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#1
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Seed starting question
When starting seed, like tomato or pepper plants, is it necessary to have a
light on before the seed has sprouted? I plan on using a heat mat for the first time this year, so the warmth of light won't be needed, but I wonder if it's still necessary to have light for some other reason? Thanks Rob |
#2
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Seed starting question
From: "FDR"
When starting seed, like tomato or pepper plants, is it necessary to have a light on before the seed has sprouted? I plan on using a heat mat for the first time this year, so the warmth of light won't be needed, but I wonder if it's still necessary to have light Not much in the way of light is needed before seeds sprout but lots of light is needed once they have sprouted plus cooler temps. While an ambient temp of 75+- is good for sprouting about 68-70 will be better for growing. |
#3
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Seed starting question
FDR wrote:
When starting seed, like tomato or pepper plants, is it necessary to have a light on before the seed has sprouted? I plan on using a heat mat for the first time this year, so the warmth of light won't be needed, but I wonder if it's still necessary to have light for some other reason? Thanks Rob Pepper and tomato seeds do not need light to germinate, but some seeds do. And other seeds need darkness to germinate. Parks Seeds has a pretty good table in their catalog that gives germination info for flower seeds. I don't know of any vegetables that have specific light requirements for germination. Best regards, Bob |
#4
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Seed starting question
"zxcvbob" wrote in message ... FDR wrote: When starting seed, like tomato or pepper plants, is it necessary to have a light on before the seed has sprouted? I plan on using a heat mat for the first time this year, so the warmth of light won't be needed, but I wonder if it's still necessary to have light for some other reason? Pepper and tomato seeds do not need light to germinate, but some seeds do. And other seeds need darkness to germinate. Parks Seeds has a pretty good table in their catalog that gives germination info for flower seeds. I don't know of any vegetables that have specific light requirements for germination. I believe lettuce needs light to germinate. -Olin |
#5
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Seed starting question
Things you plant underground can't tell if there's light or not until
they're on top of the ground. Lettuce, planted on top of the ground, needs light ... not massive amounts, but enough light to set off the process that says, hey it's spring, let's grow. Once you have two true leaves, everything you started will need light, preferably right on top of it 1-3 inches away so the plants don't go stretching toward the light. "jc" wrote in message ... "zxcvbob" wrote in message ... FDR wrote: When starting seed, like tomato or pepper plants, is it necessary to have a light on before the seed has sprouted? I plan on using a heat mat for the first time this year, so the warmth of light won't be needed, but I wonder if it's still necessary to have light for some other reason? Pepper and tomato seeds do not need light to germinate, but some seeds do. And other seeds need darkness to germinate. Parks Seeds has a pretty good table in their catalog that gives germination info for flower seeds. I don't know of any vegetables that have specific light requirements for germination. I believe lettuce needs light to germinate. -Olin |
#6
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Seed starting question
"jc" schreef in bericht
... I believe lettuce needs light to germinate. -Olin "und dann w.s. van leeuwen" antwordet in der Nachricht: ... and leeks will only germinate in the dark! That must be why it takes so long! Back in November when I started mine outdoors, we had less than 10 1/2 hours of daylight per day and it took nearly 3 weeks before they sprouted - the charts say 7-12 days. -Olin |
#7
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Seed starting question
"Tim B" wrote in message ...
Things you plant underground can't tell if there's light or not until they're on top of the ground. Lettuce, planted on top of the ground, needs light ... not massive amounts, but enough light to set off the process that says, hey it's spring, let's grow. Once you have two true leaves, everything you started will need light, preferably right on top of it 1-3 inches away so the plants don't go stretching toward the light. Ok. This is not a troll, and I really hope it doesn't seem that way. I'm planning on getting a grow light for the first time this season, after doing some mild indoor and outdoor gardening for a few years. The whole thing about putting the light so close seems a bit confusing. (I'd like to use just one or two lights for all of my plants so I don't have to spend a fortune on lights.) The SUN is pretty far away, so why is it such an issue to have the lights so close to the plants? I know the answer is so they don't stretch out and get spindly, but why does artificial light have that effect? I know this must seem like a really idiotic question, but none of my gardening friends seem to know the answer. Jeffrey |
#9
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Seed starting question
Jeffrey Barker wrote: Ok. This is not a troll, and I really hope it doesn't seem that way. I'm planning on getting a grow light for the first time this season, after doing some mild indoor and outdoor gardening for a few years. The whole thing about putting the light so close seems a bit confusing. (I'd like to use just one or two lights for all of my plants so I don't have to spend a fortune on lights.) The SUN is pretty far away, so why is it such an issue to have the lights so close to the plants? I know the answer is so they don't stretch out and get spindly, but why does artificial light have that effect? I know this must seem like a really idiotic question, but none of my gardening friends seem to know the answer. Jeffrey The simple answer is that the sun gives off a *lot* more energy than a fluorescent lamp. So to compensate, to have to place the fluorescents a lot closer to the plants than you would the sun. People will probably quote the "inverse square law" of light intensity to you, but it doesn't really apply because the flourescent tubes do not resemble a point light source (the sun *does*, however, from this distance); just the same, the light intensity drops off dramatically as you increase the distance from the source, even if it's not as bad as "energy decreases proportionally to the distance squared". :-) There are other issues as well, such as color spectrum, and photoperiodism, but you don't need to know much about that -- just don't leave your lights on 24 hours a day or you'll confuse some plants. Best regards, Bob -- Have a Windows® computer that is powered on for hours at a time? Join the search for a cure for cancer: http://grid.org/projects/cancer/ |
#10
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Seed starting question
In article ,
Jeffrey Barker wrote: "Tim B" wrote in message ... Things you plant underground can't tell if there's light or not until they're on top of the ground. Lettuce, planted on top of the ground, needs light ... not massive amounts, but enough light to set off the process that says, hey it's spring, let's grow. Once you have two true leaves, everything you started will need light, preferably right on top of it 1-3 inches away so the plants don't go stretching toward the light. Ok. This is not a troll, and I really hope it doesn't seem that way. I'm planning on getting a grow light for the first time this season, after doing some mild indoor and outdoor gardening for a few years. The whole thing about putting the light so close seems a bit confusing. (I'd like to use just one or two lights for all of my plants so I don't have to spend a fortune on lights.) The SUN is pretty far away, so why is it such an issue to have the lights so close to the plants? I know the answer is so they don't stretch out and get spindly, but why does artificial light have that effect? I know this must seem like a really idiotic question, but none of my gardening friends seem to know the answer. Light falls off with distance from the source. How much depends on particulars. If we approximate a fluorescent tube as a "line" source of light (radiating equally from the line), then we can say that the light intensity falls as 1/d (d = distance from the line source to some point. In my "hot box" I cheat -- since this is not in a window-sill, I simply cover the interior of the box with aluminum foil. This essentially eliminates the 1/d falloff, so I can keep the lights in the same place as the plants grow. If that isn't done, we would expect that the light intensity will be about 12 times weaker at 1' distance than at 1" distance (of course at 1" distance the line approximation isn't particularly good). The sun (from our perspective) is a point source; light intensity falls off with 1/r^2 from a point source, considerably faster than from a line source. However since we are approx 93*10^6 miles from the sun, a 1 foot movement away from the sun (ignoring atmospheric absorption or other attenuation, or reflections) will result in an attenuation of only 1 part in about 2*10^26 (!). Yes, the effects that we've ignored will have a much stronger effect than the one we were examining. Hey, wasn't that fun? -frank -- |
#11
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Seed starting question
On 6 Mar 2003 09:52:57 -0800,
(Jeffrey Barker) wrote: "Tim B" wrote in message ... Things you plant underground can't tell if there's light or not until they're on top of the ground. Lettuce, planted on top of the ground, needs light ... not massive amounts, but enough light to set off the process that says, hey it's spring, let's grow. Once you have two true leaves, everything you started will need light, preferably right on top of it 1-3 inches away so the plants don't go stretching toward the light. Ok. This is not a troll, and I really hope it doesn't seem that way. I'm planning on getting a grow light for the first time this season, after doing some mild indoor and outdoor gardening for a few years. The whole thing about putting the light so close seems a bit confusing. (I'd like to use just one or two lights for all of my plants so I don't have to spend a fortune on lights.) The SUN is pretty far away, so why is it such an issue to have the lights so close to the plants? I know the answer is so they don't stretch out and get spindly, but why does artificial light have that effect? I know this must seem like a really idiotic question, but none of my gardening friends seem to know the answer. The sun is a much more POWERFUL light than any lamp you will have in your home. Even by the time the sun's rays have traveled all the way through space and through our atmosphere, they are STILL much more powerful than any artificial light you'd have in your home. You will probably use fluorescent lights for your indoor gardening and since many of them are 4' long, you can put a lot of plants under one light fixture. I believe the requirement for having the lights very close to the plants is mainly for seedling plants: young plants that you've just started from seed. Many houseplants can be grown under lights that are not nearly this close to them. Pat -- CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY United States: http://www.stopthehunger.com/ International: http://www.thehungersite.com/ |
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