seeds Resurrecting an old germination chamber

[wordwiz]

About four years ago, I built a germination chamber. Nothing as elaborate as AJ's but it was about 4'x8', made from 2x4s and OCB board. Originally, it was set up to both germinate seeds and grow seedlings. Never really used it to germinate seeds, though.

Now I am. Plus using it to provide light and heat to seedlings, at least until they get large enough to survive on their own.

Nothing special about this - before I could get the temps up to about 80 degrees using a water bed heater. Not ideal; I found I could start all the seeds I wanted in other trays and keep the temps at 85 or so. But things change and I'm now starting seeds in 200-cell nursery trays, as well as other tried and tested methods. So I stuck the water bed heater in the chamber, along with a 600-watt HID ballast. I also have two 105-watt CFL bulbs turned on for 16 hours a day, to provide light for the seedlings that emerge. The temps are staying at 85-86.

Hopefully, this will work. I have one container that has >50 Bhut and >15 7-pod seeds, a tray with 120 Super Snap Sweet Peas, 20 cells filled with broccoli seeds, another 50 cells with Spinach seeds in them, and ten Swiss Chard seeds. Another tray has 100 of the 200 cells filled with lettuce seeds.

Mostly an experiment but it is rewarding to see something I spent lots of time, talent and treasury on being useful.

Mike

 

[dvg]

That sounds quite good Mike.

When you say you have a 600 watt HID ballast, are you using MH or HPS lighting?

A few years back the 600 watt HPS lighting was the most efficient lighting out there for providing lumens/watt ratio.

Unfortunately the 600 watt ballasts were more commonly available in Europe and a bit more expensive to get here in North America, with more 400 w and 1000 w set-ups being run here.

The thing I really liked about AJ's set-up was his use of mylar to reflect the light around his grow area.

Do you have any mylar in your set-up? Any pics?

Anyway your temps sound perfect. Hope you have great luck with everything in there.

dvg

 

[wordwiz]

dvg,

I'm using MH bulbs only. Everything under them are either toms or Chard - neither one needs HPS. Plus, these bulbs are amazing - 72,000 lumens of 6500K light - perfect for vegetative growth. The CFL bulbs in the chamber are 5000K.

When it comes time to do this for real, I probably will line the walls with something like Mylar. It's a thick (~12 mil) fabric, silver on one side, white on the other. But it means I will have to climb into the box and staple it - not easy!

The plan is to germinate seeds and let the plants get a decent start, then move them to a greenhouse where it will be much cooler but the light will be stronger.

FWIW, I've read lots of posts about not being able to grow the seedlings for very long in such small cells but I've also seen how plants in 200-cell Speedling seed trays grow - 10-12 inches tall but with a rootball that fills the entire 1" cell. I had to water them daily but they never wilted the least when transplanted, even in 90 degree temps! But the Speedling trays are $12 each, these plastic things are about $2.

That's why I am willing to waste seeds - to see how they grow. I really would be taking huge chances putting any plants in the ground until at least the end of March. Hopefully, in four weeks I will have a good idea how the trays work, but I should have started a month ago.

Mike

No Mylar in the chamber but the walls and ceiling are painted a flat white.

 

[Burning Colon]

Hey Mike, nothing works better than something that is customized for your working environment, i could give newbies advice and literally only half of what i say would be of benefit, unless they were growing in the same region that i am. you would be surprised how different simple things like natural humidity is in different regions of the world. yes we reached a high of 12C in Calgary, but our atmosphere is dry, we still have 2 feet of snow outside and the temperature can still drop really quick, we still have a lot of -20C in the forecasts.

I did a few experiments with my dwc and they worked out, now i am pushing the limits and purchased all the hardware for another dwc. have some trinidad scropians that need a splashin'

 

[dvg]

So true Mark.

And not only do the different climates we live in influence our growing attempts, but even different living accomodations in the same city can change outcomes.

Even something as common as heating, whether it be a forced air furnace, hot water radiator heating, a heated floor with a boiler system, or even electic heaters used as the primary heat sources, these all can and will influence growing conditions.

Then there are others, such as growing on the mainfloor or upstairs of a house, in an apartment, in a basement or in a heated greenhouse or solarium can all provide certain advantages and problems.

So in the end we all have to tailor our growing conditions to the unique situations we find ourselves in.

And if we move to a different location, expect these newly encountered changes having to be remastered once again.

dvg

 

[SuperHot]

This is my second season growing the superhots. My wife has been gardening throughout her entire life and is real good at it. A friend of mine has been growing the superhots for a while and shared with us some of his wonderful bounty along with many growing tips. Last season we produced about 350 all together of Jamaicans, Habanero, 7 Pods, Scorpions and Ghosts. The results were unbelievable.

Last season was Ziploc baggies and T5 at 6500k. I'll continue with the T5s for now, but switching over to 72 cell trays, Rapid Rooter plugs, propagation domes and heat pads. I order a roll of diamond foil to place around and over the plants. I love AJ's grow box and someday I will put my industrial automation talents to work on one of my own.

I need time to figure out a killer lighting scheme, air circulating and temperature control. For now I'll just continue to make notes and learn from others.

 

[AlabamaJack]

This is my second season growing the superhots. My wife has been gardening throughout her entire life and is real good at it. A friend of mine has been growing the superhots for a while and shared with us some of his wonderful bounty along with many growing tips. Last season we produced about 350 all together of Jamaicans, Habanero, 7 Pods, Scorpions and Ghosts. The results were unbelievable.

Last season was Ziploc baggies and T5 at 6500k. I'll continue with the T5s for now, but switching over to 72 cell trays, Rapid Rooter plugs, propagation domes and heat pads. I order a roll of diamond foil to place around and over the plants. I love AJ's grow box and someday I will put my industrial automation talents to work on one of my own.

I need time to figure out a killer lighting scheme, air circulating and temperature control. For now I'll just continue to make notes and learn from others.

When you do build your growbox, I highly recommend using the 90 watt UFO 5 band LED...they are expensive up front, but if you take into consideration what I paid for the three light bars and bulbs in mine, it is almost a wash...6500K 42 watt CFLs are expensive and if you replace the CFLs with the LEDs, you don't have to worry about heat or anything plus this fact...if you run your lights 24/7 for seedling growth for the first month, you can save 379 KW so that is about $ 40 or so and the first month so you can say the cost of the LED set up and the CFL setup are a wash after 30 days usage...that is significant to me because I grow so many..

 

[SuperHot]

When you do build your growbox, I highly recommend using the 90 watt UFO 5 band LED...they are expensive up front, but if you take into consideration what I paid for the three light bars and bulbs in mine, it is almost a wash...6500K 42 watt CFLs are expensive and if you replace the CFLs with the LEDs, you don't have to worry about heat or anything plus this fact...if you run your lights 24/7 for seedling growth for the first month, you can save 379 KW so that is about $ 40 or so and the first month so you can say the cost of the LED set up and the CFL setup are a wash after 30 days usage...that is significant to me because I grow so many..

Thanks AJ, I had LEDs in the back of my mind, but was unsure of a proven growing track record. Without a doubt LEDs are the most efficient light source. Coming from you AJ, I will surely give it some serious consideration in a grow-box design. This year my goal is 500 superhots, so for me the grow-box would be used to get them ready for transplant into larger containers. Eventually all but a 100 of them go into the ground. Similar to your situation, but scaled down by at least 50.00%, where is Chris?

 

[wordwiz]

A different view:

LEDs are simply not ready for prime time. Nice toys for people with money burning holes in their pocket. I've been a fan of them for five years, own a variety of panels from 14 watt to 125 watt and have tried them for several different plants. Done experiments with them also to see how they compare. If you want leggy seedlings and a low coverage area, they are the way to go. They are good for larger plants, a 125-watt panel will produce great toms or peppers once the plants are past the transplant stage and the area is about the size of a 56-quart Sterilite container.

There are sites that claim 100,000 hours from a panel, or that 90 watts will cover the area that a 400-watt HID will - baloney! For the $200 you spend on the UFO, you will get a fraction of the PAR footcandles over a 12 sq. ft. area (not quite the space you will need for 500 plants if you are using 72-cell nursery flats) in a day than you will from a 600 watt, 72,000 lumen, 6,000K MH bulb. If I was adamant about using LEDs for seedlings, I would look at 8, 14-watt, all-blue panels. EBay has them for about the same price as the UFO or the 600-watt MH from htgsupply. In all my tests, they grow beautiful seedlings with large root balls.

Your mileage may vary from mine!

Mike

 

[SuperHot]

Thanks Mike for your insight.

I want to incorporate some level of "energy efficiency", which LEDs do offer. It looks like I would need to blend the right combination of light ranges to produce the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that are utilized by plants for the purpose of photosynthesis.

Plants use light in the 450 and 700 nm range, meaning the plants like indigo-blue and orange-red light. Certain colors in light rays are important for proper plant growth. Leaves reflect and derive little energy from many of the yellow and green rays of the visible spectrum. Yet the red and blue parts of the light spectrum are the most important energy sources for plants, and plants require more rays from the red range than from the blue. Plants growing outdoors, in greenhouses or close to windows are exposed to a natural balance of the blue and red light rays that plants need. Where plants receive little or no natural light, you must provide additional light from artificial sources. Various plant pigments help use light. Carotenoids, chlorophyll a, b, and c. Chlorophyll a absorbs indigo and red lights, b absorbs blue and orange -red, c absorbs blue and orange in smaller amounts.

I'm not an expert, but this seems like a good place to start. I would also need to generate the appropriate lumens value for the chamber area as well. I am truly inspired from the success stories our member's choose to share with us!

 

[wordwiz]

Actually, plants use light in the 400 to about the 720 nm range and everything in between to varying degrees. Plants are better at absorbing the blue light than the red, I presume that is why most LED lights have an 8:2 ratio for red:blue. Nothing I have read suggests plants absorb only 25 percent of the red spectrum as compared to the blue ones. That's why I believe LED lights are not good for seedlings - they need vegetative growth and most LEDs do not provide that. I have some Bhut plants that are much less than 3" tall but have three sets of true leaves. No way would that happen with most LED panels on the market, including the UFOs.

YMMV, mine doesn't!

Mike