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indoor Test growing indoors

Got a new bulb today, a 105-watt, 5000K CFL that is suppose to produce 6,900 lumens. Just in time for some new seeds to sprout. For the time being it is inside a chrome circular reflector and about six inches away from the seedlings. Took a meter reading at the level of the plant - 15,000 lux.

It appears I can get about 1,500 - 4,000 lux with the light about 2 feet away from the bottom of the chamber. If I measure at the side so the light covers 18 inches, it's well over 2,000.

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
Got a new bulb today, a 105-watt, 5000K CFL that is suppose to produce 6,900 lumens. Just in time for some new seeds to sprout. For the time being it is inside a chrome circular reflector and about six inches away from the seedlings. Took a meter reading at the level of the plant - 15,000 lux.

It appears I can get about 1,500 - 4,000 lux with the light about 2 feet away from the bottom of the chamber. If I measure at the side so the light covers 18 inches, it's well over 2,000.

Mike
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Hey Mike, I know the math behind the two methods of calculating lumens and lux are totally different, however, the resulting numbers in plant use are pretty predictable in outcome and similarity.

Lumens are a measure of the visible light that strikes a globe from exactly 12 inches away. That's a standard. It took me a long time to find that information and I have no idea where I found it, but it's easy to remember.

If you take a lux reading from a bulb that is 12" from a light source, you'll find that almost all of the time the reading will be very close to the same as the lumen rating in value.

I've done this with flo's, HPS, and all kinds of HID. It holds true.

If you half the distance, you can mostly double the number. That's also a good estimate that will be fairly accurate. Double the distance and it stays fairly consistent.

It's not exact of course, but close enough for plants.

Reflection has a lot to do with the lux reading as well. Remove the reflection and the numbers match much closer.

Give it a try.
 
This sounds like a heavy discussion so I'm about to stick my foot in my mouth. Last year I knew next to nothing about starting peppers from seed. I got some peat pots, some pro mix, peat pellets and horrors...cheapie flourescent shop lights from Walmart. I didn't soak any seeds, I didn't germinate them..just planted them in the dirt or peat pellets. Covered the pots with the plastic lids and hoped for the best. Hundreds of those little babies grew to be big peppers. Amazingly or sheer accident we had no aphids! Stupidity or beginners luck, whatever you want to call it the peppers made it through my mistakes. I didn't know enough to not do some of the things I did and they worked. Point of my rambling is not to get caught up in the technical aspects so much. The professionals on this site are fantastic and sort of intimidating but they give so much information and help. You can muddle through without all the bells and whistles if it's out of your budget so do what you gotta do, don't let it hold you back from growing peppers.
 
Sounds good to me Jackie. What type of peppers did you grow? They grew under shop lights the entire time, or just until you moved them outside?
 
Jackie,

Except for the aphid part, I pretty much did the same, at least to start with. (After I learned not to let seedlings sit someplace where the cats could munch on them!) I think of the 55 seeds I tried to germinate, all but about five did. They might have germinated but died - I only had 50 containers. But I ran out of lights and wanted to start some toms and cukes, and I had a bunch of 13 and 23 watt CFL bulbs laying around and a nice box I could use as an incubator, I figured I might as well try them. Discovered they did a better job and used less electricity than the regular fluros. Somewhere along the line, got interested in LEDs and wanted to try them also. They did great, using less electricity than the CFLs.

Unless someone is growing a boatload of seeds, a couple of shop lights or the lower power CFL bulbs are great. I plan on starting 874 seeds, maybe sowing 1100+. Most of these are to sell, so they have to look good, meaning shorter stems, big leaves. I can do this with possibly as few as six but more than likely eight shop lights. But eight shop lights are gonna run about $120 and use 640 watts of energy. I found the same bulb, the 105 watt where four of them, including shipping, is $116. And they will use 420 watts and produce more light over the same area.

I probably cannot afford to buy the lights because of my hobby but I can afford the investment. If I can sell 600 plants next spring, at an average of $3 each, that's a decent payback!

Will I invest in more lights? Of course. I want to raise food the year around and in Ohio, that means six months in doors for many plants. Plus clone rose bushes and other shrubs. I would love to have 20 knockout rose bushes to sell in May at $10 each! Linda started buying cat food in those three-gallon buckets. I figure that by this time next year I'll have about 15' of wall space lined with buckets, 15' on the other side lined with shelves of plants and another 8' full of cloners!

I need to seek help for this addiction!

Mike
 
I just know this circuit board looking light is really bright and contains enough red light that it's helping to produce bigger and better flowers.
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ABM,

I see the flowers but I also see a huge amount of leaf drop on some of the plants and a significant amount of internodal distance. I'll be curious to see if the plant produces any fruit.

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
ABM,

I see the flowers but I also see a huge amount of leaf drop on some of the plants and a significant amount of internodal distance. I'll be curious to see if the plant produces any fruit.

Mike
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I admit now there were and are problems. I've been working to address them lately. This gives me a chance to talk about them.
I've only had this light running for about 3 weeks I guess. Since that time I have noticed much increased vigor on all the plants. This tiny panel could probably start 2 trays of very strong seedlings.
So besides the weak 14 watt 225 5mm light panels(I would glady trade 2 of them for 1 like in the pic below). The plants look scrawny for other reasons too.
  • Not enough proper nutrition.
  • Not enough wind.
  • Not enough organic components in my soil to create decomposed matter. The medium is not "alive" enough.
  • I'm never home. Sometimes the lights stay on for 2-3 days at a time.
  • Inconsistent light periods (no autotimer).
  • Sometimes letting the plants get too dry.
  • PH? -Who knows.;)
I'm going to have to break down and get some hydro fertz and testing equipement.
At least I don't have any bugs except for the occasional fly or tiny spider hanging around.
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ABM,

I think your panel will do great for seedlings, don't get me wrong. I love LEDs - in three years the vast majority of people growing a significant number of plants will use them. But like Nat posted, you will likely need a lot more light to get fruits, though I hope you prove us wrong.

Mike
 
I planted peppers, tomatoes and herbs the 2nd and 3rd week of March. As soon as they stuck their little heads out of the soil they went under the lights until they went outside a little at a time to harden off. With our wet cold spring and all they didn't get outside till June, probably had 200-250 plants, too many to be hauling in and out all the time so they got a crash course in adapting to outside. I didn't have a harvest like AJ but the freezer is full of peppers and I have about 15 gallon bags dried plus all that I used to make salsa and hot sauce. One thing I learned there is a method to AJ's thinking and charts..I will keep better records next year.
 
It's true that it seems like I am trying to prove something(to myself or others?...I'm not sure)by only using LEDs for my indoor babies, but I think there is something to be said for staying strict to your own test parameters regardless of the cost to life and limb.
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Armadillo,

Looks like a new one every other day! I usually try six seeds at a time and though they may be a full week apart from the first to sprout to the last but two weeks later they all seem to be about the same size.

Mike
 
wordwiz said:
Armadillo,

Looks like a new one every other day! I usually try six seeds at a time and though they may be a full week apart from the first to sprout to the last but two weeks later they all seem to be about the same size.

Mike
Click to expand...

If it goes on like that in 12 days all seeds will have sprouted. I'm curious if they will be big prolific plants and if they will survive being moved outside in May. In January the next batch of seeds will be planted.
 
By May, if aphids or other nasties leave them alone, they should be bearing fruit! I intend to move mine outside in the middle of April but I won't sow them until at least the first week of February for the peppers and third week for the toms.

Mike
 
It's still only four of the first ten seeds that have sprouted. From the second batch of ten planted on 11/29/08 (7Pot, Hab choc, red Chinense, red Uganda Chinense, Nepali orange, Aji Pineapple, Thai bird chilis, PC-1, Lemon Drop and Tabasco) five have sprouted so far: Pineapple, red Chinense, Nepali orange, Lemon Drop and Uganda.
For those six unsprouted from 11/04/08 it's about six weeks now. Does it make sense to wait or shall I dump them and start new?

The four seedlings of the first batch (Jalapeno, red Rocoto, Cayenne and Tepin) are healthy and growing.
 
Six of the first ten seeds didn't sprout. So I started a few more. Now it's 70 seeds I planted and 25 have already sprouted. Here's my setup. There's not enough space, just one window sill, so the setup is very basic. I use normal energy saving lights, no special growing lights.
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