Gro-Lux bulbs ...

http://www.buyplantlights.com/...
"This bulb was developed for accelerating growth in greenhouse grown crops. It is best used in situations where plants receive some sunlight, as in a greenhouse or near a window. "

I couldn't find a lumens rating for a Gro-Lux bulb, but other T12s I found ranged from 2,000 lumens to 2,600 (initial lumens for a fresh bulb). (48" T12 tubes).

T8 and T5 tubes can be found that are much brighter than T12s.

Just speculating, but IF Gro-Lux has a fancy spectrum at the expense of raw brightness, the seedlings might not now be getting the brightness they want. Just speculation.

http://garden.org/blogs/view/R...
Fluorescent Bulb Types
Color, Spectrum or "Temperature"
Page down to near the end.

I left it as a "blog" rather than an "idea" since so many sources say different things about lights, and I never did find good un-copyrighted spectra showing what I wanted to show about "broad spectrum" tubes with tri-phosphor coatings to "spread out" narrow spectral peaks. "Broad spectrum" tubes might be the exact same thing as expensive "grow tubes"

For starting vegetable seedlings, I think it's all about intensity, not much about spectrum unless you go "too red".


Shoe said:
>> Sorry to be so long-winded. (I was giving Rick Corey competition~!)

I agreed with everything you said, it was right on. But it would have taken me many more words to say the same things!

The length of your post explains why I was hitting my keys but not getting any letters on-screen. You used up all the electrons!

HaH! Grinnin' and laughing here, Rick! Too funny!

In the future I'll be sure to save enough electrons to go around.

Happy Day to ya!

Shoe (exhausted from too much greenhousing...but summer was here today!)

Horseshoe said:Okay, good advice given here but I'll add my 2¢ worth...

Deb/dmurray, your plants have been too far from your lights from Day One. The tall dome on your mini-ghouse caused the plants to be way lower than they should be. The dome is also a bit yellowed w/age, also reducing the light strength (or so it appears on my monitor.) Your seedlings need to be within inches of the light as soon as they declare (appear above soil.)

Your elongated/tall stems and lack of strong light have kept the plant from moving on to it's next growth stage - foliage growth.

By the way, you should move your plants where they are under the center of the light, the middle portion, not at one end or the other. The strongest light will be in the center of any fluorescent bulb with weaker light rays towards the ends. This is why it is good to move trays under lights back and forth so they each get some of the stronger light off and on (if you do more than one tray next time.)

I bet you may have some decent root growth, as long as the soil medium hasn't been too wet during this time. If your soil level is fairly shallow you'll see your roots have grown outwards, probably in abundance (unless, again, your soil is too wet.) If your soil level is deeper you'll see the roots have grown more downward but with a smaller amount of roots.

I'd do exactly as Ken suggested and do a VERY light liquid feeding, highly diluted, but I think I'd wait a couple days after you improve the lighting AND, as someone else mentioned, put a gentle fan on the plants for a short period of time. It is probably still too cold to set them out in direct sun in your area...I can only imagine it is cold as cubes in Minnesota. (Brrrrr....) Maybe you have a bright window you can move them to for a couple hours, keeping in mind to watch them so they don't get burnt from the abrupt light change.

Lastly, since they are peppers (and tomatoes) you'll see faster growth if you leave the heat mat turned on (but remove the dome.) Peppers really need the heat or they just slow down their growth rate tremendously. The last thing you want right now is cooler soil.

Sorry to be so long-winded. (I was giving Rick Corey competition~!)

Shoe (rained in and computering for a while!~)

Shoe:) Hope your rain has stopped:) On my end, I want the rain because it makes the snow melt. Very long winter, either way!! I just realized that the photos you were looking at we the ones I took last summer showing my setup. I don't actually have the lights that high-and those yellow covers only stay on until I see sprouts. Every year I say I'll get new covers, but I use them for such a short period of time (probably don't need them at all) that the money always goes somewhere else. Thanks for all your great advice!
Deb

Thanks Shoe and RickCorey! That's what I put up on Sunday-4 new GroLux bulbs. I was a little afraid of burning with the new lights, but so far everything looks good. Great blog, Rick!

Thanks very much, Deb. I would rather be more certain of my info before calling it an "Idea". I saw too many divergent opinions about what tubes you "can" use with what ballasts, or "should" use.

I think that T5 tubes are evolving so fast that, by the time that technology stabilizes, LEDs may have come down enough in price to replace even T5s!

P.S.

I stopped buying more humidity domes when I realized that Saran Wrap did as good a job. I happen to have an 18" wide roll. This way, if half of a tray emerges before the other half, I can cover or expose whatever I want to. (You could use a dry-cleaning-bag the same way, or two strips of 12" Saran Wrap.)

I cut mini-blind slats in half or thirds, and use them like tent-poles to hold the plastic film up off the soil, especially when I have tiny seeds sown on the surface.

Shoe - So glad to hear from you again. Hows the trucking business?? I guess it is keeping you busy.

When my seedlings got their second pair of leave and I put them into a large container I always put them in my unheated basement because I find they grow better at 60 degrees.

Howdy, Frank/herbie...always good to hear from ya. I imagine by now you are settled in at your new place (with grand-young'n nearby!) And I hope your wife's cookbook is still being a great hit!

Yep, I grow tomatoes at a cooler temp once they are up and going. They do much better that way. Peppers I keep the warmth to, though.

Deb, the rain has stopped and these past few days we've had "summer"! Today it was 91º. And I was out tilling people's gardens for them in it. Fortunately it wasn't a humid heat so I survived just fine. We've had a rare winter here. I feel for ya...I have no doubt you'd love to see bare ground by now.

Shoe (off to relax and eventually dream of tomato sandwiches...)

I'm in new York right now but when I get back to MA I will have to begin repotting my tomatoes

I started the following tomatoes on February 14.
Kellogg’s Breakfast
Georgia Streak
Hillbilly
Box Car Willie
Black From Tula
Umberto (this was a freebee)
No Name
I'll have to name him one day. He's a volunteer that came up in my garden about 4 years ago. He is a cross between a black and a Box Car, we think. I'm going to keep saving seeds from it each year, and when it's stable, I'll name it.
We had high hopes of planting out this week-end, but I'm not sure our weather will cooperate with us. I have 2 plants of each except for the Umberto. That's a cherry. I only did 1 of those.

I grow mine in Earth Boxes. I'll get some pictures when we plant out.