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It is February here in Pennsylvania – time to put up my indoor lighting system and start sowing all my extraordinary seed varieties. I start most of my Spring/Summer plants indoors 1 to 2 months before they will be planted in my garden. My house is not huge, so my access to sunlight is limited due to fewer south/west facing windows.
Last year, I simply bought cheap, $9.95 indoor grow lights and hung them on a rack! I paid dearly for this in the form of spindly, weak, slow growing plants that either died, became diseased, or just simply performed poorly! My seeds would germinate, but would then just not grow properly. I knew I had excellent, sterile soil, air movement, the right temperature, and the perfect amount of water. So why wouldn’t they grow?
The answer was I had insufficient LIGHTING. I cannot stress enough the importance of a proper relationship between your plants and their light source! So this year, I am experimenting with a new lighting system that I put together right in my own kitchen! You might know from my introduction that I like to make everything myself, not only to save money, but to ensure a quality product in the end. The research was a little challenging, but it turns out it was actually pretty simple to put this together.
Now, I plant a 60X30 fenced in annual garden every summer – that’s ALOT of plants! I need a big rack, possibly two, to germinate and hold the amount of plants to fill this space! I already have two beautiful black iron shelves placed in my kitchen that I am going to use. They were very inexpensive, at $40.00 a piece!
2 ($40.00) inexpensive kitchen racks
Why am I using my kitchen to grow my plants? Well, it is simply because my kitchen is very open (we removed a wall), it is the warmest room in the house, and because I spend a lot of my time there! I found that when I tucked plants away out of view, I neglected them!
Next, I needed to figure out which lights to use, and hang them on the racks! However, this was not as simple as it sounds. There is a very large selection of “grow lights” out there. It’s almost overwhelming! Certainly everyone claims to have the best choices, and the best advice on how to grow your plants, but who is right? So, in order to make this easier, I am just going to share some of my research with you, and let my end results be the judge. It is quite possible I still might need to tweek things next year, but I am confident enough in my choice that my results will at least be better than last year!
After weeks of research, it came down to this: What exactly was I trying to accomplish?
The answer: Grow vegetable, herb, and flower plants indoors, without a window, to a healthy size, large enough to be transplanted outdoors.
The key words here are “healthy size” and “large enough”. You need to know what you want your end result to be.
If you do a search, you will find that each lighting system is capable of growing your plants to different sizes. You can buy really expensive, powerful, bright, full spectrum lighting that will take your plants from seed to full grown plants! I obviously do not need that. However, I most definitely need more than what I used last year!
When setting up an artificial lighting system, the most important factors are the amount of light, quality of light, and again, what you want to accomplish. I went with the newest technology called a T-5 High Output Fluorescent light fixture. This is a premium high output, horticultural, “grow” spectrum light designed for compact, lush, vegetative plant growth.
2 Lamp 2ft. Compact T5 High Output PL55 Flourescent Fixture Dimensions: 11 3/4" Wide X 24" Long X 3 3/4" Deep
The T-5 fluorescent bulbs are designed to maximize the light output while using less energy than the previous standard T-8 and T-12 bulbs. They also stay brighter longer, and remain cooler, allowing you to place the lights extremely close to the plants.
T-5 "Grow" Spectrum Light Bulb (click to enlarge)
This particular model I purchased also has a reflector attached, which focuses the light directly where you need it eliminating wasted lumens (a measure of the power of light) and supplying up to 3 times more light than you would get without a reflector.
Reflectors attached under lights
Now, lets get a little technical here: Plant growth and light absorption is a complicated process. Plants optimize their absorbtion primarily using blue and red light.
As you can see on this “plant absorption spectrum”, there is very little green and yellow being absorbed. This is the reason plants are green – they reflect most of the green/yellow light away. This gives artificial lighting an advantage because it enables the spectrum of light source to be tailored to match your particular plants needs.
Plant Absorption Spectrum
The T-5 lights have this already figured out for you! You can purchase different bulbs for different plants such as “grow” or “bloom” bulbs. These have a completely different light spectrum giving your plants more reds (for root development, tuber formation, dormacy, and reproduction), or more blues (for energy, chlorophyll production, and stem growth). I am using the T-5 “grow” bulbs. This particular bulb allows my plants to achieve a height up to 12 inches. Perfect for a summer garden!
The BEST part is that I found this light for the absolute BEST price, right here locally, in Cranberry Township at www.htgsupply.com. I paid $69.95 for the entire lighting fixture – bulbs included. Believe me, I could NOT find it cheaper anywhere else! This is a quality light with 10,000 lumens – that is super bright as you can see in the pictures! Comparable fixtures are well over $100.00, some closer to $200.00.
I purchased two for now to get me through my Spring cold weather crops, and I am going to purchase 2 more, for a total of 4 fixtures. This kind of quality lighting, on decorative racks, with this many shelves, will cost you a fortune! Do a search on Indoor Growing Systems and you will see for yourself.
Here is a 2 shelf rack with 2 lesser quality lights costing $460.95. The customer ratings were very poor too, due to screws becoming loose and the rack not being able to withstand the weight of the plants.
2 Shelf 2 Light System retailing $460.95
These “ready made” grow light systems are extremely expensive and apparently not very sturdy! It is much more economical to purchase your own and put it together yourself. Better yet, if you already have shelves, or racks, or even just a table somewhere that you can hang one or two of these lights, it will save you even more!
As you can see below, my homemade system offers plenty of room to start my entire Spring/Summer garden, add other lighting fixtures at a later date, as well as storing garden supplies, seeds, books, and more. I have 5 sturdy shelves on each rack. All for ALOT less than if I were to purchase a complete system already made.
My Homemade System with one light on each rack side by side
2 lights on one rack
I am looking forward to trying out my new lights and I will post results as to how my seedlings are progressing. Now, its time for me to go start sowing my seeds!
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Happy Germinating,
Michele
