Grow Lights

January 31, 2024

Most of my supplies came in this week and I have been busy setting the stage.  I had augmented the soil and placed fencing around the two potato beds I plan to use again this year, but I put fencing around the heirloom flower bed.  We plan to transplant the rest of the bulbs within this fence to keep Loki from digging them (and eating them).  I put together two of the raised beds that I got for Christmas.  That helped me decide on the configuration I liked (one will need to be rebuilt) and to know how much room they will require in the yard.  The hardest step was deciding what would be planted in the four raised beds I have.  Some of the seeds could be planted directly into the soil, but others recommended transplanting seedlings.  These will need to be grown indoors from 8 to 4 weeks prior to our last frost (April 15th).  When I researched growing seedlings, they all recommended at least a sunny window (all taken by succulents) and preferably warming mats and grow lights.       

When I went online, I found a grow light is an electric light to help plants grow by providing a light spectrum like that of the sun, or to provide a spectrum that is more tailored to the needs of the plants being cultivated.  This light is typically a varying combination of red and blue light, which appears pink to purple to the human eye.  Grow lights are used for horticulture, indoor gardening, plant propagation, and food production, including indoor hydroponics and aquatic plants.  A range of bulb types can be used as grow lights, such as incandescent, fluorescent lights, high-intensity discharge lamps (HID), and light-emitting diodes (LED).  The most widely used lights today for professional use are HIDs and fluorescents.  Indoor flower and vegetable growers typically use metal halide (MH) HID and high-pressure sodium (HPS/SON) lights, but fluorescents and LEDs are replacing metal halides due to their efficiency and economy.  Although most grow lights are used on an industrial level, they can also be used in households (like mine).

Last winter Melissa had researched and purchased a variety of grow lights to use with her succulents but ran into some logistical issues and they were never deployed.  I researched my own grow lights to use with my starter seedlings and had settled on a four-shelf integrated light stand I found online.  I decided to run it by Melissa before purchase since she had already researched and purchased grow lights.  Her immediate question was, “Why don’t you use the ones we have?”  I will only use them as seed starters and then they will be set up for her the rest of the year (a win/win?).  I bought a rolling four-tier shelf and attached a clip on lamp to each of the shelves.  I also purchased four seedling heat mats to keep the seeds warm along with a five-pack of starter trays with 40 pod cells.  I put the rack in the back corner (to give the succulents access to the sunny windows) and then set up my system.  The first set of seeds are now germinating in the peat pellet pods.    

THOUGHTS:  Using the grow lights to plant my garden from seed this year has been both exciting and overwhelming.  I have had gardens for the last three summers but always purchased seedlings from a nursery.  These have worked variously well (and at times not at all), but at least I knew there was an established plant to place in the ground.  Now I am relying on my own expertise (the exciting part) to build the planters, grow the seedlings, transplant them into the ground, and tend them until I have a harvestable crop.  The seeds Melissa gave me are all heirloom varieties (not hybrid) and that means I can harvest seeds for planting next year.  This goes a long way toward creating a sustainable garden.  It also sounds like a lot of work (the overwhelming part).  Now that I have my eight week seedlings under the grow lights, I have time to get the other aspects in place before the four week rush.  Like most of life, it is a matter of planning ahead and following the advice of others who have already traveled the road (experienced/experts).  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.