Using grow lights to germinate seeds early indoors

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Johnboy, thankyou for your very interesting reply, i have taken all your points on board.

I hate growing seeds on for other people, not because of the work, but incase they fail.

[Johnboy]

Hi OH,
I managed to produce the odd million or so plants in the 30 years I was doing the job. Not without the inevitable cock-up or three!
JB.

[Tony Hague]

I bought an Envirolite kit last year - a lamp, a reflector and hangars. I used it in my conservatory and suspended it above two trays of seeds. It looked impressive but my seedlings - aubergine, tomato, french beans - were all as leggy as usual. Where did I go wrong?

A few things to be aware of. Compared with most artificial lights, daylight is very bright. Many of the smaller growlights need to be only a few inches above the plants to be much use. I imagine it is possible to get it just wrong, so that the daylight blocked by the reflector is not outweighed by the light from the lamp !

A casual glance tells you what part of the visible spectrum plants can't make use of - the green. In fact some plants are actually encoraged into vertical growth by light with a lot of green in it - a natural competitive reaction to the green reflected light from neighbours.

[Binky]

Thank you for your comments, Tony. The light I bought was blue, so I will try putting it closer to the plants this year. I also left it on for a bit in the evening, trying to give the plants about 12 hours of light a day.

[whimsical Kitten]

Wow! thank you for all the interesting replies, the jury is still out on the grow lights I may just wait and start a bit later the normal way! Thanks also for the lovely welcome