• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

any help? for the new guy

J

jh35ky123

hello everyone im new here and just statring growing peppers yesterday :) i want to grow peppers inside from start to finish question is what is the cheapest way of lighting i can get away with ? just bought two of the t12 4 foot bulbs and a shop light cheap grow bulb like 7 bucks at walmart ??????? any help would be appreciated thx jh
 
I cant really answer this for you but my understanding those lights are only "ok" for growing plants, mostly used begining & late season use indoors to extend the growing season, the rest of the season people put the plants outside.
unless you're going all hydro & get better lights for all indoor growing.

but I might be wrong. the cheapest is the free sunlight from our sun.
 
I would suggest getting the t5 fluorescents. They are much more effective at delivering light and are still pretty low cost wise. Just my input. By the way welcome!
 
ok i should have also mentioned im in a small apartment so outside is not an option, and i only get sun for couple hours a day in late afternoon through the windows so indoors is about my only option right now.
 
all inside all the time is going to be more of a challenge with flourescents, i'm sure it's possible but if you can spring for the high intensity lights i would if i were you... now i'm ussually the person here saying flouros are fine but thats for when the plants spend part of their lives outdoors, i think there was someone here who has their hydro setup with cfl's but i can't remember if their plants ever go out. again, i'm sure it'll work with some degree of success but this is the one case where i would suggest getting the better lights...
i've never used hps or mh, but there are a lot of people here familiar with them who can help you.
 
Mine were been under cfl all winter. I got flowers & fruit with a combo of 2' Soft White/Warm White/3000K, Cool White/4100K, & Plant Aquarium/1600K. They were 3' above the plants. I also had a small compact electric heater keeping it around 80'F during the day. I learned I was lucky with this setup.

Now, since I'm starting new seeds, I switched over to 4' CW and Daylight/6500K, for growth only and the heater is running 24/7.

My tepins will be staying indoors all year, so once the others go out, I'll add the SW/WW & PA, maybe even a Sunshine/5000K. I want that full spectrum.

I highly suggest the 4' fixtures as they give off more light and keeping them as close to the plants as you can get. Mine are now 4-6" above the plants. My garlic improved greatly in the week they've been under these new lights and a few peppers are showing new leaf growth.
 
HID lamps, metal halide, high pressure sodium and etc, are presently the highest efficiency lamps available and have the lowest long-term costs.

LED will be here in a couple of years for color/efficiency.
 
I use the same JH and I bought them at Wal-mart as well I use 4 of the T12 6500k bulbs totaling less than 25$ I use the T12 because they had the highest lumen of any of the bulbs
 
well thx for everyones help but now im even more confused i think haha all this sodium halide and 500k stuff really has me confused thought i could plant my seeds and put a cheap light on and watch it grow wishfull thinking huh guess im gonna have to go light shopping again and with some more money in my pocket this time :(
 
Heres my put. If you are going to grow the peppers inside to have a nice plant and a few peppers, it should work fine with a Fluorescent light. Mine are growing fine and some are producing good peppers. The orange hab is producing litterally hundreds of flowers but no fruit. One fruit started and dropped. I am having flower drop issues and I am using a combination of lights on the blue end AND red end of the spectrum in combination.

If you want to have a good crop of peppers, you could transplant to a container and move inside and outside....that should work......
 
it just depends what you want from your plant, are you trying to keep yourself in peppers or are you just looking for a really nice houseplant? producing pods takes a lot of energy for the plant to do so when they're doing that they need you to give them a lot of energy in light, this is why its okay to start plants with flouros if you're going to put them outside for pod setting because then they're getting the ultimate HID lamp, the sun.
high pressure sodium or metal halide (or a mix...) are 'good enough' substitutes for the sun for year round growing and you might even get better results then outdoors b/c you can control all the conditions but flouros aren't a great substitute for year round. with enough flouros and only a few plants you'll see some pods but you won't get great yeilds. read around here a bit more before you go shopping again and maybe wait until more hps and mh knowledgable people come a postin'... you need to know about light spectrums and lumens before buying anything.
 
well yes some peppers would be nice and that ws my goal? heck the whole reason i bought the lights and small system i do have was gonna be my attempt to grow some bhut jolokias (dont have seeds yet) i loves the hot stuff :) guess im gonna have to wait on my check from george bush and spend the 600 on lights :)
 
You won't get any good light penetration for fruiting with fluorescent lighting unless you have tonnes of them in which case it isn't cost effective. You may get a few peppers but its not really worth the time and effort
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top