Ensete and Musa seedlings - is an SES 29Watt bulb sufficient

[chrissmith44x]

Hello there,

popped out to get lamp and bulb for seedlings, couldnt find cfl bulbs in tescos so i grabbed an SES 29watt bulb

its a yellowish colour.

i'll bet its useless right?

the seedlings have doubled in size in 48 hours with 12 hour light cycles

but this could just be due to the enegery in the seed?

your thoughts?

[chrissmith44x]

It certainly keeps the plant stoasty!

[musabasjoos]

Hi Chris, i use one of these Ebay Item: 120658204296 for mine. It give the plants the right mix of light to keep them happy.

Are you just using a normal domestic light bulb?

[chrissmith44x]

yep a standard bulb

[Kristen]

Get the bulb as close the the leaves as you can, without burning them. If its a fluorescent tube type 1" or 2" should be fine (but you'll need to keep moving it as they grow). Hold the back of your hand to it at a distance that is slightly-warm to feel but not hot, and that's the distance your plants will be happy with.

Light "power" decreases with distance based on the inverse-square rule, so double the distance and you will only get 1/4 of the light "power".

I'd put a reflector around the plants too, so any stray light gets reflected back. Tinfoil is not actually that good a reflector, polystyrene sheets is probably the best that you have lying around, mylar would be about the best you can get (affordable!)

[khaskings]

A word of caution about buying Edison Screw fit bulbs - we had difficulty buying lamp holders (on a budget) when the Bayonet Cap version of the bulbs were the same price and those fittings are available all over the place.

[Yorkshire Kris]

A word of caution about buying Edison Screw fit bulbs - we had difficulty buying lamp holders (on a budget) when the Bayonet Cap version of the bulbs were the same price and those fittings are available all over the place.

I found the same as diy stores stopped selling them a year ago. Class olsen sell them for 2 quid each.