• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Basil Grow Test

Great tutorial. Mike !

Hey, some of my basil have just 'gone to seed'. What do I do now? Continue harvesting? What's the correct way to harvest this stuff anyhow?

(Pls excuse the semi-hijack, but this is very interesting)
 
A lot of people do not like basil as much after it goes to seed but I've never seen much difference. I always cut the tops off as soon as see a "bud" forming. Last year, I would need to do this a couple of times a week from mid-summer on. I harvested leaves until the killing frost!

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
A lot of people do not like basil as much after it goes to seed but I've never seen much difference. I always cut the tops off as soon as see a "bud" forming. Last year, I would need to do this a couple of times a week from mid-summer on. I harvested leaves until the killing frost!

Mike

Yea I trim the buds off as well. It is crazy how quick new buds keep popping up late in the season.
 
It's a 105 watt from 1000bulbs.com

Here's the color spectrum distribution. Notice the spike in the amount of purple light:

colorspectrum.jpg


Mike
 
As promised. Week III. I added another light this week, a 125 watt LED that is suppose to have a 7-1-1 ratio of red, blue, orange lights. But the plants are the same age as the other ones.

IMO, the CFL is winning. Some of the leaves suffered damage, from what I have no clue. It looks like heat damage from the lights, but they never came within six inches. But, while the internode length is not as tight as the all-blue or red/blue lights, they have a couple of suckers, which are a key to growing basil. The more "stalks," the more leaves. The worst are the HPS and all-red LED. The HPS plants have way too much internode distance, the other still seem drunk. A fan may help, but these plants are in six different locations!

Front and top pics.

The CFL light:
314cflfront.jpg


314cfltop.jpg


Last place, the HPS. Not surprising, they are not designed to be great for foliage.

314hpsfront.jpg


314hpstop.jpg


More to follow.
 
wordwiz said:
A lot of people do not like basil as much after it goes to seed but I've never seen much difference. I always cut the tops off as soon as see a "bud" forming. Last year, I would need to do this a couple of times a week from mid-summer on. I harvested leaves until the killing frost!

Mike

Great, thanks!
 
Week IV brought some changes. The all-red test is over thanks to a bad cat. She or he (don't know which one did it) knocked the plant over and all three stems broke. But it didn't stand much of a chance as it was all stem. Two of the CFL plants and one of the HPS ones got transplanted. They are now large enough to go into a 7-gallon pot, the CFLs under a 125-watt LED, the HPS back under its original light, though much closer.

I do not like either bulbs that much for raising seedlings - too much stem. In the case of the CFL, though, it is starting to show more suckers than the HPS and the internode distance is better, though not near as tight as the red/blue and blue LED panels.

The tall boys, with the HPS first:

324hps.jpg


And the CFL:

324cfl.jpg
324fluro.jpg


Next, the LED plants.

Mike
 
The all-blue:

324blue.jpg


The plant from the 14-watt red/blue panel:

324redblue.jpg


And lastly, the three that were added to the test last week. They are under a 125-watt red/blue panel but much further away. According to my light meter, though, they are getting about twice the lumens as those under the 14 watt.

324hpredblue.jpg


Mike
 
So, does that mean all color lights are created equal? (I am ignorant on the subject)
Meaning, can I run down to Walmart and purchase a light bulb that is the color blue and one that is red and get the blue/red sprectrum or is that being just a little too naive?
I tried reading the packaging literature to see if it mentions whether or not the bulb emits light in the blue/red spectrum but the packaging doesn't get that involved.
I do have a General Electric Bright Stik Gro and Sho floresent that is meant for plants but I am looking for some better lighting ideas to help push along my pepper seedling growth.
 
BC,

A short answer: no! A longer answer: Google light spectrum, photosyntheses, plant growth, vegetation and flowering. And then Daily Light Integral and mols/day, plant production!

But an update

The plants under the all-red, CFL and HPS lights have disappeared and are now growing as individual plants (though only a couple of each).

The all blue plants:

44allblue.jpg


Nice internode length, decent size leaves.
The 14 watt red/blue panel plants. About time to save 14 watts per hour!

44redblue.jpg




Finally, the seedlings under the 125 watt red/blue. Faster growth but nothing like the HPS.


44125led.jpg



Here's the clincher. This plant is under the 400 watt HPS. The color is far from accurate, but you should get an idea of the growth in two weeks:


44hps2.jpg



From this simple test, I would recommend starting basil plants under CFL lights (5K) and once they get about 6" tall, transplant them and put them under HPS bulbs.
If my tomato plants don't quit producing fruit with BER, they are all going to replaced with basil!

YMMV,

Mike
 
The system is from HTG supply. All I know about the bulb is it puts out a few more lumens than normal 400 watt bulbs - I'm thinking 50-55K.

I don't like it for tomatoes - they tend to get leggy, no matter how close I keep the fixture.

Mike
 
Back
Top