At the bottom is a regular LED grow light for keeping moms, the top shelf is going to be my cloning station where i’m going to put my domes and heat mats, i just need lights for rooting clones for the top shelf!
The shelf is 3x4 … the distance between the middle shelf and top shelf is 36 inches. I was looking at t5 or t8 fluorescent… I’m on the minimalist, simple, cheapo side of things. I prefer the look of the fluorescent fixtures.
I’ve looked at a bunch of different set ups, I’d love to see what you guys use and how it’s rigged up, thanks in advance my overgrow friends!
i run 3 of these about 14-16" above the cloners (and seedlings too, for that matter), puts them at 100-150 umol using 60 watts. just need to pull off the plastic tube that covers the diodes. theyre dirt cheap and have been working great
I’m just about to get a couple dozen cuttings from a few strains to make fem seeds with and always keep them in low lighting until they root. I too have an old POS T12 fixture with 8 - 4’ tubes but will use just 2 tubes to light up cuttings from a good foot away until rooted.
Too much light at the start makes the cuttings try to keep growing in veg before they are rooted and they can use up their limited resources making leaf instead of roots. Off to the side of the regular grow light works too getting maybe 1/4 of the light intensity the plants are getting. A couple of 9W LED light bulbs in 5000K works fine as well.
The one time I used a heat mat a batch of 36 cuttings all got stem rot so room temp is fine for me.
i never understood seedlings under low light, i use my flowering lights at full blast from germination to harvest, i have low ceiling, 2 inches of stem in disastrous ahah, but yeah these ARE dirt cheap, what a great deal they are on my list
my cloning area is 3x4, would that be enough with 2 tubes? i’m trying to get away with only buying one or 2 tubes
noted. that’s super cool, on my list! might be a little too much wiring tho
so like… do you let 'em grow in the rooting cubes with more tubes, before transplanting?
What are rooting cubes? LOL? I root them in a cup of water. When they’ve got a good system going, they go into yogurt cups of coco. When they get so big that they are a pain… they go to another space… with more T5’s.
If I’d known about the leds, I’d have done them instead. Save on power, and less heat.
The 4000K T5’s do a good veg job, though.
Me neither. I keep the T5’s about an inch from tops, otherwise there’s way too much stretch for me.
i had mixed results with that… my tap water = no roots ever. bottled water works but it takes 2 full weeks… last time i added RO water purchased from a water machine, all the roots that were very much alive dissapeared overnight and the stems had a algee film on 'em or whatever… so i’m sticking to rooting cubes… FOR NOW but i love the idea of not using them, i hate 'em.
Yeah I found the same thing, mine won’t root with just tap water left in a cup… left them there for three weeks and nothing. I don’t like buying rock wool cubes or coco cubes, but they do work reliably. I have just been throwing mine in the windowsill in a mini greenhouse with heating mat in cubes and get almost 100% success rate. The really don’t need much light, but you don’t want too little either, or they try to flower.
How much actual space do the cuttings take up as you root them tho? Once they are rooted and go into pots then you’ll need more coverage but you don’t need much until then.
Can always find a vanity fixture or something at a thrift store for a few bux and make something that will do the job.
My little LED project cost me about $10 for the fixtures and another $11 for the bulbs so not a wallet buster and does a nice job. Can just use one or all of the lights at one time. Even just the uncapped bulbs in a double or triple bulb fixture is all you’d need for cuttings or sprouts.
…but they run very cool.
