[Market-farming] Cost to start plants

Marty Kraft martyk at allspecies.org
Tue Jan 8 11:58:54 EST 2008


The T-8s are supposed to put out as much light as the 40W but less heat.

I just had my walla walla onion seedlings start to bulb for having  
them under constant light. Do you think they'll bulb at 16 hours/day?

Marty
On Jan 8, 2008, at 10:18 AM, Pat Meadows wrote:

> On Tue, 8 Jan 2008 08:27:40 -0600, you wrote:
>
>> Regards to the list:
>>
>> Pat, would you please tell us what seed starting medium you use in  
>> your
>> flats and how you fertilize to get your "beautiful, stocky, healthy
>> seedlings under those lights"?
>>
>
> I use all-purpose soilless mix, such as Pro-Mix.  The last couple  
> of bags I
> bought were another brand, though.  I buy whichever brand the local  
> Agway
> has in stock.
>
> I fertilize with (I'm embarrassed to say) house plant food while the
> seedlings are growing in the house. It's convenient, it's a liquid.
>
> The brand is Schultz, it comes in a dark green bottle, and it's  
> 10-15-10.
> I use it at half the strength recommended on the bottle and I  
> fertilize the
> little seedlings starting from when they get their first true  
> leaves.  I
> feed them twice a week.
>
> So this isn't organic....but I don't really mind if my seedlings  
> are fed
> non-organically until they go outdoors.  I'm not selling them or the
> produce, I don't have to be 100% organic.
>
> I'd like to use fish emulsion in the house but (a) it smells and my
> seedlings are in our living room and - worse - (b) it makes the cat  
> try to
> get at the seedlings and dig them up.
>
> It's important, I'd like to stress, that (a) the lights be on 16  
> hours per
> day and (b) they be only a couple of inches - two inches or  
> thereabouts -
> from the seedlings.  It's also important to get 40 watt  
> fluorescents if you
> can:  the 4' long bulbs used to be *only* 40 watts, but now they  
> come in
> lower wattages too.  The wattage is written on the bulbs.
>
> Ideally, each fixture would have one warm light bulb and one cool  
> white
> bulb, but I can NEVER find a warm white bulb.  You can also buy  
> special
> plant-light fluorescent bulbs but they are very pricey.  The ones I  
> use are
> (I think) about $1.99 - inflation now has probably brought them up  
> to $2.99
> each.
>
> Our lights are hung on S-hooks.  The S-hooks are on chains which  
> are hung
> from the bottom of the shelves.  So I can adjust them easily as the
> seedlings grow.
>
> It's good also, to have reflective surfaces shining the lights back  
> on your
> seedlings.  This can be done cheaply with scotch tape and aluminum  
> foil.  I
> used to scotch-tape foil on the walls behind the seedling shelves  
> (we had
> dark wallpaper in the living room when we moved here), but I don't  
> bother
> now because we have painted our living room walls white anyway used
> semi-gloss.  White semi-gloss paint is a pretty good reflector.
>
> It's also good, if you can, to put several lights together, side by  
> side -
> a 4' x 8' piece of plywood on sawhorses is terrific for this use.   
> You get
> even more light if you can put several lights together that way.  I  
> cannot;
> my lights are just one over one shelf.  But it's OK that way too.
>
> Some people use a small fan blowing towards the seedlings to make them
> stronger and healthy.  I haven't done that, but again - these are  
> in our
> living room with pretty good air circulation.
>
> The seedlings grown indoors like this need to be hardened off  
> gradually
> prior to transplanting them outdoors.  Or covered with something  
> protective
> (row cover, for instance) when they first go outdoors.
>
> I'm sorry if I'm repeating what everyone already knows.  ??  But  
> maybe not,
> maybe most of the people here are accustomed to using greenhouses for
> starting seeds.
>
> Pat
> -- Northern Pennsylvania
>
> Good planets are hard to find; let's take care of
> the one we have.
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>




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