lighting Total newbie lighting question

gsnidow

gsnidow

Greeting all.  I've read through many of the posts here, but I am still not confident in my understanding of lighting for year-round indoor pepper growth.  This is the ultimate question: is it possible to produce peppers year-round under CFL and T8?
 
Lights CFL: I built two hoods using a 2' x 2' sheet of steel.  Each hood has 12 23w CLF's, one is all 2700K and one is 6500K.  These things are extremely bright (I can barely look directly at them when turned on), but from what I have read CFL's lose intensity as distance increases rather quickly.
 
Lights T8: I have two  4' T8 shop lights with 4 tubes each, the stated lumen output for each of the 8 bulbs is 1850.
 
Space: 8' x 7' area in my basement with stud walls.  Inside is lined with reflectix from floor to ceiling.  There is a bench at 4' tall along one wall, so I have the CFL's hanging under the bench and the T8's hanging above the bench, effectively making for two 4' tall grow areas.
 
Exhaust: I installed a 70 cfm exaust fan venting into an unused oil furnace flue in the top corner of the room.  By my math this fan should replace 100% of the air in the room every 3.5 or 4 minutes
 
This is all experimental, and now that I have invested the time and effort on the lights I would like to continue to use them to produce peppers if possible.  I had an issue with pods dropping, and have since learned too much nitrogen can cause this to happen in peppers.
 
I would really like to stay away from HID, mainly because I don't want to invest more money on lighting.  GIven what I have, I am wondering if anyone else has been able to produce from seed to fruit with similar lighting.  RIght now I have some small plants producing pods, and they are no longer dropping after I re-potted into some less rich soil, but they still are not producing peppers.  I'm not sure where to start investigating why no fruit yet.  I'm thinking maybe because the room gets down into the high 50's when the lights are off.  I would appreciate any advice on what to try next, or any verification that I will be able to produce peppers with what I have.  Thank you.
 
Greg
 
U want 3000 or more lumens per sq ft
Cfls and t8s or t5s need to be extremely close, like 4 inches max

How u get there us up to u

But by the time u get all the wattage in there the heat u will have would not be less than hps

Clfs are more suited to extremely small spaces
 
By the end of last year, I had some root-bound varieties trying to flower under six T8's in a  5' long x 18" wide x 3' tall box.  The only reason they didn't flower is because I clipped them off.  If you just re-potted your plants, they are probably expanding their root structure and recovering from any transplant shock.  Once they run out of room they will start to flower again.
 
 
If your end goal is fruit, I would head toward an adjustable digital MH / HPS HID kit.  You can run them at 50% or 75% reduced power to save on cost and heat, but you have the option to crank them up if you expand in the future.  This is what I am using.  
 
Other members have also had great success with LED as a primary or supplemental source of light.  
 
Photosynthesis will occur at an increasing rate up to the point that additional light is unusable (saturation point) and then, at some point, it becomes harmful.  This is provided that all of the other requirements are met.  Will they fruit, probably, but you might drive yourself insane waiting with florescent lights.
 
The first thread in this "Grow Tech" forum is "pinned" so that it's always at the top of page one. "Pinned" threads are very useful in any of the forums.
This pinned thread, titled "Light 101", is a must-read, and will offer you a lot of useful data. Hope this helps... i don't have enough experience yet to offer useful input for you myself.
 
For growing fruiting plants indoors you really cannot beat HID lighting (high pressure sodium or metal halide), especially if you are trying to cover a pretty large area. Fluorescents just don't have the intensity to penetrate the canopy very far and they do not put out anywhere near as many lumens/watt as a proper HID setup. 
 
You can probably get a few pods with fluorescent lighting but I don't think you will be very happy with the results. Fluoros are great for non-fruiting plants like lettuce or herbs though. 
 
To effectively cover an 8'x7' area you will need quite a bit of lighting. A 1000W HPS would be pretty close, they are good for between 6'x6' to 8'x'8 depending on what source you read. A 1000W HPS puts out about 130,000-145,000 lumens. 
 
You can get HID lighting reasonably cheap these days. You can get a complete 600W setup with digital ballas, HPS bulb, MH bulb, & air cooled hood for less than $200 & can get a 1000W setup for less than $300. Look up Apollo Horticulture on amazon or check out htgsupply.com for decently cheap lights.
 
If you plan to produce chiles indoors, buying inexpensive fluorescent luminaires is false economy.
 
Your cost for electricity for your first crop will far exceed the cost of luminaires so choose the most efficient light source which is not fluorescent.
 
Thanks all.  I think I will investigate HID, and use the lights I already have for my basils and cilantros and such.  Indeed, having 24 CFL's running at 23 watts each is just about the same as one 600w HPS, and the light output is nowhere near as much.  Good points all.
 
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