2013 Seedlings and the Science of Cheap Lighting

From left to right in rows of 8 blocks: basil, amaranthus, jalapenos, bell peppers, tomatoes, kohlrabi, green onions and lettuce.  All were planted on March 23rd with the intent of transplanting early May.  The lighting system this year has been great. Using six 4 foot normal tubes of varying wavelength output there is no need for expensive full spectrum bulbs. Here's why...

The highest line represents the combined photosynthetic absorption of the light spectrum for your average chloroplast.  It's easy to see that plants specialize in utilizing the violet/blue end of the spectrum along with the orange/red end of the spectrum the most.  Because of this you can alternate the placement of "cool" bulbs in the 675 nm wavelength range with "daylight" bulbs in the 450 nm wavelength range to grow some fantastic seedlings and save about $15 per bulb.  (Actual sunlight would be much better of course but my 2 south facing windows are occupied by houseplants.)

4" tall marigolds starting to bud after 7 weeks under the lighting system.

On to the transplants...

The first batch hardening off to go in the beds March 30th

4x4 brassica bed with 12 broccoli plants started 2/19 and 9 kohlrabi started 3/1

Root vegetable bed with 9 beets, 8 green onion clumps(for lack of better word) and carrot and radishes planted direct 4/7

The kale experiment from last September where I planted about 35 seeds to see if they would overwinter.  They did! Ended up with 26 mini kale plants to spread out on 3/9. Already making some great quail egg and kale breakfasts.

The beautiful lil' lettuce heads started 3/1 and transplanted 3/30.  The green butterhead is "Ghandi" and the red oak leaf is "Cantarix".  There's also some rainbow chard and seedling spinach and romaine lettuce in the other half of the 8x2.5 foot bed.