light box

[YFS]

Hi

I dont have a good frost free place outside to put seedlings so I was thinking about just building my own light box with a ordinary household bulb. What have you people done before and is the cost of the electricity just pennies?

YFS

[Aberdeenplotter]

If you mean "outside" by outside, remember electricity and moisture can be an unhealthy if not fatal combination. If you mean outside the house but inside an outbuilding, continue to bear that in mind but please don't meddle with electricity. It is dangerous. Far better to go and buy a purpose built growlamp and to install it in a safe location.

[Kristen]

Hi

I dont have a good frost free place outside to put seedlings so I was thinking about just building my own light box with a ordinary household bulb. What have you people done before and is the cost of the electricity just pennies?

I have a Metal Halide growing lamp. That's about £100 of kit. I used it to bring on some Canna Lillies from seed over the winter. Bit OTT for helping some seeds out, but CFL bulbs are available which are a bit cheaper (you still need a reasonable decent reflector, and a timer, but you don't need a special "ballast")

A 400W Metal Halide bulb casts its light over a decent area - about 1 sq.m. - and will penetrate the canopy of plants - .e.g pot plants - reasonably well

CFL bulbs (or any other type of florescent tubes) have to be within an inch or so of the seedling - otherwise the strength/benefit of the light is lost. So arrange your light-box so that the plants can be moved up/down so that they are very close to the light.

Having said that I read on a forum recently from someone show uses an angle-poise lamp on his Tomato seedlings, and has done for years

If you only have a day-time electricity tariff then electricity is about £1.50 per year per Watt (i.e. running 24/7)

So a 100W bulb on for 12 hours a day would be £6.25 a month ... and 10W bulb 62.5p/month. Cheaper if you have Economy-7 and run it at night

[YFS]

I have tried to put a lamp on at the back of the room, placed above the seedtray, but it is just making the seedlings become leggy very quickly.

[Two_Sheds]

It's too hot then is it? You want a cool "blue" light - lots of light, no heat