Mine are energy eaters
VHO lamps offer 7,200 lumens - 95 watts each. I have a 4 bulb unit.
When you have the opportunity to switch fluorescent fixtures, T5’s are an efficiency improvement over the T8’s. Drew had the color ranges correct for the grow lights at 6500 and 3000, although I will say that every one of my 6500 range HO lights are actually stamped 6400, even though sold by different manufacturers . The HO and VHO give off even more light than standard T5’s.
One drawback is that the T5 grow lights cost considerably more than the old T8’s. Another is that since they aren’t interchangeable, you have to purchase new reflector fixtures. @Drew51 I’ve thought of trying some VHO tubes, but didn’t know if they were interchangeable in the same fixture.
@warmwxrules normally you’d want more cool white (toward the blue end, higher K value) light for promoting vegetation as opposed to warm (red end) until you want to encourage flowering. That’s also when night length can become more critical. If your plants are also getting sun through windows, I’d think you were probably filling in any required areas of the spectrum, anyway.
LED arrays do also give off heat to an extent, though not directed at the plants from the individual bulbs. The arrays have a rather heavy heat sink and built in fan to draw the heat away from the lamps, since high heat reduces their life. My multi-spectrum ones give off an overall magenta light that originally lit up the neighborhood - and I’m inside a wooded lot. That bright glow broadcasting to the world that I’m growing “something” in here was the impetus for buying the tent. I don’t need anyone coming to my door in search of something I don’t have. The downside to the tent is that it also blocks the light from the windows lining this room. So, I needed to increase the total amount of light from fixtures.
No you need a VHO fixture and the fixture does not take HO bulbs. I would go with HO myself the VHO becomes too hot, you must use a fan. Plants though can be 2 feet from light. Any future lights I buy will be HO. I think a 4 ,6 or 8 bulb HO would be awesome.
No lights this afternoon…lots of sun streaming through.
I’m going to check some bulbs out at the hardware store …see if i can find a higher K bulb…
2 Likes
Rob,
Have to try to graft those seedling scions to your mature trees to speed up fruits production and save space? I got a plum tree with 7 seedling scions on it. Hopefully in another year, it will produce some good plum and pluot hybrids.
Tony
Yup. I did a few last summer…budded them to my apricot and hybrid plum. Then i just killed off the seedling tree (sad)/. I may grow those peaches out for rootstock. I’ll see come spring what looks good/what doesn’t/.
Drew is dead-on right. South facing windows in the winter are helpful and that is about it. You need TONS of light. It is so hard to replicate the power of the sun. I’m happy to see someone mentioned LED’s as it is for sure the future of plant growing. I haven’t yet used them, but have read great things. Ironically (as Drew eluded to sorta) pretty much everything known on the subject is related to, or drawn directly from the growing of pot. Pot is probably a really good test bed subject. If it performs well enough, it’ll likely do so for most everything else as well I reckon.
The intensity, spectrum, cost etc of LED’s has come sooo far in just the last few years it isn’t even funny.
Lots and lots of light is needed.
I would like to try ceramic metal halide, but i have so many fixtures that i hate to invest more into it.
I set part of my peach seedlings out again today. It was overcast most of the day but still they got more sun than if I had just left them in the window sill. It was very windy today so I put them in a spot that shielded them from some of the wind. They looked good when I brought them in tonight.
Windy again today but warm so set out five of my potted peach seedlings. I have seven in peat pots in a south facing window that actually look better than the ones I have been putting outside. They are shorter and have better color and more leaves.
Its just been days of clouds and rain here so i’ve had mine under lights the whole time. Xmas should be sunny…i need to get out the gallon pots and fill them with soil. Roots are starting to come out the bottom of my pots so its time to move them. Only issue with such early growth is what to do with them as they start out growing the pots. I think they’ll have to stay in the gallon pots until at least March or April…
Those look really good warm.
Depending on how soon you get those in the ground…you could have huge trees by next fall. Peaches are extremely fast growing.
If we have an average spring I should be able to set them in the ground in mid to late April. I suppose I will have to wait a year to graft them?? I am guessing that they will be too small in spring when it is time to graft peaches.
I planted seven more peach seeds last night. The last set I planted all rotted. I ran out of peat pots and used some plastic six cell starter pots. I was used to keeping the peat pots watered and overwatered the plastic I believe. I will be more carful with this set and see how they do. I still have 35 seeds in the fridge. They really have not progressed much beyond a small sprout sticking out. I have them in a very cold spot in the fridge. Some of the damp paper towel was actually frozen when I got them out last night but the seeds still looked. Keeping them this cold may be slowing the sprouting process. I think it would be great if I could hold off planting some until February.
Yeah…i really don’t care to be babying huge seedlings all winter long, but i’m stuck with it. Somehow i need to find out how to delay it …maybe the seeds could be thrown in the freezer initially? Not sure.
I really think if I had left them at room temp in a dry paper bag until December, then move them to damp paper towels in the fridge they would sprout on time. If I remember I will try it next fall.
Me too, not peaches but fig trees. I needed to root them now as in the spring I germinate all kinds of vegetable seeds. I need to focus on the veggies in spring.
I saved some seeds from what was labeled as a cow horn pepper, cayenne I believe. I put a few in a flat really just to see if the seed was good. The first one came up today. I really liked this pepper, if you let them get full size they were hot enough to me and I could eat them with my food or cut them up and cook with them.