Grow Lights question?

[nao57]

So... before grow lights came out I didn't have to really worry about this question before. I acquired some grow lights with the intention of doing starter seedlings for spring. I live at high elevation near the Rockies. And this means our growing season is short. Its like 5 months long. It looks like on paper that its just under 7 months, except on the front end and the back end you get cold swings that disrupt everything. So we can't even put stuff outside till May.

In spite of that, it does work. But what it means is you have to be more careful. And most people because of losing more time before they can even start, they combat this by getting starter vegetables cheap. Like someone who grew tomato seedlings, or other vegetable seedlings and then you could buy those and put them out May 1st with them being a month old already. That let's you get some catch up.

Anyway that's just background for how and why we do things this way. And you CAN grow stuff with a shorter growing season this way. You can put away food you've grown also.

And that brings me to what got me interested in grow lights. So I could start those indoors early spring.

...

When you grow stuff under grow lights do you have to have the plant have rest time from the lights in the dark? I've curious about this. Or does a lot of the growth happen at night? I already know that in a normal garden if I don't water while its light out the plants don't grow good. But I'm not sure what exactly happens with the plants at night because I didn't have to consider scenarios from grow lights causing questions like; do I really need to turn the lights off for 8 to 12 hours etc?

On my 1st grow light set, I think the packaging said they'd last for 20,000 hours. 2nd and 3rd lights also quoted something to that effect also. Does that actually hold true? Or is it worse than that? (On a 12 hour cycle that's ~1,660 days. Or 4.5 years.)

I also don't know if grow lights are good enough to really grow adult vegetables stably? When I looked at the diagrams of how they were pictured to be set up, it looked like the coverage area wasn't really big enough to grow a lot of food from adult plants from them. Is this what others see, or am I wrong? Curious what you think?

 

[Meadowlark]

...When you grow stuff under grow lights do you have to have the plant have rest time from the lights in the dark?

I literally had this argument with AI today. No kidding.

AI position was plants require a dark period for respiration and hormone cycling. (about minimum of 6 hours a day)

My refute was what about Alaska?

I once visited an Alaska farm where they grew that huge cabbage you see in photos plus other unbelievable veggies. That farm had 24 daylight during summer periods.

So, what about that AI?

AI insisted that even in 24-hour daylight there are times of less light and lower temps. AI also claimed that grow lights would be too much intensity at 24 hours.

What about a rheostat to scale back in intensity on a timer?

Not the same, AI claimed.

I disagree, but I have never tried it.

My problem is opposite yours...heat. Searing heat that stops cool season veggies completely.

I believe I could possibly grow some cool season veggies comparable to that Alaska farm in my air-conditioned home in summer via grow lights.

It would be fun to try. Maybe I'll do that experiment next summer.... meanwhile, I'm gearing up for growing my own grains for flour to make our own bread...thanks to your last post.

That is going to be fun, and I've accumulated plenty of different seeds for the trial.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

We always start seedlings in 24hr light, but you don't have to

I think it's a marijuana influence telling people they need lights 16:8 or whatever because cannabis is a photo period plant that people take all the way to harvest under lights, so if you want a harvest you have to manipulate the lights.

Tomato don't care how it's started, but good lights will run up the electric bill

 

[nao57]

I literally had this argument with AI today. No kidding.

AI position was plants require a dark period for respiration and hormone cycling. (about minimum of 6 hours a day)

My refute was what about Alaska?

I once visited an Alaska farm where they grew that huge cabbage you see in photos plus other unbelievable veggies. That farm had 24 daylight during summer periods.

So, what about that AI?

AI insisted that even in 24-hour daylight there are times of less light and lower temps. AI also claimed that grow lights would be too much intensity at 24 hours.

What about a rheostat to scale back in intensity on a timer?

Not the same, AI claimed.

I disagree, but I have never tried it.

My problem is opposite yours...heat. Searing heat that stops cool season veggies completely.

I believe I could possibly grow some cool season veggies comparable to that Alaska farm in my air-conditioned home in summer via grow lights.

It would be fun to try. Maybe I'll do that experiment next summer.... meanwhile, I'm gearing up for growing my own grains for flour to make our own bread...thanks to your last post.

That is going to be fun, and I've accumulated plenty of different seeds for the trial.

Wow. Thanks for the reply. If you hadn't replied I wouldn't have thought of the Alaska examples. I didn't know about those either. So this is good info. Maybe also the more light than normal in a day up there helps them compensate for shorter grow season too? shrug*

For searing heat, that's rough. I guess you are probably already trying to use heat tolerant varieties for that.

People doing earthship homes, what they did for growing indoors was have like a walapini style greenhouse connected to the house that would share cooling air flow. And that would be connected along 1 side of the house. (Although the down side to that is you'd have to build it and that might cost money or even have building permit issues for 'indoor porch' stuff to grow in?

 

[nao57]

We always start seedlings in 24hr light, but you don't have to

I think it's a marijuana influence telling people they need lights 16:8 or whatever because cannabis is a photo period plant that people take all the way to harvest under lights, so if you want a harvest you have to manipulate the lights.

Tomato don't care how it's started, but good lights will run up the electric bill

Thank you both for the reply.

Is it possible that some plants need the rest but others don't?

One of the worries I heard from people is that the legalization of marijauna has taken a lot of the new farmers starting out. And the current average age of farmers being mid 50s that means in about 10 years that could be dangerous for 'food affordability' if all the new people in that all go to chemical farms to grow weed.

LED lights help reduce the cost a bit. But you have some good points. Its good to talk to you all.

 

[Tundra20]

i live in arkansas i grow lettuce year around in my ac shop with led lights once they germinate and get some size and im cutting leaves i will turn lights off some i do think some darkness is heathly for them

i grow micogreens yr around as well under lighting i will turn lights off to slow the growth on these

i used to have a aquaponic beds and grew lettuce broccoli and some peppers they did very well
on this setup i had timers on my lights

so yes lights will work just fine key is having plenty of lighting and have them setup where you can raise and lower the height as the plant grows
hope this helps keep us posted here

 

[Meadowlark]

In case you have never seen them....

You have to admit those carrots are impressive...straight and long.

Seems to me that could be duplicated via grow lights in controlled conditions.

 

[nao57]

In case you have never seen them....

View attachment 117650View attachment 117651View attachment 117649

You have to admit those carrots are impressive...straight and long.

Seems to me that could be duplicated via grow lights in controlled conditions.

That looks like a human was plucked up and put in a giant's garden.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

Everytime i grow turnips I'm reminded of this