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lighting using incandescent lights after dark

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I'm new to growing peppers (first season) And I wanted to help my plants along as the sun is out intermittently during the winter and the days are shorter. I just put them under this 40-watt bulb at night and it seems to help. The plants lean towards the light. Don't know if they are growing or just leaning towards the heat because I heard someone say that you can't use incandescents to grow plants. Can incandescents help plants to grow after sundown if you can't afford the nicer plant-specific lighting systems?

5434912010_3d7c8af2d5.jpg

Two small containers of habs & two larger containers of thai/kung pao(?)
 
Not very good. They produce a lot of heat compared to light, plus the light usually has a lot of the far red spectrum. It is responsible for helping plants to grow long stems. Replace it with a CFL and your plants will be much happier!

Mike
 
Check out the EcoSmart Daylight spectrum CFL bulbs, at your local Walmart. They are in the 5000K spectrum range. I have 4 of the 26W input/100W output, mixed in my seedling array. 2pks are in the $5 range.
 
DC,

I suggest you do it tomorrow! Unless you are planning to repot the seedlings, then you can wait two days! Seriously, ICs are not good for seedlings. I've heard of their use when plants reach the flowering stage but even then, they are not efficient - too much heat for the lumens.

Mike
 
Datil Patch said:
Check out the EcoSmart Daylight spectrum CFL bulbs, at your local Walmart. They are in the 5000K spectrum range. I have 4 of the 26W input/100W output, mixed in my seedling array. 2pks are in the $5 range.
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Now that is affordable. Thanks for the info :cheers:
wordwiz said:
DC,

I suggest you do it tomorrow! Unless you are planning to repot the seedlings, then you can wait two days! Seriously, ICs are not good for seedlings. I've heard of their use when plants reach the flowering stage but even then, they are not efficient - too much heat for the lumens.

Mike
Click to expand...
Will do.
 
gr8 thread just built me a grow light out of 4"X2' dryer pipe and was wondering what light bulbs to get thanx for the info :clap:
 
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100676712/h_d2/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&keyword=cfl+300w&jspStoreDir=hdus&Nu=P_PARENT_ID&navFlow=3&catalogId=10053&langId=-1&ddkey=Search what about this one to bigg
 
bricke said:
http://www.homedepot...-1&ddkey=Search what about this one to bigg
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It's color spec is 2700K. As far as I know it should work. I have always been a firm beleiver in the 5000k - 5500K for quality Daylight. But I have a mixed set of 4-5000K and 4-6500K, and my few sprouted seedlings all seem to be pointing at the 5000K ones.

Only downside is the price per. You can get 4 (almost 6 bulbs) of the others and use multiple head fixture and spread out your light or use 1 light in a clamp type lamp and concentrate all your light in one place.


home%20grow%20lights%202011-02-11%2000.19.38.jpg
 
I use CFL 6500K, 15 watt, General Electric brand(GE) and my seedlings seem to like it, i did a comparison with 2700K and all my plants leaned toward the 6500K. I bought mine at walmart 3 for $8.99.

nice setup datil!
 
they both play equal rolls, so 2700-6500k is the light colour/temperature spectrum and the lumens is the intensity of the light.

so, if you have a 5500 kelvin CFL bulb(this is suppose to be the same light frequency that can be measured at mid day) but only have a lumen of 100, your bulb would almost have to be touching the plant to get any kind of value for the photosynthesis process.

my 6500K cfl bulbs are 900 lumens, i have them side mounted, 1 pointing at my dwc, 1 pointing in my mini greenhouse. some plants are 2 inches from the light, some as much as 8". the light that points at my greenhouse is outside of the plastic dome with some plants being as much as 1 foot away(by rights i really should have the 27 watt bulb with 1200+ lumens but i am too cheap to buy an new bulb, who knows maybe i will buy one today - i have to take the kids to walmart to get valentine cards for monday).

that is why caution has to be used when looking at new cheap LED lighting, though they can be adjusted for spectrum their lumen value is so low making them useless(though i bought the kids LED flashlights and a quick shot in the eye was blinding, the wife decided to use one and take the dog for a walk and came back for my 2million candle watt light)

all that being said, when i was using the cfl 2700k bulbs my seedlings pointed and stretch toward the light but by changing to 6500K i am giving the plants the colour spectrum that would be the most useful in photosynthesis and i may have gone a little over board with the 6500k and maybe should have stayed at 5500k, if i wanted to be exact but i bought what was on the store shelf.
 
I use 105 watt, 5000K bulbs in my seedling chamber. 7.150 lumens each. I just started a comparison against a 125 watt tri-band LED and while it is early, the plants under the CFL look better. And at $19 per bulb they are a lot cheaper than LEDs.

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
I use 105 watt, 5000K bulbs in my seedling chamber. 7.150 lumens each. I just started a comparison against a 125 watt tri-band LED and while it is early, the plants under the CFL look better. And at $19 per bulb they are a lot cheaper than LEDs.

Mike
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How many bulbs are you using?
 
Right now, three as I'm only using 3/4 of the space. If I really wanted to saturate my seedling chamber and it was full, I would need six, maybe five total. But it is nearly 4'x8'.

I've been a huge fan of LED lights for years and always figured the next year would be a breakthrough, when the prices drop and the options increase. It hasn't happened yet.

Mike
 
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