How to get my seedlings more light

[CubanBenny]

I currently have a lot of seedlings coming out of my propagator and they are becoming leggy as I am not able to get them adequate light so they can thicken up.

Any tips on how I can give them more light?

I have a small overhead grow light, however this only takes a small amount of my seedlings. The other ones I put beside my East facing window. I do not have a south facing window.

I was thinking perhaps getting another bedside lamp style growlight for these ones and keep moving this around to supplement the light they are getting through the window.

Alternatively, I could put them outside in a coldframe I have against a south facing wall, and then bring them indoors if the forecast is for temperatures to drop below 2 degrees.

Any tips?

[nickdub]

What varieties of plants are you growing, please ?

[It never rains..it pours]

If you have a old desk lamp floating about and a decent size cfl bulb (was 35w in my case) then that works well along with foil to help reflect light. On that note foil helps those by windows

[CubanBenny]

What varieties of plants are you growing, please ?

Pretty much most commonly eat vegetables that you can grow in the UK. Everything from cabbage to melon - About 25 different types of vegetables in total. However quite small quantities of all of these. Then a few easy grow annual flowers too.

[CubanBenny]

If you have a old desk lamp floating about and a decent size cfl bulb (was 35w in my case) then that works well along with foil to help reflect light. On that note foil helps those by windows

Great, i'll do both of those. I presume you mean a foil screen with the seedlings between the foil and the window?

Any reason you use a CFL bulb instead of an LED Grow bulb?

I was tempted by the idea of attaching a bulb to the top of a pivoting fan but maybe that is too complex for me. The idea being that the light pivots so one light can cover a bigger area, and then there is also more air circulation.

[It never rains..it pours]

Great, i'll do both of those. I presume you mean a foil screen with the seedlings between the foil and the window?

Any reason you use a CFL bulb instead of an LED Grow bulb?

I was tempted by the idea of attaching a bulb to the top of a pivoting fan but maybe that is too complex for me. The idea being that the light pivots so one light can cover a bigger area, and then there is also more air circulation.

Yes thats right on foil, was a tip I was given on this forum. You can actually see the difference to the eye
I would guess grow bulb better, it was what i had laying about in a box, I prefer free

[nickdub]

Pretty much most commonly eat vegetables that you can grow in the UK. Everything from cabbage to melon - About 25 different types of vegetables in total. However quite small quantities of all of these. Then a few easy grow annual flowers too.

Best to separate up how you treat them from now on if you have limited space by how hardy they are. Obviously things like tomatoes and melons etc need warmth, so keeping them under cover with grow lights if available is best.

Most common garden veg can be hardened off in a cold-frame and then planted out on 10 days or so's time.

The best treatment for the annuals will also depend on what category they are in eg half-hardy etc

[ESBkevin]

If you have a cold frame or greenhouse the things like cabbage, broad beans, peas etc. can go out there to start hardening off. Indoors I've had great success with two sheets of cardboard lined with kitchen foil. One wraps around the back of the seed trays in a 'C' shape and the other can be placed on top at night to intensify the simple grow light I have. During the day more light gets to the seedlings from reflections. As Nick says, protect the things like tomatoes etc. from the cold. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can start planting out in the nice weather!!!!

[monkeyboy]

I've seen cardboard tube cut into rings and then cut into halves to make C-shapes. Each one is then wrapped in foil and placed around each seedling to reflect light. I don't know if there's any benefit over doing a larger reflector as per ESBkevin.

[CubanBenny]

If you have a cold frame or greenhouse the things like cabbage, broad beans, peas etc. can go out there to start hardening off. Indoors I've had great success with two sheets of cardboard lined with kitchen foil. One wraps around the back of the seed trays in a 'C' shape and the other can be placed on top at night to intensify the simple grow light I have. During the day more light gets to the seedlings from reflections.

Thanks, I’ll copy your technique.

[Zelenina]

I see several people recommending foil to reflect light. But I remember threads about this when I first joined the vine, and the advice given was that white paper or card reflects light much better than foil. I suppose you could do a trial with both to compare them.

[Penellype]

Zelenia is correct that white paper reflects better than foil. Think of it this way - light is made up of different colours, and when we see a colour we see what has not been absorbed by the object we are looking at. An object that appears black has absorbed most or all of the light falling on it, one that appears white has absorbed very little.

Foil is grey and somewhat reflective, which means that it is absorbing some of all wavelengths (hence grey) and reflecting some of it. Human eyes are designed to alter the amount of light entering the eye by opening or closing the pupil (to avoid damage to the sensitive retina and enable better vision in poor light), and therefore we are extremely bad at objectively measuring light intensity by sight. The shiny metallic surface of foil probably looks like it is brighter than it is, while bright white paper probably looks less bright to us than it would to a light meter.