growing seeds under grow lights - Page 2

jardinlady · September 12, 2009

Thank you so much Dice and Keith.

I will definetely try all that and see if it works.

Today I moved my seedlings to the formal dining room, that way I can keep them under grow lights for longer, I still need to buy a timer so the lights turn on and off automatically.

Right now I am proping my lettuce seeds up with a book closer to the light and leaving the swiss chard in the ground without proping up since the swiss chard is taller. Hopefully this will work.

I am not sure I mentioned it before but I tried growing some Lumpy Red seeds that I got in a seed trade and unfortunately they ended up too leggy and also it was taking forever for the plants to grow, practically after 10 weeks they only grew 3 inches tall. I mentioned this problem in another forum and somebody told me that I had to fertilize my plants. I guess my question is how often should I ferlitize them or if this was the problem?

I did go to the store and bought some organic fish fertilizer that I can dilute with water to try to fertilize my seedling with, is this a good idea?

tjg911 · September 12, 2009

yes but don't get too crazy with fertilizer. for tomatoes i fertilize after they get their 1st true leaves and about once 12-14 days. the faster they grow the sooner you have to transplant to a larger container. you'll be surprised at how fast you are transplanting. eventually they'll get too big to fit under the lights. up here that's a problem as i can't put them out until at least memorial day as it's too cold at night and sometimes in the day too.

tom

jardinlady · September 14, 2009

Thank's Tom, I will do that.

I just bought a timer so I can plug it in my lights and they can come on and off automatically.

Seedlings are looking a lot better now and not so leggy.

jardinlady · September 17, 2009

Thank you so much.

Since I've place my lights closer to the plants they seem to be doing better.

The timer I bought is broken so I have to return it and buy another one.

One thing about the system I have is even though I don't have a huge garden the lighting is getting to be too small, so I am really considering building a bigger one expecially when I start my tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers and eggplant and the list goes on and on, I will definetely run out of space.

Maybe I can even buy a cheap shelving and mount my lights there.

What do you guys have as a system so I can get ideas on what to build?

tjg911 · September 17, 2009

here's the grow light stand i built in 2004. i have never used the bottom shelf and i grow a lot of stuff from seed in addition to tomatoes. all you need to buy is 3/4" pvc pipe, tees, elbows, chain, plywood, lights and a timer. i have an extra stand i'll sell for cost but it's glued so you'd need to be able to take it assembled and if you're not in my area that's impractical anyway. this stand is pretty easy to make.

http://www.tsflowers.com/plantstand.html

tom

OmahaJB · September 18, 2009

A couple simple ideas I use:

1) Others have given good ideas of what to use to prop seedlings up with. Another one is to use old cassette cases. They are the perfect length and width. I have lots of old cassettes I bought long ago and some of the music really wasn't that good. So I take the cassettes out and stack the cases up a couple high until I get the correct height.

2) If you have a spare closet that is long enough, you can hang 4' shoplights from the clothes racks. Just wrap a chain around the bar and make sure enough hangs down on both ends, then use S-hooks to hang the shoplights from. I then place boxes underneath the lights, and use whatever else I have, like cassette cases or box lids, to raise the seedlings to the appropriate level.

In the past I've set up two plastic shelving units (Wal-Mart cheapies) facing each other about 5' apart in the middle of a spare bedroom, placed 2 flat fence posts on top from one shelving unit to the other, then hung the 4' shoplights from the fence posts. Menard's had the perfect kind (flat) that I needed. Just have to make sure the shelves are weighted down, which is easy since they're shelves.

3) The previous suggestion of using mylar or foil to reflect the light back is a good one. Mylar reflects it much more effeciently, but for seedlings even foil would work fine.

4) I've never used mylar for seedlings, however the next time I grow I'll use that or foil, or I'll use another method I stumbled on. When I lived in Omaha I had mature plants going, as well as the seedlings. Well, I had been using supplemental side lighting on the mature plants by using CFL's in brooder lamps. There's no doubt that extra lighting immensely helped the seedlings grow thicker and stronger. What I did is I used S-hooks and propped the brooder lamps on top of boxes. I set a 10" plastic pot on the box, weighted it down for stability, then put the S-hook on the edge of the pot and used the other end of the hook to hold the handle of the brooder lamp. I wasn't using very strong CFL's but still it really helped both the mature plants and the seedlings. I believe I used 3 brooder lamps since my area was fairly large, and I placed them at 3 of the corners. That really helped with fruiting growth as well on the mature plants. I always kept something between the bottom lip of the brooder and the box, usually cassette cases - just in case it got a little too warm. I'm overly cautious and even though I knew there was little chance the brooder would get hot enough to start the box on fire, I still made sure I had it off the box anyways.

Just a couple ideas there.

Edited to say, I try keeping my lights on as long as possible for seedlings and mature plants that are just growing vegetation. When the fruiting stage arrives I have the lights on for a shorter period of time. For seedlings and vegetation stage I have them on 18-22 hours. For fruiting I knock a few hours off. Some may disagree with my method but it seems to work for me. I don't like keeping lights on 24 hours a day like some people do because it makes sense to me to let them cool down once a day. That's just me though....

jardinlady · September 18, 2009

Thank you so much Omaha, this is great lots of help.
Actually my hubby is building a nice shed in our back yard it's going to be big, I am hoping he'll let me some space in it to place my seedlings in there with new lights sice I am running out of space in mine.

I tried the foil and it seems to be working fine, the seeds are not as leggy anymore. I am also going to try to place a small fan so they get some air, I've been told that this will make the stems stronger.

By the way I am sorry to ask this question in here but I thought I might try just in case.

I planted some lettuce about 30 days ago Black seeded simpson in a container and the other day I took a little bit of it just to try it and it tasted bitter, the description says it is supposed to be sweet but not bitter at all. Why is this? It has been raining every day and temps are about in the 80's is this the reason?

Blueaussi · September 18, 2009

I made a seed starting rack out of a stainless steel storage shelf I bought at Lowe's.

You can sorta see by this picture what it looks like. You can get a lot of seedlings in a relatively small amount of space.

jardinlady · September 18, 2009

That's great Blueausi that's exactly what I was looking at building. That is a great system and plenty of space as well.

Thanks for posting it!

tjg911 · September 19, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by jardinlady

I planted some lettuce about 30 days ago Black seeded simpson in a container and the other day I took a little bit of it just to try it and it tasted bitter, the description says it is supposed to be sweet but not bitter at all. Why is this? It has been raining every day and temps are about in the 80's is this the reason?

lettuce tastes bitter after it bolts (starts to make seed). 30 days seems kinda short for it to bolt but did you keep it watered? bss when i grew it held well into august which no lettuce does that was spring planted here. i start lettuce several times a season because it does bolt from hot temps even with water.

tom

jardinlady · September 22, 2009

Hi Tom:

Actually it's been raining in here non stop for about 2 months, since august, it rains every day and sometimes it just pours, so I am not sure if the flavor is a consequence of that as well.

I was researching on the internet and it says that some lettuces have a bitter taste if they are grown in hot temps. We are still pretty hot here in Mobile, if I knew that I probably would have started this particular seed in Jan, Feb time frame when it starts getting cold and just would have planted something that tolerates heat.

I am going to attempt to cut some of it, clean it and place it in the frinde and see if the bitter taste goes away, if not I might have to plant something else instead.

September 12, 2009	#17
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	yes but don't get too crazy with fertilizer. for tomatoes i fertilize after they get their 1st true leaves and about once 12-14 days. the faster they grow the sooner you have to transplant to a larger container. you'll be surprised at how fast you are transplanting. eventually they'll get too big to fit under the lights. up here that's a problem as i can't put them out until at least memorial day as it's too cold at night and sometimes in the day too. tom __________________ I need a hero I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night He’s gotta be strong And he’s gotta be fast And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight I need a hero I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light He’s gotta be sure And it’s gotta be soon And he’s gotta be larger than life

September 17, 2009	#20
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	here's the grow light stand i built in 2004. i have never used the bottom shelf and i grow a lot of stuff from seed in addition to tomatoes. all you need to buy is 3/4" pvc pipe, tees, elbows, chain, plywood, lights and a timer. i have an extra stand i'll sell for cost but it's glued so you'd need to be able to take it assembled and if you're not in my area that's impractical anyway. this stand is pretty easy to make. http://www.tsflowers.com/plantstand.html tom __________________ I need a hero I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the end of the night He’s gotta be strong And he’s gotta be fast And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight I need a hero I’m holding out for a hero ‘til the morning light He’s gotta be sure And it’s gotta be soon And he’s gotta be larger than life

September 12, 2009	#16
jardinlady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Mobile AL Posts: 74	Thank you so much Dice and Keith. I will definetely try all that and see if it works. Today I moved my seedlings to the formal dining room, that way I can keep them under grow lights for longer, I still need to buy a timer so the lights turn on and off automatically. Right now I am proping my lettuce seeds up with a book closer to the light and leaving the swiss chard in the ground without proping up since the swiss chard is taller. Hopefully this will work. I am not sure I mentioned it before but I tried growing some Lumpy Red seeds that I got in a seed trade and unfortunately they ended up too leggy and also it was taking forever for the plants to grow, practically after 10 weeks they only grew 3 inches tall. I mentioned this problem in another forum and somebody told me that I had to fertilize my plants. I guess my question is how often should I ferlitize them or if this was the problem? I did go to the store and bought some organic fish fertilizer that I can dilute with water to try to fertilize my seedling with, is this a good idea?

September 14, 2009	#18
jardinlady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Mobile AL Posts: 74	Thank's Tom, I will do that. I just bought a timer so I can plug it in my lights and they can come on and off automatically. Seedlings are looking a lot better now and not so leggy.

September 18, 2009	#21
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	A couple simple ideas I use: 1) Others have given good ideas of what to use to prop seedlings up with. Another one is to use old cassette cases. They are the perfect length and width. I have lots of old cassettes I bought long ago and some of the music really wasn't that good. So I take the cassettes out and stack the cases up a couple high until I get the correct height. 2) If you have a spare closet that is long enough, you can hang 4' shoplights from the clothes racks. Just wrap a chain around the bar and make sure enough hangs down on both ends, then use S-hooks to hang the shoplights from. I then place boxes underneath the lights, and use whatever else I have, like cassette cases or box lids, to raise the seedlings to the appropriate level. In the past I've set up two plastic shelving units (Wal-Mart cheapies) facing each other about 5' apart in the middle of a spare bedroom, placed 2 flat fence posts on top from one shelving unit to the other, then hung the 4' shoplights from the fence posts. Menard's had the perfect kind (flat) that I needed. Just have to make sure the shelves are weighted down, which is easy since they're shelves. 3) The previous suggestion of using mylar or foil to reflect the light back is a good one. Mylar reflects it much more effeciently, but for seedlings even foil would work fine. 4) I've never used mylar for seedlings, however the next time I grow I'll use that or foil, or I'll use another method I stumbled on. When I lived in Omaha I had mature plants going, as well as the seedlings. Well, I had been using supplemental side lighting on the mature plants by using CFL's in brooder lamps. There's no doubt that extra lighting immensely helped the seedlings grow thicker and stronger. What I did is I used S-hooks and propped the brooder lamps on top of boxes. I set a 10" plastic pot on the box, weighted it down for stability, then put the S-hook on the edge of the pot and used the other end of the hook to hold the handle of the brooder lamp. I wasn't using very strong CFL's but still it really helped both the mature plants and the seedlings. I believe I used 3 brooder lamps since my area was fairly large, and I placed them at 3 of the corners. That really helped with fruiting growth as well on the mature plants. I always kept something between the bottom lip of the brooder and the box, usually cassette cases - just in case it got a little too warm. I'm overly cautious and even though I knew there was little chance the brooder would get hot enough to start the box on fire, I still made sure I had it off the box anyways. Just a couple ideas there. Edited to say, I try keeping my lights on as long as possible for seedlings and mature plants that are just growing vegetation. When the fruiting stage arrives I have the lights on for a shorter period of time. For seedlings and vegetation stage I have them on 18-22 hours. For fruiting I knock a few hours off. Some may disagree with my method but it seems to work for me. I don't like keeping lights on 24 hours a day like some people do because it makes sense to me to let them cool down once a day. That's just me though....

September 18, 2009	#23
Blueaussi Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: South Carolina Zone 8a Posts: 1,205	I made a seed starting rack out of a stainless steel storage shelf I bought at Lowe's. You can sorta see by this picture what it looks like. You can get a lot of seedlings in a relatively small amount of space.

September 22, 2009	#26
jardinlady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Mobile AL Posts: 74	Hi Tom: Actually it's been raining in here non stop for about 2 months, since august, it rains every day and sometimes it just pours, so I am not sure if the flavor is a consequence of that as well. I was researching on the internet and it says that some lettuces have a bitter taste if they are grown in hot temps. We are still pretty hot here in Mobile, if I knew that I probably would have started this particular seed in Jan, Feb time frame when it starts getting cold and just would have planted something that tolerates heat. I am going to attempt to cut some of it, clean it and place it in the frinde and see if the bitter taste goes away, if not I might have to plant something else instead.