Opportunity for new light set up

JosephineRose · April 19, 2018

Hello all,

I closed on my first house last month, and we are renovating. Part of my plans include electrical upgrades for my kitchen, and renovating the basement/laundry area to include shelves for seed starting.

This is an opportunity for me to create an entirely new/expanded grow light space. I currently have some tabletop fluorescent lights on hydrofarm stands and a small tower of mish-mashed fixtures I've collected over the years from amazon that I have set up in a small corner of our shop.

I will have room for several shelves of 4ft fixtures for full trays. This would be a dedicated grow wall. Would you go LED, or fluorescent? Is there is wishlist kind of set up any of you would do, space and opportunity being no object?

Don S · April 23, 2018

I have replaced a few of my 4' fluorescents with LED shoplights, and so far have not noticed anything different in the growth of the plants underneath. I think that if I were starting over, I would install half the lights as 4' T8 fluorescents and half as 4' LED's and run some controlled tests with the same plants under both kinds of lighting, since this question often comes up.

bower · April 23, 2018

Be careful with your choice of LED if you don't have natural light as well. I wouldn't recommend my 4000 K shoplight for tomatoes, although it worked well for other veggies. Some good reports from others about 6000 K lights in recent threads here.
A mix of fluorescents and LED's is a good way to hedge your bets.

April 19, 2018	#1
JosephineRose Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2016 Location: California Posts: 383	Opportunity for new light set up Hello all, I closed on my first house last month, and we are renovating. Part of my plans include electrical upgrades for my kitchen, and renovating the basement/laundry area to include shelves for seed starting. This is an opportunity for me to create an entirely new/expanded grow light space. I currently have some tabletop fluorescent lights on hydrofarm stands and a small tower of mish-mashed fixtures I've collected over the years from amazon that I have set up in a small corner of our shop. I will have room for several shelves of 4ft fixtures for full trays. This would be a dedicated grow wall. Would you go LED, or fluorescent? Is there is wishlist kind of set up any of you would do, space and opportunity being no object?

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April 23, 2018	#2
Don S Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Westbrook, CT Posts: 41	I have replaced a few of my 4' fluorescents with LED shoplights, and so far have not noticed anything different in the growth of the plants underneath. I think that if I were starting over, I would install half the lights as 4' T8 fluorescents and half as 4' LED's and run some controlled tests with the same plants under both kinds of lighting, since this question often comes up.

April 23, 2018	#3
bower Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Newfoundland, Canada Posts: 6,793	Be careful with your choice of LED if you don't have natural light as well. I wouldn't recommend my 4000 K shoplight for tomatoes, although it worked well for other veggies. Some good reports from others about 6000 K lights in recent threads here. A mix of fluorescents and LED's is a good way to hedge your bets.