FlowerFan,

"On the box it says, 48" Full-Spectrum, Long-Life, Radiation Shielded Fluorescent Tube Average Rated Life 33,000 Hours Replaces all standard F40/T12 Tubes."

Seedlings don't really benefit much from the red light of "full spectrum" bulbs, but it won't hurt them. I use cool white Philips T8 bulbs which cost me $2 each (in builders packs of 10 for $19.99) and although they don't have much in the red end of the spectrum, seedlings do just fine under them. Of course, I do overdrive my bulbs for the 70% increase in light.

Ironically, the more expensive shoplights have bigger reflectors, which limits the number of bulbs you can put over a given shelf. My main growing stand is a wire shelf unit with three 2' x 4' shelves for plants with a fourth shelf at the top of the unit. Since I am using the inexpensive HD shoplights with small reflectors, I can get four shoplights over each shelf, which puts 8 bulbs over each shelf and since they are overdriven that is equivalent to 1.7 x 8 = 13.6 bulbs per shelf, which is a lot of light. The 8 bulbs on each shelf cost me just $16 which is $4 less than your two T12 Ott Lights. It's a lot more light for the money. I think it would have been worth your time to study the diagrams and overdrive the cheap HD shoplights.

That said, your tomato and pepper seedlings may do OK in your rig despite the underachievement of the lights. You might want to put a small electric fan near them to give them some artificial breeze. That helps the seedlings to have strong stems.

"Most effective when used 6" to 36" above plant tops for 8 to 10 hours a day."

That doesn't seem right to me. With just two bulbs I think you will need to keep them not any farther than 6" from the plants to get as much light intensity on them as you can. Also, the 8 to 10 hours a day seems a bit short for day length. I would probably go for at least 12 hours a day. Last year I set my timers for 16 hours a day and that worked well for everything except my onions. They grew to large plants but bulbed out under the short dark period and that was not my intent. I wanted to set them out in a purely vegetative state with no bulbs so the plants could continue to put on lots more size in the garden before bulbing out. The premature bulbing limited their growth potential.

But your tomatoes and peppers would probably appreciate lots more than 8 hours of light. My tomatoes and peppers enjoyed the 16 hours of bright light they received and were in full bloom on big stocky plants when I set them out. I didn't loose a single seedling to damping off, which I credit to the bright overdriven T8s and the breezes from the fans.

MM

Thank you MM for the help.

I copied the posts about overdriving the shoplights. The next time my parents come for a visit I am going to have my dad help me.

give them atleast 12 to 16 hrs...