[adri123]

Hi

Has anyone any experience of the IKEA indoor growing products?

Thinking of using one to start off seedlings etc.

Thanks in advance.

Adri

[grinling]

Amazon does a screw fitting bulb for £17 free p&p

[Paul Plots]

Being nosey - I have just had a look at Ikea growing thingies....

Do you mean lights that use electricity and are plugged in or do you mean covers to keep plants warm?

All I came up with is:  http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indoor-gardening/

A second look gave me these: http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/?k=growing+light

It doesn't say how much light is given off or what wattage the LED is. (low I guess). It's an idea I suppose but I think, personally, I'd try to avoid having to pay for extra kit and running costs and wait until it's warmer and sunnier.

I do know that LED lights are an economical way of lighting tropical marine and fresh-water aquariums now that the quality of lights has been improved. I'm not sure what wave-lengths are needed to promote plant growth for indoor lighting.

It looks interesting.. Perhaps someone with experience will come along to share their knowledge.

I bet JayG would have some ideas. 

[JayG]

I do know that LED lights are an economical way of lighting tropical marine and fresh-water aquariums now that the quality of lights has been improved. I'm not sure what wave-lengths are needed to promote plant growth for indoor lighting.

It looks interesting.. Perhaps someone with experience will come along to share their knowledge.

I bet JayG would have some ideas.

You're right Paul, I couldn't resist having a little peek, partly because I'm still looking (and waiting) for the opportunity to replace my fluorescent tube aquarium lighting with LED lights, but I'm guessing aquarium lighting isn't the most profitable area to expand into. 

I did manage to find the wattage of the £27 IKEA growlight, which at 10W is very low even allowing for the efficiency of LED lamps:  Link seems to be too long to work properly - if you want to read the spec you need to go to the UK IKEA website and use the search facility for product 40333455.

Here is a not exactly over-enthusiastic review of a LED plant growing system (note that the lamps were 9 times as powerful as the IKEA one above):

http://www.growell.co.uk/blog/2012/07/led-grow-lights-do-they-actually-work

Hard not to conclude that 'every little helps', but probably not much using just 10W! 

[Paul Plots]

JayG, I don't think I would invest in "grow lights" for raising seedlings... it would add to the cost (me mean?) and I'm not convinced that they would make very much difference.

Aquarium LEDs.... they are really good. (Economical to run!) My daughter-in-law has a whopping tropical marine tank which uses LED and changes of an evening to a blue (I guess it is) twilight tint. Looks lovely. Her coral (and other wiggly bits) grow well. I'm told the prices are much more reasonable than they were and cheapest can be found at Ama...what's the name of that river? Fluval are good.