Using lights to grow seedlings
Johnny Crosby
Posts: 54
Greetings to everyone - this is my first post although I have been gardening for over 50 years, and still finding new things to learn. I thought that this year after reading a number of online articles I might experiment starting some of my seeds under lighting, and have seen these tubes on eBay which seem a reasonable price for a small experimental set up.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T5-LED-INTEGRATED-TUBE-LAMP-LIGHT-5W-9W-600MM-300MM-COOL-WHITE-6000K-WARM-WHITE/262915986742?epid=2114547572&hash=item3d37039536:m:m4OAXvs-hazCMNJVjBjFWpg
However the pictures and descriptions do not make it clear whether other specific electrical fittings are required or whether the tubes themselves are self contained and can be safely plugged in ( connectors are shown) - can anyone advise on this? Safety is obviously the first consideration. Thank you for any advice.
Johnny
Posts
Those are not grow lights and will be of no benefit.
You need lights that emit the correct frequencies and they will be more expensive.
Sorry.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
They are grow lights, 6000K is just right and if the small one light up 0,25 square meters, the lux will be 1800, also just right. Good plant lights do not need to be expensive, expensive ones just charge extra for the label.
It looks like you need to install the plug yourself. I don't know how your laws are, but that I would do myself.
Oh dear I don’t like the look of those ones tbh, you also need sort of batten fitting for them because you can’t just rest those on top of a propagator - I bet it gets far more expensive than buying a full unit, which dones not have to be expensive you just got to make sure you get the right ones . Also to give you an idea of how many you will need I have 66w of LED lighting for two full sized seed trays.
Im linking to the non China version so you can see how they are supposed to be fitted, and in what. https://www.hydroculture.co.uk/t5-grow-lights
Last edited: 25 February 2018 21:56:01
Apologies.
I read that as 3000k, which is not the correct spectrum. 6000 is indeed good.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Thank you for your replies and advice. Since the 6000K seems right, I have decided to order 4 of the smaller units on a suck it and see principle. While I have started many seeds in my heated propagators over the years, they have a tendency to be somewhat spindly because the available light is poor, so I will be interested to see what if any difference some lights may make to a tray, compared with seeds grown in my usual fashion. Looking at the ebay items, it should be possible to create a simple mounting system to suspend them over the seedlings, and if the experiment proves unsuccessful, the lights can always go under my kitchen cupboards!
Hi John,
My tuppence worth, seeing as I am already here tonight and commenting about grow lamps on another thread, is this.
Have a look at hydroponics shops online and see what they are offering.
In particular, I suggest a CFL grow light, such as the types on this page:
https://www.hydroculture.co.uk/cfl-grow-lights
I have very successfully used a 125 watt CFL grow lamp to get seedlings started.
For best results, a reflector is required.
The lamps run from a standard fitting (I cannot remember the type, but it is somewhat chunkier than the usual home light fitting) and they don't need a transformer. They can be plugged straight into a timer plug that one can buy from DIY shops so that they can be set to switch on and off automatically.
They are cheap to run, so you could just leave them on for 24 hours during the seedling and vegetative stages of growth.
They also run quite cool so one can get them really close to the seedlings for maximum effect.
However you decide to mount your lights, I suggest using something that can raise or lower the lamp as required.
This is necessary because the light source needs to be very close to the seedlings (50 - 100 mm I estimate) not to waste any of those precious few watts (actually lumens) so one would want to keep the bulb close even as the seedlings grow, which means being able to raise the lamp as required.
A shade that is hung from an adjustable fixing such as this one - https://www.hydroculture.co.uk/easy-rolls - would work really well.
By the way, those links are just the first ones I found after a google search. There are many companies online selling similar items.
I hope that helps.
Last edited: 28 February 2018 21:56:50
I attached the two double holders to two pieces of wood using the mountings they came with, then I've tied a piece of string round that (from one side to the other) and I run that through a pair of eye-bolts so it can be easily raised or lowered. The lights run on a timer 18 hours a day. I've looked at LED's but they are so expensive that they will never pay back on electric costs (as grow-lamps all my actual lights are LED)