E-mail. Best Light for Seedlings

I got an E-mail asking what the best light for growing 'greens' is, meaning growing plants for leaves.
They asked if they needed any special color of light like red or blue.

All plants need BOTH red and blue light ALL the time.  However, blue light promotes vegetative growth, so a light like a T-5 is ideal.  Red light promotes flowering, but is also needed for day to day physiology maintenance in plants.  A T-5 will also have some red, enough for seedlings.  If you are going to flower plants, you will want a lite like an HPS, or an LED.  All the LED's from HTGSupply.com will have enough blue and red for both vegetative growth and flowering.

E-mail me with any questions,
Good growing.

Video - Easy Way to Measure Seedling Health

Please click here to watch my short video about how I measure seedling health
Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers

Cleaning Mold of Walls of Grow Room

Click here to watch a YouTube video about removing mold from  your grow room, and general cleaning advice 

Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers

Seed Germination Video

Please click here to watch a video on YouTube about seed germination.

Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers

Day Light Savings and Your Light Cycle

If you had your lights go on or off based on your work or life schedule, the best thing to do to get the light back on your schedule after day light savings is to shorten the light cycle (turn lights off early).  You can shorten the night cycle (turn lights on early) it won't be too stressful to your plants to cause harm.  The reason I suggest shortening the day schedule is that will help speed up flowering if it does anything to the flowering cycle.

Good growing,
Dr. E. R. Myers

Instructional Video's Coming Soon

Hello,
  I have not written any posts because I am working on some instructional video's for HTGSupply.com.  I hope to start putting video's up in March.  I am always available for E-mailed questions and comments at Askthedoctor@htgsupply.com

Good growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers

E-mail - Comparing HPS and LED

I just read your article on LED vs. HID. My question is side by side how much is the yield affected comparatively? When grown using 300w led vs 400 w hid in flower stage
Sent from my iPhone

Hello,
  I have not done a "side by side" experiment, but I do agree with my article comparing HPS and LED, that LED's are comparable to HID's, even in flowering.  I have used a 400 HPS and a 300 W LED in the same grow area at different times with the same plant type.  They were comparatively equal.  The plants were different, (same strain so genetics were the same)  The plants under the HPS were bigger, with longer node length which was due to both the increase in yellow, and the fact heat was a problem, the temps were in the 90's when the light was on.  Under the LED, the plants were more compact due to more blue light and also that with the LED, the grow area never got above 85F.

The plants were bigger under the HPS, but I'd say that when it was time to harvest there was not much difference between the two.  If you are using a 600 w or 1000 w you might want to use two LED's to get the same area coverage.  The LED's are more focused so when you get into the larger sizes of HPS with their reflectors, they can cover larger areas.
Good Growing,
Dr. E.R. Myers