Too much light?

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jmsieglaff
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Re: Too much light?

#21

Post: # 45490Unread post jmsieglaff
Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:35 pm

And thinking about it a bit more. If it is indeed sodium from softened water causing a problem, a heavy round of watering with distilled to help leach out some of that sodium may not be a bad idea. After that heavy, soil soaking water, I would let the medium dry before watering again (don't overwater, except in the case if you're fearful of too much sodium in your growing mix). Alternatively, you could pot up plants into fresh medium.

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Shule
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Re: Too much light?

#22

Post: # 45556Unread post Shule
Sat Apr 24, 2021 6:56 pm

jmsieglaff wrote: Fri Apr 23, 2021 1:27 pm
Setec Astronomy wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 12:49 pm Hey, I just realized, the other thing I'm doing differently than last year, is I'm watering with (softened) tap water, while last year I was using distilled water. I don't know if that explains anything.
I use unsoftened tap water to water all my seedlings. I never have used distilled water, I'd imagine some mineral content to the water isn't a bad thing, otherwise it may leach more out of the medium (same reason people shouldn't drink distilled water--but I don't know). Softened water will definitely have considerably more sodium than unsoftened, I'd switch to plain tap water, I wonder if they are getting too much sodium into the medium and that's throwing something in the plants off.
Yeah, soft water (the kind with with extra sodium in it) causes problems with vegetables like tomatoes. They're more salt-tolerant than some plants, but yeah, you don't want to use soft water on tomatoes. I wouldn't recommend it on any plants, personally. That's probably the problem.

You should know that plants that have more sodium are more prone to being over-watered (and the roots are more prone to rotting, in my experience). Salt makes plants think they have more water than they do.
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Greatgardens
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Re: Too much light?

#23

Post: # 47860Unread post Greatgardens
Tue Jun 01, 2021 3:37 am

FWIW, I had the same issue with 2X 6000K LED bulbs. We retired that fixture to my wife's cactus shelf. But they burned some of her cactus. Took out one bulb from the fixture, and now works fine with all the cactus. I have better luck with "pink" full spectrum bulbs, both LED and Fluorescent or a mixture of "pink" and T8 daylight fluorescent bulbs.

Other thoughts -- what are you using for seed starting medium? Too wet, too dry? Years ago I always used JiffyMix, then couldn't find the same blend anymore. Tried a bunch of different ones, and the current favorite is Pro-Mix Organic potting mix with added perlite. I get these at Menards, so they are pretty easy on the budget, too. I also like Burpee's (coir) Organic Seed Starting Mix, but it also seems to change, so that now it needs added fertilizer for the seedlings really quickly. They use compost in it for fertilizer, and I believe that it causes the changes in performance. (?)

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JRinPA
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Re: Too much light?

#24

Post: # 47925Unread post JRinPA
Tue Jun 01, 2021 11:12 pm

My light is a 4 bulb T5HO as well. Not sure if they are 5K or 6K. They put out some heat. This year the cellar is a mess and I didn't get around to using the light. I started some trays outside, and others I started on heat mats only and then rushed outside at first sprout. It turned out rather poor. I will be going back to the light next year, but I also want to make a little hoop house.

My procedure for the T5HO fixture is seeds directly into two inch soil blocks, various depth depending on seed type, and a plastic dome. Heat mat under set at optimal for that plant, that would be 80f for tomatoes for me. As soon as the blocks show some emerging loops, I remove the dome and put under the light. The light will be about 6" above plants. As the season goes on and the cellar warms and there are more and bigger plants, it is a balancing act. It takes some rotating, but I have had ten 1020 trays going under that single 4' 4 bulb T5HO. The strictest rule for success is bottom water only after sprouting, and not too much.

Setec Astronomy
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Re: Too much light?

#25

Post: # 59920Unread post Setec Astronomy
Fri Dec 31, 2021 8:13 am

Hello Friends,

Reporting back after 8 months. Last year (2020) I had little dinky lights for seed starting, I had "leggy" plants that I had to plant out early because they got so tall I couldn't accommodate them anymore. This year (2021) I got a fancy new setup with bright lights (4' T5HO) and adjustable height, etc. I started this thread because things weren't going well, and they continued to not go well as the seedlings just wouldn't grow no matter what I did, they only got to about 6" tall, I kept most of them inside until way too late because I felt they weren't big enough to transplant.

So here I am thinking about next year (2022, tomorrow) and I want to get some LED replacement bulbs for the T5HO fluorescents, presuming that heat was a lot of my problem this past year. Over at Amazon, looking at 6500K bulbs, I was eyeing up a pack of LumiaStar LED's...but the reviews for the 4' length seem to be terrible. There is the Sunlite brand that got better reviews but is a lot more expensive.

Then I stumbled on Active Grow, these are even more expensive than the Sunlite, and they don't sell by color temperature, but by "spectrum". They don't specifically say which spectrum is the right one for seed starting. At first I thought the Sun White would be the spectrum, but they also have a Spring Sun. Anybody have anything to say on these brands or the appropriate "spectrum" on the Active Grow?

EDIT: I decided to start a new thread for the LED bulb info, please respond there: led-replacement-for-4-t5ho-fluorescent- ... t3071.html

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