Artificial lighting

[burnie]

Years ago I had a go at keeping tropical marine invertebrates,corals etc.,the lighting I bought to promote, as near as possible to natural daylight, was designed for gardening so the box said.It was of German manufacture,has anyone got any experience of trying to extend our growing season(without a visit from the local drug squad)?.

[nick the grief]

Hi Burnie,

I know quite a few folks that use artificial lighting some for growing exhibition veg like leeks & Onions & they use it thru December & January. And a ot of the guys that grow Cacti use them for seed raising in the winter months to give as long a season as possible.

The Veg lads mainly use prefessional SON-T agro lamps they are quite expensive & change them after so many 1000 hours as they loose "power". The cacti lads tend to use ordinary flurescents for between 12 - 14 hours a day.

[burnie]

Cheers Nick,
the lamps I had were mercury vapour,which I know are used in factories etc. I did read that Metal Halide were the nearest in wave colour to natural sunlight,but the article was in a fishkeeping magazine.

[nick the grief]

The thing to remember about these is they generate a lot of heat as well as light & you could burn the leaves if they get too hot.

[Snadger]

The thing to remember about these is they generate a lot of heat as well as light & you could burn the leaves if they get too hot.

The Marujana growers use growlighs but don't realise that the heat they generate makes there house roof light up like a bolisha beacon when the copper chopper flies overhead with its infra-red sensor!

[WiZeR]

The Marujana growers use growlighs but don't realise that the heat they generate makes there house roof light up like a bolisha beacon when the copper chopper flies overhead with its infra-red sensor!

in which case you could well get a visit from the fuzz for using this kit, not that you'd be charged with anything. Mind you I don't think the helicopter goes around monitoring all the homes in Britain. I think it's if they get a tip off, normally because of the extremely strong smell.

I'd be interested in using some sort of lighting to bring on seedlings a bit earlier.

[martini]

Hi Wizer - I use 60W daylight simulation bulbs when I'm sowing (to match thread colour). I don't know if these would be of any use. Have a look at www.daylightcompany.com.

[Snadger]

in which case you could well get a visit from the fuzz for using this kit, not that you'd be charged with anything. Mind you I don't think the helicopter goes around monitoring all the homes in Britain. I think it's if they get a tip off, normally because of the extremely strong smell.

I'd be interested in using some sort of lighting to bring on seedlings a bit earlier.

I saw a program on telly a while ago where the cops found a field of it growing in America and decided in their infinite wisdom to set fire to the field to get rid of it.! There was a lot of happy smiles on the cops faces that day!

[sewer rat]

You could try having a search on some of the poultry sites - the commercial battery egg houses use 28 hour days to maximise egg production - their lights may be similar to what you are after