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Old 30-01-2015, 01:48 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible
Terry Coombs Terry Coombs is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2012
Posts: 678
Default Optimum lighting distance

George Shirley wrote:
On 1/29/2015 5:05 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
Since I've got a lot of stuff starting to come up , I went ahead
and made some brackets to hang that 2 tube flourescent fixture over
my shelf . I have 2 gro-lux 40 watt tubes , and am wondering how
high I need to hang the light . I'm currently hanging about a foot
above the plants , seemed about right ... but I can go down another
few inches or go up to about 2 feet .

I started mine at about six inches above the pots and then raised it
as the plants grew. The fixture I had was hung with chains so it was
easy to raise it up or lower it. One year I started plants with the
lights about two inches above the pot, they came up quickly and grew
so rapidly they were spindly.

If you can get a small fan and start blowing air slowly over the
plants, will make the stems much sturdier and the plants will be
stronger. I used the ceiling fan in my office. Was still working as a
technical writer at the time and it was nice to look over and see the
plants growing nicely.


The light is suspended over the plants on chains , I can lower or raise
them as needed . The purpose of the light is to supplement the sunlight , as
I think our double glazed panes only admit like
60-something percent of the light . The ceiling fan does stir the plants
some , it's set to blow "up" so the warm air flows down the walls .
Most of the tomatoes have sprouted , I wish the peppers would show some
green ... I planted a couple of pumpkin and a couple of acorn squash as a
germination check , looks like my saved seeds are viable !
--
Snag