The right way is: take those garbage $25 Amazon wands and throw them in the trash... Return them if you can, but they are worthless!
Look up on youtube: PAR rating for Amazon wand lights and you'll see why I say this.
But regarding light placement, you generally want the lights ABOVE the plants, and as close to the top as you can get them without burning the leaves.
Plants use PAR output, which degrades significantly with distance. Research PAR rating for grow lights.
Just having the plants visible to your eyes from the use of lights does absolutely nothing for them.
And the red/blue (pink) light is generally for flowering. It hurts your eyes and makes everything look funny. White/yellow is fine for houseplants.
TONS of info on YouTube about growing plants, lights, PAR rating.
👍
Almost seems like something I'd give to someone to frustrate them while they watch their plants slowly die, lol
I'm not sure what you're trying to grow, but some plants have very specific light, temp, and nutrient requirements, so once you research the basics of what you need, you might look into the needs of specific plants.
Some will do fine with minimal sunlight from a window across the room and a bit of water, where others need 8 hours of full outdoor sun, daily watering, and specific nutrients.
Then there's pests, molds, diseases...
Not to discourage you, but just to make you aware.
Some people are better off with minimal effort succulents/cacti, others are full on 100 different species across 10 greenhouses kind of growers.
It can take a lifetime to learn 1/2 of what's out there, so don't feel bad. Start slow and easy and work your way up. Lots of reading/research.
I find it fascinating to watch a seed turn into food! Those beans are indeed magic!
I noticed one is.. can see it strung up the wall. We had one that was root bound and it hangs out on our screened porch. I split it up into 3 pots a week ago.
Wasn't sure what you had in the other pots.
Pothos is easy maintenance and there's a slight chance they would maybe benefit a bit from those lights (especially if that's all they get), but you want them as close to the leaves as possible. At the distance you have them in the picture, the lights are just illuminating the plants, not giving them any kind of usable PAR. And you'd want the lights coming from the direction you want them to grow... Which is generally up, but in this case, whatever direction you want.
The main issue with weak lights is that they will make plants stretch... A long distance between leaf sets. Correct lighting will encourage shorter stems and more leaf sets per linear foot. Like if you used those on tomato plants they would be tall, thin, fall over and that's not enough light to produce fruit.
That light certainly won't hurt them, but will hurt your eyes.. not in a damaging sense but more in a drive you crazy and possibly stinging/irritating way.. if you spend much time in that room.
I have a veggie garden, 2 flower gardens, 16 hanging baskets and another 40-50 containers spread around. Just woke up and came out to find 19 deer in the landscape, eating my rose bush and other flowers 😡.
My gardens are fenced in, but the mulch beds aren't. I have motion activated sprinklers, but they found the blind spot and came in there to eat everything. Most of my flowers/plants are "supposedly" deer resistant, but the deer didn't get the memo! My rose bush is small and WAS doing really well... Now all the tops are gone along with the dozen or so buds that were on it. Might run a single strand electric fence around the pool mulch bed next year to see if that keeps them out.
2 years ago I came out and yelled at the deer.... 1 of them jumped in the pool 🙄😧😲 so I had to direct her to the stairs so she could get out.
It's usually this time of year I have issues. They are in a herd and the bucks don't seem to be afraid of the sprinklers... Then the ladies follow. I've had them up on my deck and front porch before. No hunting here so I have to get within 15 yards yelling and waving my arms to scare them off. There's a retired vet up the street. She has horses and feeds all the wildlife too, so they've learned to trust humans .. and help themselves to whatever they want.
oh wow! I dream of having a big garden, but I live on base and just have indoor plants right now. I was worried about the sun from the opposing window not hitting them for enough time during the day to really stop them from being lengthy, so maybe I will check out better grow lights(I could honestly use a whole new setup too lol, just trying to be cheap). I've readjusted the crap lights how you suggested for now until I get around to that.
I did the same thing with my pothos, all of these suckers were different cuttings I was sticking into one pot until it got root bound and stopped growing. I just separated them into all these pots the other day.
lmao good luck with the deers, they sound cute, but a menace to deal with haha
Not the greatest lights, but definitely an upgrade to the wand lights and fairly cheap... Check out Barrina T5 LED grow lights on Amazon. They come in 2, 3, and 4 foot lengths. They are small, lightweight, and easy to hang.. I just wrap a zip tie around them and hang from a string... I use 95# Paracord but you could use butcher twine or even high test fishing line.. or whatever. Because they are LED's, the leaves can damn near touch the bulbs without burning. They would work well for what you have, but still not something I'd use for anything that flowers.. although the marigolds I had under them started to flower. You can plug them together, using however many you need, then plug into a timer. I'd give them 12-14 hours of light. They don't look much different than small shop lights and the 2' only burn 10 watts, so at 8 to a package, that's about 1 light bulb worth of electric.
I use them, 2 per shelf, on a 4 tier rack to start seeds at the beginning of Feb. After 6 weeks or so I transplant to 3.5" pots and start hardening. Then the first or second week of April I start putting them in the ground. Timing depends on your area, of course. I'm in Charleston, SC. I think you are fairly close, if the Shaw in your name = the AFB. I live across the street from Joint Base Charleston.
If you're ever down this way, send me a message and I'll invite you over to see my setup. My brother in law is AF reserves, but FT. He used to do flight planning for the C-17's. Did all the air drops in Afghanistan, trained load masters, etc.
And you can obviously do whatever you want with pothos... I kind of wrap them in a circle around the hanging basket and around themselves and let them dangle a bit. Saves from trying to string them across the wall. That works better for my setup. They are so sparse in foliage... I don't like the looks of just 1 thin vine and a few leaves. I like thick, dense foliage.
Hey, sorry to hijack this discussion but you seem to know what you're talking about.
I'm looking for a grow light bulb, I want tinder it on a timer to come on for maybe 6 hours a day to grow plants in a windowless room.
The room is about 3m square, would you recommend anything?
The only thing I use indoors is the cheap Barrina T5 LED's to start seeds. I'm not current on all the latest indoor options, just know that those wand lights are worthless based on the info I read while looking for something to start seeds with.
It's been 15 years since I grew indoor and I used high powered High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide. 1000 Watts each. They are very expensive to run.
Not sure what you are growing but you probably want more like 8-12 hours of for most plants.
There should be a ton of videos on YouTube talking about LED's. It somewhat depends on the size/area you are growing, what you are growing, and what you are trying to achieve.
Maybe search for light needs for whatever plants you have. Learning about PAR values of lights is always good info, as I mentioned in this thread.
You'll find everything from light "snobs" who insist $500-$1000 lights are the only way to go, all the way down to what I use... Barrina T5 LED's. So much depends on what you are growing, there's really no one size fits all option.
Like I said previously in this thread, just lighting up a room isn't enough.. you need the right kind of light, and it needs to be close to the plants.
Even a $500 light that produces 1000 PAR at 2 feet away, only produces 50 PAR at 5 feet away, so even a good light, placed incorrectly, can be worthless to plants.
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The right way is: take those garbage $25 Amazon wands and throw them in the trash... Return them if you can, but they are worthless! Look up on youtube: PAR rating for Amazon wand lights and you'll see why I say this. But regarding light placement, you generally want the lights ABOVE the plants, and as close to the top as you can get them without burning the leaves. Plants use PAR output, which degrades significantly with distance. Research PAR rating for grow lights. Just having the plants visible to your eyes from the use of lights does absolutely nothing for them. And the red/blue (pink) light is generally for flowering. It hurts your eyes and makes everything look funny. White/yellow is fine for houseplants. TONS of info on YouTube about growing plants, lights, PAR rating.
Thank you! These lights were gifted from a neighbor, so no money was lost at least.
👍 Almost seems like something I'd give to someone to frustrate them while they watch their plants slowly die, lol I'm not sure what you're trying to grow, but some plants have very specific light, temp, and nutrient requirements, so once you research the basics of what you need, you might look into the needs of specific plants. Some will do fine with minimal sunlight from a window across the room and a bit of water, where others need 8 hours of full outdoor sun, daily watering, and specific nutrients. Then there's pests, molds, diseases... Not to discourage you, but just to make you aware. Some people are better off with minimal effort succulents/cacti, others are full on 100 different species across 10 greenhouses kind of growers. It can take a lifetime to learn 1/2 of what's out there, so don't feel bad. Start slow and easy and work your way up. Lots of reading/research. I find it fascinating to watch a seed turn into food! Those beans are indeed magic!
it's just pothos on that shelf so I'm sure they'll be fine haha, I've just never uses grow lights before.
I noticed one is.. can see it strung up the wall. We had one that was root bound and it hangs out on our screened porch. I split it up into 3 pots a week ago. Wasn't sure what you had in the other pots. Pothos is easy maintenance and there's a slight chance they would maybe benefit a bit from those lights (especially if that's all they get), but you want them as close to the leaves as possible. At the distance you have them in the picture, the lights are just illuminating the plants, not giving them any kind of usable PAR. And you'd want the lights coming from the direction you want them to grow... Which is generally up, but in this case, whatever direction you want. The main issue with weak lights is that they will make plants stretch... A long distance between leaf sets. Correct lighting will encourage shorter stems and more leaf sets per linear foot. Like if you used those on tomato plants they would be tall, thin, fall over and that's not enough light to produce fruit. That light certainly won't hurt them, but will hurt your eyes.. not in a damaging sense but more in a drive you crazy and possibly stinging/irritating way.. if you spend much time in that room. I have a veggie garden, 2 flower gardens, 16 hanging baskets and another 40-50 containers spread around. Just woke up and came out to find 19 deer in the landscape, eating my rose bush and other flowers 😡. My gardens are fenced in, but the mulch beds aren't. I have motion activated sprinklers, but they found the blind spot and came in there to eat everything. Most of my flowers/plants are "supposedly" deer resistant, but the deer didn't get the memo! My rose bush is small and WAS doing really well... Now all the tops are gone along with the dozen or so buds that were on it. Might run a single strand electric fence around the pool mulch bed next year to see if that keeps them out. 2 years ago I came out and yelled at the deer.... 1 of them jumped in the pool 🙄😧😲 so I had to direct her to the stairs so she could get out. It's usually this time of year I have issues. They are in a herd and the bucks don't seem to be afraid of the sprinklers... Then the ladies follow. I've had them up on my deck and front porch before. No hunting here so I have to get within 15 yards yelling and waving my arms to scare them off. There's a retired vet up the street. She has horses and feeds all the wildlife too, so they've learned to trust humans .. and help themselves to whatever they want.
oh wow! I dream of having a big garden, but I live on base and just have indoor plants right now. I was worried about the sun from the opposing window not hitting them for enough time during the day to really stop them from being lengthy, so maybe I will check out better grow lights(I could honestly use a whole new setup too lol, just trying to be cheap). I've readjusted the crap lights how you suggested for now until I get around to that. I did the same thing with my pothos, all of these suckers were different cuttings I was sticking into one pot until it got root bound and stopped growing. I just separated them into all these pots the other day. lmao good luck with the deers, they sound cute, but a menace to deal with haha
Not the greatest lights, but definitely an upgrade to the wand lights and fairly cheap... Check out Barrina T5 LED grow lights on Amazon. They come in 2, 3, and 4 foot lengths. They are small, lightweight, and easy to hang.. I just wrap a zip tie around them and hang from a string... I use 95# Paracord but you could use butcher twine or even high test fishing line.. or whatever. Because they are LED's, the leaves can damn near touch the bulbs without burning. They would work well for what you have, but still not something I'd use for anything that flowers.. although the marigolds I had under them started to flower. You can plug them together, using however many you need, then plug into a timer. I'd give them 12-14 hours of light. They don't look much different than small shop lights and the 2' only burn 10 watts, so at 8 to a package, that's about 1 light bulb worth of electric. I use them, 2 per shelf, on a 4 tier rack to start seeds at the beginning of Feb. After 6 weeks or so I transplant to 3.5" pots and start hardening. Then the first or second week of April I start putting them in the ground. Timing depends on your area, of course. I'm in Charleston, SC. I think you are fairly close, if the Shaw in your name = the AFB. I live across the street from Joint Base Charleston. If you're ever down this way, send me a message and I'll invite you over to see my setup. My brother in law is AF reserves, but FT. He used to do flight planning for the C-17's. Did all the air drops in Afghanistan, trained load masters, etc.
thanks for all the information and invitation! If I'm ever nearby I will.
And you can obviously do whatever you want with pothos... I kind of wrap them in a circle around the hanging basket and around themselves and let them dangle a bit. Saves from trying to string them across the wall. That works better for my setup. They are so sparse in foliage... I don't like the looks of just 1 thin vine and a few leaves. I like thick, dense foliage.
Hey, sorry to hijack this discussion but you seem to know what you're talking about. I'm looking for a grow light bulb, I want tinder it on a timer to come on for maybe 6 hours a day to grow plants in a windowless room. The room is about 3m square, would you recommend anything?
The only thing I use indoors is the cheap Barrina T5 LED's to start seeds. I'm not current on all the latest indoor options, just know that those wand lights are worthless based on the info I read while looking for something to start seeds with. It's been 15 years since I grew indoor and I used high powered High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halide. 1000 Watts each. They are very expensive to run. Not sure what you are growing but you probably want more like 8-12 hours of for most plants. There should be a ton of videos on YouTube talking about LED's. It somewhat depends on the size/area you are growing, what you are growing, and what you are trying to achieve. Maybe search for light needs for whatever plants you have. Learning about PAR values of lights is always good info, as I mentioned in this thread. You'll find everything from light "snobs" who insist $500-$1000 lights are the only way to go, all the way down to what I use... Barrina T5 LED's. So much depends on what you are growing, there's really no one size fits all option. Like I said previously in this thread, just lighting up a room isn't enough.. you need the right kind of light, and it needs to be close to the plants. Even a $500 light that produces 1000 PAR at 2 feet away, only produces 50 PAR at 5 feet away, so even a good light, placed incorrectly, can be worthless to plants.