If you want indoor plants, try hyacinths from bulbs. It's a bit late this year but you could put it on the list for next year

northwards wrote:
Hi everybody

I'm new to these forums but I've been lurking for a while and they look
really informative. I live in the Cairngorm Mountains, in Aberdeenshire,
in Scotland, so the gardening conditions can be challenging, to say the
least

Because light levels here aren't great in the spring, I've always
started my seedlings off under grow-lamps. Does anybody have any
experience of the new LED grow-lamps, or do most people use the usual
high-intensity bulbs or fluorescent lights?

Any advice or opinions will be gratefully received!


I have no experience with the new LED lamps. However,

I use low 15W T-5 grow lights, just two feet long, cost $15 per light. I
have eight lights. I have one 72 cell or two 48 cell trays for each light.
Seems to work very well. However, I have not tried other higher powered
lights. I also have southern facing windows. I have notice my plants grow
better with the lamps over the windows alone. In spring I only get about 10
hours max of sunshine though the windows. Many days in the spring it is
very cloudy restricting the sunshine even more. So far I see no need for
the high powered lights. I just put the lights closer to the plants. I use
a small chains with small hooks to manually raise and lower the lights.

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

northwards wrote:
Hi everybody

I'm new to these forums but I've been lurking for a while and they look
really informative. I live in the Cairngorm Mountains, in Aberdeenshire,
in Scotland, so the gardening conditions can be challenging, to say the
least

Because light levels here aren't great in the spring, I've always
started my seedlings off under grow-lamps. Does anybody have any
experience of the new LED grow-lamps, or do most people use the usual
high-intensity bulbs or fluorescent lights?

Any advice or opinions will be gratefully received!




I use F32T8 fluorescent 2-lamp fixtures, just a few inches above my
seedlings. They work great until the little plants outgrow them.
I'll start my first peppers in about a month, and tomatoes about April 1.

For big plants, I currently have a 400W HPS security floodlight in my
basement on a timer for about 12 hours a day. The plants do OK, but
it looks ugly and uses a lot of juice. I'm about to replace it with a
4-lamp F54T5HO fixture that I can hang from the ceiling and adjust the
height.
http://relightdepot.com/fixtures/high-bay-fixtures/t5ho-high-bay/4-lamp-t5ho-full-body-high-bay-enhanced-reflector.html

We're approaching the season when red spider mites appear out of
nowhere and kill half my big plants. Got my fingers crossed...

-Bob

In article ,
northwards wrote:

Hi everybody

I'm new to these forums but I've been lurking for a while and they look
really informative. I live in the Cairngorm Mountains, in Aberdeenshire,
in Scotland, so the gardening conditions can be challenging, to say the
least

Because light levels here aren't great in the spring, I've always
started my seedlings off under grow-lamps. Does anybody have any
experience of the new LED grow-lamps, or do most people use the usual
high-intensity bulbs or fluorescent lights?

Any advice or opinions will be gratefully received!

I have two 400W HID lamps, one high pressure sodium and one metal
halide. In the fall I bring my non-hardy potted plants indoors and
place the flowering plants under the hps (more red wavelength light) and
the vegetative ones under the mh (bluer light). I also have a board
with 4 twin 40W fluorescent fixtures bolted to it which I use for
starting seedlings. High output fluorescents with horticultural tubes
are excellent, but hid lamps are far easier to manipulate, take up less
space and are, I believe, more electrically efficient.

On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:43:06 +0000, northwards
wrote:


Hi everybody

I'm new to these forums but I've been lurking for a while and they look
really informative. I live in the Cairngorm Mountains, in Aberdeenshire,
in Scotland, so the gardening conditions can be challenging, to say the
least

Because light levels here aren't great in the spring, I've always
started my seedlings off under grow-lamps. Does anybody have any
experience of the new LED grow-lamps, or do most people use the usual
high-intensity bulbs or fluorescent lights?

Any advice or opinions will be gratefully received!

I found a 400w metal halide lamp at a sale a few years back and though
it's more expensive to run it's another world compared to my old grow
lamps. With the grow lamps the lights had to be so close to the plants
that variations in seedling hight messed things up and when plants got
bigger the lower leaves didn't get enough light. None of that with the
pot farm light. No more spindley tomatoes.

northwards said:



Hi everybody

I'm new to these forums but I've been lurking for a while and they look
really informative. I live in the Cairngorm Mountains, in Aberdeenshire,
in Scotland, so the gardening conditions can be challenging, to say the
least

Because light levels here aren't great in the spring, I've always
started my seedlings off under grow-lamps. Does anybody have any
experience of the new LED grow-lamps, or do most people use the usual
high-intensity bulbs or fluorescent lights?

I replaced a metal halide lamp with a (very expensive) high intensity LED
light which uses a lot less power. My seed starting area is roughly
3' x3' (or 1m x1m) and lined with reflective mylar. I added a second,
smaller, and less expensive LED panel near the back wall of the box part
way through the process.

My plants were much stockier, most likely do to the lower heat.

This winter I hung the smaller panel in the window where I overwinter
my orchid, in place of the small florescent fixture I was using. It's doing
better than ever.

My very expensive light:
http://www.superled.net/ledgrowlights.html

My less expensive light:
http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/pro...c?productId=10

Just be advised that the plants will look strange under these lights, almost
black.

My verdict: they work, are admirably suited to growing in a small area
that won't fit long florescent fixtures or are prone to overheating with
high-output metal halide lamps.

But they are very pricey to buy.

On the other hand, they use far less power than any other option and
should suffer only minimal output loss over a very long life, with no
need for replacement lamps.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Vegetables are like bombs packed tight with all kinds of important
nutrients..." --Largo Potter, Valkyria Chronicles

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