Artificial light for entire growth cycle?

Ohjay

Ohjay

As an indoor grower I'm constantly battling space and am quite limited in the amount of plants I can grow during a season while supplying them with sunlight.
 
So this season I'm thinking of trying to grow a couple of plants solely under artificial lights, from seedling to flowering to glorious peppers.
 
But I could use some help with pulling this off.
My first, and main, issue is light, what sort of artificial light would be best for this type of growing?
I have a T5 fixture at the moment but from what I've gathered T5 isn't really good for flowering and most of all to get peppers.
Max Hydro LEDs seem to be all the rage right now, would that be more suitable? Are there any other good sources for artificial light?
 
Is there anything else you need to do differently growing under artificial lights compared to normal indoor growing?
Different feeding regime? Light cycle? Constant flow of air?
 
I'm sure there's a ton of things I haven't considered yet so any and all information you can share is greatly appreciated.
 
You can't really beat HID lights like high pressure sodium or metal halide for growing fruiting plants indoors. LEDs are slowly getting better and cheaper but in order to get similar results to an HID light you would need to spend way more money. HIDs put out a decent bit of heat so you will want to make sure your grow space has adequate ventilation. It helps if you have a reflector that is air cooled but this isn't 100% necessary. If you only want to grow a few plants you wouldn't need a very powerful light, 250W HPS would most likely be more than enough. You can find info about how many sq feet a light will cover online. A 250W light would cover about 2 foot x 2-3 foot area, a 400W  would cover about 4x4. 
 
As far as light cycle peppers are photoperiod independent and can fruit and flower under 24 hr light but there really isn't any point to running 24hr light, 16/8 or 14/10 is plenty. 
 
You do need to make sure they have fresh air but mostly because if your grow space is not ventilated you will run into heat dissipation issues. Another thing you need is some sort of oscillating fan which blows hard enough to move the plants around a bit. Plant stems need mechanical stress to get stronger. Outdoors this is accomplished by the wind, indoors if you don't have anything to move the plants around a bit you will end up with stems that are easy to snap. It doesn't take much movement, just enough to kinda rustle the leaves a bit. Make sure you use an oscillating fan that moves back and forth, not one that is static and blows in the same spot constantly. 
 
Also don't underestimate how large plants can get, I made this mistake with my first indoor grow. C. annuum tends to be smaller than C. chinense or c. baccatum. If you are short on vertical grow space don't be afraid to top & prune your plants to keep them short and bushy. 
 
Other than that there is a ton of info on growing things indoors on this site and elsewhere on the internet. Unfortunately most of the info elsewhere tends to be cannabis related and while those sources do provide lots of good info the growth & feeding habits of peppers and cannabis are vastly different. One of the major differences being that peppers need a lot lower EC (nutrient strength) than cannabis. If you overfeed peppers, especially with nitrogen you end up with huge plants but no fruit since too much fertilizer causes them to drop flowers. Another mistake I made on my first indoor grow. 
 
Thank you TXCG!
Great reply with a lot of information.
 
I had a successful indoor season last year but this year I've got more plants that I have room for, thus the plan to try to grow a few plants under artificial lights.
 
HPS does seem to be a very good solution but the heat is a major issue especially if you are somewhat limited in ventilation and dissipating the heat. If I can solve the heat problem then HPS is definitely a viable option.
 
I have a 250hps with a 25"x22" air cooled hood, but with no fans hooked up to the hood. I like the hood to maximize my might. Surprisingly it doesn't get to hot, especially in winter. I do have an ac, and set it at 80F.
On the other hand I had a 600watt hps many years ago, and it got my room hot a ALOT quicker.
I just use my light to get get my seedlings going healthy then all my plants go inground for the free light outside once it is safe from frost.

I hope you can get it figured out to keep some plants flowering indoors.
 
This should be posted in Grow Tech where we:
 
Discuss lights, heaters, irrigation systems, greenhouses, and DIY solutions. Show off your inventions!
 
willard3 said:
This should be posted in Grow Tech where we:
 
Discuss lights, heaters, irrigation systems, greenhouses, and DIY solutions. Show off your inventions!
Click to expand...
You're quite right. I completely forgot about that forum.
If any mod sees this, feel free to move this thread to the correct forum.
 
Why would TL be a bad choice for fruiting? I grow under 6500k TNEON and don't have issues with fruiting. I'm already harvesting from my 24-Nov-15 peppers.

I agree that HID/MHS is better, though purchasing and running those lights is way more expensive. Exces heat and low humidity also easily become an issue. A good multiple T5/T8 fixture with quality bulbs will suffice and are way more cost effective and hence more accessable.
 
i think u shoudl stay away from led unless you plan to build your own or spend thousands on it
 
your t5 will be fine
 
the 600w hps is good too
 
how big is your space?
 
Pfeffer said:
Why would TL be a bad choice for fruiting? I grow under 6500k TNEON and don't have issues with fruiting. I'm already harvesting from my 24-Nov-15 peppers.

I agree that HID/MHS is better, though purchasing and running those lights is way more expensive. Exces heat and low humidity also easily become an issue. A good multiple T5/T8 fixture with quality bulbs will suffice and are way more cost effective and hence more accessable.
Click to expand...
 
I personally don't know, but when I read a bunch of forum posts about T5 lights most seemed to say that T5 was not an ideal light source past the vegetative phase.
 
 
 
N8thaniel said:
i think u shoudl stay away from led unless you plan to build your own or spend thousands on it
 
your t5 will be fine
 
the 600w hps is good too
 
how big is your space?
Click to expand...
 
I'd say my light budget is roughly $500, and that should cover 1-2 light fixtures and everything else I might need.
It's a tiny space really, just a tooling shelf 90x40x177 cm (WxDxH). (36x16x71")
Plan is to either split that shelf in half and have two light setups(height permitting) or just 1 light setup for the flowering phase.
 
Ohjay said:
 
I personally don't know, but when I read a bunch of forum posts about T5 lights most seemed to say that T5 was not an ideal light source past the vegetative phase.
 
 
 
 
I'd say my light budget is roughly $500, and that should cover 1-2 light fixtures and everything else I might need.
It's a tiny space really, just a tooling shelf 90x40x177 cm (WxDxH). (36x16x71")
Plan is to either split that shelf in half and have two light setups(height permitting) or just 1 light setup for the flowering phase.
Click to expand...
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/58028-how-to-build-an-led-growlight/
 
go for the BUILD KIT #2
or 1
 
or the el-cheapo(even with colder K temp as suggested)
 
other wise your t5 are fine
 
hps will cook plants in that size space
 
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