I'm loving this grow light

After a couple of weeks I can really see the difference between plants grown in the window and plants grown under my grow light. No surprise, really, but I wasn't convinced that a handful of blue and red LEDs in a cheap grow light fixture where going to be good enough. Guess I was wrong. There are three seedlings in each pot. The one from the window is on the left. It's a bit more stretched out because it doesn't get overhead light. This was the best pot from the window. Some of the other plants there aren't as healthy looking. But all of the pots under my grow light look similar: stocky and well formed.

I have a tray of pepper seedlings under the light as well. The seeds were a bit old and I didn't think they would all germinate. But they have and now it looks like I'll have more than enough. The beans I started outside last week aren't doing anything. But the weather has been a bit cool lately. Should start warming up again after the long weekend. I won't put any cucumbers or melons out until the end of the month.

Under the Lights

I picked up this LED grow light last year. I didn't really have any place to put it or real need for it at the time. It emits a fairly narrow blue and red spectrum of light which the plants enjoy but it's not that great to look at. I started some cucumber and melon seeds last month and normally I just place them in the window but not this time. I placed half under the LED light on a metal shelf in my kitchen. And they appear to be growing well. Much more compact than the plants growing in the window.

The problem with the light fixture is that despite its size, the lighting strip only runs down the middle of it. Even with two rows of pots beneath the strip I still see the plants leaning towards the light in the middle of the fixture to maximize their exposure. I could probably lower the pots a bit at this point. I don't think they need to be that close to the source. But I'll probably move them all to the window soon to make room for a tray of pepper plants. They probably need the light more than these guys.