How do all of you manage the distance between the plants and the lights. I am trying to keep the lights about 2 or 3 inches from the lights, but all the plants grow at different speeds. I don't have enough lights to have a shelf for each type so I am wondering what to do to keep the slower growers from getting leggy. The annums are growing super fast, while the habs and such are growing very slow.
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lighting Distance from lights?
- Thread starter gardenkiller
- Start date
I was going to post a pic of my grow module that shows how I adjust my lights. I can't connect to Image Shack at the moment tho. So, in words I will tell you. (picture = 1000 words...)
The module is 4' square. I have 4 dual tube shop light fixtures that are spaced evenly running from front to back of the module. I attach the lights with clothesline rope. The rope runs out the top of the box through holes I have drilled in the plywood and is "guided" down the outer edges of the front outside of the grow box where I have some "deck cletes" holding the rope fixed. By varying the length of the rope, I can adjust the lights without having to get inside the 6 foot tall module and keep from disturbing my plants. I keep the lights 1 1/2 to 2 inches above the plants.
And I got away with less than a thousand words if you understand what I have done.
Typical....I can get to Image Shack now...
Closer Image to show distance from lights in module.
The module is 4' square. I have 4 dual tube shop light fixtures that are spaced evenly running from front to back of the module. I attach the lights with clothesline rope. The rope runs out the top of the box through holes I have drilled in the plywood and is "guided" down the outer edges of the front outside of the grow box where I have some "deck cletes" holding the rope fixed. By varying the length of the rope, I can adjust the lights without having to get inside the 6 foot tall module and keep from disturbing my plants. I keep the lights 1 1/2 to 2 inches above the plants.
And I got away with less than a thousand words if you understand what I have done.
Typical....I can get to Image Shack now...
Closer Image to show distance from lights in module.
What I have read here and frfom my personal expereince which isn't much is adjust them as they grow raising and lowering but most of the pics I have seen have reflectors around the plants also. I sure do enjoy watching AJ plant box they are doing great . I am hoping I can get my well house started today Joe
i position the lights for the tallest plant then the shorties get propped up. I pretty much use whatever is around, old yogurt containers are good and if you have a few you can prop up a little stage on two and have a row at the higher level. my growing setup is you'd call 'low tech'...
I use two lamps, both 4-foot long. The taller plants go under the back one, which is about an inch to 1.5 inches higher than the front one, where the shorter plants go. I can also raise one end higher than the other, giving me four different heights of lamps. Since I move them to a trough to water them about every 3-5 days, it's not too hard to rearrange them.
One complication is that I also have some tomatoes and eggplants growing and they grow much faster than the peppers.
Mike
One complication is that I also have some tomatoes and eggplants growing and they grow much faster than the peppers.
Mike
gardenkiller, If you have your lights on a chain just adjust one side of the light higher than the other.
Dale
Dale
very nice Dale....
wordwiz, actually the lights with bulbs are under 14 dollars each the shelving is a little expensive but these from Lowes are perfect for growing seedlings that are going to be put outside. Thats all you need. As far as looking to see if they are coming up, yes I do it all day long too. Here are some of the seedlings i have so far this season, I will plant the rest of them at the end of the month. Around 300 seeds.
Dale
Dale
podpiper,
I plan on building my own shelves. A couple of them would be 18" tall, with two more a foot tall. I will also have a desk/tabletop which will hold 30 plants over the winter, which will use just sunlight. That should still leave me with room to grow four stacks of potatoes and 4-6 tomato plants and a couple of eggplants during late fall to early spring.
Mike
I plan on building my own shelves. A couple of them would be 18" tall, with two more a foot tall. I will also have a desk/tabletop which will hold 30 plants over the winter, which will use just sunlight. That should still leave me with room to grow four stacks of potatoes and 4-6 tomato plants and a couple of eggplants during late fall to early spring.
Mike
thepodpiper said:gardenkiller, If you have your lights on a chain just adjust one side of the light higher than the other.
Dale
I really like your idea...where did you get the shelving and what are the dimensions? 6' long X 2' wide X 6' high?? Three tiers?
thepodpiper said:gardenkiller, If you have your lights on a chain just adjust one side of the light higher than the other.
Dale
i have a shelf almost exactly like that i got from crappy tire on sale (...how i spend my saturday mornings...) but i still haven't found lights like that for under thirty and thats the crappier kind so i use a bunch of the roundy kind until i have enough lumens and i put them all around the plants and on top - still cheaper! we don't have lowes but we have home depot and a bunch of other box stores and i still can't beat that price (although my setup might have been the same price if i didn't have the fixtures already) whatever works, right?
we do have walmart and i checked it out last year and they didn't even have them but it never has the same selection as the US, but i can always check again (it is right across the street from crappy pneu...)
I got the shelving at Lowes, HD does not have this size but they do sell the same shelves. They are 48x18x74 They are 5 tier shelves but you cannot put anything on the top. At full capacity the two shelves will hold over 500 plants in 3.5 in. containers. I had 423 plants on them last year but some i started late and they were still in the 72 cell trays. I have 24- 4' fluorescent lights going when all my seeds are germinated.
Dale
Dale
hey Dale I have the exact same shelves in black instead of chrome finish. I swear these things were made just for indoor growing. The wire shelves make perfect light hangers while still being able to use the shelf above. After seeing your pics I feel like I have a good setup, now if my plants only looked like yours I would feel even better! Well done!
gardenkiller said:
I use the same set up as Dale, too. I have an A frame seed starting unit that my father built me that I used for years. It was nice in that I could easily take it down when I wasn't using it, but two things happened. I'm starting more and more seeds every year, and I got two young cats. The cats liked leaping and chasing each other from shelf to shelf, and they were making it rather shaky. So, last year I invested in a metro rack like Dale's, and I've very pleased with the utility of the set up. I put foil insulation, the kind that's foil with bubble wrap in the middle, on the shelves instead of particle board, and mine is on wheels. I'm really pleased with it, although I'm still working on bundling and reducing all the electrical cords.
Pam said:
Well, I have got to get me one...I will get two 4' long units that I can put together and use 8' florescent fixtures on it. I was looking at HD yesterday and the 8' fixtures are not much more than the 4' fixtures I am currently using.
This will eliminate the need for more "germinator" like boxes I will have to build. I may even enclose these shelves since they are going to be in my garage and it doesn't freeze in there but does get down to 40F sometimes.
mine is green with wheels but otherwise like those. i can't use the bottom two shelves b/c they're too enticing to my cat but she ignores the higher ones.