Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Equipment Shed => Topic started by: Russell Atterbury on February 29, 2020, 09:50
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Having a flat where no sunlight comes to any window, I have to go with the grow light system to raise vegetables etc from seed. I bought a bulb that is sold to do it, but it looks doubtful now. More research shows that a tube light in a reflector housing with maybe 6000 lumen and high kelvin is required. What is the cheapest and best option for one up to around 800mm long. The ones I've seen are very prohibitive on price.
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I am a nascent beginner in this field (and could not get my hydroponics kits off the ground, really, but I don’t think this was the lights, I think it was the nutrients) so please do not assume I have any kind of expertise here. But....
I have kits from Ikea. You can buy a whole kit, just the ‘strip’ light, or a bulb (for about ten quid) and my seedlings grow very nicely under them. No leaning, and they aren’t leggy, so I think the lights are good (the fact that the leaves are browning is not so good. I have started again in compost. I need to hoover the spare room more often, but my lettuce might make it to the table. So far, I have eaten three French beans at a cost of about ten pounds each!)
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Because I grow a lot of chillies (apart from this year) I started to look at grow lights for early starts.
A lot of research on well lets it call indoor herb growing web sites gave me a lot of info.
I have a 300w LED light system (photo below) the light sytem covers all wavelengths required, mine is on a timer which is set at 12 hours a day. Currently I have my tommy seedlings in the grow tent.
Every plant I have grown in this has grown really well and no different to being outside.
I personally would go with LED. I know it works and works well.
There is one downside however, the unit has fans as it gets a little warm and the fans are not noisey but you can hear them!
Hope this helps