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starting your plants under '' lights'' > share your experience,

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ChinaVoodoo

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I read this article today about starting onions with seed versus sets. http://savvygardening.com/why-planting-onion-seeds-is-better-than-planting-sets/
The important part of it is onions apparently grow best from seed if done right. There's a couple points made. One is that using sets, larger sets are more likely to prematurely flower, resulting in a small onion. Growing from seed, using grow lights, having long light times like 12-16 hours also results in early flowing and small onions. Grow lights should only be on for ten hours a day to start. They might not grow as fast, but they grow for a longer period of time after transplant. They recommend winter sowing in small clear plastic containers outside. This obviously wouldn't work for tobacco.

Anyways, what's your thoughts on having grow light time emulate daylight hours, instead of just pumping it with the maximum?
 

squeezyjohn

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It's an interesting article about onions that I didn't expect to see here! I've grown the majority of my onions from seeds for a couple of years now and I'm convinced that they crop better than planting sets.

What that article doesn't state (that I could see with a cursory glance) is that onions are a biennial plant which flower in their second year. The one thing that you don't want an onion to do is flower as it wrecks it's storage time and makes the onion much smaller! An onion set is simply a small onion grown from seed the previous year ... it's no wonder that set grown onions always bolt to flower and produce bad crops. Seeds started in January slowly do their thing until the ground is right to plant them out in the late spring.

As for growing lights ... I think they're a nonsense, even with the more efficient LEDs it's throwing good money after bad when there's just the right amount of daylight out there for free. Of course plants get confused and show erratic behaviour if you give them 16 hour days in the winter, they're pre-programmed to behave naturally based on normal daylight. The idea that you should buy lights and pay for the electricity to mimic the amount of daylight that the sun is giving is silly. Put your plants on the windowsill and they'll grow ... they always have!
 

Smokin Harley

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after the bad weather we have been having,,, and the in-ability for me to take the seedlings out daily,

ive decided to just take some extra flourescent housings i had, 4 footers,,,

and put them on a timer and just start them indoors,{in cases of good weather i will let them get some sunlight,,,} i mixed the tubes up... some are cool tubes{ for vegging} and some are WARM tubes for fruiting,,

tommorow im gonna get some chain and hang them up, so i can adjust them later, for i may start some of the veggies under here also,,

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By chickenhawk435 at 2012-02-14
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By chickenhawk435 at 2012-02-14
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By chickenhawk435 at 2012-02-14

>>>> this year i chose to start them in VERMICULITE,,,,and i like it so much i may use this in many upcoming grows,,,,

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YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH USING LIGHTS ???

Chicken , you are awfully early, I wont start mine until tax due day and set them out somewhere between Memorial day and June 1,depending on weather (rain mainly). But since you asked - I started mine over heat mats and under fluorescent lights . No timer , just constant on . All the way from sowing to about 4 or 5 weeks ,then I turn the light off at night. My plants are hardy .
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Chicken , you are awfully early, I wont start mine until tax due day and set them out somewhere between Memorial day and June 1,depending on weather (rain mainly). But since you asked - I started mine over heat mats and under fluorescent lights . No timer , just constant on . All the way from sowing to about 4 or 5 weeks ,then I turn the light off at night. My plants are hardy .

This post was in 2016.
 
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