Grow Light Bulbs

titans01 Wed Mar 10, 2010 1:58 pm

I'm new to gardening in general and this year I want to start some tomatoe plants from seed rather than buy transplants. I'm thinking about building a grow light setup for this. Do I need special bulbs or will the standard flourescent bulbs that come with a 48" fixture work?

kghouston05 Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:35 pm

I used a 48" shoplight with Philips T12 bulbs (the T8s are so skinny I think its worth it to go big). I tried to get as large of a light spectrum as possible, so I have a Natural daylight, and a cooler one. It was a very inexpensive project and my seedlings have been really successful. I'll post the exact bulbs when I get home.

kghouston05 Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:35 pm

"Natural Sunshine" and "Daylight Deluxe" are the two I used. Both T12. Also, I don't know how many seedlings you're starting, but next year I am definitely having a light at least 4 bulbs wide. The narrow light is making some of my seedlings stretch b/c you have to start it really close and my pellet kits are five wide so they don't fit under the light. They've been growing like crazy though! Also, make sure to get at least 40 W (that's what my grandfather told me anyway).

titans01 Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:47 pm

Okay so these are growing lights and just not normal bulbs you can buy at the hardware store?

scoobe Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:18 pm

titans01 wrote:Okay so these are growing lights and just not normal bulbs you can buy at the hardware store?

These lamps you should be able to get in any of your favorite big box home improvement store.
The T8's should do just fine. The amount of lumens they put out is equal to or greater than the T12's. Plus your electric bill will thank you. The T8's operate with an electronic ballast as opposed to the magnetic ones the T12's use. The heat the old magnetic ones throw off is money down the tubes.

bpbdrummer Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:18 pm

bulbs are rated in Kelvin scale depending on the light spectrum they give off, daylight is somewhere around the 6000k range. while a regular standard flourecent bulb is around 3000k I think most of the "grow light" type bulbs are in the 6000k range

i'm working on setting up my lights from my saltwater reef tank. I have a VHO(very high output) 4 bulb system that used to be on my 55 gallon reef. it has 2, 14000k ultra daylight bulb and 2, atinic (blue spectrum lights) the total output is 660 watts and its very, very bright

rds1955 Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:22 pm

I just got done assembling two of my four light sets... I use one "Daylight" 48 inch and one "Cool White" 48 inch bulbs in each fluorescent kit, and I assembled two kits for each light..( 4 lights wide for each)...I think if you're not growing something exotic or special, regular flourescent bulbs should do the trick for you..

I'm also starting my plants from seed in the basement, and I have heating pads under them also cause it's a constant 54-58 degrees in the basement all year long, and they need that boost of extra warmth...

Grow Light Bulbs Icon_sunny

titans01 Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:14 pm

So I went to walmart and they have 48" light fixtures w/T8 bulbs for $10. They also have T12 plant and aquarium bulbs for $6. I assume I could buy 2 of these fixtures and 2 of the T12 bulbs and run one of each bulb in each light fixture. Total cost would be around $32 not including something to hold the lights up.

bcpl Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:35 pm

the normal bulbs work fine

kghouston05 Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:51 pm

I know Rob posted a picture of his awesome grow light. But I am not that handy so I hung it from my basement ceiling and have been using different sized boxes to adjust the height of my plants. Not fancy, but effective!

rob.emenaker Thu Mar 11, 2010 2:11 pm

Whatever works for you is best Smile

The most important thing is to give the babies light in any way that you can.

chocolatepop Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:48 pm

I found some old ballast from the Habitat 4 Humanity Restore, got two of them for $6. Then got 4 grow lights from walmart.

heres my set up:
Grow Light Bulbs Img_7510

boffer Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:49 pm

hey CP, waz up!

chocolatepop Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:01 pm

Nada! Sorry it took me a while to sign back up, things are CRAZY around here! I am SOOO excited that we have "warm" weather.

boffer Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:02 pm

No doubt you deserve a decent summer after last year!

LOL old habits die hard. PM works and so does the chat box and we're BSing in a thread!

chocolatepop Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:25 pm

What? A new rule that we can't consort and build friendships in a thread? Blah. unacceptable Grow Light Bulbs Icon_tongue

But I am honestly excited.

I didn't know that I could use two different spectrum lights, so I just bought the grow ones. They are really working though. i say, trial and error.

choksaw Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:26 pm

i may self use pretty much what the most of you use as far as the bulbs go but i also went 1 step further by useing some old cloths pins and some aluminum foil off the sides of my lights almost like a curtain effect to help keep as much of the light in as possable i used this on my old set up and alos put a piece of foil between the 2 shop lights to grab the escapeing light between them and force it back down to the plants after about 2 or 3 days i noticed that the plants that were growing sideways and such to reach the light straightned out because they had direct light from all around

rob.emenaker Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:45 pm

Ooooh...the foil is a great idea!!

happyfrog Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:16 pm

brilliant! foil! i love it!

i just am using a light i had in my basement. it's working pretty well. i have a lot of litlte sprouts. i do have it on for about 12 hours daily, maybe a wee more, sometimes a wee less. we turn it on when we come downstairs - it's david's job to do, and when he goes upstairs to bed at night, he turns it off. . . he loves his gardening work! Smile

check my blog and you'll see how i made it out of household stuff - seriiously you don't need anything fancy. i don' thave a grow light. and my plants are growing. and they're looking pretty normal. not alien or anything. . .

rds1955 Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:08 pm

I went to the Dollar Store and bought those 2 for a $1 aluminum baking pans, about 1 inch deep, and they'll be my holding place mates for all my pots...
I have 2 sets of 4 lights each, with 2 more sets being built this weekend, and with all that light shining down, and then bouncing back up being reflected off the aluminum baking pans should help with providing enough light....I like the idea also of building some "Curtains" of foil to hang on the sides... I just might incorporate that too..

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the normal bulbs work fine

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