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My basement may be too cold, what can I do?

JJBagoose

JJBagoose

Hi,

So I have some seeds that are beginning to germinate and will be ready to go under the lights by the end of the week.

Right now they are on my cable box in my bedroom so they are warm and toasty.

Soon I will be moving them to the basement under a shoplight. My basement is rather cold right now and I am worried that the temps won't be high enough to promote good growth.

Will the shoplights heat the plants enough?

What kind of measures can I take to keep the seedlings warm?

thanks,
JJ
 
I'm growing my plants in the basement also. I have built in a shelf that holds two shop lights and is closed in on all for side on top with undersheathing...it think that is what it is called..it has silver foil one side which covers 1 inch thick white styrofoam. I have a thermometer in it and with the lights on...it peaks out at 81 degrees and when the lights are off, it drops down to 63 degrees. My plants are doing very will with those conditions.
 
imaguitargod said:
Build a small fire in the corner. Should warm things up.
Click to expand...

Uh, I took your advice and here are the results:
:(

House_Fire_2277_011.jpg



Don't worry, I saved the seedlings. :P
 
I got myself a thermometer that also reads humidity, a power strip with surge protector, an outlet timer, & a small space heater.

The timer controls the lights & heater through the power strip.

It took some playing around for me to get it a steady 75' in the basement during the day.
 
So I have some scrap wood at home that I can probably build a container to hold my plants.

I am a little worried about a fire hazard though. What precautions should I take to ensure fire shouldn't be a problem?

thanks,
jj
 
The only way a fluro will be a fire hazard is if it's wired incorrectly or in a way that has live conductors touching material that is easily ignitable.

If you are worried about a fire, install a smoke detector above your system
 
Yeah, I have an old drapery covering the whole shebang, and it's never gotten above 98F...well under combustable levels. Otherwise, the whole apt. would burn up in summertime eh?

CFL's are a diff story though, they DO get hot.
 
JJBagoose said:
Does that statement come with insurance? :)
Click to expand...

So many people have used shop lights to grow plants and have allowed the plants to touch the bulbs - without any harm to them! So yeah, you can believe it. But just the bulbs. You want to use common sense and not cover the light with newspapers, run bare wires over foil and such, try using 50 lights on a 10 amp fuse but otherwise you will be safe.

QuadShotz said:
CLF's are a diff story though, they DO get hot.
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Quad,

I presume you meant CFLs. I have some 105 watt bulbs and they do get hot but not hot enough to ignite lumber, though it might cause dry wood shavings to burst into flame. Two of them in an 2x4x5' enclosed but not insulated chamber raised the temps to about 80 degrees.

Mike
 
The lights won't get hot enough. I can stick my fingers on the lit bulbs & fixtures without any trouble.

As far as my space heater, I keep it 5 feet away from everything.
 
Well in terms of the linear shop lights your only concern would really be the ballast. I use to do maintenance in a couple of industrial buildings. I don't know exactly what caused it, but from time to time the lights would stop working and the ballast would get really hot. Enough to make the sole of your boot smoke. Easily solved by replacing the ballast. I guess my point is that things can go wrong so follow others suggestions in terms of not having combustibles on the fixture.
 
mine are at about 60 in my borrowed basement and they are a bit scrawny but its because I didnt have enough light on them. They would maybe do better if warmer but they will still grow. Since warm days are around the corner im not going to do anything to raise the temp but if I were still germinating what I would do is buy some sheet foam insulation stuff and make a box around the whole thing to keep what small amount of heat the lights give off in. There are pics in this site showing the duct tape and insulation board creations of other grower here on this site. It would help with moisture too because once that cover comes off they dry out quickly.
 
thepodpiper said:
No need for anything other than leave your fluoro lights on and as close to the plants as possible.

Dale
Click to expand...

So the lights will keep them warm enough? Or the temp isn't a huge deal?

Thanks for all the good info in this thread! My seedlings are going under the lights tonight :)
 
JJ...how many plants are you talking about?
 
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