Recently there have been a number of articles in the press about the use of LED lights in improving the productivity of plant growing particularly in greenhouses. These articles reflect the effects i have seen using red, red/blue and warm/cold white LED lights over the past four years. For commercial reasons i have not put too much detail on this website although i was very keen to do so , however over the next couple of weeks i plan to put a lot more information on what i have been doing with the lighting units i have developed onto the website so that others can see how easily it can be done and at a low cost using readily available components....more news to follow over the next couple of days......
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As of the 24th February 2015 all the propagators, both heated and unheated have been moved to the greenhouse. The tomato seedlings will remain on the heated propagators and the geranium cuttings will remain in the unheated propagator. All the aubergine seedlings have been moved out of the propagators and moved onto self watering trays in the greenhouse. Hopefully the weather will stay mild and bright during this transition period. I will add photographs when i get the time.
I gave the six most advanced tomato seedlings to my uncle. He is a keen 'tomato enthusiast' and has put them into a heated propagator on a sunny windowsill in his house. He hopes to bring them on and put them out in the greenhouse when the weather improves. My uncle also has another propagator which stopped working a few years ago. I will have a look at it when he gets it out of storage in his attic. It is the same make but different model to the one my Dad had for many years and which i repaired a couple of years ago.Read here for more details. Progress over the past few days since the last post has been good. The weather has been much brighter than normally for this time of year. The one downside is that as the sun is still quite low in the sky the seedlings tend to bend over towards it meaning that i have to rotate the seedlings more often. To counteract this i have been using the LED lights when the sun is not out which has greatly helped straightening the seedling stems.
I decided to put some of the smaller tomato seedlings onto the DIY propagator i designed and built over the winter to see how well they develop over the next few days compared to the ones left in the unheated propagator. The propagator cover has been removed for the photograph to be taken. The cable is the temperature sensor which is used to control the propagator. The temperature is set to 20 (+/- 1) degrees centigrade. The display is showing 22 degrees because the pots are sitting in a south facing bay window which is directly heating the pots which greatly helps development at this time of year even although the sun is still quite low throughout the day. The aubergines have been potted on into individual pots. The Aubergines have reached the stage in the seedling tray that they would start to seriously compete with and damage one another. I decided to pot them on into individual pots. They are all looking very healthy but the next few days will indicate how many will survive the move! The good news is that all the seeds that were planted bar one actually germinated and made it this far. A slightly longer term problem will be finding homes for all these Aubergine plants! The problems of success! If only all the seeds developed like this. The garlic plants have developed well but space in and around the propagators is short so i have decided to move them into the greenhouse and put them onto self watering trays using capillary matting. The self watering trays are sitting on a heated sand bed so this will hopefully ensure the plants get a supply of 'warm' water rather than cold water. This should help the garlic plants adjust to the somewhat colder environment of the greenhouse as to the house where they have been for the past few weeks. The garlic plants have developed very well over the past three weeks on the propagator and in the house. The leaves have grown to a height of 15-18 inches and the bulbs are starting to swell. There is not much more that can be done until the weather outside improves and they can be planted into the soil. Once the risk of frost has passed they will be planted in a sheltered area of the garden. The seedlings are still developing well apart from the Antirrhinums which have all died. The Begonias are still looking healthy but as is common with them development can be slow and a great deal of patience is required, however when all the conditions come together they suddenly start a strong development spurt.
Sadly the Antirrhinums are no more. The 'damping off' disease went through the entire second tray very quickly. The Antirrhinums are now all dead. The 'damping off' disease went through the second tray at first slowly and then very, very quickly. I had taken the trays out of the heated propagator and put them into the unheated propagator to try to reduce the effects of the high humidity but this did not stop the disease spreading. I will dispose of the compost, sterilize the trays and start with a new batch of seeds. I always find it very sad when a tray of healthy plants just falls over like this but it is a risk i take by trying to start the seeds so early in the year when the light levels are so low and the humidity levels are more difficult to control. The Begonia seedlings were put under the LED lights on 12th February to try to speed up development particularly as the weather forecast was for little sun over the next few days. The results have been impressive for such a short time.
The LED lighting has had a great effect in the 48 hours it has been set up. The Tomato seedlings straightened up and developed greatly. The smaller seedlings in particular came on well. The Impatiens seedlings also developed well and look much stronger. As the past few days were quite dull and overcast the effect of the LED lighting has been particularly noticeable. As the tomato seedlings had developed so well i decided to thin them out and transplant the larger ones into individual pots. This should allow them to develop much more quickly without getting tangled with the other seedlings roots.
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AuthorAllan Faulds is an Electronic Design Engineer who develops Hardware and Software on a professional basis. He has a strong interest in applying his design and development skills to his areas of interest such as bicycle lighting and plant growing and greenhouse and garden control technology. Archives
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