Beginner Gardening: grow lamp for indoor pepper plants, 1 by Gymgirl

Gymgirl wrote:
DIY Light Stand.... http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/48/

Have Home Depot/Lowes cut your shelves....get some eye hooks, ess hooks, and jack chain, and suspend the 2- or 4-light fluorescent shop light kit underneath each shelf... You can install two 2-light kits side x side, or go with a single 4-light kit...

Cinder blocks at HD or Lowes...or, save some $$ and scrounge around for your materials. I just painted my entire light stand to coordinate with the room they're in -- curtains and all, LOL!

No special bulbs necessary. Regular old T12s...works like a charm, although, the Box stores are sort of forcing you to purchase the new T8 or T5 kits, which are much more expensive. I paid $10 apiece for my 2-light kits. Check Craigslist or Freecycle for boards, blocks and shop lights. This doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg...

A picture of mine in action below...

You can set two blocks on top of each other for a wider space between your shelves. For established plants like your bells, I'd recommend leaving the lights on 8-10 hours/day. The fluorescent lights don't draw much on the electricity...

I just built the simple pvc light stand in the following YouTube video...roughly $12 for 2 lengths of the pvc and the couplings.

Instead of the one 4-light kit like mhpgardener shows ($50 at Home Depot), I cut a sheet of plyboard to fit the space, and affixed two of my 2-light kits side x side to the plyboard, then suspended that from the overhead bar. I already have sixteen, 2-light kits - no need to purchase a 4-light kit!

PVC Light Stand: Check out the video at 4:47...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAYpn2Md9eA

Light kits on plyboard, Part 1: Check it out at 3:40...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAKP9yaZksY&list=PLCxrB0SIHkC...

Linda

This message was edited Nov 1, 2013 4:35 PM