Plant Grow Lights

I oredered a grow light strip from Ali Express, it has taken ages to come but its finally arrived. It is about 1m long and plugs into a USB outlet.

Full Spectrum LED Grow Lamp USB LED Plant Grow Strip 2835 SMD 0.5m 1m 2m Fitolampy Grow Lights for Indoor Plant Flower Seedling.

Mine was 1m long & waterproof . Cost: NZ$ 3.81 x1+GST = NZ$ 4.39 total cost 

Existing plants

I'm growing some lettuce inside , and have recovered a couple of Dwarf French Beans from outside and brought them in as they are not doing particularly well outside.

Lightbox test

As a simple test I used a packing box and put some plants in it. I initially tried the biltong box but that had wires strung across the top and they hampered getting the plants in/out. I used some lectrical tape to hold the top end flaps out of the way but they kept coming undone, so I just put another bit of cardboard on top and put a weight to keep the lid down. This is a temporary measure whilst i think about the process and issues that might arise (like watering & time for lighting).

I have the weedy bay leaf plant (I really should get another) , one of the French beans, a healthy lettuce and a stragly lettuce in the box.

As a temporary measure I've used glad wrap suspended across the top to elevate the LED grow lights and also left a gap between to allow access to the plants. The glad wrap is not robust enough so I will need to think of another solution. The LED strip does have backing tape to the back of the lights so you could stick them to the underside of something, or wire them in that location. I'm still thinking about Box size and how to mount the lights.

Lighting duration & intensity

How long should the plants be lit in growlight?  To what intensity?

Intensity

Taking the 2nd question first, the lights only have one intensity, but that vcan be increased by reflection.

I have seen setups on videos where they used tin foil on sides of growhouse to reflect the light back onto the plants instead of being absorbed by sides.

Also how far away should the light be away from the plants? (you could put small plants on pedastal (box under) to get them nearer the light).

Duratuion

Some articles talk about 12-16 hours, and the plants need some night time.

Also duration changes depending on size of plants (seedlings/small and more mature).

I'm thinking that you could have 2 boxes going and give them 12 hours each under the growlamp and some in daylight and some at night (no light), thinking about that on reflection, you'd need to get up in the middle of the night to switch over, so scrub that idea unless my back is really aching.

So I've got to get into the routine of turning it on/off or get a timer for it.

I came across this article on the topic, but I'll need to do more research.

Plant growth & location for growing them

If the plants grow too high then the box height will be an issue, so I may need to plan for that, or just have them outside when they get too big, but in the case of tomatoes that may be an issue.

I'm currently using the utility room. I'm wondering about using under the table in the dining room.

Comment-4-6-2020

This is the first day that I'm using it, so I'll change the plants over as I had it on all night, and let the original plants have some night time.

I'll turn the new ones on & turn off at night and see how they perform.

I need to develop an improved setup but for the time being I'll monitor the plants performance with others that are just inside and see how they do.

I may add a couple of seedlings, maybe tomatoes or spring onions.