Too cold or to dark ? which is the least worse ?

[tweety]

Hello,

with the current weather I am unsure what to do with my seedlings... I know they need light but they also need "decent" temperature...
so this morning, before I went to work, I was faced with the biggest dilema of the day : plants in or out ?

I have a plastic greenhouse in the garden but it does not get sun before 11ish. I went to check and the temp this morning in the greenhouse around 8 was 5 degres... I haven't dared put the tomatoes, sweet peppers and french beans out...
but now when I see the gorgeous sun outside I wonder if I should have put them out this morning as they would be getting a suntan now !
or maybe a sauna as the greenhouse would have been closed when I left...

so what is your advice on this ? chilly for a few hours and then roasting... or constant temp in the house but no sunshine ? I only have east or west windows so either a few sunshine rays in the morning or mid afternoon... the rest of the time is quite "dark" (well for plants anyway !)
I must had that I am nearly 1hour drive away from home, no it's not possible to pop in at lunch time to move the plants...

thanks in advance.

[arknor]

invest in a cheap cfl growlight imo, can get one for under a fiver delivered on ebay and they are cheap enough to run.

you should be able to get away with just the 1 for some seedlings to give them a boost before you feel its safe enough to put them outside.

ive even heard of people getting blue led christmas lights and a large tidy up container, drill holes on the contaier lid for the led's to slot in ^^ they need to be proper blue diode led's though not just blue colored glass

[tweety]

invest in a cheap cfl growlight imo, can get one for under a fiver delivered on ebay and they are cheap enough to run.

you should be able to get away with just the 1 for some seedlings to give them a boost before you feel its safe enough to put them outside.

ive even heard of people getting blue led christmas lights and a large tidy up container, drill holes on the contaier lid for the led's to slot in ^^ they need to be proper blue diode led's though not just blue colored glass

I'll have a look tonight (no acces to ebay on work computer ! what a shame !)
I have a craft daylight lamp, could that do the trick ? but I have no idea if this is watt hungry or not...
thanks for your reply

[arknor]

i know alot of people on another forum i frequent use 65w Blue Spectrum 6400k CFL grow light lamp bulb ES E27 which would cost you around 14quid but they are more for growing a plant under artificial light permanent, then you would need the red one to go with it once the plant starts fruiting so not really worth it imo.


one of these should be enough to give seedlings some "extra" light QUALITY DAYLIGHT 24W SPIRAL ENERGY SAVER BULB BC/ES on eBay (end time 22-Mar-10 18:10:56 GMT)

if the craft daylight lamp you have is already 6400k colour temprature you should be good to go though and i suspect it will be.

[bramble]

My opinion, don't put them out just yet. They may survive with low levels of light but if they are too cold they will die.
Keep them in for another while. You can always put tin foil behind them and this will reflect the light back to them.
I had mine in cardboard boxes and lined the back of the box with foil.
Every little helps.

[arknor]

any wrinkles in the foil will create heatspots when the sun is shining on it which will burn the plants.

white can bounce light really well so you could make a semi lightbox with cardboard lined with something like white printer paper

[tweety]

Thanks for all you answers...
I'll look at the specification of my craft light, but as it is 2nd hand I may not find a lot... I'll look on ebay too...
but tomorrow morning I'll get my photography reflector out... and will transform the kitchen into a garden nusery/photo studio !!!
no doubt my OH will be delighted ! ;-)

I put them out tonight as the thermometer in the greenhouse indicated 19 degres... so at least they has 2 good hours of good sunlight... did I do right ?