Like others have said no matter what kind of light you have, they are too far away from the plant. Maybe that's another experiment to try. How many inches from the seedlings is optimal? Just a thought. Also the first part did frustrate me a bit. Unless the seed needs light to germinate the grow light doesn't matter, unless it's providing warmth. I enjoy your experiments, keep up the good work. Thanks
Brassicas will get leggy if grown too warm regardless of light timing or intensity. They prefer to be below 60F. Your data would be more useful if you could give a PAR value for your lights at the distance to the pots. Ideal for most seedlings is 200-300 PPFD. I use cheap Barrina LED grow lights set up exactly as yours are, and I have to elevate the trays so that the plants stay within 2-4" of the lights to get this PAR. Higher light intensity will yield a much sturdier seedling. My tomatoes are usually as thick as my index finger by the time they reach 1' tall. Thanks for posting your experiment. Definitely increasing my timing from 12 on/12 off to 16/8 for this year. Would love to see a similar experiment with varying light intensity at 16/8 timing.
Oh my goodness, your lights are way too far away from your plants! They should be an inch away and you move them up as the plant grows. Your lights are probably fine but they are just way too far away! As the plants get bigger you can move the light farther away but initially the lights should be right on top of the plants. Also brush your hands over the plants every day to strengthen them so they look thicker and less Peggy.
I came here to say this too. You have to have your lights within inches of your germination. Then move them up as the plants grow. But if you want to do the other experiment just to possibly get more equipment well then... Lol
As well as putting the grow lights closer, you might get less leggy putting the seeds deeper in the soil. Go ahead and eat those as growing greens. I grow broccoli sprouts too.
Your experiments are incredibly useful and informative for me. Thanks for your efforts. These kinds of experiments are never-ending. You have a hypothesis; you test and compare and then you go on to test the remaining variables. In this one, I learned that between 12 and 18 hours of light seems to be optimal (confirming prevailing advice). While that's not surprising, it's always good to see objective confirmation. Now it gets more complicated and more specific: Your type of grow lights as well as the distance your seedlings are from those lights. Doing an experiment for general interest is going to be a challenge. There is no "standard" grow light that your viewers use. And therefore, the distance of those lights from your seedlings will vary, depending on the particular grow lights you're using. I bet you've thought of this already!
In a prior year, I made my own light fixtures using multiple 45W multiple-chip led arrays in each light bar that were made to duplicate the wavelengths and relative intensities that vegetables actually use. (They were available at the time by custom request from a company through Ali Express in China) These lights produced an intense pink/purple-hued light that included UV and infrared not normally accounted for in the definition of PAR. I found that the seedlings grown under these 'ideal' lights were shorter than usual with very thick, sturdy stems and lush leaves that were of darker than usual color. Overall, the resulting seedlings seemed to be a bit 'alien' in appearance, but did well outside, needing no hardening off re sunlight intensity. This was a fun experiment. It also resulted in my 'Karen' neighbor calling the police and reporting that I must be growing illegal plants in the intense pink/blue lights in my corner room. A trooper came to my door with a grin (he knew she was a problem) and we had coffee while he admired my plants. Fun times.
Fantastic to hear!! Yes definitely keep the plants closer to the lights than I did in this experiment, that was a good learning for me. And the intensity of the grow light makes a huge difference. I'm testing 5 different ones right now and can't wait to share those results with everybody!
I personally love this, I'm glad there are still people making videos like this :) Oh, and for the broccoli leginess, you should check out the spacing and tempature, and they could also need a bit more water. The last time I grew broccoli, they normally go very limp when they don't get enough water in the right temp.
When I set up my seedling starter shelves/lights, everything I could find about it said that 14-16 hours of light is optimal. This experiment was excellent, and has me excited to start my seedlings here in a week or two.
Some seedlings require wind to develop normally, I read 30 seconds of a strong fan a day is enough to prevent leggy seedlings. Perhaps you could do a test with the same supplier for those broccoli seeds. Brushing them with your hand will also work, so be careful of that when doing the experiment.
Interesring experimemt, and well done. Compared to my indoor starts, even your 12- and 18-hour starts looked very leggy to me. I use LED 6500K shop lights just a few inches above the seedlings from sprouting (rather than raising lights, I start with trays on scrap-wood risers that I lower as they grow), and the starts are lush with very thick and rigid stems, significantly shorter than yours. What do your grow-light instructions say about distance?
I can't recall off the top of my head, but I'm running an experiment rn testing 4 different grow lights and 2x of the other grow lights are performing incredibly well. After that one I think I might do one comparing different distances from the grow lights
@MindandSoil correction, I don't know why I tried to spell the word fluorescent in my previous comments: I know they're LEDs! I've used them for several years, and I just ordered more on amazon. The price keeps dropping. They are pretty much disposable lights, but your last many years because they are LEDs. A 10 pack costs less than $80! They come in 5000 K and 6500 k, and I've gone with the 6500 okay with good results. With a little research on google, someone described 5,000 K as light in the morning and 6500k as stronger light in the afternoon. I don't really know about that. The brand is BBounder.
I actually did this in my upcoming experiment where I tested 4 grow lights. And I'm really excited to experiment with how close // far to keep plants from the actual grow lights!
Thank you for this video. I couldn't understand why my tomato seedlings failed last year having them started in a window - it only gets a few hours of direct sunlight a day! Time to look into other ways of getting my seedlings light. :)
100%! In a few weeks I'll be launching a video where I test 4 grow lights and compare them to a window sill. Wait on buying a grow light until that video as it will end up saving you a lot of $$ as it's verrrrrry easy to buy a bad grow light
@@janew5351 I never use heat mats and actually find they cause more problems then benefits. Instead, I focus on ensuring the ambient temperature in the room is at least 75F/23C. This ensures not only that the soil is warm enough for them to germinate, but also that the ambient temperature is high enough for them to really thrive
You have your grow lights pretty far from the plants. You might need to do an experiment with the lights at different heights, as well as adjusting the height to match plant growth. Excellent channel! I’m really enjoying watching your experiments.
I think the leggy ones need the lights to be only 2-3" above them, raising the lights as they grow. Very interested in the grow light experiment results!
Thank you for all the experiments - they are a weekend treat. Broccoli like other brasicas won't grow well indoors - the temperature is too high. They require cold nights of about +8C. I never managed to grow decent seedlings of cabbage or broccoli indoors.
Very interesting results. I will wait for your Grow Light Video and then buy some. Do you lights provide some warmth as well? I remember you said you need around 70'F, we have a cool house.
Rewatched this already ha. Love this type of experimenting. Germination, i would discount to seeds imo, as thats done in the dark/with seed energy. Grow lights maybe.. Or light leak. The plants are awake and searching for light that's not close enough. You should set a time lapse up. It will really show how the plants are cycling
Amazing!! Yeah I don't think the light/darkness has any impact on germination, but is obviously super important (and needs to be more than what they received in this experiment) as soon as they germinate. Because of that I'll start all my seeds under grow lights so that as soon as they germinate they're getting light 🥳
In consideration for the leggie broccoli: Did you control for temperature? Brassicas need a decrease in temp after germination. Also light may need to be closer to seedlings as they grow (+/- 3 inches?).
It's definitely the light. I've kept temperature consistent and am running the next experiment where I'm comparing 4 different grow lights and the broccoli under the 2 stronger grow lights are absolutely thriving!
Thanks for the video. Given how well the peppers and tomatoes did, I agree that temperature might be your problem. Brassicas get leggy if they are grown too warm,regardless of lights.
Hey there. Thanks for the Experiment as usual. I would really like to see some additions. Light: First of all the PPFD is really important (light strength per day). It can be hard to understand at first but its about the light intensity x hours of light. Weak lights need to be switched on longer as strong lights for the same results. Please give us some Numbers there. Second: the roots. From my experience the "night time" is more important for interactions with the soil. Please show them too. Thanks for the great Work!
Hi, love your experiments. I grow on shelves 2" x 4" and I have 8 tubes per shelf and 16 Hour lights. I am considering reducing to 6 tubes but 3 is definitely not enough. Even if you have nice plants they are still leggy.
Definitely hang tight on upgrading things until I launch my grow light experiment results video as it's pretty incredible how big of a difference it makes!!
The time depends on the light and height of the lamp and the temperatur in the room aswell! So the better the light and the nearer it is at the plants, the less time they need over a 24hours period. If you are interested into the sience read about PPFD and DLI ! Some plants need exponentiall more light the higher the temperature is, mostly the coldhardy plants like kale, cabbage, lettuce and so on. and 24hours is stress for the plants, they need a downtime and there are studies and stuff, that shows that. With my old weaker light i needed 18 hours with 10cm height but with 20°C+ roomtemp even the 18h wasnt enough for cabbage, broccoli and lettuce and just "kinda okish" for pepper and tomatos ! My new good light only needs to be on for 12 hours and with 40cm height and even at 23°C its enough for lettuce and all the kale, cabbage.
Thanks for all the support y'all!! If you're wanting to have your best gardening season yet, it would be an ABSOLUTE honor to have you in GROUNDED. Click here to schedule a 1x1 enrolment call with me! 2ly.link/1xWPX
Yeah I have another experiment going right now comparing 5 grow lights and a) yes I definitely should keep them closer under that grow light and b) I'm going to be upgrading all of my grow lights to a more powerful one based on how much better they're growing! Stay tuned!!
I put my $18 harbor freight led shop lights (5000 lumen) about 4 inches above the plant at start. Then move to 8 inches as they grow adult leaves. I've had lettus grow over three feet tall using these shop lights at 8-12 " (hydroponic vertical).
I don’t think you can grow broccoli inside no matter what light conditions you have. It was under my best light that I tested with a very good tester. I wanted to do test on different types of vegetables. I have a greenhouse on the south side of my house. Everything but the broccoli grew fairly well. The cabbage is making a head. Lettuce, lemon basil, chard, and plantain went nuts. Eggplants and tomatoes were doing well until the spider mites moved in. Peppers already have blooms.
Broccoli's light is too high for them. You generally want the light as close as possible, and those seedlings seemed to be the most sensitive to that issue. 15-16 hours is probably the optimized point, as you mentioned about natural cycle. The interesting experiment might be split cycles. 8h on/4off repeated.
I really appreciate the idea of experimenting and testing different methods, but I think some of the tests could be designed a bit more carefully. Seed germination depends on factors like soil moisture and temperature, and when seeds are buried, light doesn’t really affect them. The light cycle is crucial when the seedlings are above the soil, though. I love that you're experimenting, but it seems like there’s an assumption that all plants have the same light needs. There are also other variables that aren't being controlled, like temperature, humidity, and the actual amount of light the seedlings are getting each day. It’s important to account for these to get more reliable results. I know it can be hard to hear criticism, but I really hope your channel grows! There’s definitely a need for more science-driven gardening content, and I’ve subscribed to support you. I’m excited to check out your back catalog and see how you continue to evolve.
Plants can take 24,7 sun. In north of Norwat sun doesnt go down for 2 months in the midtsummer.Believe me, plants and grass is growing and thriving. Leggy plants just nead more light. Closer.
I'll be growing Cherry Tomato's, Roma Tomato's, Jalapeno's and Habenaro's, and other herbs, I'll be doing this on my balcony, I get ~9 hours of sunlight I face south What is the best soil mix. I live in Alberta my grow ZONE is 3b Thanks.
more light means the plant needs more water and food not that it needs more rest. that's why they turned yellow and looked stressed. they were hungry/thirsty. its like making someone exercise more without giving them more water and food. they won't be healthy either. I always start my plants 24hr light and keep the pots 24/7 in trays with some hydroponic nutrients so it's available the second they need it if the organic nutrients in the soil aren't enough. My plants look WAY healthier every year than any of these.
grow light should be almost touching the lights ......they were leggy because they were streaching out to reach the light because it was weak amd far away
You could say with this set up, all the plants are getting some form of light for 24 hours being so close to a light that on every second of the day. 🤷🏽
Given that you seem to be the botanist type I would say that you have stumbled upon the fact that plants have adapted to need that darkness to develop the chemical cycles of cellular growth that require 0 light for proper production of certain cell nutrients. If the light factories are on all the time the plant has no time to make the essential nutrients that require no light.
You’re seedlings are all leggy because they are to far from the lights. The lights might not be strong enough but they are growing well they are just too far away from the lights. That’s what I’ve found as a grower with a similar setup.
No more than 12 hours of light for germination, 18 - 20 hours light through vegative stage (focusing on plant growth not food production) and 12 hours during flowering and food production. You also have to feed the right nutrients at the right times. Watch nature and you'll catch on.
That test mainly shows that with your exact lights the plants get enough light at aournd 12-18h. If the lights were four times as strong you'd probably have curling leaves on the 12h plants and the 6h plants would do well. If you waned to test the effect of light duration it'd be more interesting to eliminate the factor of light amount by giving them all the same DLI so that the 6h plants get four times the light intensity of the 24h plants
@@MindandSoil Or you just can measure PPF of the lights, recalculate DLI for 6,12, 18 hours and compare with the light requirements for the plants. It won't take a month to experiment 😂😂😂
It is not the grow lights DUH! It is the height of your lights from the seedlings.I would think you would know this from selling seeds for a few years and supposedly being this big garden grower. I have grown under lights for years and you have to start off with the lights being about 6 to 8 inches about the seeds and as they sprout you move up the height of the lights slowly. That is how you do it and get good growth. You should of known that. AND you suppose to be growing with 18 on and 6 off.
Like others have said no matter what kind of light you have, they are too far away from the plant. Maybe that's another experiment to try. How many inches from the seedlings is optimal? Just a thought.
Also the first part did frustrate me a bit. Unless the seed needs light to germinate the grow light doesn't matter, unless it's providing warmth.
I enjoy your experiments, keep up the good work. Thanks
Try experiment of height of the grow lights. Yours were too far away for broccoli which is why they were leggy ❤
Brassicas will get leggy if grown too warm regardless of light timing or intensity. They prefer to be below 60F. Your data would be more useful if you could give a PAR value for your lights at the distance to the pots. Ideal for most seedlings is 200-300 PPFD. I use cheap Barrina LED grow lights set up exactly as yours are, and I have to elevate the trays so that the plants stay within 2-4" of the lights to get this PAR. Higher light intensity will yield a much sturdier seedling. My tomatoes are usually as thick as my index finger by the time they reach 1' tall. Thanks for posting your experiment. Definitely increasing my timing from 12 on/12 off to 16/8 for this year. Would love to see a similar experiment with varying light intensity at 16/8 timing.
Oh my goodness, your lights are way too far away from your plants! They should be an inch away and you move them up as the plant grows. Your lights are probably fine but they are just way too far away! As the plants get bigger you can move the light farther away but initially the lights should be right on top of the plants. Also brush your hands over the plants every day to strengthen them so they look thicker and less Peggy.
Leggy not peggy
I came here to say this too. You have to have your lights within inches of your germination. Then move them up as the plants grow. But if you want to do the other experiment just to possibly get more equipment well then... Lol
Is this just for leds? I use t5s and keep the light about 10" above the canopy, short and stocky as I need...
I'd love to see this experiment again with the grow lights closer to the plants as usually recommended
Y’all I have my lights a foot from my stuff without leggy starts
As well as putting the grow lights closer, you might get less leggy putting the seeds deeper in the soil. Go ahead and eat those as growing greens. I grow broccoli sprouts too.
This is my new favorite gardening channel. I'm obsessed!
LOVE YOU YOU DA BEST!! 🥳
I've always wondered about this but haven't tested it myself! Thanks for sharing your awesome tests! ❤
Thrilled to hear this!! Stay tuned for the next experiments coming up!!
@@MindandSoil Definitely! Can't hardly wait 😁
Your experiments are incredibly useful and informative for me. Thanks for your efforts.
These kinds of experiments are never-ending. You have a hypothesis; you test and compare and then you go on to test the remaining variables.
In this one, I learned that between 12 and 18 hours of light seems to be optimal (confirming prevailing advice). While that's not surprising, it's always good to see objective confirmation.
Now it gets more complicated and more specific: Your type of grow lights as well as the distance your seedlings are from those lights. Doing an experiment for general interest is going to be a challenge. There is no "standard" grow light that your viewers use. And therefore, the distance of those lights from your seedlings will vary, depending on the particular grow lights you're using.
I bet you've thought of this already!
In a prior year, I made my own light fixtures using multiple 45W multiple-chip led arrays in each light bar that were made to duplicate the wavelengths and relative intensities that vegetables actually use. (They were available at the time by custom request from a company through Ali Express in China)
These lights produced an intense pink/purple-hued light that included UV and infrared not normally accounted for in the definition of PAR.
I found that the seedlings grown under these 'ideal' lights were shorter than usual with very thick, sturdy stems and lush leaves that were of darker than usual color. Overall, the resulting seedlings seemed to be a bit 'alien' in appearance, but did well outside, needing no hardening off re sunlight intensity.
This was a fun experiment. It also resulted in my 'Karen' neighbor calling the police and reporting that I must be growing illegal plants in the intense pink/blue lights in my corner room. A trooper came to my door with a grin (he knew she was a problem) and we had coffee while he admired my plants. Fun times.
Great timing! Today I set up 4 shelves with grow lights and I will definitely use the findings from this lighting test. Keep on testing and sharing!
Fantastic to hear!! Yes definitely keep the plants closer to the lights than I did in this experiment, that was a good learning for me. And the intensity of the grow light makes a huge difference. I'm testing 5 different ones right now and can't wait to share those results with everybody!
What I'm hearing overall is 16hrs is a solid sweet spot.
I can’t wait to see your grow lights results!
I personally love this, I'm glad there are still people making videos like this :)
Oh, and for the broccoli leginess, you should check out the spacing and tempature, and they could also need a bit more water. The last time I grew broccoli, they normally go very limp when they don't get enough water in the right temp.
Thx so much for the kind words!!
I subbed to you, you're a good person
I have been waiting for this video since you posted the short. Love ve your experiments!
I love your experiments... learn so much from them. Thanks again for your expertise and insight.
When I set up my seedling starter shelves/lights, everything I could find about it said that 14-16 hours of light is optimal. This experiment was excellent, and has me excited to start my seedlings here in a week or two.
Some seedlings require wind to develop normally, I read 30 seconds of a strong fan a day is enough to prevent leggy seedlings. Perhaps you could do a test with the same supplier for those broccoli seeds. Brushing them with your hand will also work, so be careful of that when doing the experiment.
It's definitely on the list of experiments to run 😎
Excellent work. I've often thought that 18 hours is better than the more common 12-hour recommendation.
Thank you for such an experiment and with the experiment we come to know plants also need sleeping time, as written in gardening books.
I always set my grow lights to 16 hours. It works well for me.
Great experiments. Love empirical science.
thx so much Kathryn!!
Interesring experimemt, and well done.
Compared to my indoor starts, even your 12- and
18-hour starts looked very leggy to me.
I use LED 6500K shop lights just a few inches above the seedlings from sprouting (rather than raising lights, I start with trays on scrap-wood risers that I lower as they grow), and the starts are lush with very thick and rigid stems, significantly shorter than yours.
What do your grow-light instructions say about distance?
I can't recall off the top of my head, but I'm running an experiment rn testing 4 different grow lights and 2x of the other grow lights are performing incredibly well. After that one I think I might do one comparing different distances from the grow lights
@MindandSoil correction, I don't know why I tried to spell the word fluorescent in my previous comments: I know they're LEDs!
I've used them for several years, and I just ordered more on amazon. The price keeps dropping. They are pretty much disposable lights, but your last many years because they are LEDs. A 10 pack costs less than $80! They come in 5000 K and 6500 k, and I've gone with the 6500 okay with good results. With a little research on google, someone described 5,000 K as light in the morning and 6500k as stronger light in the afternoon. I don't really know about that.
The brand is BBounder.
Love this video. Thank you. I wonder how different tenting the samples off, to prevent light bleeding would be ?
As the plant wouldn't physiologically think it's night with that ambient leak imo
I actually did this in my upcoming experiment where I tested 4 grow lights. And I'm really excited to experiment with how close // far to keep plants from the actual grow lights!
Thank you for this video. I couldn't understand why my tomato seedlings failed last year having them started in a window - it only gets a few hours of direct sunlight a day! Time to look into other ways of getting my seedlings light. :)
100%! In a few weeks I'll be launching a video where I test 4 grow lights and compare them to a window sill. Wait on buying a grow light until that video as it will end up saving you a lot of $$ as it's verrrrrry easy to buy a bad grow light
I think you need a heat mat to start tomatoes and peppers.
@@janew5351 I never use heat mats and actually find they cause more problems then benefits. Instead, I focus on ensuring the ambient temperature in the room is at least 75F/23C. This ensures not only that the soil is warm enough for them to germinate, but also that the ambient temperature is high enough for them to really thrive
You have your grow lights pretty far from the plants. You might need to do an experiment with the lights at different heights, as well as adjusting the height to match plant growth.
Excellent channel! I’m really enjoying watching your experiments.
100% agree!! Going to do that as an experiment coming up!!
@@MindandSoil Don't forget comparing the intensity of light (lumens) and the color of light used (warm, cool, red, etc)
Thankyou for your hard work making this video. Now we know.
Glad it helped, stay tuned for more experiments coming up!
I think the leggy ones need the lights to be only 2-3" above them, raising the lights as they grow. Very interested in the grow light experiment results!
Great content! Did you use heat mats?
Thank you for all the experiments - they are a weekend treat.
Broccoli like other brasicas won't grow well indoors - the temperature is too high. They require cold nights of about +8C. I never managed to grow decent seedlings of cabbage or broccoli indoors.
Nice work!
Thanks brother!!
Awesome experiment 😊
Appreciate you!! 🥳
Awesome video
Thanks so much!! 🥳
Very interesting results. I will wait for your Grow Light Video and then buy some. Do you lights provide some warmth as well? I remember you said you need around 70'F, we have a cool house.
Rewatched this already ha. Love this type of experimenting. Germination, i would discount to seeds imo, as thats done in the dark/with seed energy. Grow lights maybe.. Or light leak. The plants are awake and searching for light that's not close enough. You should set a time lapse up. It will really show how the plants are cycling
Amazing!! Yeah I don't think the light/darkness has any impact on germination, but is obviously super important (and needs to be more than what they received in this experiment) as soon as they germinate. Because of that I'll start all my seeds under grow lights so that as soon as they germinate they're getting light 🥳
In consideration for the leggie broccoli: Did you control for temperature? Brassicas need a decrease in temp after germination. Also light may need to be closer to seedlings as they grow (+/- 3 inches?).
It's definitely the light. I've kept temperature consistent and am running the next experiment where I'm comparing 4 different grow lights and the broccoli under the 2 stronger grow lights are absolutely thriving!
Thanks for the video. Given how well the peppers and tomatoes did, I agree that temperature might be your problem. Brassicas get leggy if they are grown too warm,regardless of lights.
Great video, very helpful. I think I’ll go with 16 on 4 off. Thanks
Thrilled to hear it!
Hey there. Thanks for the Experiment as usual. I would really like to see some additions. Light: First of all the PPFD is really important (light strength per day). It can be hard to understand at first but its about the light intensity x hours of light. Weak lights need to be switched on longer as strong lights for the same results. Please give us some Numbers there. Second: the roots. From my experience the "night time" is more important for interactions with the soil. Please show them too. Thanks for the great Work!
16:30 16 hrs of light win, 8h per night
I think your edit for 24 hour arugula is really the 18 hour arugula at the 16: 50 mark.
Hi, love your experiments. I grow on shelves 2" x 4" and I have 8 tubes per shelf and 16 Hour lights. I am considering reducing to 6 tubes but 3 is definitely not enough. Even if you have nice plants they are still leggy.
Definitely hang tight on upgrading things until I launch my grow light experiment results video as it's pretty incredible how big of a difference it makes!!
The time depends on the light and height of the lamp and the temperatur in the room aswell!
So the better the light and the nearer it is at the plants, the less time they need over a 24hours period. If you are interested into the sience read about PPFD and DLI !
Some plants need exponentiall more light the higher the temperature is, mostly the coldhardy plants like kale, cabbage, lettuce and so on.
and 24hours is stress for the plants, they need a downtime and there are studies and stuff, that shows that.
With my old weaker light i needed 18 hours with 10cm height but with 20°C+ roomtemp even the 18h wasnt enough for cabbage, broccoli and lettuce and just "kinda okish" for pepper and tomatos !
My new good light only needs to be on for 12 hours and with 40cm height and even at 23°C its enough for lettuce and all the kale, cabbage.
I didn’t notice you saying arugula differently until you said something. It’s just fine. 😊
Thanks for all the support y'all!! If you're wanting to have your best gardening season yet, it would be an ABSOLUTE honor to have you in GROUNDED. Click here to schedule a 1x1 enrolment call with me! 2ly.link/1xWPX
Hi again, what PAR of PPFD are you trying to get. I aim to get 600 PPFD, I use an app from my phone.
How do you run a gardening channel and “experiment” without a par meter?
I would try the plants distance to the light to see if that fixes the legginess
Yeah I have another experiment going right now comparing 5 grow lights and a) yes I definitely should keep them closer under that grow light and b) I'm going to be upgrading all of my grow lights to a more powerful one based on how much better they're growing! Stay tuned!!
Aren't all seedlings supposed to be about 2-4" below the lights at all times?
Plants release co2 at night and Absorb it during the day, so maybe thats the issue with leaving the light on for 24hrs
Dude, your lights are WAY too far from the seedlings. It’s not the lights themselves it’s the distance.
I put my $18 harbor freight led shop lights (5000 lumen) about 4 inches above the plant at start. Then move to 8 inches as they grow adult leaves.
I've had lettus grow over three feet tall using these shop lights at 8-12 " (hydroponic vertical).
Temperature too high for broccoli, I think. Glad you did the test though!
I don’t think you can grow broccoli inside no matter what light conditions you have. It was under my best light that I tested with a very good tester. I wanted to do test on different types of vegetables. I have a greenhouse on the south side of my house. Everything but the broccoli grew fairly well. The cabbage is making a head. Lettuce, lemon basil, chard, and plantain went nuts. Eggplants and tomatoes were doing well until the spider mites moved in. Peppers already have blooms.
Broccoli's light is too high for them. You generally want the light as close as possible, and those seedlings seemed to be the most sensitive to that issue. 15-16 hours is probably the optimized point, as you mentioned about natural cycle. The interesting experiment might be split cycles. 8h on/4off repeated.
I really appreciate the idea of experimenting and testing different methods, but I think some of the tests could be designed a bit more carefully. Seed germination depends on factors like soil moisture and temperature, and when seeds are buried, light doesn’t really affect them. The light cycle is crucial when the seedlings are above the soil, though. I love that you're experimenting, but it seems like there’s an assumption that all plants have the same light needs. There are also other variables that aren't being controlled, like temperature, humidity, and the actual amount of light the seedlings are getting each day. It’s important to account for these to get more reliable results.
I know it can be hard to hear criticism, but I really hope your channel grows! There’s definitely a need for more science-driven gardening content, and I’ve subscribed to support you. I’m excited to check out your back catalog and see how you continue to evolve.
Plants can take 24,7 sun.
In north of Norwat sun doesnt go down for 2 months in the midtsummer.Believe me, plants and grass is growing and thriving.
Leggy plants just nead more light. Closer.
I'll be growing Cherry Tomato's, Roma Tomato's, Jalapeno's and Habenaro's, and other herbs, I'll be doing this on my balcony, I get ~9 hours of sunlight I face south What is the best soil mix. I live in Alberta my grow ZONE is 3b Thanks.
I disagree with your interpretation of the tomatoes and peppers. The 18 hr looked ~ 20% more growth.
Why didn't you do 30 hrs a day?
babe please tell me how to get 30 hours in a day cuz I could use an extra 6hrs of sleep 🤣😘
@MindandSoil i was never good at math
@@IsraelEdenBeHereNow LOL!🤣🤣
😂
more light means the plant needs more water and food not that it needs more rest. that's why they turned yellow and looked stressed. they were hungry/thirsty. its like making someone exercise more without giving them more water and food. they won't be healthy either. I always start my plants 24hr light and keep the pots 24/7 in trays with some hydroponic nutrients so it's available the second they need it if the organic nutrients in the soil aren't enough. My plants look WAY healthier every year than any of these.
grow light should be almost touching the lights ......they were leggy because they were streaching out to reach the light because it was weak amd far away
You could say with this set up, all the plants are getting some form of light for 24 hours being so close to a light that on every second of the day. 🤷🏽
I will go with normal daylight in the prairies…. 16
Why not 16 hours which I find to be the most recommended amount of time
Lower your lights brother
Given that you seem to be the botanist type I would say that you have stumbled upon the fact that plants have adapted to need that darkness to develop the chemical cycles of cellular growth that require 0 light for proper production of certain cell nutrients. If the light factories are on all the time the plant has no time to make the essential nutrients that require no light.
Those lights were nowhere near enough to the plants 😅
Light's to high like others mentioned. Also a small fan blowing over the plants for a bit each day will strengthen stems
so 18 it is.
Too warm for the broccoli
You’re seedlings are all leggy because they are to far from the lights. The lights might not be strong enough but they are growing well they are just too far away from the lights. That’s what I’ve found as a grower with a similar setup.
🚨WHY do LED lights?
Do it with Incandescent lights please!
No more than 12 hours of light for germination, 18 - 20 hours light through vegative stage (focusing on plant growth not food production) and 12 hours during flowering and food production. You also have to feed the right nutrients at the right times. Watch nature and you'll catch on.
Lights are too high, they are stretching to the light lights should be very close to the plants
That test mainly shows that with your exact lights the plants get enough light at aournd 12-18h. If the lights were four times as strong you'd probably have curling leaves on the 12h plants and the 6h plants would do well.
If you waned to test the effect of light duration it'd be more interesting to eliminate the factor of light amount by giving them all the same DLI so that the 6h plants get four times the light intensity of the 24h plants
The curling and dry leaves on the 24 hr ones are getting too hot from the lights. Raising the lights would stop that. Buuuut…. 18 hrs is the best
You just have shitty growing lights 😀
babe just wait till I share this grow light experiment results video!! 😘
@@MindandSoil Or you just can measure PPF of the lights, recalculate DLI for 6,12, 18 hours and compare with the light requirements for the plants. It won't take a month to experiment 😂😂😂
duh.
It is not the grow lights DUH! It is the height of your lights from the seedlings.I would think you would know this from selling seeds for a few years and supposedly being this big garden grower. I have grown under lights for years and you have to start off with the lights being about 6 to 8 inches about the seeds and as they sprout you move up the height of the lights slowly. That is how you do it and get good growth. You should of known that. AND you suppose to be growing with 18 on and 6 off.