Idiots guide to grow lights
Broadway Offline
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#1
Yup I'm the idiotSmile

Do any of you use them?

If so are they any good?

We have very poor light in our house and limited windowsill space so I thinking any additional light would be a help, I think!
Regards..........Danny Smile
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Small chilli Offline
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#2
I use a grow light for my chillies.  It work very well for my needs.
Be warned it’s noisy with its internal fan and it’s very bright. The neighbours’ll start talking  Big Grin
My light is  Mars hydro 300w
Builder that would like to go play in the garden.
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Broadway Offline
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#3
(09-11-2020, 04:06 PM)Small chilli Wrote: I use a grow light for my chillies.  It work very well for my needs.
Be warned it’s noisy with its internal fan and it’s very bright. The neighbours’ll start talking  Big Grin
My light is  Mars hydro 300w
I think it will be ok with the neighbours now I'm not in Tottenham anymoreSmileSmile

So how many hours a day do you leave it on SC?
Regards..........Danny Smile
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Small chilli Offline
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#4
I have it on a timer 6am to 10pm
Builder that would like to go play in the garden.
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toomanytommytoes Offline
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#5
For the last few years I've used fluorescent lights to grow pepper seedlings. At the time of year I start them off, there just isn't enough light on the windowsills to make them grow well. Each light is a 2 ft 24 W T5 tube in a reflector. Hung about 6 inches from the canopy, each light can cover a ~2x1 ft area. Under each light I can fit about 18 plants in 500 ml yoghurt pots. Lower initial cost but higher energy usage than LED and the bulbs won't last as long.

Now I'm growing micro tomatoes over the winter, I needed something stronger to provide the high light intensity required to make them fruit, so I got a 'quantum board' style LED light from Invisible Sun (https://invisiblesunled.co.uk/collection...amsung-led). That one covers about 2x2 ft, probably more if you're only using it for seedlings. Using the dimmer you can vary the power draw between 7 and 100 W. Currently mine is set to 40 W, on for 16 hours a day, and the plants are fruiting very well. Higher initial cost but the LEDs are rated to last for 50,000 hours which at my current usage rate for 6 months of the year would be 17 years Cool

New style grow LED lights use much more efficient and higher quality LED chips which put out more light at lower power, and the old style 'blurples' (blue + purple) are being phased out for full spectrum lighting. Most newer lights don't come with a fan but instead use a heatsink to dissipate the heat.

If it's just for growing seedlings you don't really need such high light intensity, so you can use standard LED tubes/battens/bulbs, preferably 'high/ultra output' ones which put out close to 150 lumens per Watt. If you have an old fluorescent fixture you can find 'substitubes' which are LED tubes made to replace the fluorescent tubes.
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Broadway Offline
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#6
Thanks for the response TMTT.

That's interesting, so with your setup you are expecting to grow and eat tomatoes through autumn to spring?
Regards..........Danny Smile
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toomanytommytoes Offline
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#7
Yeah that's the plan. I expect we'll have some ripe fruit within the next few weeks, having sown in September. It's the first year trying it so next year I'll start them earlier so they start ripening in late October. This is what the plants look like right now.

The grow tent is really overcrowded (just like the greenhouse Big Grin ) and it's hard to water and going to be hard to pick the fruit...there's 14 plants in there right now, next time I'll probably go with 9.


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toomanytommytoes Offline
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#8
Here's an example of a DIY grow light using LED bulbs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIzB_8knLU
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Broadway Offline
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#9
(10-11-2020, 01:27 PM)toomanytommytoes Wrote: Here's an example of a DIY grow light using LED bulbs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnIzB_8knLU
Cheers
Regards..........Danny Smile
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Broadway Offline
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#10
(10-11-2020, 01:26 PM)toomanytommytoes Wrote: Yeah that's the plan. I expect we'll have some ripe fruit within the next few weeks, having sown in September. It's the first year trying it so next year I'll start them earlier so they start ripening in late October. This is what the plants look like right now.

The grow tent is really overcrowded (just like the greenhouse Big Grin ) and it's hard to water and going to be hard to pick the fruit...there's 14 plants in there right now, next time I'll probably go with 9.
Looking good although I hope it doesn’t get mistaken for a cannabis farm Big Grin
Regards..........Danny Smile
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