Home Made Grow Lights

[redser]

How do you power the fluorescent tubes? (Presumably you haven't wired them in to the lighting circuit )

Yeah you have to buy the fixture. You just need a flex and plug then. If you get it at an electrical wholesalers they'll just put it on for you. If not it's easy to do. All that, plus the hardboard, pot of paint and chains came in at around 30 euro. Cheaper than moving house to face south

[redser]

Are the fluorescent tubes them selves marked cool white as i am doing some work at the mo and the lady is throwing out a fluorescent light with tube i think that will be going home with me tomorrow

Not sure, mine is packed away. Had a look on wikipedia. Look for CW marking (cool white). Also the temp range should be 4100 for cool white so look for that or 41 somewhere in a code.

"ColorsColor is usually indicated by WW for warm white, EW for enhanced (neutral) white, CW for cool white (the most common), and DW for the bluish daylight white. BL is used for ultraviolet lamps commonly used in bug zappers. BLB is used for blacklight-blue lamps employing a woods glass envelope to filter out most visible light, commonly used in nightclubs. Other non-standard designations apply for plant lights or grow lights.

Philips and Osram use numeric color codes for the colors. On tri-phosphor and multi-phosphor tubes, the first digit indicates the color rendition index (CRI) of the lamp. If the first digit on a lamp says 8, then the CRI of that lamp will be approximately 85. The last two digits indicate the color temperature of the lamp in kelvins (K). For example, if the last two digits on a lamp say 41, that lamp's color temperature will be 4100 K, which is a common tri-phosphor cool white fluorescent lamp."

[Snadger]

I once played about with an auld fish tank with a light in hood. Still have it but can't remember why I stopped using i? Its a terrible thing..............



















senility!

[veggiechicken]

Maybe the fish were fed up with all the lights

[Sylvan]

Yeah you have to buy the fixture. You just need a flex and plug then. If you get it at an electrical wholesalers they'll just put it on for you. If not it's easy to do. All that, plus the hardboard, pot of paint and chains came in at around 30 euro. Cheaper than moving house to face south

So you just plug it into a power socket?

[veg man]

What was a terrible thing why you stopped useing it or the light was a terrible thing memory can be a teribble thing i cant remember why i asked this question

[Bigmallly]

Part 2, Hurry or I won't sleep tonight
Reminds me of an audit I did once, at a building material store. Reluctantly the storekeeper let me go up some stairs, and at the top, under a skylight, were a load of plants I just looked at him, and he was very embarrassed!
What are those, I said in my best authoritarian voice (even though I knew)
Sorry, he said, they're my overwintering geraniums

That's the reason I have foiled the whole window. The local cop shop is only 50 mts from me & I don't want a visit at silly hour just so they can see my peppers.

[veggiechicken]

Best to keep your peppers under wraps even though I'm sure they're a pretty sight Make sure there are no chinks
So a cupboard would do as well?

[veg man]

Best to keep your peppers under wraps even though I'm sure they're a pretty sight Make sure there are no chinks
So a cupboard would do as well?

Naughty Naughty well it is past 9 oclock

[Bigmallly]

So you just plug it into a power socket?

Yes, just make sure it has a 3-5A fuse.

[veggiechicken]

Me, Naughty? Its all in your mind vegman
But when do I turn the light off? How many hours' lighting does seedlings need? I never thought it would be this complicated

[Sylvan]

Thanks BM

[redser]

So you just plug it into a power socket?

That's right, just like a lamp. I have a timer that plugs into the wall and the light plug plugs into the timer. So you can set the lamp to come on any time for a set duration.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Me, Naughty? Its all in your mind vegman
But when do I turn the light off? How many hours' lighting does seedlings need? I never thought it would be this complicated

Last year when I got my Grow light Garden I had the timer set to 14 hours a day, but the seedlings had no natural light at all.

And YES you are naughty

Potty

[redser]

Me, Naughty? Its all in your mind vegman
But when do I turn the light off? How many hours' lighting does seedlings need? I never thought it would be this complicated

7 hours a day worked fine for me last year. In fact they need to rest and could get exausted and run to flower/seed. So you are trying to emulate nature. Because the light if full on intense you can just skip dawn and dusk and go straight to long lovely sunny June day light (7 hours). Lucky things. Be sure when the light is off that they get 100% darkness. If there is any light at all they will reach for it and get leggy. So plug out your light and chuck a blanket or something over them. It's like they really do go to sleep. I'd take a look during the day when the light was off and the Tomato leaves would be pointing upwards like they were closing their eyes, mad. Or maybe I am? Just from observation they seem to suck up the energy and bask when the light is on and then do their growing in the dark.