Hello There,

Yes I searched the forums, enough to know that what I am looking for "I think" is:
6500K
3000 Lumens
100 Watts

Walked into the local home depot and got the guy to show me the florescent (bulb and tube) and LED,
and the light was BLUE!!! I thought it would be full spectrum or something like that?

I also saw on this site that people where running what looked like Metal Halide and High Pressure sodium,
which I also got Home Depot guy to show me, and they were YELLOW!!!

Now... i'm confused... What I am looking for are lights for the growth phase. Not worried about flowering
as I will leave that for the summer.

Question 1: Can you please help me make the decision LED vs HID vs Plasma vs Metal Hallide
Question 2: I would like to run lights that will not get too hot in the room and possibly burn down
the house... I need something that is safe and efficient on my electrical bill.

More Questions:

Do we have full spectrum LED that are proven within growth stage? if so recommendation?
Can we avoid hot running Metal Halide and High Pressure sodium lights with some florescent
or CFL grow lights?

So many questions!!!!!!

I have two 4ft, 8-bulb T5 florescent fixtures with mixed bulbs. Some are regular T5 grow bulbs and some are Eye Hortilux full spectrum with infrared and ultraviolet.  These fixture put out quite a bit of heat but not as much as one 1000 watt metal halide.  The plants seem to be doing very well so far.  My first experience with these type of lights.

I think I forgot to mention keeping the electrical bill to a minimum as much as possible..

Terrance
For cuttings propagation I use a  structure with two 4-ft florescence light tubes.These tubes are made by GE for plants with green writing on it at the ends.
I tried to push my head under the light to read the writings but the sticky yellow cards hung for fungus gnats got stuck to my head.
Checkk with 'Canadian Tire'. They are in bins with the regular 4-ft florescent tubes. They work fine for me. They are not hot

Hello Ottawan,

Thank you for your response. Is the light that the bulbs emit bluish in colour?

T.

No, not blue in colour. More like daylight.

I am not expert of lighting, also you do not explain what is your application, nothing can compare to sun light.

Anyway, I rooted some fig cuttings, they need to stay slow growing indoor during few months winter time, I do not have south face window with direct sunlight, I need to provide them with minimum lighting in few Sq Feet area.

My understand is that, for veg ( leaves) growing, They need white- blue spectrum lights, while for flowers and fruits stage, They need red spectrum lights, roots growing need bottom heat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_light

For my application, in low cost with small labor, I bought five 9Watts  6000K white LED stick bar for total $10/US including shipping and I bought 12V 3-4A power supply from Flea market for $1.
This LED bar uses only 9 watts power but produces more than 1000+ lum light, it is well worth the money.
However, if you care about CSA approved, fire hazard etc, please stay away from this setup.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-50cm-Factory-Wholesale-50CM-DC-12V-36-SMD-5730-LED-Hard-Rigid-LED-Strip-Bar/32295739866.html

you need to find the best set up for your application base on your ability and cost.

Hello Ricky,

This is a very interesting setup. From my understanding, you use this setup to root your cuttings
long enough to stick them outside in a couple of months? How do you think it will fair in a growth
(ie, leafing) stage for areas where winter is six months long and somewhat dark (ie, Montreal)?

From my research, I have only seen LED grow light setups with blue and red led lights in one
housing/balast. Did not come across a 6000K white light LED being used in grow applications.
I'm sure it exists..

Seems easy enough to setup. I think I have a power supply lying around somewhere however,
aren't the power supply 12v at the mulex connectors?

Final questions:
i) Do you think you could outlast total run time of the flourecents?
ii) Are you confident enough to put your setup on a timer and have it running while at work?
iii) How does your electric bill look?

Kind Regards,

Terrance

Hi Terrance
all I used last winter was 4 foot T8 daylight bulbs and had very good success
turn them on in the morning shut them off when you go to sleep
I tried to keep it simple and it worked for me

Happy Figging

I got a couple wal mart shop lights with grow bulbs or daylight bulbs from walmart too. its enough to do cuttings over winter indoors or  a few larger plants. if you want to do more than that then your talking some bigger bucks. but I have been using the walmart set up for 5 years now with no problems. have a pic posted in a thread somewhere. gnats are a bigger issue.

Hi Terrance,

I am by far no expert either, but I've got a 4ft shop light with 3 CFL tubes, 2 of which are 6500k and 1 at 2700k to give a little variation between the blue & red light. Don't get hung up on the color you see, from my understanding of it that has little to do with the light being absorbed by the plants. It's working quite well for my plants that I started from cuttings in September & October. In fact it's working too well lol, I'm having to do all kinds of crazy things to resituate the plants so that they are the correct distance from the light because they are growing so fast. If you are worried about electric bill then try to use the window sill whenever possible & just use the lights to supplement. I agree with Luzzu above, try to keep it simple as possible..

Oh btw, from my experience most of the workers at the big box stores don't really know too much about grow lights.. Unless you get lucky & happen to run into a grower by chance. Most of the time they look at me all funny when I tell them what I'm looking for lol.. Best of luck to you!

Thinking about lighting to add to my greenhouse...this is what I needed to know about! Thanks for the great info alk!

Here is info i posted on another thread on lighting options. Hope this helps

There are many choices and many spectrum's of growing lights out there, heres a breakdown of your options.

1. CFL lights which are ok if your growing 1 plant which i doubt anyone here is. Cheap and Easy, but wont be good for growing figs. SKIP
2. Shop Lighting . T8, T12 lights, cheap and can be bought at big box stores, you can get different bulbs with different spectrums. I have these and they work well, this will be one of the most common methods used by people growing figs on the board. BEST OPTION
3. T5 lighting. More expensive than T8/T12 lighting setups, but its more efficient and generally will outperform the T8/T12 in terms of lumens (light output). The same options are there for the bulbs, multiple spectrums. This is probably the second most common lighting option used by people growing figs. SECOND BEST IF YOU GOT THE EXTRA $
4. HID Lighting. There are two types of grow lights for HID lighting, HPS and MH. These are high end grow lights that people who do hydroponics and medical grows generally use due to the output of light and the performance you get. I also have this setup for growing indoors, i used it last season for my peppers and tomatoes and its like replicating the sun with light output and heat. This is much more expensive than most of the other setups and has more costs associated to it, electricity and if bulb blows. You also need alot more room for this as plants cant be close or it will literally BURN! I plan on using my MH bulb prior to bringing out my rooted cuttings in spring, so i can try and get some good growth early on.
5. LED Lighting. Expensive and there's a lot of controversy on the topic on if it can outperform T5 or HID lighting. Not worth it unless you feel like experimenting and got mulah.

I would say, go to Lowes or HomeDepot and buy some shop lighting, T8 is more efficient. Get some Daylight bulbs and you'll be set. Amazon has good deals on T5 lighting setups if you want to go that route.

I usually run 1 to 3 HPS/MH lights through the winter. When 3 are burning they heat the 2nd floor (small floor and I like it cold :)

Top is a 100w HPS, middle 400 MH, bottom 400w HPS with extra blue

I usually have white reflectors all the way around  to increase light

I have AC box fans (on the left) on the 2 400w. Without the fans you can't touch the top of the reflectors, with the fans no problem

You can get a good idea on electricity  cost for whatever way you go.

lamp watts  X 1.15 (average ballast waste) = total watts  ÷  1000 = kilowatts per hour

Thanks KK,

I know they serve different purposes however, if you had to go with one kind which one would it be?
Seems like the plants really like 400w HPS with extra blue. Also, I have never seen high powered
sodium with such characteristics. Which bulb and light fixture is that?

PS Nice setup

Terrance