Emmy-winning national gardening television & podcast host Joe Lamp�l (@joegardener). #OrganicGardening, #VegetableGardening, #OnlineGardeningAcademy, HowTo Videos????? linktr.ee/joegardener
These seedlings I started about 5 weeks ago are now thriving in my garden. I usually supplement those plants with others I pick up at the nursery to fill in gaps. Not this year. Retail inventory of seedlings was horrible, and so was the quality! And my latest happy discovery this seed-starting round is my new grow lamp system. I love trying different lighting systems in hopes of finally settling on a favorite. Over recent years as I was creating my Master Seed-starting online course, I trialed many options from basic fluorescent shop lights, to high-end LED rigs and more sophisticated T5 fluorescent systems. Recently I was invited to try and keep (at no cost to me) a 24W T5 lamp and fixture from Active Grow. I�ve trialed several more basic LED shop light rigs in the past but the results were just average. But not this one. It�s definitely got my attention. These lamps were clearly designed for indoor growing, with high PPF efficiency (the amount of quality light frequency usable by the plants), and higher energy efficiency (none of the heat energy wasted by the fluorescent alternatives). Over 5 weeks of growing time under this system, the plants performed very well � no legginess, nice compact plants, great color, and no light-burn. You can buy just the lamps that plug and play into existing T5 fluorescent fixtures (4 lamps cost about $139), or you can buy the lamps and fixture for around $219 for the 2�4 ft size � perfect for evenly lighting 4 standard trays on a self. The seedlings here were growing under the �Sun White Pro� lamps and I was very happy with the results. I�m really looking forward to seeing how it performs for the next round of warm-season edibles starting in February. A link to this lamp system is in my instagram profile (@joegardener). (Not an affiliate link). What�s your favorite grow light system?