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Growing under Lights

Beginner and need suggestions to better my plants

Corporate Liquidators

8 years ago

I just started off and I'm trying to grow some peppers indoors. Right now I have some T8's growing until I feel that the plants can hold up outside. Any feedback helps thank you.

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aruzinsky

8 years ago

Where do you live? I ask because, most typically, people start seedlings in the early spring and plant them outdoors while the seedlings are short and stocky. For example, I planted seeds around April 1 and these are the results just before planting outdoors in late May:

http://www.general-cathexis.com/images/CarolinaReaper.jpg

(Houzz's photo upload doesn't work at the moment.)

Your plants are not getting enough light for stocky growth nor are they getting enough light to resist sunburn when planted outdoors.

The color of your lighting makes me curious. What is the brand and model of your T8 bulbs?

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Comments (6)

PRO
Corporate Liquidators
Original Author
8 years ago
I live in Houston. I am a noob when it comes to all this. I started off indoors like 3-4 months ago. I just recently bought these T8 lights and I have these Philips Plant & Aquariums light bulbs on them. I just got another T5 fixture my friend have laying around. They are a HO 39W bulb blue, purple & white.
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It looks like everything isn't getting enough water. The amount of water a plant needs is highly dependent on the soil that it's in, and how much heat/sunlight it gets. That soil looks like it's very fast draining so you may have to water more than 1 time a day, and for longer periods of time (try to keep the flow low). The perlite mixed into the soil makes it drain really fast and the roots dry out shortly after the soil does. I have a lot of plants in containers and I use an automatic watering system for them. They get 10 minutes of water every morning from 1/2 gph emitters for 1 gal containers, and 1 gallon emitters for the 2-3 gallon containers. Anything larger than that and I use variable emitters. In summer, I change it to 8 mins, 2 times a day. You can get one of those timers for your hose and just leave it on real low for a few mins each day for these. As far as if everything is savable, everything except maybe the first picture has a really good chance of being saved, and that first plant might be savable but I'd give it a lot of shade for a few days and definitely give it regular and long watering.
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PRO
Corporate Liquidators
Original Author
8 years ago
I think they have been indoors too long now but, the stems don't look thick enough yet.
stevie
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
thick strong stems and bushy plants come from 1) close, high output light and 2) wind

lights have to be very close and put a fan on them so there is a constant breeze.. this works best when you start doing these things when they are still really small. it might still help to add a fan though.

and again, lights should be very close. for a T8, i would guess no more than 4-5 inches away..
Pyewacket
8 years ago
I keep them closer than that, about 2". T8s don't get hot enough to damage leaves on any plant I've used them on should they happen to come in direct contact with the bulbs. T5s would though.
ewwmayo
8 years ago
I keep T5HOs 2" from my succulents, it's not too hot. Some leaves are even just 1" away and are not damaged.

There is a fan blowing constantly though. Surface temps on warm days outside currently range between 25C and 41C indoors in my grow area. Monitoring temps of the leaves is pretty important.

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