Grow Light germination ?

By the by, if you have some Emergency Blanket left over stick it under your windowsill propagator, or Horticultural / Reptile heating blanket.

Polystyrene tiles
Mylar / Emergency blanket
heating blanket
Plant pots / seed trays
= Result & Economy-mode!

 

Not to sure what mylar sheet is - we used to print engineering drawings on mylar before the days of computers and CAD. So a survival foil blanket would be on par with alum. foil at 70% ? But the Mylar® sheet on Ebay below would increase the index to 90% , plus make my light box look like an 80's disco :D

DIAMOND LIGHTPROOF REFLECTIVE SHEETING 1M 1.2M MYLAR | eBay

 

I think a survival blanket is on a par with Mylar - its designed to reflect all your body temperature back to you and let none escape - presumably?

I think Mylar is intended not to be a single flat shiny surface, but either screwed up (and smoothed back out), or having a surface pattern (like your link to ebay), otherwise it causes hot-spots where light is reflected and "lensed" to a point.

I think you want either Polystyrene if that won't make it look awful, or white matt paint - unless you happen to have some Mylar floating about ...

 

Welcome back Kristen - lovely to see you again. What are you growing now under your lights?

At the end of the day - I think the key thing with lights is to have a go. I get a big kick out of gardening indoors at this time of year, when nothing is happening outside.

 

Mostly things I bought in the Autumn sales that I am trying to keep alive.

This (second) year with lights I am more alert to the bugs that they harbour, so I have been spraying with insecticide since day one. Still got loads of aphids though (where the heck did they come from, mild winter or not?) The Bananas have had to go out into the cold utility room corridor so they can be attacked with something far more effective than Provado - Neem Oil and Horticultural Soap! and the Cycad got covered in something like a mealy bug (forgotten the correct name) that stuck to the leaf undersides like whats-a-name to a blanket. I scraped them off, laboriously (stupidly didn't spot them for ages as they were on the undersides of the leaves ... then I thought that Provado would see them off ...). That's out in the cold now as the best means of attack!

I'm trying to bring some Colocasia on too - i.e. to stop them going into dormancy. They were only small plants when bought in the Autumn sale, and I reckon they will be slow to restart in the Spring if they hibernate (and even harder if they die!). Nothing is looking very grand under the lights though ... but they should struggle on for another 4 weeks and then they can go in the conservatory.

Some Cannas too, a few Brug cuttings that I took in the Autumn, and some Iresine brilliantissima that I'm trying to bulk up to plant at the front of the borders in my Jungle Garden - something I saw in Urban Jungle's show garden:

 

I am just perusing the soft covering for my Acme mini lightbox , with an eye to safety. I just put a flame to the survival blanket material , its very tough hard to rip but it shrivels then burns very freely :nono::nono: Is mylar a safer option ? There is this plastic sheeting Silver/White Lightite Plastic Sheeting 1.25m Wide Per 1m - Mylar Plastic Sheeting - Progrow Hydroponics , which is flame proof .
or this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EASY-GROW...arden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item4cfc46243a

 

I was thinking about using some of this stuff for the final version of my grow light box, as this supplier is relatively local to me so no P&P (and unlike some 'hydroponics' places don't market themselves as being located in 'discreet locations', or have an emphasis on 'herb drying' products, etc.).

Reflect a Gro -3C Hydroponics Shops

 

If you want learned advice ...register on a cannabis forum and ask there. There won't be anything they haven't tried and compared with millimetre precision - bunch of skinflints!

 

Kristen - I am glad to see the lights are being put to good use again.

Harry - Mylar is just a form or polyester - its the same stuff as Crimplene and the PET bottles that are used for fizzy drinks. Its all going to burn - I don't think there is any way you can stop it. The advert you linked to says flame retardant not flame proof - there is a big difference. Mylar, like any pure polyested garment shrinks away from a naked flame, which retards the burning process. But once it gets alight, it will burn quite happily.

 

I couldn't understand concerns about grow boxes bursting into flames due to heat from lamps as it didn't feel particularly hot under my T5 tubes, so I put a thermometer 25mm underneath them for a few minutes and got a reading of 75°F.

There are however ventilation slots on top of my lighting unit and when repositioned my thermometer there I got a reading of 95°F, so it would appear there could be a build up of heat from an unventilated home made lighting unit, but the one I've got lets heat out through the unit itself.

 

Well I have finished the first stage of my "Acme Desktop Grow Box ". Its small enough to sit in a corner of my small computer room. At the end of the grow box season - say Feb to April in my plans, it can all pack down in about 10 minutes and be stored away.
The frame is made from Polyplumb 15mm pipe and fittings mounted in a 52cm gravel tray. The bulb holder is a photographers umbrella and lamp holder with a 30W blue spectrum CFL. I can increase this up to 125W , if I think grow boxes are worth the effort . Finished it with a survival blanket , Duck tape and a sheet aluminium top. Not worked out what to do with the front yet . So my Cannas and Chillis will soon be ready to go in - just hope its effective

 

And there was me wondering about whether the profanity filter would to permit me posting what Mrs Scrungee would have said if I'd substituted out under wall cupboard lighting for grow lamps (despite the fact it was me who installed it).

P.S. That's a really impressive bottom heat arrangement you have there in that last pic: