Read the instructions. There's plenty info already posted.

Poor ykerzner to get such a terse response. So much for the "beauty of this forum".

Anna,

Do you have any clue how many posts there are about lighting? Not to mention trying to grow under constant lighting?

The beauty of this forum is it contains a search function plus one can Google a question and come up with (often) more relevant links that have been answered here.

Mike

Anna

Ever heard of enabling? I'm not one that's for it. It has created a very lazy society that wants everything handed to them. There's at least 5 threads on the first page that includes good lighting for plants.

One of my original questions remains, albeit slightly modified: given that the lights will be on 24/7, is it better to use a 40-50 watt light to avoid burning plants rather than a 100 watt light, or does it not matter?

Bulbs for those fixtures only use up to 20 watts. You'd have to change fixtures or ballasts for higher powered lights. 24/7 isn't good unless it's just the first 4-6 weeks. Plants need rest too.

your setup is NOT very ideal - fluoros should be within 4 inches of the seedlings, or closer. in a few months, your seedlings will really overgrow, and you will likely have a mess on your hands. your fixtures don't even have reflectors on them, so my advice would be to start at MOST 4 weeks ahead of time, see if you can find longer chain, to keep the lights just above your seedlings, within a few inches. you have to do this to keep up the light intensity, otherwise the seedlings stretch out to try to reach for the light, and you end up with a mess.

As taz6122 recommended, they'll only be under lights for 4-5 weeks at most. The other side has much lower fluorescents, only about 1.5 feet above the benches, so the flats will be positioned on upside-down containers to put them about 3 to 4 inches below the lights.

I would go with 1" or so below the lights.

Mike

Here is a great post on overdriving T8 lights to include schematic drawings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Overdriving T8 Shop Lights.

No need to go off site for that! The person that posted the wiring diagram probably got it here since the discussion was started in '04' and the addy for the diagram was posted in '05'. There's also a much more extensive list of ballasts that I made up myself and I've been using overdriven lights since with no problems. I just changed bulbs from T12s to T8s and there's a major difference. I fruited tomatoes under the T12s and I know they'll do better under these. The wiring diagram is about 1/3 of the way down the page in a post by "zink" under the heading "re: I've found the ..... Missing Diagrams!!".

Here is a link that might be useful: I have found the BEST cheap flourescent ballast/fixture - cont'd.

Good catch taz....I hadn't seen that post on this forum as I'm still plolwing through many of the old threads.