Hey GC I just sprouted my veggie garden and I think it's time they get some more light..... Does anyone know the minimum wattage of fluoro's required to grow about 8 heads of decent lettuce? Thanks for your help!
I'd aim for 3000 lumen sq/ft for something like lettuce. Take advantage of the fact that fluro's give off very little heat and place the canopy close to the light. With lettuce I think you'll notice the more light the thicker the foliage will be, but you should be able to cultivate them with a small amount, as long as you keep the # of heads down to what you can manage and also pull out any weaker runts. They can be grown with less light, it will just slow down the process that they grow, and less growth nodes overall, but you'd be surprised what you can do with a tiny amount of light and a little TLC.
Thanks for the advice! Another question if you've the time... My veggie setup is aquaponic and roots are currently exposed to light Now I know the MJ root system is highly sensitive to light, but is lettuce the same? For some reason I have it in my head lettuce and spinach root systems are more resistant to light than MJ.... Thanks again!
From what I've been able to read and personal experience, I think that you'd do alright with not having a perfectly light sealed res for the roots, but make sure to change it frequent enough to prevent algae buildup. One thing to note is root temperatures are important for the growth speed, so if you can manage to keep the root zone from getting too warm. Low 60's would be good.
dude, why would you grow plants that are even legal with artificial light? I get it with weed, its part of this super crazy prohibition, but fucking lettuce?! its a totally sick concept; burning stuff, converting it into electricity with large losses of energy, sending it all the way from the power plant to your house (with small losses of energy thanks to tesla, best mad scientist ever! ), converting it into light with large losses of energy and then having a small part of that light be converted even much less efficiently than the other steps by the plant... sure, you may get some nice lettuce but its gonna have the fucking carbon footprint of a washing machine, not to mention the toxic waste of the lights etc! I bet you would never even think of doing this shit if you knew how the power and the equipment youre using are produced. it doesnt just come out of the wall and appear in the hardware store's shelves u know... how about just waiting for the proper season and growing something using the sun? >_>
Not everybody lives in the climate where the plants they want to grow are acclimated to. Plus if your concern is just electricity use and lighting...well that's a huge part of modern life. It's going to be used whether or not people cultivate with it, I don't see why people shouldn't be able to grow plants indoors, in a controlled environment. Not to mention if you think it's okay to be growing weed under artificial light, how is it any different from any other harvestable plant?
the difference is that weed has this crazy artificially inflated value and it must be hidden from people, which is why indoor cultivation with artificial light was developed at all. if light can get in, light can get out and thus can be seen, otherwise people would just use greenhouses - and thats the way to grow crops in cold climates. I do also speak out against the use of artificial light in cannabis growing and Im keeping mine low, but the arguments for it are much greater than with lettuce. btw Im pretty certain that the guy lives in a region where you can grow something outdoors, even if its not lettuce. lettuce just isnt worth this giant pile of waste thats produced by growing it with artificial light, the only reason why this isnt clear to some people is that they dont see the waste since its produced and discarded elsewhere for them. it only is a fun little project because you only see a minute irrelevant part of the whole picture. hiding behind the giant overall consumption of energy doesnt work as an argument at all, they may not produce less electricity just because one person doesnt use it, but on average thats exactly what happens if people dont do this kind of bullshit. modern powerplants actually regulate their output all the time in response to changing demands. if you dont buy a light, then that specific light will be bought by somebody else - but theres another light that he would have bought and now he didnt. in the end its one light less bought, one light less produced and one light less trashed, the same principle as with the electricity used on it. politicians dont get elected by single votes either, yet every vote counts. and for (nuclear) disarmament somebody has to make the first step, too. see, even politicians get this shit! please dont make me list more examples, youre boring me and embarrassing yourself - "everybody else does it" never justifies anything >_>
I was going to respond, then I thought my time would be better spent consuming! Off to buy lights I don't need and will eventually throw out!!! Meanwhile.....thanks for the response morange
What I was saying by referincing the amount of energy consumed regardless, is that it's something we can't avoid consuming. The electricity will be provided to something, whether it's to power a light to grow a plant, or to power a hair dryer. Good quality food is also expensive and can be hard to find, so growing what you can yourself is a good way to save money and eat. It seems to me like you're arguing against all electricity use or everything that isn't mandatory. I can assure you that the amount used to grow some lettuce is nothing compared to the extremely long list of unnecessary energy use throughout the world. I don't see why someone should give up a hobby or be allowed to cultivate year round. If I could grow everything that I grow under sunlight, I would definitely! However, right now there's about a foot of snow outside, and even during the growth seasons I'm limited to certain variety of plants that can survive around here. I just think that there's a lot worse ways to spend electricity and energy than growing food.
Televisions, video games, appliances, these are all devices that use electricity but aren't necessary to live life. Think about what you use electricity for, and think about what you actually need to survive day to day. We sure don't need a lot of these things we use, but we use them still. But it's also okay to grow cannabis indoors, since it's illegal most everywhere without justification. And you say it's far more valuable than just lettuce, well cannabis is a super easy to grow plant and would not be expensive without the black market. And if the money is what makes it okay to turn a blind eye to needless energy use how does that help anything? We can't use money to power our electrical devices. If we wanted to stop using electricity that isn't required to sustain ourselves, we would use just about nothing.
Lettue Just notice this thread. I often in the winter have a plant tray on the floor of my veg room with lettuce in it. I fill it with soil (#4 mix) and seed about half of it. As the one half is getting big I then seed the other half. I simply kick it around out of the way so as not to trip over it, give it the left over veg formula and in about 6 weeks, we eat a big salad. If I have any heavy duty spraying or what ever to do I simpy set it outside the room. Easy as pie! Free food.