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seeds Help needed for lighting pepper seedlings

PepperJam

PepperJam

FYI, this is just to start the seedlings. Once spring hits, i'm gonna harden them off and plant them outdoors.

Ok, my current setup pictured below, i have two 2ft ge aquarium and plant light bulbs that i'm using to start my seeds. Thats a total of 1020 lumens. I place them 2-3 inches away. Is that enough?

Now in my garage, i have six 4ft ge aquarium and plant bulbs that i'm using to overwinter some plants. Thats a total of 11,400 lumens.

I could move my seedling tray into the garage and place the tray real close to the lights to give them enough lighting. But i'm not sure if it will get cold again in texas.

My seedlings are looking healthy but they are just growing really slow.

On a budget, what would you guys recommend?

P1010260.jpg
 
the minimum I give my seedlings for growth is 1743 lumens/sq foot and for fast growth, it is 3000 lumens/sq ft...

can't talk about budget because it is expensive either way...pay me now up front with LEDs or pay me in the long run on electric bills for standard shop lights...
 
And I think you're really not looking for fast growth i.e. height right now anyway. You want to shoot for real leaves. If the plants aren't getting too tall with just germinating leaves, then they'll be fine.
 
Ok i bought a LED system for 128 from amazon with overnight shipping (additional 4 bux only, prime membership ROX!). You can find product specs here. If its not good, i can easily return it to amazon for free :D Lets see how it goes! I just need it to have great seedlings for two trays. Nothing longterm.
 
Coming from an amateur, your set-up looks good to me. Below is how I do mine.
It works for me. I only have a few Bhut's growing right now. I have another stand
in my sunroom. I keep mine pretty close to the lights (6500K). When they get bigger
they go into sunroom where it is cooler, still under lights, and the ceiling fan provides
a breeze.

DSCN0404-1.jpg
 
You will get leggy growth with that LED, even if you place it a foot from the plants, meaning you will cover just a hair over a square foot. Last March/April I did a comparison test. True, I used 14 watt panels but they were only four inches from the plants. The first image is the red/blue panel:

44redblue.jpg


And the all-blue one:

44allblue.jpg


I also had a 125-watt red/blue panel. It was about a foot from the plants. This was taken eleven days before the others:

324hpredblue.jpg


Of course, that panel was far more expensive though I got a huge discount and paid only $300. But it only covers about a 4x3' area.

Mike
 
Well i think more important than total lumen value is in what lambda = wave length they are. For example, i am usinf 2 x 18w Osram Fluora 77, which oeach ona has only 700lumens. U can say, its really low. Not its not. Sure it depends on the are under but what is great with these one is that they have really nice and usable light spectrum. Keep in mind, u need also red spectrum for chlorophyle production and also blue light for sturdyness. These CFLs have it both in one as a compromise. Sometimes when i need more lumens i am adding some warm whites to get nice deep purple colorage. Daylight white i dont like much cause it seems they have alot of power in notusable wavelengths. Well, my experiences.CFL tubes works great and emits low temp output.
 
wordwiz said:
You will get leggy growth with that LED, even if you place it a foot from the plants, meaning you will cover just a hair over a square foot. Last March/April I did a comparison test. True, I used 14 watt panels but they were only four inches from the plants. The first image is the red/blue panel:
Click to expand...

The true leaves are there, just not growing, they are pretty slow. They look stumped. Also i saw Alabama's bhut jolokia forest in which he used LED's and they look great!
 
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