Affordable grow lights?

Hi, I am sort of new to gardening and I would like to start some seeds indoors. I looked for grow lights, but they are all very expensive ($70+) considering that I might fail spectacularly at he whole gardening experiment. :) Can anyone recommend a more affordable alternative? I live in Norther California, and I have windows facing east.

Do I have to use fluorescents or can they be just regular bulbs in regular desk lamps?
Thanks.

I don't think regular bulbs will give you enough light. I would go to Home Depot and get yourself some fluorescent shop lights, they'll work just as well as the grow lights but they're a lot cheaper. That's what I use for my seed starting.

They are what I use too, I have 12 basic shop lights with basic fluorescent bulbs.
Shop Light $7-$8
I buy the bulbs by the case
$0.99-$1.25 X 10
So you are getting $75.00 for $9-$10.
I'm sure many people think the grow lights are better(they may be), but I myself have used the above for many years & have no plans of spending more $$ for the grow lights.
.:)Anita
P.S My Walmart sells them for less than my Home Depot.

Great question. One I was going to ask!

How closely do you place the lights together...?

I have a 6 x 14 space that I want to overwinter my tropicals.

Mine are about 3'-4' apart, I have a full basement that DH has given me the biggest room for my Tropicals/House Plants. They spend Oct to the end of may in the basement & the rest of the year outside, I heat with wood, so they can't be upstairs with us.
This is not the best PIC, but you get the idea:)Anita
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=4079507

This message was edited Oct 15, 2007 7:05 PM

Thank you so muh for the advice, $10 is definitely acceptable... I will look them up in Walmart or Home Depot.

Another related beginner question... Do you leave the lights on 24x7 or just at night? I guess for seeds since they also provide heat it would have to be 24x7?

K hope others can help you, I don't do seeds, Have to many big plants to have the lights down for seeds, Mine go on 6-7am & off 6-7pm, hope this helps..:)Anita

I turn the lights on when I get up and turn off when I go to bed.
I have 4 of the Home Depot shop lights and my seeds did very well.
I used the $8 green grow bulbs in two of the fixtures and regular cheap bulbs in the others.
I saw no noticable difference in the expensive bulb seedlings. I wont be buying them anymore.

chris

Here's a thread from years ago.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/371007/
We have used these "cheapies" for years. You should put in new bulbs more often than I have.
We have them on a timer to run for 16 hours a day. Watering is the critical part of raising seedlings. Also you need just a little air movement. Ours is a heat register in the ceiling about the middle of the growing area. Doesn't take much, but it keeps damping off at a minimum.
God Luck,
Bernie

I also have a timer to keep mine on for about 16 hours. Seedlings need a lot of light, if you just give them light during the short winter days they will probably tend to get leggy. I have the grow bulbs in mine because I bought them several years ago and didn't know any better, but from everything I've read around here the grow bulbs don't work any better than regular fluorescents, so there's no need to spend the extra money.

Hey Bernie. Only "subscribers" can see the thread you posted that link to. But I'm guessing those are regular shop lights, ne?

I see you have them mounted on chains with I assume s-hooks so you can vary the height - it's important to keep the lights close to the growing plants.

I'm setting up a grow area in a closet that's not good for much of anything because it's under the stairs - has a slanted ceiling. It's also dampish in there if I close the door (on a crawl space, original wood floors) so I end up leaving the door open all the time - not ideal if I were trying to use it as a closet.

I am putting in 3' fluorescents (space is 42" wide and 38" to the edge of the door, then another 2 or 3" for moving-around-in space and a place to set the fan) on chains so I can adjust the height, all along the ceiling to the closet door and then up both sides (mounted on the walls). I am putting an old mirror at the back, or I will line that area with mirror tiles, whichever I find cheaper first. I have 2 gro-box thingies - these are the self-watering tomato planters from Gardener's Supply, their version of "grow boxes". I will break off the drainage tower tops and put pans underneath so I can still use these outdoors come spring. I am going to mount them on wheels so I can move them more easily. I will be starting easy, with herbs and lettuce this winter. If all goes well, next winter I will try for eggplant and peppers in addition to a few herbs. I will put a small box fan in there. Eventually I would like to connect this to a heat sensor so it only comes on when the heat rises, but for now I'll just leave it run on low. Box fans are cheap to practically free (especially if I can pick one up at a garage sale) and the "waste heat" will only mean I burn less gas, LOL!

I've used gro-lights like this for seedling starting for years but have always been intimidated about trying to actually garden indoors by the hydroponics folks who insist you need halogen what-nots and blue-green-red-whatever spectrum lights or nothing will grow. I dunno, they worked fine for my dad in our damp concrete basement, so why not for me? Anyway I'll give it a try and see what happens. I figure maximizing reflectivity with the mirror surface and the addition of side lighting ought to be sufficient, and not using halogens means I don't need to worry about things catching fire from the massive amount of heat those things generate. A box fan for ventilation wouldn't come close to getting it if I were using halogens.

I will run them on a timer 16 hours a day, and I will space them as close together as the housings will allow.

So I'll give it a try and see what happens. There are a few things I just can't get over the winter, or can't get at all - like oriental eggplant, chili peppers, and ginger shoots - that I'd like to be able to grow year 'round.

About using regular light bulb fixtures - incandescent lamps generate way too much heat in relation to lumens (actual light output). They're not as bad as halogens, but you are paying for the electricity that generates all that waste heat and not getting the same amount of light that you would get from fluorescents. That's why fluorescents are better for gro-lights than incandescents.

Sojourner

This message was edited Oct 17, 2007 6:19 PM

All I can say is join us! It's worth every penny.

Ditto:0)

Some day, I will be a DG subscriber, right now, just a 'poor' non-subscriber. For you seed starters, approx when do you start your seeds under the lights? February or March? Earlier? Thanks.

Anywhere from November until May.

What would you start in November, that seems so early.

Go to link above, it will answer a lot of questions. Also go to my member page & scan my old postings.

Bernie, they cant see that link because they are not subsribers ...yet. If they only knew what they were missing :( Read Zensojourners post. Maybe you could repost a picture here for them. You have an awesome setup, and your seedlings look sooooo happy.


I started my seeds in December/January and had a tough time because they too big and I couldnt bring them out till the end of April. I will probably start them in Late February/March this time. It really depends on what you are starting. Find out when your last frost date is and then read the back of the seed packet and back up your seed starting from there.

chris

OK, I printed Sojourner's post. Thanks. I have one shop light right now, not set up. This will be an experiment. With any success, I will expand to more.

I would love to subscribe, I have a feeling once I do, I won't have time for anything else! When I first started reading here, the Pacific NW forum was free. I was gone about 6 months to a year recovering from my shattered ankle and when I came back, I was locked out. :o( I miss it.

Thanks again everyone.
Sherri

Shattered ankle!?!?!??!? Is everything okay now?

And you are right. You won't have time. There is SO much to do here. I find myself here a lot.

Kwanjin

I'm still finding new (to me) forums to explore, just found Wild Life yesterday;0 ) Oh I love this place.

Wildlife!?!? Where?

Hey any one got any good isdeas for bottom heat? On top of my work bench which is 4'x25' I built a wood box 4'x8'x 6". On top of that I put those metal studs and screwed them down to the wood box.
I placed them every 4" across the 4' of width. Then i put christmas lights in the tracs and big cheap
whatever i could find ceramic tiles on top of that. What i got was bottom heat that heats up the ceramic tiles and warms the soil. I can really get an early start and often do about 50 flats of a variety of plants. Please share any boxes or heat systems you've rigged up as I am always looking for new ideas!!!

Wild Life Here:)http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/wildlife/all/

I have a bear & was looking for help to keep him away & found WL, so many places to see & read about on Dave's, I find new things everyday:)Anita

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/wildlife/all/
well guess I cant post a link here, just copy & past or do a search for it, sorry I tried.

You know, I knew that was there but have so busy everywhere else, I just haven't looked at it yet! And the link worked, thanks.

Instead of using mirrors that will get really hot from your lights, just cover a thick cardboard with your silver foil you use for oven cooking, shinny side out and it reflects the light and also wont get as hot as a glass mirror,
November sowing, you can start off your sweet peas, they will flower earlier, be stronger plants and can be planted out earlier depending on the spring weather, also wall flower and lots of other hard shelled seeds that take a wee bit longer to germinate, if you do early start sweet peas, put them into a deeper pot as they do have very long roots, I use old kitchen tissue tubes for mine, that way, when you go to put them into the garden in spring, you dont shock them by root disturbance, the cardboard tube will rot down in the garden soil so you just put the whole seed container into the soil and water as normal. the thing about starting your peas that early they can get leggy, so just keep pinching out the growing tips and you get nice bushy plants as well. Good luck all you keen gardeners, much success to you all. WeeNel.