My light setup, suggestions welcome
I have a small room downstairs in the NE corner of the house that I've been using as my grow room. For the most part there are porches on the E, S, and W sides of the house so any windowsill growing wasn't possible when we moved in here. With the exception of the sitting room at the top of the stairs where my violets and begonias are.......anyhooo.....my grown room is small, and I have the ability to shut the heat down in the room at night so my daytime highs are about 73 and my nighttime lows are about 55-60 depending on how cold it is outside. All the plants are on humidity trays (i used seedling trays lined with stone and egg crate on top) and there is also a humidifier and fan running. My humidity varies on each shelf. The top shelf of my grow area is the warmest and also a bit drier (humidity seems to run about 55-60%), I only run 2 48" t12 bulbs up there. The paphs are thriving up there, along with a few other low light plants. The second shelf as 2 shop lights. one with 2 t12 bulbs and the other with 2 t8 bulbs. Mostly onc on this shelf but there are a few more tossed in as well. Humidity runs about 65-70% at plant height. I was nervous one day when I came home and the gauge said it was about 93%, but the sensor had fallen off a pot it was sitting on and laying right in the tray. My bottom shelf has 4 48" t8 bulbs and I have some benches so i can play around with the height. My high light plants are on the top bench right up against the lights and then as it goes down the plants either get taller or the light requirements get lower. I also have a bench with a lot of my seedlings on it and some more paphs with a coulpe t8 bulbs. Its a pretty diverse bunch so the I put the light at the back side of the table and sorted them out so the low light plants were on the near side away from the bulbs. This is more of a recent grow area as Im quickly running out of room. I need to either put up another big shelving unit or curb my orchid buying until fall when I HOPE I'll have a green house up and running. But being self employed and the economy the way that it is, it may be next spring. But my set up I thought was pretty cheap. The big shelving unit was about $70 along with about $80 into lighting and maybe another $20 or so into lumber. Sorry this got so darn long, but any suggestions or comments are welcome. Im always striving for better conditions for my babies.
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