Done Messin' Around - Grow Lights

 Seed starting season is here at last.  I finally took the plunge and ordered a grow light rack. I’ve only had table top lights before and spent a lot of energy scheduling planting times, juggling lights and moving things around. I needed something that freed up my workspace and had more potent lights. I also wanted something that had a little style to it so it could come into a living space without looking too massive or industrial.   I was going to order one from Gardeners Supply but the one I wanted has been out of stock all winter. So I went with the closest thing on the internet and ordered from Vego.

Below is the tabletop grow light I have had for ages.  It is still sold by Park Seeds and takes 20 watt florescent tubes.

24" Florescent Table Top Light

I started my growing career in the dining room with this light and I added a second light soon after.

When that got a little overwhelming with soil in the house, I moved everything to the basement where I could spread out and make a little more of a mess.  The past couple of years I have moved out to our heated workshop.  It has a long counter top and I added a Oslo frame with a high efficiency 24 watt LED light and then some 10 watt LED under counter lights from Amazon.  The Oslo is well made and collapses easily for storage.  I was going to add the four tiered system, but it is still out of stock.

It is so handy to have the plants growing in the workshop.  I have room to store everything there and I can easily set flats outside in the sunlight, or carry them to the cold frame without the hassle of negotiating the basement steps.  But as you can see, I need my work surface to not be full of grow lights and trays of plants.

When it became clear that Gardeners was not going to have the Oslo system restocked in time, I consulted the Google Machine and came up with a similar system from Vego.

I have been aware of Vego for a few years but had never ordered from them.  They are, apparently, very popular with Millennials and their big product is the metal raised bed.  I watched a few reviews on YouTube and this system appeared to check all of my boxes AND was less expensive and on sale. 

Four Tiers

LED Lights

Compact

Customizable

Attractive

It arrived this past weekend.  The packaging was amazing.  Not a speck of plastic or styrofoam in the whole box.  Everything was corrugated or kraft paper, which of course, makes it compostable or at least recyclable.  The steel is a good, heavy gauge, and the powder coating is excellent.  It snaps together with pins and is very sturdy.  Even the trays are well made, and those can be hard to manufacture without warping.  So I am very pleased with it.  

It comes with four 20 watt LED lights that are magnetic and self timing.  The lights have three modes which you choose based on the type of plant you are growing and its light requirements.  If you are starting seeds, you put the light on seed starting mode and move the tray up closer to the light.  At the end of the first day you can put each light on sleep mode and it will turn off for eight hours and then come back on in the morning and repeat the cycle of 16 hours on and 8 hours off.  That way you do not have to purchase a separate timer.

I set my seeds trays on a heat mat and even though the thermostat in the room is set at 55F, during the day with the combination of heat mat and lights, the air temperature near the trays is 69F and the seeds are sprouting after three days.  Right on time.  Now I just need to move my tubs of dahlia tubers somewhere else cool and turn the room heat up to 60 for everything to grow on without a heat mat.

See the little green sprout?  That's a Dahlia.

So far I have micro tomatoes, ornamental peppers, sage, two colors of border zinnias and dahlia seeds starting.  Next will be lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

Today was 55F in the shade with sunshine and no breeze.  We spent time outdoors getting gravel out of the lawns, leaves out of the corners, and sticks picked up.  I cleaned about a third of my strawberry bed and Friday I plan to prune the apple trees.  Garden season has begun!