Journal October 28, 2012

Today I planted two batches of romaine lettuce in system number four, the varieties are: Little Caesar, and baby romaine.

This will probably be the last time that I use fluorescent lighting for growing. At some time in the near future all of my growing will be under LED lighting.

The driving factor in the replacement of fluorescent lighting with LED lighting is the cost of fluorescent tubes. My existing fluorescent fixture has six tubes, and the cost to replace the tubes annually is almost $100. On the other hand, LED lights can last up to 10 full years.

Recently I purchased a new LED grow light that I will use in my grow chamber to replace the large fluorescent fixture. When this light is installed the grow chamber will have: a six band flower series LED, a 90 W red/blue LED, and the new light.

The new light has 50 3 W LEDs with the spectrum being: red, yellow, orange, blue, white, green, UV, IR.

In addition to being more cost-effective in terms of replacement, the LED lighting will also lower my energy cost.