Can I Use a Fluorescent Grow Light in a Regular Fluorescent Fixture?
by Tara
(Rogers, AR)
I have an outdoor garden which is doing well, but I also want to bring some herbs inside to grow for convenience. I have a small (about 1ft wide) ledge between the kitchen sink/ counter area and the living room that I want to grow them on and the area gets little sunlight. Can I just get a fluorescent fixture from Lowes etc. and put a grow style light into it?
I looked around your sight and I did see references to using regular fluorescent bulbs and fixtures, but I think I might need to use the metal halides lights. I just have a small area to light up but the light will have to be about 3-4 above the plants so I thought the fluorescent fixture secured to the top of the cut out (which is lower than the actual ceiling) would work maybe with a stronger light (hence the metal halides). I appreciate your expertise and look forward to hearing from you.
Answer: Tara, fluorescent lights would need to be positioned 3 to 4 inches above the tops of your plants to be effective. Because herbs produce edible parts while in the vegetative stage, they require less light than most garden plants to grow properly. A fluorescent light positioned close would be enough to grow several different healthy herb plants. They make special plant growth bulbs that fit in a regular fluorescent light fixture, but T5 bulbs WILL NOT WORK in a standard (T12) fluorescent fixture...so make sure the bulb is designed to fit into such a fixture before you use it (and do not try to force it in if it does not fit easily).
The fluorescent grow light is a good strategy, especially since the space in question receives some amount of sunlight to begin with. However, if you have your heart set on hanging the grow light 3 or 4 feet above your herb garden, you will definitely need to use the more powerful Metal Halide light.
You can find 150 watt HPS security lights at places like Lowes or Home Depot, and I imagine they would carry some Metal Halide versions as well. I have found them for as little as $39.00 before, but most of them cost a little more than that. Since the garden is located in an area that gets a lot of use (the kitchen), I recommend lighting the garden with a Metal Halide as opposed to a High Pressure Sodium light....the light spectrum is more natural and makes it easier to work in if you do a lot of cooking. Hope this helps, and Happy Growing!
AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
