Rob, I read you post on Rocky Mountain Gardening. I am in Westminster. Do you have your hydroponic system set up already? I have one room I have 2 24" and 2 18" and 1 single flood grow light on my seedlings. Do you have shelves or just a 3 foot square flat area? Once I do another transplanting I will be needing much more lighting. I also use flat aluminum reflectors.

Gloria

I actually have my set up under a shelf. I have pics here
http://insidegardens.blogspot.com/
I don't have hydroponics yet. Maybe in the future, but right now I am just experimenting with a few herbs.
Nothing fancy.
I am in Louisviile

I don't think 2x21" T-8's and 1x18" T-8 florescents will satify your requirement.

For growing tomatoes, peppers, and melons to maturity indoors, you may want to consider HID lighting. A 400 watt Metal Halide would cover a 4 ft. X 4 ft. area as a primary light source.

Regards,

Rokal

I actually have my set up under a shelf. I have pics here
http://insidegardens.blogspot.com/
I don't have hydroponics yet. Maybe in the future, but right now I am just experimenting with a few herbs.
Nothing fancy.
I am in Louisviile

Rokal do you have a link with a recommendation?
Thanks

Also how many lumens per square feet is recommended?

gardening_rob,

I am a newbie to HID lighting myself. You can follow my post on this topic here:

Recommendations for a 400 Watt MH Ballast

Based on your picture linked above, I don't think you will have enough room for a metal halide fixture. Plants should be 1-4 ft. from the top of a 400 watt metal halide fixture.

Regards,

Rokal

i agree with rokal, for a 400W HID bulb you should be looking at 4' minimum clearance from floor to light mount, that way you could grow up to say a 24'' plant and still have about 18'' (depending on your light assembly) from plant top to bulb.

have you considered a 250W HID?

i run a 430W HPS with 53K initial lumens in a 3.5' X4.5' X 6.5' high enclosed box with reflective walls and my peppers (and other tropical plants) love it. by my rough calcs (i'm no physicist) thats somewhere around 2000 lumens/sqfoot @ 1.5' from the light (not factoring in reflections!!). FYI i can fit about 10-12 mature pepper plants in this area, not a whole lot :( well not as many as i would like.

I am completely DUMB on this... and I created a spot for some herbs with a grow light. I have it next to my sink area, the only place I could put it and it is only about 18" x 16" area ...I'll take a pic and post it here. Anyway, I bought a grow light from Lowes. http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=76376-1390-G9721GROW-WH it is just a flourescent light. I need to know how long do I keep this turned ON ?? I kept it on all day yesterday and turned off the light when I went to bed. Should I be leaving it on day and night??? I thought since the sun goes down that it should have some darkness also.

Thanks, ~Claire

OK, here is my picture I promised:

I was wrong ...it is not fluorescent, it is a halogen light. DUH!

(Lermer) With my horizontal 400w ceramic metal halide, I get a reading of over 40,000 foot candles at about 6". That is way too close. You want about 4300 foot candles.
At least a foot from the bulb is preferable.

Horiontal works better than vertical for many reasons. The avoidance of a dark spot under the bulb, and less reflective losses, are two main reasons.

The 400w CMH is about 2x the efficiency of a standard metal halide. The CMH has more blue than a MH, and more red than an HPS. Also the standard MH bulb does not operate very efficiently in the horizontal orientation.

The 400w CMH ought to be plenty for you area. You might use the fluorescents in a vertical orientation in the corners, as side lights.

New Earth is a great garden shop in louisville and the staff seems very helpful. Recently, i purchased a Vitalume 125watt CFL which emits 10,500 lumens. For about $80.00 you can get it and a cheap reflector. It hardly produces any heat which allows you to keep plants much closer to it than a Metal Halide. I keep my plants about five to seven inches away and they seem to love it. But to get your plants to produce veggies you will need more space and therefore more light. Their Budget Metal Halide 400 watt is $184.00 which includes a basic metal halide bulb. I don't work there I just happened recently to have been there and picked up a catalog and the staff seemed truly interested in what they do for a living.

WoodyG.fan

Is that the New Earth store on Taylorsville Road? I have been there a few times - many years ago.

They showed me how they grew some beautiful tomatoes and several other plants using only High Pressure Sodiums, while emphasizing that they received NO blue light whatsoever. I did not have the heart to point out that these plants were all lined up against their huge, unobstructed plate glass windows which surrounded the room. The BRIGHT BLUE sky dominated the area. I did purchase some products from them anyhow.

If you are electronically competent, you can find ballast sources in Louisville to build a 400w MH system, with bulb, for under $100.

By the way, you may think the 125w CFL burns cool, but feel the ballast/base. The weak link(s) in a ballast are any small capacitor(s) inside. The industry rule is a for every 10°F increase in temperature, the capacitor life is cut in half. This is THE reason that the major lamp manufacturers have been reluctant to make high wattage "self-ballasted" CFLs. So far, only Philips has come out with a 85w self-ballasted CFL, while touting a special "cooling air movement" feature.

Lights-of-America, which sells some 65w, 85w and 100w fluorescent floodlights (sold at Home Depot) uses a proprietary ballast/bulb design, where they build an essential capacitor into the base of the lamp. These lamps get very hot and are doomed to fail early. At least they are good plant lights if you remove the plexiglass cover to help cool them.

Zink
(also a Louisville musician)

Thanks Zink I appreciate the tips on inexpensive lighting. Unfortunately I am not competent in electrical wiring. The 125 watt is rated at 10,500 initial lumens for 10,000 hours. I assume the lumens will decrease over time but, as for heat, the thermometer on top of the reflector reads 85 degrees and the one approximately 5" below the light bulb reads 72 degrees. I find the biggest draw back with the CFLs is that the light does not seem to penetrate the canopy as intensely as even a small 100 watt mini-HID. In comparison, the 400 watt HID is like having a small to medium sized star in your basement. I can't wait for warmer weather and outdoor concerts. What type of music/instrument do you play?

I have a
small room 4feetx4feet. That is fixed for a bar. It has a sink, a mirrow behind the sink and glass shelves. I would like to put my African violets on the shelves. but would need to provide a light for growth. I would prefer to have a fixture that was not ugly. Any suggestions would be appreciated.