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Do I need direct sun at all?


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Old 02-18-2010, 11:27 PM
eduardomachado eduardomachado is offline
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Default Do I need direct sun at all?

Hi, I'm from Puerto Rico, so we have lots of sun light, I made a NFT system for 92 plants, I'm planing to grow lettuces and herbs and will experiment with strawberrys...

I'm planning to do it outside... I have a garage that's open on all 4 sides... 1 of the sides can get like 3-4 hours of direct sun during the mornings and the other side gets like 4-6 hours direct sun a day.... Its that enough sun? should I put it on the 3-4 hours side or the 4-6 side?. Like I said its open on the 4 sides so it will get lots of indirect sun....

Also I need to know what inexpensive light will work for seedling? I planted cilantro and lettuce seeds, they spouted great.. but got long and skinny and all of them are dying... I know I should put some lights on them, but can I use fluorecents?

Thanks

P.S. That's the system, I have it running for the last 3 days and its running perfectly... no plants yet...

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Old 02-19-2010, 04:10 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Quote:
Its that enough sun? should I put it on the 3-4 hours side or the 4-6 side?.
Different plants like different amounts of light. I would recommend finding out what the plants you are growing do best with. If it's a live plant there is usually a tag in the pot that tells you. If you are starting from seeds the back of the package usually tells you. I would probably opt for placing it in a place that gets the most sun if possible. You can always shade it later if you need to. Most strawberry plant variety's like full sun, also I understand that most lettuces plants don't like full sun. So growing them both with the same amount of light might be a little tricky to get them both to do well.
Quote:
Also I need to know what inexpensive light will work for seedling?
fluorescent or compact fluorescent lighting (cfl's) should be just fine for seedlings. Generally speaking the stronger you make the fluorescent lighting the better they will do.
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I planted cilantro and lettuce seeds, they spouted great.. but got long and skinny and all of them are dying...
They tend to grow long and skinny because they are stretching to reach the light. So this is the result of the lighting being too weak.
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Old 02-19-2010, 07:37 AM
eduardomachado eduardomachado is offline
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Thanks... I was thinking the same thing... I may do the Strawberry in another system......

so it may work for my lettuces and herbs?

I read about using T8 fluorecents... Ill get them today

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