Grow Lights

[E&MBees]

I’m wondering about buying a grow light to stop my seedlings getting leggy. My students would also like to have a go at growing chillies, which I understand need to be started off soon.

Any suggestions or recommendations please? Amazon and EBay have multiple options and prices vary massively. I don’t have lots of money spare, so am looking at the budget end of the market. Thanks

 

[JamezF]

I’m wondering about buying a grow light to stop my seedlings getting leggy. My students would also like to have a go at growing chillies, which I understand need to be started off soon.

Any suggestions or recommendations please? Amazon and EBay have multiple options and prices vary massively. I don’t have lots of money spare, so am looking at the budget end of the market. Thanks

I've been going around in circles over this idea for a fair while. I've come to the conclusion that pretty much all of the low-cost options are really not that stunning. Either that or they barely give you enough light and heat for a single tray of plants. However, one of the brands that did seem to have a good reputation was the disturbingly named "Spider Farmer". And it looks as though they have a bit of a sale on at the moment. Colour me tempted all over again...

That said, I've had reasonable success in the past just germinating peppers in a heated propagator if you have any to hand. Buy new however seems to be just as expensive as grow lamps.

If anyone can say "I've used these myself. They're not expensive and they work really well." however, I'm all ears.

James

 

[Sutty]

I've germinated chilli seeds easily on a windowsill without heat.

 

[Sutty]

I wonder if a rope of led lights wound around to make a cylinder would work for the light?

 

[JamezF]

I wonder if a rope of led lights wound around to make a cylinder would work for the light?

It's not ideal apparently, because they don't tend to produce the correct balance of wavelengths. I found a video on YouTube where someone had made a reflective hood with similar strings of LEDs and the results were a bit underwhelming. Similarly there was one made using those "coiled up" CFL bulbs that wasn't really that great either considering the proportion of the cost of the real thing that was spent.

James

 

[Sutty]

I think it's ideally purple or blue light.
Edit: on further searching it looks like 450nm light is ideal (blue).

 

[E&MBees]

I have heated propagators, but the only place I can set them up without annoying the rest of the family is in my north facing dining room. The light is always a bit dim and it is a challenge preventing leggy and spindly plants. Last year I moved the seedlings too quickly into the unheated greenhouse and I lost a lot of plants. They didn’t get leggy though!

 

[roche]

It's not ideal apparently, because they don't tend to produce the correct balance of wavelengths. I found a video on YouTube where someone had made a reflective hood with similar strings of LEDs and the results were a bit underwhelming. Similarly there was one made using those "coiled up" CFL bulbs that wasn't really that great either considering the proportion of the cost of the real thing that was spent.

James

I bought a thing called a smart garden - really impressed with the growth results, so built a small spectrometer to measure the output. Now I am about to start testing individual LEDs to find the closest match in output. I will also play with pulsed light, both in terms of frequency and duty cycle.

There are LEDs whose spectrum is specifically designed for horticulture. Others really do not cut it.

 

[Curly green finger's]

I would go for an led strip light 80wats min you can get them really close to your seedlings.
Or make a diy light grow area out or Murrla etc

 

[enrico]

I have a grow light which is brilliant. Search maiicy grow light. £40 odd but loads of light and led bulbs so not expensive to run. Very happy with a t but at night it has a very bright pink light that makes it look as though you have a cannabis crop growing! Maiicy had two letters I in it. We bought ours in 2019 and still perfect. This is ours. But we bought it from Amazon UK.
https://images.app.goo.gl/NjcBnsQjzcjEUGi48

 

[Curly green finger's]

I have a grow light which is brilliant. Search maiicy grow light. £40 odd but loads of light and led bulbs so not expensive to run. Very happy with a t but at night it has a very bright pink light that makes it look as though you have a cannabis crop growing! Maiicy had two letters I in it. We bought ours in 2019 and still perfect. This is ours
https://images.app.goo.gl/NjcBnsQjzcjEUGi48

Why not get a grow on money does grow on in my tunnel I have a prop bench with a home made seedling light, you have to think about all the light lost if your area isn’t enclosed .
You could use an enclosed prop bench where all the light is concentrated

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

yes, you don't want it leaking out - we'll end up with a shortage of dark

 

[Midget Gem]

If they give off UV, are they bad for your skin and eyes?

 

[roche]

If they give off UV, are they bad for your skin and eyes?

It depends on the exposure, and the wavelength.

 

[enrico]

If they give off UV, are they bad for your skin and eyes?

They are for plants to grow not for you to grow

 

[JamezF]

I would go for an led strip light 80wats min you can get them really close to your seedlings.
Or make a diy light grow area out or Murrla etc

My understanding is that developing plants need light that is biased towards the red and blue parts of the spectrum to grow well (particularly blue, I think) and "normal" bulbs tend not to provide that, so a significant proportion of the light they generate is wasted (as well as producing far less blue/red than a grow light does in the first place). It's not that they don't work at all, but that they don't work anywhere near as well as grow lights for the same energy input (which ultimately equates to the cost of running them).

James

 

[Gilberdyke John]

My understanding is that developing plants need light that is biased towards the red and blue parts of the spectrum to grow well (particularly blue, I think) and "normal" bulbs tend not to provide that, so a significant proportion of the light they generate is wasted (as well as producing far less blue/red than a grow light does in the first place). It's not that they don't work at all, but that they don't work anywhere near as well as grow lights for the same energy input (which ultimately equates to the cost of running them).

James

We have a lot of commercial growers around here and about now the night sky takes on an orange glow from acres and acres (should that now be hectares?) of high pressure sodium lights arranged in rows above young cucumber plants. I believe most are self contained with 400watt tubes plus the starter gear and choke. If the emitted light is in the absorbable wavelength the leaves appear black

 

[Erichalfbee]

Do folks leave their grow lights on all the time? Sorry that’s probably a really silly question.

 

[JamezF]

Do folks leave their grow lights on all the time? Sorry that’s probably a really silly question.

From what I've read, it's not ideal to do so. I think it is suggested that you still have around eight hours of "natural" darkness, assuming there's enough of it available. Winter uses up so much dark that by the end of Spring there's not an awful lot left

In a commercial/industrial growing environment it may be different of course.

James

 

[rossbyjove]

I've been going around in circles over this idea for a fair while. I've come to the conclusion that pretty much all of the low-cost options are really not that stunning. Either that or they barely give you enough light and heat for a single tray of plants. However, one of the brands that did seem to have a good reputation was the disturbingly named "Spider Farmer". And it looks as though they have a bit of a sale on at the moment. Colour me tempted all over again...

That said, I've had reasonable success in the past just germinating peppers in a heated propagator if you have any to hand. Buy new however seems to be just as expensive as grow lamps.

If anyone can say "I've used these myself. They're not expensive and they work really well." however, I'm all ears.

James

Mars Hydro produce quality grow lighting using full spectrum LEDs.
They are dirt cheap now and much lighter and economical compared to when I purchased several years ago.