Hello There
Can someone Please help with the following, I am starting to germinate
seeds in a propagator and was advised to put some lighting suitable for
plant growth above them. The type of lights I have are Flourescent tubes
(Normal.) The type mentioned in the Flourescent tubes line were Grow Light
and Full Spectrum, Which of these tube type lights are the best for the job
on hand. Thanking you very much for your patience and Time Oliver in
Westport, Co Mayo.

"Oliver Norris" wrote in message
news
Hello There
Can someone Please help with the following, I am starting to germinate
seeds in a propagator and was advised to put some lighting suitable for
plant growth above them. The type of lights I have are Flourescent tubes
(Normal.) The type mentioned in the Flourescent tubes line were Grow Light
and Full Spectrum, Which of these tube type lights are the best for the
job
on hand. Thanking you very much for your patience and Time Oliver in
Westport, Co Mayo.

Hi Oliver

I'll watch this with interest as I'm very new to this supplementary light
stuff. I bought a hydroponics unit back last spring and with it came a high
pressure sodium light. The hydroponics is in the process of moving into the
basement right now so I've nicked the light for the greenhouse and it seems
to give great results on the seedlings (being supplemented by two hours at
the mo to 'ease' them into spring) but it does guzzle electricity being
600W. Plus the unit is expensive and I'd like to have more grow lights but
at less cost. I think the 'bluer' type lights are supposed to be better for
germination whereas the 'yellowier' ones (like sodium) are better for
growing on.

I use a natural daylight bulb for embriodery work and I was wondering if
they'd be any good rigged up. At least the bulbs fit into normal fittings
and are not extortionately expensive. My sodium one suffered an electricity
'spike' and blew after only 200 hours (was expecting 5000 hours!) and a new
one cost 40GBP.

Still I'm a newbie and will take advantage of any advice you get :-)

Cheers
--A

Hi Alison
Glad to hear artifical garden lighting also new to you and many thanks for
your reply. Looking foreward to hearing & learning lots more about this
subject from this News group. Oliver
"Alison" o.uk wrote in
message ...

"Oliver Norris" wrote in message
news
Hello There
Can someone Please help with the following, I am starting to germinate
seeds in a propagator and was advised to put some lighting suitable for
plant growth above them. The type of lights I have are Flourescent tubes
(Normal.) The type mentioned in the Flourescent tubes line were Grow
Light
and Full Spectrum, Which of these tube type lights are the best for the
job
on hand. Thanking you very much for your patience and Time Oliver in
Westport, Co Mayo.

Hi Oliver

I'll watch this with interest as I'm very new to this supplementary light
stuff. I bought a hydroponics unit back last spring and with it came a
high
pressure sodium light. The hydroponics is in the process of moving into
the
basement right now so I've nicked the light for the greenhouse and it
seems
to give great results on the seedlings (being supplemented by two hours at
the mo to 'ease' them into spring) but it does guzzle electricity being
600W. Plus the unit is expensive and I'd like to have more grow lights
but
at less cost. I think the 'bluer' type lights are supposed to be better
for
germination whereas the 'yellowier' ones (like sodium) are better for
growing on.

I use a natural daylight bulb for embriodery work and I was wondering if
they'd be any good rigged up. At least the bulbs fit into normal fittings
and are not extortionately expensive. My sodium one suffered an
electricity
'spike' and blew after only 200 hours (was expecting 5000 hours!) and a
new
one cost 40GBP.

Still I'm a newbie and will take advantage of any advice you get :-)

Cheers
--A

Hi Oliver,
Flourescents are useless, you will need a 400w son-ti-agro or similar.
contact these people and they will give you the proper advice, they also
have a very fast delivery:
http://www.growell.co.uk/

"Oliver Norris" wrote in message
...
Hi Alison
Glad to hear artifical garden lighting also new to you and many thanks for
your reply. Looking foreward to hearing & learning lots more about this
subject from this News group. Oliver
"Alison" o.uk wrote in
message ...

"Oliver Norris" wrote in message
news
Hello There
Can someone Please help with the following, I am starting to
germinate
seeds in a propagator and was advised to put some lighting suitable
for
plant growth above them. The type of lights I have are Flourescent
tubes
(Normal.) The type mentioned in the Flourescent tubes line were Grow
Light
and Full Spectrum, Which of these tube type lights are the best for
the
job
on hand. Thanking you very much for your patience and Time Oliver in
Westport, Co Mayo.

Hi Oliver

I'll watch this with interest as I'm very new to this supplementary
light
stuff. I bought a hydroponics unit back last spring and with it came a
high
pressure sodium light. The hydroponics is in the process of moving into
the
basement right now so I've nicked the light for the greenhouse and it
seems
to give great results on the seedlings (being supplemented by two hours
at
the mo to 'ease' them into spring) but it does guzzle electricity being
600W. Plus the unit is expensive and I'd like to have more grow lights
but
at less cost. I think the 'bluer' type lights are supposed to be better
for
germination whereas the 'yellowier' ones (like sodium) are better for
growing on.

I use a natural daylight bulb for embriodery work and I was wondering if
they'd be any good rigged up. At least the bulbs fit into normal
fittings
and are not extortionately expensive. My sodium one suffered an
electricity
'spike' and blew after only 200 hours (was expecting 5000 hours!) and a
new
one cost 40GBP.

Still I'm a newbie and will take advantage of any advice you get :-)

Cheers
--A

mira wrote:

Hi Oliver,
Flourescents are useless, you will need a 400w son-ti-agro or similar.
contact these people and they will give you the proper advice, they also
have a very fast delivery:
http://www.growell.co.uk/
(snip)

I'm on the continent (Belgium). Are we talking about the same
measuring units (W) and products here?
For my indoor seedlings and cuttings, I use a normal 18 W fluorescent
tube (which is some 60 cm = 23 inches long) and I put that some 25 cm
= 10
inches above the trays. I leave the light on 16 hrs out of every 24
with a time clock (some people leave the light on constantly, I don't
think it makes much difference). I'm quite happy with the results. (I
grow things in a cupboard).
I'm now trying out rhododendron and camellia cuttings by this method,
not the easiest things. They seem perfectly okay after 3 months and
show some growth but it's still too early to judge how well they root.
There are (over here) special "gro-lux" tubes available for plants,
but when using these on my aquarium, I never saw any difference in the
plant growth. So I did away with them altogether. Way too expensive
for no better results...
And I heard from other people too that normal fluorescent tubes seem
to be quite all right.
Best of luck
Roger.

"Roger Van Loon" wrote in message
...
mira wrote:

Hi Oliver,
Flourescents are useless, you will need a 400w son-ti-agro or similar.
contact these people and they will give you the proper advice, they also
have a very fast delivery:
http://www.growell.co.uk/
(snip)

I'm on the continent (Belgium). Are we talking about the same
measuring units (W) and products here?
For my indoor seedlings and cuttings, I use a normal 18 W fluorescent
tube (which is some 60 cm = 23 inches long) and I put that some 25 cm
= 10
inches above the trays. I leave the light on 16 hrs out of every 24
with a time clock (some people leave the light on constantly, I don't
think it makes much difference). I'm quite happy with the results. (I
grow things in a cupboard).
I'm now trying out rhododendron and camellia cuttings by this method,
not the easiest things. They seem perfectly okay after 3 months and
show some growth but it's still too early to judge how well they root.
There are (over here) special "gro-lux" tubes available for plants,
but when using these on my aquarium, I never saw any difference in the
plant growth. So I did away with them altogether. Way too expensive
for no better results...
And I heard from other people too that normal fluorescent tubes seem
to be quite all right.
Best of luck
Roger.

Yes I would agree, if tubes will grow plants in the hostile environment of a
fish tank, + the diffusion effects of water, then it should be o.k. for
garden seedling forcing. Although I might be tempted to trick the plants,
by increasing lighting from 12 hours now, to 18 hours by 1st of March.

Regards ......... Paul

"Paul England" wrote in message
news

"Roger Van Loon" wrote in message
...
mira wrote:

Hi Oliver,
Flourescents are useless, you will need a 400w son-ti-agro or similar.
contact these people and they will give you the proper advice, they
also
have a very fast delivery:
http://www.growell.co.uk/
(snip)

I'm on the continent (Belgium). Are we talking about the same
measuring units (W) and products here?
For my indoor seedlings and cuttings, I use a normal 18 W fluorescent
tube (which is some 60 cm = 23 inches long) and I put that some 25 cm
= 10
inches above the trays. I leave the light on 16 hrs out of every 24
with a time clock (some people leave the light on constantly, I don't
think it makes much difference). I'm quite happy with the results. (I
grow things in a cupboard).
I'm now trying out rhododendron and camellia cuttings by this method,
not the easiest things. They seem perfectly okay after 3 months and
show some growth but it's still too early to judge how well they root.
There are (over here) special "gro-lux" tubes available for plants,
but when using these on my aquarium, I never saw any difference in the
plant growth. So I did away with them altogether. Way too expensive
for no better results...
And I heard from other people too that normal fluorescent tubes seem
to be quite all right.
Best of luck
Roger.

Yes I would agree, if tubes will grow plants in the hostile environment of
a
fish tank, + the diffusion effects of water, then it should be o.k. for
garden seedling forcing. Although I might be tempted to trick the plants,
by increasing lighting from 12 hours now, to 18 hours by 1st of March.

Regards ......... Paul

I sorta presumed he was growing weed as opposed to flowers :-)

Thank you to all who have be so kind with your knowledge and time to date, I
am very gratefull for this information...Oliver..


"Oliver Norris" wrote in message
news
Hello There
Can someone Please help with the following, I am starting to germinate
seeds in a propagator and was advised to put some lighting suitable for
plant growth above them. The type of lights I have are Flourescent tubes
(Normal.) The type mentioned in the Flourescent tubes line were Grow Light
and Full Spectrum, Which of these tube type lights are the best for the
job
on hand. Thanking you very much for your patience and Time Oliver in
Westport, Co Mayo.

In message , miss calm
writes

I sorta presumed he was growing weed as opposed to flowers :-)

In which case for increased resin, small leaves and smaller inter nodal
lengths the 'unbalanced' UV intensive light from 'normal' fluorescent
tubes might be beneficial? Well, that was the thinking when I was aware
of a loft-space farm in the flats at uni' - and the results certainly
seemed to bear the theory out. ;-) Also important seemed to be
minimising the distance of the tubes from the leaves (without
accidentally scorching) and a very impressive pulley system was
implemented to go along with timers on the lights and the irrigation
plumbing. [Sadly, word got out and van loads of blue people arrived one
night... ...and busted a guy for a few crumbs who was totally unaware of
the farm just one floor above his head!!!]

i think i just wrote too much!!!

--
dave @ stejonda

John Le Carre on war with Iraq http://commondreams.org/views03/0115-01.htm

"dave @ stejonda" wrote in message
...
In message , miss calm
writes

I sorta presumed he was growing weed as opposed to flowers :-)

In which case for increased resin, small leaves and smaller inter nodal
lengths the 'unbalanced' UV intensive light from 'normal' fluorescent
tubes might be beneficial? Well, that was the thinking when I was aware
of a loft-space farm in the flats at uni' - and the results certainly
seemed to bear the theory out. ;-) Also important seemed to be
minimising the distance of the tubes from the leaves (without
accidentally scorching) and a very impressive pulley system was
implemented to go along with timers on the lights and the irrigation
plumbing. [Sadly, word got out and van loads of blue people arrived one
night... ...and busted a guy for a few crumbs who was totally unaware of
the farm just one floor above his head!!!]

i think i just wrote too much!!!

--
dave @ stejonda

Or retitled: The plant that does not dare state it's name!

One good case for 400w Sylvania or Son-ti-Agro is that it is warm (not too
warm though to damage the plants) and gives a real feeling of sunshine to
the lil critters. It also helps to keep the growroom dry. Weed likes au
naturalle in my experience and is happier in John Innes No.1 as opposed to
hydroponics.....but that's probably a biased hippy greenie view! I gave up
growing so can speak.





John Le Carre on war with Iraq
http://commondreams.org/views03/0115-01.htm

On Sat, 25 Jan 2003 15:03:34 -0000, "miss calm"
wrote:

One good case for 400w Sylvania or Son-ti-Agro is that it is warm (not too
warm though to damage the plants) and gives a real feeling of sunshine to
the lil critters.

Hi,

Commonly two types of bulb are used - metal halide and sodium (HPS -
high pressure sodium). The former produces a white light for
vegetative growth and the sodium produces a yellower light (late
summer?) - ideal for flowering.

Son T 'Agro' is a sodium light jigged to produce a fair amount of
white light and can therefore play a dual role. Also the latter bulb
belts out 440 W instead of the 400 of a normal HPS.

Yes, the observation someone made about the distance of light from
leaf is important. The luminosity lost by any artificial light through
distance is exponential. The lumens received by an object 40 cm away
from the light source is around 2,000 but this drops to around 300
when the object is moved 3 - 4 feet away. 300 is very borderline for
photosynthesis (they say). A light meter is quite informative in this
respect.

I do hope I haven't inadvertently misinformed you about anything.

Grow a little garden

Hussein

The agriculture is in the action of affective into the basement appropriate now so I've aching the ablaze for the greenhouse and it seems to accord abundant after-effects on the seedlings (being supplemented by two hours at the 'ease' them into spring) but it does bolt electricity being 600W.