lighting Sufficient Lighting?

B

Bakemeacake

Hi guys,
 
I have some questions regarding the lighting for my pepper seedlings. To start, let me say this is my first year gardening and I went about a few things the wrong way and am now trying to correct those mistakes as I learn more. I initially got some bad info that I could grow my seeds in a window sill. After I started doing this, I noticed that the seedlings were getting very "leggy" and were stretching for the light (some fell over and died), even though they were in a very sunny, south-facing window. Now, I have purchased two 30 watt LED grow lights from Amazon (link) and have arranged them around the seedlings in such a way that is shown in the attached images. 
 
I leave the lights on for 12 hours a day and water enough to keep them moist. The seedlings are still very thin as of right now, but it has only been a few days since I started using the lights. Will this setup be sufficient to grow them until I transplant outside, or will I need to make adjustments?
 
growlights.jpg

 
growlights2.jpg

 
leggyjap.jpg
 
I have a 400W and a 600W LED with UV spectrum, that I use(d) for my indoor plants, all the way from seedling.  That gets me all the way up to pod stage, for about 6 plants.
 
I have never used anything like what you have going, but it seems to me that it's highly underpowered.  Maybe someone else knows better.
 
This should be posted in "Grow Tech" where: Discuss lights, heaters, irrigation systems, greenhouses, and DIY solutions. Show off your inventions!
 
The seedlings look leggy but that could be because they have been on the windowsill. Try waiting a few days and seeing what happens.
 
You could add supplemental lighting with some 23W CFL lights which will help a lot. I grew a cayenne to the point where it had buds and was forking using only two 23w warm white CFLS.
 
You could also add a small fan that blows on the plants periodically to strengthen the stems.
 
Btw that's such a cute way of staking your seedlings.
 
SuburbanFowl said:
The seedlings look leggy but that could be because they have been on the windowsill. Try waiting a few days and seeing what happens.
 
You could add supplemental lighting with some 23W CFL lights which will help a lot. I grew a cayenne to the point where it had buds and was forking using only two 23w warm white CFLS.
 
You could also add a small fan that blows on the plants periodically to strengthen the stems.
 
Btw that's such a cute way of staking your seedlings.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info! Yeah, it's been a little while now and they're still pretty thin (just had to stake another one before posting this). I just moved them into a closet and will be giving them 24/7 light. Hopefully that makes a difference. I had only been doing 12 hours because I didn't want the lights going in the Florida room at night as to perhaps make the neighbors think I'm growing something other than peppers. That's a good point about the fan. I had one on them, but now I'll need to stick one in the closet with them.
 
willard3 said:
This should be posted in "Grow Tech" where: Discuss lights, heaters, irrigation systems, greenhouses, and DIY solutions. Show off your inventions!
Click to expand...
Oops... you're right. Maybe a mod could move it to the appropriate section?
 
LED lamp advertised wattage is quite often complete and utter bullshit. Quite many manufacturers, if a LED strip pulls 45 watts from the wall but puts out the equivalent (in their not so humble opinion) of a 400 watt HPS lamp then they label the LED as being 400 watts instead of 45 watts.
 
2 x 30 "true" watts LED strips is easily enough to raise 5 seedlings up until plant out.
 
I have 4 x 45 watt LED rigs with 6400k color. That's 180 watts in total. That was enough to start about 75 seedlings and finally raise 24 plants up until plant out time. I did have to sell about 50 seedlings along the way because they were growing so well under the lamps that I needed to reduce the number of plants down to 24. I ran the lights 24-7 and after 4 weeks most of them were bushy, forking, about a foot tall and already flowering. See the beginning of my glog for details.
 
3000 lumens is enough, I know this because I just grew a load of seedlings under it. 34w of T8 fluoro tubes at 4000k.
I used a box covered in aluminium foil though, so the light was reflected inside. I noticed you don't have that, so it's something you might want to consider. They are pretty easy to build and just require basic knowledge of electrical engineering
 
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