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High Cost of Seed Starting
I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from
ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
On Fri, 18 May 2007 01:40:41 -0500, sherwindu
wrote: I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. I usually only grow plants from seed which are not otherwise available locally to purchase in 4 inch pots. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
On May 18, 12:40 am, sherwindu wrote:
I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
On May 18, 12:40 am, sherwindu wrote:
I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. The $63 tomato raises its ugly head again. Personally I've come to the conclusion I don't raise plants from seed to save money. I do it because I enjoy it, and that makes the process of killing several painfully raised plants less traumatic. What you are talking about though is the high cost of raising plants from seeds under lights. Most of the equipment like heating pads is a one time expenditure. You might try winter sowing. People here are starting seeds in mini milk carton greenhouses in January and putting them outside. The theory is that although it can take some time for the plant to sprout, the root development is taking place and the plant quickly overtakes others once growing in friendlier conditions. There was one woman in my local hort group who started about 40 last year. Mind you, she had milk cartons piled against her fence for a couple of months. Dora Zone 3 |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
bungadora wrote in
oups.com: On May 18, 12:40 am, sherwindu wrote: I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. The $63 tomato raises its ugly head again. Personally I've come to the conclusion I don't raise plants from seed to save money. I do it because I enjoy it, and that makes the process of killing several painfully raised plants less traumatic. What you are talking about though is the high cost of raising plants from seeds under lights. Most of the equipment like heating pads is a one time expenditure. You might try winter sowing. People here are starting seeds in mini milk carton greenhouses in January and putting them outside. The theory is that although it can take some time for the plant to sprout, the root development is taking place and the plant quickly overtakes others once growing in friendlier conditions. There was one woman in my local hort group who started about 40 last year. Mind you, she had milk cartons piled against her fence for a couple of months. Dora Zone 3 Here's a site about it and they even offer free seeds! http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/index.html |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
bungadora wrote:
On May 18, 12:40 am, sherwindu wrote: I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. The $63 tomato raises its ugly head again. Personally I've come to the conclusion I don't raise plants from seed to save money. I do it because I enjoy it, and that makes the process of killing several painfully raised plants less traumatic. What you are talking about though is the high cost of raising plants from seeds under lights. Most of the equipment like heating pads is a one time expenditure. You might try winter sowing. People here are starting seeds in mini milk carton greenhouses in January and putting them outside. The theory is that although it can take some time for the plant to sprout, the root development is taking place and the plant quickly overtakes others once growing in friendlier conditions. There was one woman in my local hort group who started about 40 last year. Mind you, she had milk cartons piled against her fence for a couple of months. Dora Zone 3 I'm not familira with milk carton greenhouses. I'm about to Google, but do you havny ready references to web sites discussing milk carton green houses? TIA. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
On May 19, 11:20 am, jJim McLaughlin
wrote: bungadora wrote: On May 18, 12:40 am, sherwindu wrote: I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. The $63 tomato raises its ugly head again. Personally I've come to the conclusion I don't raise plants from seed to save money. I do it because I enjoy it, and that makes the process of killing several painfully raised plants less traumatic. What you are talking about though is the high cost of raising plants from seeds under lights. Most of the equipment like heating pads is a one time expenditure. You might try winter sowing. People here are starting seeds in mini milk carton greenhouses in January and putting them outside. The theory is that although it can take some time for the plant to sprout, the root development is taking place and the plant quickly overtakes others once growing in friendlier conditions. There was one woman in my local hort group who started about 40 last year. Mind you, she had milk cartons piled against her fence for a couple of months. Dora Zone 3 I'm not familira with milk carton greenhouses. I'm about to Google, but do you havny ready references to web sites discussing milk carton green houses? TIA.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - The only reference I kept was this http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/wtrsow/ Just to clarify in case of misunderstanding, I'm not talking about building greenhouse out of milk cartons. The milk carton acts as a 'greenhouse' - but a very small one. However, one person on my local group mentioned she has a friend who fills bottles with water, puts them in a square and puts a plastic sheet over top and she says it works quite well. I'm collecting vinegar bottles (they are rectangular in shape) to use in this way to heat my little tomato house in the fall instead of using electrical heating. It's worth a try anyway. There was quite a bit of discussion last winter about winter sowing amd use of milk cartons on canadiangardening.ca in the Plant Talk forum. The posts are still there so if you put in winter sowing as a search term you can find info on how to prepare the bottles, what they've had the most luck with, etc. You don't have to sign in to read the forum. Dora |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
sherwindu wrote:
|I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from |ComEd |in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can |be |very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and |about |six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost |doubled. |Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies | |and flowers from seed. | | Sherwin D. Have you tried doing without the heat pads? I start my seeds indoors under double fluorescents - regular ones, not "grow lights" and don't have any noticeable problems with either the seeds or the elect. bill. My furnace kicks in around 50 deg. but the cool utility room where I have the seedlings doesn't get much benefit from that. Probably gets down around 40. Doubtless yours will germinate & grow faster-earlier but I suspect you can do without the heat pads if you're willing to accept a slower start to your season. | Alexander |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
P.S. Fluorescent lights have to be close to the soil or growing seedlings -
about 2 inches is good. This also supplies a small amount of heat. Alexander |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
It's the heating pad that killed your power bill. The shop lights alone only
cost a couple of bucks a month to run. 80 watts per two 40w bulbs in one light fixture. Operate 12 hours a day for 960 watts total consumption. Operate 30 days in a month for 28.8KW consumption If you pay fifteen cents per KW, then your total cost is 28.8 x .15 = $4.32 "sherwindu" wrote in message ... I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
On Fri, 18 May 2007 01:40:41 -0500, sherwindu wrote:
very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guesstimation: Lights: 20 W x 4 bulbs x 12 hr/d x 30 d = 28.8 KW-hr (new 4 ft tubes actually use 32W) Heating pads: 50W x 6 x 24 hr/d x 30 d = 216 KW-hr 245 KW-hr x $0.0996/KW-hr = $24.40 (the 9.96 cents per KW/hr is from the residential average rate in Illinois in Feb 2007, per http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html ) If that $25 doubled your power bill, I'd love to have your bill. Or you could start your seedlings inside and then put them in a cold frame. You don't need lights till your seedlings are up; you don't need much heat once they're up for most species. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
"sherwindu" wrote in message
... I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. Have you considered a small hothouse, size to suit your needs? Shoebox to ? in size. Sun does the primary warming. Airtight. Dave |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
In article . net,
"Dave" wrote: "sherwindu" wrote in message ... I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. Have you considered a small hothouse, size to suit your needs? Shoebox to ? in size. Sun does the primary warming. Airtight. Dave In some areas of life I just feel fortunate (this is one of them). I do just fine without heat pads. I put my seed starting kits on folding TV trays above the floor heat registers and all of my south side windows have heat registers in front of them. Seems to work just fine. I do not have grow lights just designed for plants. What I do have is two ott natural reading 18w lamps. I just love those lamps, so much easier on the eyes when reading. So on cloudy days I puts the lamps over some of the seed kits. Unknown If this truly helps the plants? I usually end up killing my plants during transplanting As for the high cost of seed starting -- I am finding the cost of just driving my car to the supermarket cost as much as a good tossed salad. I cant wait until I can get a good meal from walking into my own back yard. Enjoy Life ........ Dan -- Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically. |
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High Cost of Seed Starting
"Dan L." wrote: In article . net, "Dave" wrote: "sherwindu" wrote in message ... I kind of figured it would affect my electric bill, but a recent increase from ComEd in the Chicago area has made it more evident that raising plants from seeds can be very costly. For about one month, I had two double flourecent shop lights and about six small heating pads going to germinate my seeds. My electric bill almost doubled. Guess there is no way around it, but makes one think twice about growing veggies and flowers from seed. Sherwin D. Have you considered a small hothouse, size to suit your needs? Shoebox to ? in size. Sun does the primary warming. Airtight. Dave In some areas of life I just feel fortunate (this is one of them). I do just fine without heat pads. I put my seed starting kits on folding TV trays above the floor heat registers and all of my south side windows have heat registers in front of them. Seems to work just fine. Unfortunately, I have no floor head register, but wall mounted forced air ducts. I am going to be stingy about using my heating pads next year. As soon as I see sprouts, I'm either going to turn down or turn off the heating pads. It never gets that cold in my crawl space. I do not have grow lights just designed for plants. What I do have is two ott natural reading 18w lamps. I just love those lamps, so much easier on the eyes when reading. So on cloudy days I puts the lamps over some of the seed kits. Unknown If this truly helps the plants? I use two shop lites each with a regular florescent and a grow light, to give the most broad spectrum of light. I usually end up killing my plants during transplanting Now there I have no problem. You should carefully pry up the plants trying to retain as much original growing media, as possible. Plant your spindly seedlings deep, as they will generate new roots. Not sure exactly what is your problem with transplanting? Sherwin As for the high cost of seed starting -- I am finding the cost of just driving my car to the supermarket cost as much as a good tossed salad. I cant wait until I can get a good meal from walking into my own back yard. Enjoy Life ........ Dan -- Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically. |
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