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Growing from Seed

Sunlight Vs Shop Lights

15 years ago

Hi;

I have set up my greenhouses, and on nice days like today, I am carting out my plants to enjoy the natural sunlight! I know that during the day they are plenty warm in the greenhouse, and I bring them in when it cools off so that they are not frozen! A lot of work, but the plants reward me with visable growth almost every evening!

So... I am wondering how does sunlight exactly compare to shop lights. With shop lights, I was leaving them on for about 16 to 20 hours a day and they where growing so SLOWLY!! Now, just being outside from about 7 or 8 hours, in the sun for 7, seems to flipped them over to some fairly rapid growth! Is this normal? Sound right? Does this mean when I bring them in that I don't need to keep them under light?

I expect a few days yet that I cannot bring them out, and will put them back under shop light for those days, but otherwise, we are starting to look good! Just the Pain in the behind factor to contend with, but it is worth it!

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Comments (3)

belleville_rose_gr
15 years ago
My experience this year has mixed results. I have a room in my basement where I start my seeds. In past years I have the lights on 16-18 hours a day. This year they have been on 24 hrs, a major difference in growth. The room is a steady 66-70 vs the GH where temps vary from 46 to 95 depending on sunlight. I have seen a big difference with growth based on sunlight and temps which we all know is key to growing. When we have steady temp/sun the growth rate is high but we have had some cold and cloudy so the plants stay put. This week is supposed to be warm and sunny so I expect the GH plants to flourish. I have tomato plants in the basement that are farther ahead the those in the GH even though they were potted up at the same time. I left some inside to experiment.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening by the Seat of my Pants
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
15 years ago
As long as your energy to move your plants twice a day holds out, your plants will reward you. There is no comparison at all between shop lights and sunlight. The difference in the foot candles of light between the two comes as a shock to most gardeners. It is not unusual for plants coming out of the greenhouse into the sunlight to be killed from the shock. We usually must harden the plants by easing them a few hours at a time into the sunshine. Al
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homemommy
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the advice.

I know all about hardening them off. For a few years I could not understand why my perfectly fabulous plants dropped dead within days of being planted! This is the first day they are in full sun for most of the day. I started by bringing them out only for a few hours in dappled sunlight, increasing the amount of time they where out, keeping the greenhouse in part shade for the afternoon. They are looking good, so I got a bit braver today and set them up in more direct light for longer, we shall see ;-)

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