31.1.10

new light fixture purchased, new greenhouse structure assembled -- ready for transplanting

Today I purchased a new light fixture for the new greenhouse structure.  I decided on the 4' Quantum T5 Bad Boy with four bulbs.  There are four models of the Quantum T5 Bad Boy holding four, six, eight, or twelve T5 bulbs.  I was having trouble deciding how many bulbs I really needed in the fixture, and so I asked the sales clerk and he said that a general rule of thumb is 20W per square foot that you're trying to illuminate.  Since I'm hoping for the maximum illumination space in the new greenhouse to be 3'x5' = 15 sq ft, I figured I'd need a maximum of 300W, and probably much less, considering I wanted to have areas around the edges of the greenhouse that could count as partial shade.  This helped me to decide on the four-bulb fixture which supposedly supplies 216W, for $172.  The fixture did not come with bulbs, so for an additional $10 a piece, I purchased two grow and two bloom bulbs to try to provide the plants with something resembling full spectrum light. 

The bulbs are triphosphor coated and supposed to be higher output than typical T5 bulbs.  As you can read on the Harvest Moon website for the product (try to forgive them their typos), the Quantum Bad Boy supposedly drives its bulbs much harder than typical T5 fixtures, resulting in higher outputs.  I'm really more concerned with the efficiency of the bulb in terms of how well it lights the plants compared to how much it increases my electric bill, but maybe if it really is a higher output fixture then I won't have to have the lights on as long each day.

I also purchased and assembled another storage structure for the new greenhouse. 


As you can tell from the pictures, the new structure really dwarfs the old one.  It's large enough to house both the germinating trays on a single shelf and have a shelf for the larger plants as well.  It's 4' x 2' x 6', and I have divided the vertical space up into three shelves: one for storage and the electric heater, one for germinating, and one for the taller plants, measuring 11", 17" and 31", respectively.  Ultimately, I may put in some nice firm plastic for the walls, but for right now, I'm going to stick with the plastic sheeting.  I am however, planning on installing some fans for ventilation.  I'm assuming that the larger plants are going to need more air circulation than me blowing on them several times a day.  Tomorrow, the transplanting!   

No comments:

Post a Comment