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seeds Seed starting kits with heat mats & small grow lights

Avon Barksdale

Avon Barksdale

Anyone use one of these seed starting kits? I'm guessing they're not too popular here, as most seem to be the DIY type, but I'm starting from seed for the first time this year (2nd year growing) and looking for something simple and fairly idiot proof that will give me good germination rates. I've looked at a few on Amazon and most seem to have fairly mixed reviews. I know there are cheaper methods like the paper towel/plastic bag but I don't mind paying ~$30 for something that is easy to use and effective. Space is also an issue, I don't have much currently, so a small ~72 cell mini greenhouse that I can sit on my dresser would be nice for my current living situation. Preferably a kit where it is easy to remove individual seedlings to replant in paper/plastic cups.

I'm also looking to buy a small grow light. I was planning on a 430 or 600 watt grow-light but after moving I only have a ~6 ft x 3 ft x 8 ft closet with two racks to work with so I'll need something small, I was thinking a 100-200 watt fluerescent light that is longer than it is wide. Any recommendations here? Also, can anyone give me a ballpark figure about long I would be able to keep ~50-60 seedlings under such a light before they became too big for it?

I'm a bit of a newb here so I want plan this out fairly well, so any help would be greatly appreciated. :D
 
Check out this thread http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19118-germination-aides/. A lot of ideas. I haven't heard anything bad about Neil's technique from the Hippy Seed Company, referenced by Hot Pooper.
 
from another thread w/ respect to a grow lamp.
if you are handy you could build a floro lamp, 1000bulbs.com has 55watt 4300k PLL bulbs like 3 bucks each, pair 4 of those that with a workhorse 8 ballast and you have a real nice horti lamp.

i made myself one a while back.

you can also build an HID lamp from components, but i dont think the savings are significant.

edit:
heres what im talking about
http://www.1000bulbs...F-WH8120LC.html
http://www.1000bulbs...55-2G1141F.html
i lied, there almost 5 bucks each. that or they changed the price.
Click to expand...

i could give you some pointers if you feel up to building your own lamp its really not a big deal, just a trip to the hardware store.
 
Thank guys. I think I'm gonna go with a 48 inch long shop type fixture with some fluero grow bulbs. That would fit my closet pretty well since it's a lot longer than it is wide and would fit the area pretty well. Looking at wal-mart just to get some ideas, I saw a 48 inch fixture but it only takes T8 and the grow bulbs they had were T12. Are T12 bulbs favorable? I don't know much about the T5, T6, T8, T12 etc. and if it's even important. What should I look for? I have a closet area with plenty of height and it's about 20 inches x 6 feet by my estimation. Would a 4 bulb fixture work for this or would I be fine with a 2 bulb fixture? I would be looking to get roughly 50-60 plants up to about a foot high before transplanting outdoors. I've been doing some research and I'm continuing to do so but I'm still a little confused on everything and want to figure out what would be best before I make any purchases. Also, can anyone recommend a good site for purchasing these type of lights?

P.S., perhaps I should have put this in grow tech, but I forgot about that forum when I posted.
 
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19180-t5-grow-light-deal/
you are going to want the most light per sq ft, and thats going to be a t5 bulb.
this thread JUST went up... i dont think you are going to get a better deal than that lol.
 
Thanks, but I think that's too big for my area. And more than I would like to spend as well, I would like to keep it to <$50. That would probably be overkill for me.
 
i dont know..thats not much, you are only left with something like this.
http://1000bulbs.com/product/35678/TF-C232.html
+5 bucks for two bulbs
thats 50 watts i believe...thats not much light.

have you tried craigs list? you might be able to score something like a 250watt MH lamp.
 
I don't think I need a ton of light, I'm just looking to get the plants to decent size before transplanting outside.

A 4 foot 2-bulb fluoro, or maybe a 4 foot 4-bulb is probably about the max I can work with right now. Or possibly a small metal halide, but the only problem with that is my closet is much longer than it is wide so I would be wasting a lot of space/light.

I was thinking about something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Flora-Hydroponics-Fluorescent-Light-Fixture/dp/B00383KA3S/ref=sr_1_16?s=garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1291864187&sr=1-16

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-High-Performance-Light-Reflector/dp/B000UU4MIQ/ref=sr_1_37?s=garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1291864226&sr=1-37

???
 
if you are going to grow in a closet, one of the main things you will have to deal with is heat buildup...I assume the 3' dimension you have is width...is the 6 or 8' your length?....

air circulation...make sure you have room for a couple of fans (one on each end preferably) that you can "exercise" the seedlings/plants with...when the plants flex in the wind, it stretches the cell walls and makes the get tough (thicker) which supports the plants stronger..
 
Avon Barksdale said:
I don't think I need a ton of light, I'm just looking to get the plants to decent size before transplanting outside.

A 4 foot 2-bulb fluoro, or maybe a 4 foot 4-bulb is probably about the max I can work with right now. Or possibly a small metal halide, but the only problem with that is my closet is much longer than it is wide so I would be wasting a lot of space/light.

I was thinking about something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Flora-Hydroponics-Fluorescent-Light-Fixture/dp/B00383KA3S/ref=sr_1_16?s=garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1291864187&sr=1-16

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-High-Performance-Light-Reflector/dp/B000UU4MIQ/ref=sr_1_37?s=garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1291864226&sr=1-37

???
Click to expand...

I'd go 2 x 4ft 2 bulb! this way if some are growing slower you can move them under a seperate light to keep the light as close as possible to all seedlings.
 
AlabamaJack said:
if you are going to grow in a closet, one of the main things you will have to deal with is heat buildup...I assume the 3' dimension you have is width...is the 6 or 8' your length?....

air circulation...make sure you have room for a couple of fans (one on each end preferably) that you can "exercise" the seedlings/plants with...when the plants flex in the wind, it stretches the cell walls and makes the get tough (thicker) which supports the plants stronger..
Click to expand...

I just measured and the length is about 4 feet 8 inches and the width is about 2 feet, looks like I overestimated at first. It still should fit a 4' shop light but it will be close. I have plenty of height. I have an oscillating fan I'm going to have on them. I learned about no air flow the hard way the first time I tried growing something indoors. The plants were so weak they fell over. :o

I don't think heat will be much of a problem, the room is normally a little cold and I won't be running really hot lights and I can keep the door open if it gets hot.

jolokia_jas said:
I'd go 2 x 4ft 2 bulb! this way if some are growing slower you can move them under a seperate light to keep the light as close as possible to all seedlings.
Click to expand...


Yeah I think that's what I'm going to do, and possibly add another light later on if they get too big before I put them outside. I just want to start them soon because it's hard to grow the super hots in Indiana weather.
 
another option you have is compact fluorescent lights (CFL),

4 packs of these are ~$24 http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgg/R-100677481/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

and two of these are ~ $14.00 http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgg/R-202022519/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

for 38 plus tax you can get somewhere around 14,000 lumens while running 216 Watts

standard shoplight fixtures costs about ~20 each and the bulbs are cheap...I buy them a 10 pack at a time ( http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xgg/R-100476647/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 )...4 bulbs will give you ~9300 lumens while running 160 watts....so two shop light fixtures and a pack of bulbs is going go hit you for about $60...

I use both in my grow for different reasons...

just trying to point out an option to you...

I use three 6 bulb vanity fixtures with 42 Watt CFLs in my 4' X 4' grow box with excellent grow results...total of 18 bulbs and about 54,000 lumens...total cost of the light setup in my growbox was $240

another thread you might be interested in... http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19180-t5-grow-light-deal/page__pid__406971#entry406971
 
ok how about this.

10X of these...
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/53688/SOCK-L9063.html
10X of these...
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/36676/FC42-801042.html

thats 420 watts at the cost of .13 dollers per watt. i think thats about as cheep as it gets.

thats 3.5 amps however, you are going to have to be careful with the wiring. its not something you are going to be able to wire with some junk speaker cable you have lieing around. id look for some 14 Gage romex wire atleast.

btw i keep linking 1000bulbs because the place is like an hour away from me, im sure you can order identical stuff elsewhere.
 
you really want your light to be more on the blue end of the spectrum for seedlings...red light is great for flowering/fruiting but the plants need blue for the vegetative state...and those 6500K 42 watt CFLs are Expensive at about 12 buck seach...

do some searching here on the forum...there are probably over 100 threads about lighting that cover the whole gamut...
 
AlabamaJack said:
red light is great for flowering/fruiting but the plants need blue for the vegetative state..
Click to expand...

i understand this lol... look at this from my perspective.
were talking about 60 plants correct? at a foot tall correct? im assuming thats several weeks of time under this proposed fixture. if were talking about a 3"x3" pot thats 9" square for a total of ~4square feet, those fixtures you linked are 2' long... you would have to place them 2 feet apart to cover 4 sq feet. or legnth wise they would be 48inches long and you would need to place 2 on each side of the centerline... 4 wide. i just dont think that would cut it. atleast if he used individual lamp sockets he could space the lights more uniformly.

plus thats only like 50 watts per square foot, i think that would be perfect if it were an HID lamp, but ive read that you generally want to double the watts per sq foot when using CFL bulbs, as they waste so much light and are not as efficient as HIDs.

i really dont think plants NEED predominately blue for vegging ive vegged many plants under the maligned 2200K light of your typical HPS bulb, and they love it. you are making it sound like these bulbs ONLY produce light at some awful red wavelength, cfl's are not LED's they produce light at a broad spectrum of wavelengths, this bulb infact produces some blue light, just not nearly as much as it does red.
i think the whole balancing blue and red is ideal but for 50 bucks i would think an extra 200 watts of light would trump that by a mile. its not perfect ill agree with that, but i dont think you are going to get perfect from 50 bucks.
 
each person does it the way that works for them...

I merely was offering the man another idea...bottom line...shop lights with 40 watt fluoros will work fine...
 
If you guys are talking about seedlings, there are three things you don't want - much heat, HPS bulbs and Nitrogen based ferts. The idea, at least my goal, is to grow plants with a large root mass, short internodes and several leaves. HPS will provide large internodes, especially when used with nuits high in N and warm temps. I'll take an 8-inch seedling with 12 leaves any day over a 12" plant with eight leaves. Think of it this way - it it was raining $20 bills from the sky, would you want a tall but narrow sack to collect the bills or a bushel basket?

As AJ says, we all have our fav ways, but I saw the results of growing short/stocky plants and taller seedlings with fewer leaves this year.

Mike
 
I don't think you need this kind of equipment for chili seeds as they are about as fast, easy and convenient as you can wish. Germinates in 3 days with close to 100% ratio and right away you have quite big and strong seedlings which will grow very fast.

For me it's not worth the money. Now a grow light for mature plants might be. But for just the germinating, no.

I do want to get a heat mat for my rhododendron seeds, though.
 
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