LOL! Didn't think you had that much light space, to keep 'em! (Regarding the carrots.)

Lately I've been plotting a seed-starting light rig, for starting my spring / summer outdoor gardens. I wonder how good it'll be for greens...

Making my own, ish. A 48" 2-bulb T8 flourescent fixture, hung from a sturdy plastic utility shelf. Possibly keep it in the garage for the first month or so - the shelves are already in the garage, and the first round of seedlings are mostly cool weather plants (pansies and snapdragons). The few warmer, bigger plants for the kozy coats experiment, I could start as AG outriders. The later heat-loving crop plants (tomato, pepper, eggplant) I might start directly in my pro100 with just the 7 holes, after giving my latest greens garden a couple months. Cucurbits need no special treatment - they're super-easy to germinate. And move the seed starting lights indoors by the time the warm-weather seedlings need 'em - the cool weather plants can go outside by then. (Well, maybe not the snaps, but it won't do them any harm to be warmer.) Planning out the seedling starting is strangely complex...

Yeah, the AG's definitely give seeds a great kick-start. But they can't stay in there long, if I plan to grow the plants out in soil. And for cucurbit starting, it's a waste of prime AG real estate. And for this long parade of seed-starting - there's a different batch of seeds every 2 weeks or so, spread over months. Not really willing to use a whole AG for that, when a $25 or so wonky light rig (or none...) will do. Most of these seedlings I managed last year without hardware.

Ah. Just felt kinda dumb calling 'em "cukes&zukes" all the time. Unfortunately, "squash" seems to exclude "cuke". You know what I mean, though, right? "Squash-cuke-melon family".

Haven't actually bought this stuff yet. Assorted websites say assorted things... People who do it all the time seem to buy "cool white" by the 10-pack. I think that's more like 4200K. But others suggested add a full spectrum daylight t8 bulb, which is 6500K? Maybe one of each to hedge my bets?

Edit: Hm. Another page seems to suggest "daylight" = 5000K.

I'm still not very up on all this... they make flourescents weirdly complicated.

Sounds like the most all-purpose setup would then be one of each, 4200K and either-daylight (5000K or 6500K, whichever they have cheapest...)

6500K would give me the option to try using it for cucurbits some other time, though... But two t8 bulbs probably isn't enough light for a cucumber to bear fruit, do you think?

But I decided to stop dreaming up expensive fruiting rigs, and instead stick to the possibly much-cheaper task at hand - start strong seedlings.

FWIW, seeds I managed last year without a seed-starting light rig :  pansies, petunias, spinach, dill, basil, cucumbers, zucchini. The earlier seedlings (pansies, petunias, and snapdragons) spent some time nestled between AG minis for overflow light. But mostly I started these by my west-facing slider, where it's 55-65 degrees in midwinter. (Only pansies started in midwinter...)

The cukes and zukes were only inside to sprout at a warmer temperature - they didn't stay inside more than a week or two. It's just that the same week or two would have taken 3-4 weeks outside.

Seeds that didn't work or I wouldn't even attempt without better lights:  snapdragon (failed last year - they get very leggy without enough light!), tomato, pepper, eggplant.

OK! My new seedling lights are set up! Now let's see if it works...

Not nearly as fancy as your rig, Bruce, but hopefully it'll do the job for under $35 + odds and ends I already had. $35 included light fixture from Home Depot with 4 T8 bulbs, of which only 2 are in use - one each, 4100K and 6500K. If I'd used only one type of bulb & a Walmart-cheapest fixture, probably could have gotten it under $20. Added reflective blankets, front and back. Though the front one only goes down partway - more to shield my eyes than increase light.

Though T5 bulbs are generally considered better for growlights, T8 is better for this application, according to my research...

1. They're cheaper.
2. They should provide adequate light for the task.
3. T8 bulbs work better when cold. A T5 bulb is supposedly only going to give like 50% of its maximum light at 50°F, with optimum temps more like 80°F.

The lamp's plugged into a timer, currently set for ~13 hours a day (seemed like enough). The rig is in my garage, which feels colder, but the thermometer says is 50°F today. The pansy seed packet said to grow them at those temps, and the lettuce shouldn't mind... Relative humidity is approximately bone dry. Oh, well.

To test whether the light is adequate, installed one of my twin Korean red curl outriders in the new setup. They get red & glossy when they get enough light. Light green and thin with low light.

When it comes time to start the warm-weather crops... Hopefully it'll be warmer. (It doesn't get much colder than it is now  here - teens outside, ice rimming the Sound.) But mostly, I'm hoping the seed-light rig works well enough to evict my greens outriders into the garage and use the warm outrider spots for starting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc. Failing that, I could move the top level of the utility shelves inside. But it looks better in the garage.

I suspect they'll bend over time. But I have several hundred. I think I got them from a bunch of kids who tried to build a treehouse in a young cherry tree. I pointed out it wasn't their cherry tree, and not big enough in any case. They skeddaddled, leaving me all these nice nails.

Sloping T8's, though.

So far so good. The PAR detector lettuce hasn't died yet.

They run really cool - cool to the touch! (Granted, the garage is chilly. ) I do have survival blanket drapes in place just for light, not heat. (I'd flipped up the front one to take pictures.) That same, what $2? survival blanket I'm still lopping pieces out of - LOL! Those things are big!

It's a good point though - sometime I might want to make it warmer and not move it into my living space. Charming as it is... Kinda big...

Wow re 113F T5 tubes!

Oh, I don't think the T8's are 50F. They're just cool to the touch. No noticeable heat above the rig, either, but then.... I'm not sure by hand I could feel the difference between 50 and say, 60... They're cool.

A Harley indoors is definitely overstated. The howling coyote actually worked, decor-wise - it just creeped me out. Those kokopeli's, or whatever-they're-called, are also kinda creepy, though I like them better.

Well, I think the Korean red curl test plant has completed its adjustment to the seed lights - it's not getting much redder any more. I'm very pleased with this plant. After 9 weeks, it never bolted in the warm kitchen, just as happy in the cool garage, changes color and shininess to adjust to conditions - fun plant.

And I'm pleased with the seed lights. The pansies are quite happy, too, but pansy seedlings grow slowly - 7-21 days just to germinate, and 8-12 weeks to grow into 3" tall annuals ready to transplant out. Only about half the seeds have germinated yet (23 out of 26 pots have at least one seedling).

Interesting. My seed-light bulbs both claim 2800 lumens. But - that's not per unit area, right? But rather overall bulb output. For a square foot, you can pretend an AG light is a point source and all 1450 lumens are applied to that square foot. For two four foot long bulbs, not. You'd expect 5800 lumens over something like 4 square feet (using the same disregard for light scatter), which comes out to 1450 lumens again. But, fluorescents have different light output at different temps, and the garage is chilly, so... I can't find the chart offhand again, but 50 vs 75°F is supposedly a significant efficiency cut (80% vs 95%?). (Though the bulbs are probably somewhat warmer than the garage. But they and the ballast are cool to the touch.)

Given all that, I figure the plant is a more reliable indicator. The seed lights seem to be accomplishing more light than the Aerogarden pro100.

Ah, but the 1450's would be two point light sources over two different square feet.

LOL! Yeah, that was kinda my point - with 6's of ones and half-dozens of others and triangulation and scatter and recaptured scatter - who knows. The red plant says the light's brighter under the seed lights. And all I needed was, "It's bright enough for seedlings and lettuce!"

I'm thinking the red curl might prefer the 4200K light over the 6500K light, red-wise. Seems slightly redder on the 4200K bulb side. But then, that bulb seems brighter, too. But mostly, yeah, seems like a simple lumen response.

I'm amazed how little root mass the KRC has. The tub on my komatsuna has over 4 times the volume, and it's chock-full of roots. Those tiny little KRC tubs (about 3.5 x 6.5", liquid only about 1.5" deep) don't seem to be root-crowded at all. I think that's true of lettuce in general, less rooty than brassicas. But the KRC is extreme.

On the off chance anybody cares, progress on the seed starting pageant is here. It doesn't show up on recent comments or posts, because I'm keeping all my reference pictures on the main book page.