Light For Seed Germination

[Jungle Jane]

It’s interesting with the cfl lamp the plant weights heavier but the fruit weights less than with led. In table one on this page it gives a table for comparison -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...1/#!po=28.2609

[Wheelie]

Ok, I’m now completely confused. I have a garland 51 propogator. I intend to sow various seeds tomorrow. I read somewhere on here that ordinary sunlight at this time of year is not enough, so I planned to buy one of those special lamps. If the daylight gets better in March, am I better not wasting money on one?

[Penellype]

At the moment we have less than 12 hours of daylight (although it looks like more, as the sky does not go completely dark when the sun sets and our eyes adjust to the dimmer light). 20th March is the spring equinox, when day and night are of equal length and days get progressively longer after that. Most plants are happiest if they get more light than dark, so if you sow in March, by the time the seedlings emerge you are probably nearing the equinox.

Even so, if you have your seedlings on a windowsill, they will only get light on one side, and not on top. This can lead to leggy seedlings that lean towards the light. If you can't provide some sort of artificial light from above, you may be better waiting until you can sow outside. Plants sown a little later often catch up.

[Wheelie]

At the moment we have less than 12 hours of daylight (although it looks like more, as the sky does not go completely dark when the sun sets and our eyes adjust to the dimmer light). 20th March is the spring equinox, when day and night are of equal length and days get progressively longer after that. Most plants are happiest if they get more light than dark, so if you sow in March, by the time the seedlings emerge you are probably nearing the equinox.

Even so, if you have your seedlings on a windowsill, they will only get light on one side, and not on top. This can lead to leggy seedlings that lean towards the light. If you can't provide some sort of artificial light from above, you may be better waiting until you can sow outside. Plants sown a little later often catch up.

Thanks for that.

[It never rains..it pours]

It’s interesting with the cfl lamp the plant weights heavier but the fruit weights less than with led. In table one on this page it gives a table for comparison -
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/art...1/#!po=28.2609

Thanks JJ. As we are trying to get seedling/plant biomass would that not point to CFL best. As in mid March natural sunlight will take over for flowering and fruiting

Another experiment below, where CFL wins. I only looked into this as had CFL bulbs in my junk box rather than buying a proper grow light

Test 2: Tomato & Pepper, LED triband vs. CFL spotlight | AerogardenMastery

Ps Im using your foil suggestion and it helps

[nickdub]

Ok, I’m now completely confused. I have a garland 51 propagator. I intend to sow various seeds tomorrow. I read somewhere on here that ordinary sunlight at this time of year is not enough, so I planned to buy one of those special lamps. If the daylight gets better in March, am I better not wasting money on one?

Ir very much depends on what seeds you intend to sow. The reason being that some plants like say peas can cope with quite cold conditions after germination, so can go out in a cold greenhouse or frame in March to grow on, whereas others like tomatoes need not only light but heat after germination.

At the moment I have a couple of boxes of small tomato seedlings - I move them out in to the conservatory in the day for light, and back in to the house over the evening and night for warmth.

[Jungle Jane]

Thanks JJ. As we are trying to get seedling/plant biomass would that not point to CFL best. As in mid March natural sunlight will take over for flowering and fruiting

Another experiment below, where CFL wins. I only looked into this as had CFL bulbs in my junk box rather than buying a proper grow light

Test 2: Tomato & Pepper, LED triband vs. CFL spotlight | AerogardenMastery

Ps Im using your foil suggestion and it helps

There might not be much difference,i couldn’t understand how could a plant can have more leaf but less fruit,Ive limited knowledge on it,I’d have to look at lots of studies to compare results before I knew what I was talking about. I’m glad the foils helping

[the big lebowski]

i think its the light spectrum jane ,the "cooler" blue end of the light spectrum are good for leaf and plant growth (they are commonly known as veg lamps) and the red end of the spectrum helps the fruit (whatever the plant is growing is called fruit in the example) grow and ripen,so people use the cooler colour lamps to start off seedlings cos thats all they need

[It never rains..it pours]

Some pics, one in conservatory just before evening move under lights, second the cfl set up from junk box and third a close up. No idea what should look like at 7 days as first time. All I have noticed is the two F1 varieties are taking longe to appear
Any criticism welcome