[Totty]

The lights.

[Totty]

The onions...

[New shoot]

Impressive set-up Totty    Are these destined for the show bench?

Mine are just showing    I shall be employing the low tech solution of tin foil reflectors as mine are just for me to gloat over 

[Totty]

Well, only three or five are destined for the bench. The rest, for the kitchen.

Totty

[gavinjconway]

mmmm Totty.... Looks like an expensive hobby you have there...  I'm in this to save money tho and not to have a factory set up   

I made mine last night.. It has 2 energy saver bulbs (equiv to 75W in old money) and even has a peep flap on the door. Been on all day and temp staying at 20 deg C - empty and sitting in my garage.  I'll fit a computer fan to keep air circulating and to control temp..  and can block or open round vent holes as well. It has 12 holes top and bottom to create it's own draft..

Cost about £20... probably wont work but heck it's worth a try. Then another £20 for fan temp controller etc..

This is just to do a few monster onions for our plotty show.

[Wiltshire Worms]

Sowed a few alias Craig seeds this afternoon. On windowsill now. I haven't really grown large onions from seed before, so I'm going to be reading this thread non stop for advice. Thanks. Also risked a few winter gem lettuce seeds in unheated greenhouse.can come in if weather turns cold

[DD.]

Gavin - if they are "normal" bulbs, they will not give out the right spectrum of light in order to stimulate proper growth of the plants. You can't just use any old bulb, (or to use the correct terminology - "lamp").

[adri123]

The bulbs need to be the cool white type for vegetative growth.  The warm white are for flowering.  I'm currently setting up something similar to gavins using GU10 LEDs that I had left over from a job.  I have 4 x Cool White and 4 x Warm white.  My plan is to have an open setup on the window sill so as to get natural light on the plants as well as the lamps. 

Think I'll put a sign in the window ...'Onions honest!!!'

[gavinjconway]

Thanks DD and Adri.. I thought they might be the wrong type    I'll see what I can find in town to use instead.

I agree Adri I need an "Onion" sign on mine as well cos they it's in direct sight of the road..

[bravemurphy]

I am going to get one of the t5 systems and I am sure that one or a few of us are going to have a knock on the door by the local boob

How embarrassing would that be for him

[Plot_29@_Lady_Mary]

Seeing that the weather is going to be nasty on New Year's Day, I went over the plot today as it was a lovely sunny day. I prepared three trays and sowed Long Red Florence, Ailsa Craig and Giant Autumn Leeks. Just scattered roughly 50 seeds each, gave a good watering and covered with fleece in the polytunnel. They will be unheated, but as they are in the polytunnel and covered in fleece, I think they will be nice and snug! If I can find some spare bubble wrap, I might just wrap the trays for extra insulation. Anyway, that's that for now!

[Totty]

Thanks DD and Adri.. I thought they might be the wrong type    I'll see what I can find in town to use instead.

I agree Adri I need an "Onion" sign on mine as well cos they it's in direct sight of the road..

Basically for vegetative growth, and ideal would be a blue colour wavelength (sometimes called cool white) of 4200k, and for flowering and fruit development the red wavelength of 2700k is ideal.
Most lights, including the LEDs Adri mentioned, will contain a portion of these wavelengths, but generally use a high percentage of green light which is next to useless for growing plants.

Your cabinet looks excellent, and I reckon the best bet for you would be a 2ft, 4 tube T5 fluorescent tube. You could pick one up off eBay for about 70 quid.
To be honest, my lights are the only "expensive" things I have ever bought for gardening, and seeing as though it's both a hobby and job, I see a couple of hundred quid as peanuts compared to the money spent on other peoples hobbies. A lot of people would probably spend as much on going to the pub, going to watch the footie, or just generally going out shopping, as I did on some lights.
Treat yourself sometimes!  And let the onions reap the benefits!

Got some extra special leek plants to collect in a week or so, hope they like it artificial for a while.
Happy new year, to you all.

Totty

[New shoot]

Will you post some pics of the resulting onions Totty    Would be really interesting to see the end results of the early start under artificial lighting compared to what the rest of us achieve without them 

[trunk monkey]

I sowed half a packet of "Bedfordshire Champion" in a seed tray in a heated propagator 2 days ago. The other half packet ! will try in a frost proofed greenhouse in a few weeks time.

[Totty]

Will you post some pics of the resulting onions Totty    Would be really interesting to see the end results of the early start under artificial lighting compared to what the rest of us achieve without them 

Hopefully everyone will post pics of their onions on here!
Fingers crossed they don't all bolt in 6 months time!

Totty