Friday, 14 November 2008
Grow Room
Heres my grow room that I have rebuilt for this year. I have used the back partition of my greenhouse which I insulated with Thermawrap, a type of bubble wrap with reflective foil on it normally used behind radiators to reflect the heat back into the room.
I am using again a 600 watt powerplant pro mantis metal halide grow light. One thing to mention if anyone uses a growlight: remember to replace the bulb every year, its not worth taking the risk, it may still light up but that doesn't mean you are getting the correct spectrum of light. I have yet to decide which bulb I will use this year, either a 600w Sunmaster Cool Deluxe or something with a few more lumens.
Ventilation is very important and I hope to fit an extractor fan in the glass, I have an auto vent in the roof and will probably fit a louver window in the side somewhere so air circulates all around.
My bench is just made of some timber legs with a sheet of marine ply with a lip of wood at the top. This is all covered in that new roofing felt you can get that is waterproof to avoid any rot in the wood. My heating cable is sat underneath the sand which is on a thermostat providing me with bottom heat. Air temperature control will just be a 2kw electric fan. Keeping the sand moist will distribute the bottom heat evenly and avoid any hot spots.
My bench measures 8x3ft and is 2ft high, most people will grow m2 when using a growlight as you can get more plants in the light, because I don't have the room to do that I will either remove some of the leeks when mature or apply supplement lighting to them as even a 600watt grow light will only cover 1.5m2. 1000 watt ballast assisted grow lights in my opinion are dangerous, maybe future models will be better. Removing some leeks wont be a bad thing as I need to keep some back a little for late September, these will grow on in my heated greenhouse, by then we will have a good amount of natural sunlight. Despite that this light will light my entire garden up when turned on that does not mean those plants get sunlight from the bulb, the spectrum of light is only beneficial to 1.5m2 square, a mistake a lot of people make.
(Note camera adjusted to block the light out or you wouldn't see a thing, totally blinds you)
Looking from inside the greenhouse into the back partition with door open:
I am using again a 600 watt powerplant pro mantis metal halide grow light. One thing to mention if anyone uses a growlight: remember to replace the bulb every year, its not worth taking the risk, it may still light up but that doesn't mean you are getting the correct spectrum of light. I have yet to decide which bulb I will use this year, either a 600w Sunmaster Cool Deluxe or something with a few more lumens.
Ventilation is very important and I hope to fit an extractor fan in the glass, I have an auto vent in the roof and will probably fit a louver window in the side somewhere so air circulates all around.
My bench is just made of some timber legs with a sheet of marine ply with a lip of wood at the top. This is all covered in that new roofing felt you can get that is waterproof to avoid any rot in the wood. My heating cable is sat underneath the sand which is on a thermostat providing me with bottom heat. Air temperature control will just be a 2kw electric fan. Keeping the sand moist will distribute the bottom heat evenly and avoid any hot spots.
My bench measures 8x3ft and is 2ft high, most people will grow m2 when using a growlight as you can get more plants in the light, because I don't have the room to do that I will either remove some of the leeks when mature or apply supplement lighting to them as even a 600watt grow light will only cover 1.5m2. 1000 watt ballast assisted grow lights in my opinion are dangerous, maybe future models will be better. Removing some leeks wont be a bad thing as I need to keep some back a little for late September, these will grow on in my heated greenhouse, by then we will have a good amount of natural sunlight. Despite that this light will light my entire garden up when turned on that does not mean those plants get sunlight from the bulb, the spectrum of light is only beneficial to 1.5m2 square, a mistake a lot of people make.
(Note camera adjusted to block the light out or you wouldn't see a thing, totally blinds you)
Looking from inside the greenhouse into the back partition with door open:
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1 comments:
Now you got me tempted to try and knock up something similar.