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Anyone using this light?

W

wordwiz

I seriously do not need a light like this for seedlings - the 105 watt CFLs do everything I need! But I want to grow some plants to maturity. This light was a bit less than $150 including shipping, provides 137 lumens per watt and is suppose to have some extra blue and violet light, though I am not sold that I need this for flowering/fruiting.

I'm hoping five of them will cover a 60 sq. ft. area well enough that I only need to run them - max - 15 hours a day.

Merry Christmas!

Mike
 
i do know if it will cover 60sq ft but i have order alot of stuff from htgsupply and they make a hella good product
 
Chris,

Thanks for the links. It looks like the 600 watt is a better buy, but I only need to cover three feet wide. Down the road, IF I can get decent production upstairs, it will make more sense to go with the higher bulbs.

I started my experiment this evening. One Red Delicious tomato plant, currently under a 105 watt CFL (until I get my 400 watt HPS lamp). This was the most prolific producer in my outdoor garden this summer... two-three 10-12 ounces maters twice a week during the peak. Still blooming in early October (transplanted in mid-May) when the freeze hit. A 70-day determinate.

No doubt, I will micromanage this plant, but I am curious what the close to best-case scenario will be.

Mike
 
The light arrived today and my initial impression is that it is quite bright. In the middle of the light, a foot away, I was getting a steady 110,000 lux (by comparison, a 150 watt HPS gives me 119,000 lux six inches away). It appears to be a bit whiter light; the literature says it has more energy in the blue and violet spectrum. I don't know if it is powerful enough to cover three linear feet or not - I was getting about 28K lux 18" from the center, not quite enough light unless I want to run it for 14-15 hours a day. However, I do not have the walls lined with Mylar yet, so that may help a bit.

I basing my needs on a Greenhouse Grow guide that says veggies like tomatoes and peppers need about 40,000 foot-candles/hrs. of PAR light per day to be real (but not extremely) productive. 1,000 lux equals about .046 foot-candle of PAR light. Thus, 29K lux running 15 hours a day would give me the 20 mols I need.

If the seedlings I have grow at the normal rate, I should be able to start using this light by February. Knowing me, I will probably end up buying a 600 watt system also, especially if I get a coupon for big savings.

Mike
 
Gald you like the HPS light fixture but try running a MH bulb in the 4000k spectrum in your system if you want white light. Never had to do any of that light mumbo jumbo everything just grows under a HID. Plus the added benefit of running the light in winter when it is freezing outside is that it put off heat so make sure you ventilate. Welcome to greener pastures.
 
PRF,

I may try a MH conversion bulb but it has so few lumens, only 36,000, that I am not sure how effective it would be. The top and bottom of the "chamber" will be open (Mylar on the sides but I could hold my hand about six inches from the bulb and though I could feel warmth, it was not close to hot. What I really need to do is raid my coffee can of change, use all my PayPal funds and scrape up a few more dollars and get another system but with a MH bulb. That would allow me to run a second group of six plants and compare the production.

The whole idea of this is not just to get a couple of ripe tomatoes! I have five 105 watt CFL bulbs, two 150 watt HPS lamps, five 14 watt LED panels (including one all red and one all blue) and a 54 watt LED, not to mention an assortment of 13 and 23 watt CFL bulbs and shop lights. More than enough to grow a couple of plants! (and trust me, I'm kicking my behind every day for not using a couple of them this winter rather than relying on the GH - I should have known the lack of sunny days in winter would bite me in the butt). Rather, I'm more interested in what light or combo of lights will give me the most pounds of tomatoes over a 120-150 day post-transplant period, with consideration given to initial investment and operating costs.

This year, I want to start harvesting pounds of tomatoes by the middle of December from plants grown upstairs. I figure I have room for at least 50 plants, 70 if I want to use part of another room. At 3 pounds per week per plant, and $1.50 per pound, that would be a nice bit of change. That's a long way from my goal of having 560 plants producing fruit at a time, but it's a step.

Mike
 
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