germinated and I now have them on a heating mat in a south facing window. I have noticed that the plants all like to reach for the window, and I've read everywhere this does not produce good strong plants. So I was looking to get some fluorescent lights instead. I've read the best thing to do is to get a dual light with one bulb warm and one cool. I will eventually transplant the peppers to bigger pots which will be 4 trays. So basically I need to have lights to cover 4 standard plant trays. I also figure I'd need some sort of reflector to make the most of the light. How should I go about getting this whole thing set up? Anyone have links for products?

 

[pileiton]

I'll try to find a link for Greenfield's in Niles , Illinois. I see you are in Indiana so if you are in the N.W. part of the state it might be worth the drive.

Welcome from Chicago.

 

[wordwiz]

Before you get the lights, remove the heat mat. That also causes leggy plants.

Mike

 

[patrick]

If you're going to be planting them outside then you don't need to get too fancy. Basic florescent lights will work fine. Walmart sells 24" Aquarium and Plant florescent lights for under $10. You will want to have the lights within a couple of inches of the top of the plants. This will keep them from getting too leggy.

Good luck.

 

[willard3]

There is also a search function in the upper right of the home page. Search grow lights.

 

[roadhouse]

There is also a search function in the upper right of the home page. Search grow lights.

This is always true. I think I generally know the type of lights, just not where to buy them. I guess I am looking for a more specific answer though, basically how many lights should I use to cover 4 trays worth of plants?

 

[wordwiz]

This is always true. I think I generally know the type of lights, just not where to buy them. I guess I am looking for a more specific answer though, basically how many lights should I use to cover 4 trays worth of plants?

If they are the standard nursery trays, I would use two 4' shop lights.

Mike

 

[Maligator]

This is always true. I think I generally know the type of lights, just not where to buy them. I guess I am looking for a more specific answer though, basically how many lights should I use to cover 4 trays worth of plants?

I just went through all of this as this is my first year growing. Go to Lowes or Home Depot and you can buy the light fixtures for ~$10 each, the bulbs are ~ $10 each for the plant/aquarium bulbs or ~$6.50 for 2 of the 65000 daylight types. Super easy to setup. I would also buy some extra jack-chain to be able to adjust the hanging height. It costs .50cents a foot, and dont forget some extra "S" hooks to make adjusting the chain length super fast and easy.

If you buy two light fixtures and four bulbs and align the trays lengthwise you should be able to cover all of them. Good luck to you.

 

[willard3]

If you intend to make fruit under lights you will need 30-50 watts/square foot of plant tops. 10-30 watts/square ft of plant tops will get the plants ready to plant out.

 

[wordwiz]

willard,

I'm getting fruit from 125 watts and I'm covering more than eight square feet. A far better measure is mols per day.

Mike

 

[roadhouse]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I went to Lowe's today and got two 4' fixtures for $10 each and two bulbs each for $7 of 3500K and 6500K with one bulb of each for each fixture. Unfortunately being a careless fool I already accidentally broke one light while setting everything up but that's alright for now since I still only have two trays. I have the lights set up about 3 or so inches from the tops of most of the plants. I have a few varieties that are quite a bit taller than the others and did not want to set them too close to the lights.

 

[wordwiz]

It won't hurt if the plants touch the lights! But you can always put the tallest at one end and raise that end.

Mike

 

[roadhouse]

It won't hurt if the plants touch the lights! But you can always put the tallest at one end and raise that end.

Mike

Good to know. I moved them within a couple inches. Didn't wanna start out too boldly and figured I'd take the cautious approach.

Just another quick question. How long do you guys keep your lights on during the day? I have a timer set for them to be on 16 hours at the moment. Should it be longer?

On a completely different but related note, I looked at some of the seedlings today and found that some are experiencing slight yellowing and a browning at the tip of the first leaves with a bit of a curl and a couple actually just fell over dead. Now I was away on a trip the past week much to my dismay and could not control how much water they received and the like. Does this sound like overwatering? because that would be guess since they looked great before I left.