Starting from seeds in Japan

gjs4786 said:

@coreywebster went above and beyond. wow i love this community.

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Kushash said:

Welcome to RIU fellow grower from Japan!
If you plan to take pictures be careful not to use a cell phone with the location turned on.
If you do use a cell phone make sure the location services are turned off or have that information removed.
In some cases it may be safer to not take pictures.
Look forward to hearing about your progress.
Happy Growing!

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el forestero said:

I live in a remote area of Japan. My wish is to grow plants from seed to seedling stage indoors under LED lights and then plant the seedlings outdoors. The indoor growing area will be 25cm by 120cm.

There's a limited range of LED lighting I can order by mail. Japan doesn't have much of an industry of LED lighting engineered to grow plants because the weed market here is small and indoor agriculture hasn't caught on. Importing lighting from the West doesn't seem very practical because Japan uses a different household electrical current from the rest of the world, and international shipping fees are high.

These are the six kinds of lighting options available domestically that seem like they might work out:

1. T8-form (4-foot-long) LED bulbs of 4200 to 5000 lumens, 140 to 160 lumens/watt, 30 to 36 watts, 5000K or 6000K for US$31 each. These are being sold as home or shop lighting, not for growing plants, so their PAR and PPFD aren't documented.

2. T8-form LED bulbs of 1100 lumens, 10 watts, 6000K for US$11 each. Not marketed as plant grow lights, so no data on PAR or PPFD.

3. 50W spotlights of 56 PAR, not marketed as plant grow lights, for US$63 each.

4. 15W spotlights, 38 PAR, marketed as plant grow lights, for US$28 each. These are rated at 68 PPFD. They have a blue to red LED ratio of 1:4 which doesn't strike me as particularly suitable for seedlings.

5. 25W spotlights, marketed as plant grow lights, for US$28 each. These are being marketed as if the seller and their target audience don't know much about grow lights. No details on PAR or PPFD. They contain 78 red and 24 blue LEDs and claim 4000 lumens.

6. Large banks of red and blue LED lights marketed as plant grow lights. These are also being marketed as if the seller and their target audience don't know much about grow lights. They claim to be using up to 240 LED chips of 10W each to give 420 total watts and 14,000 lumens, but offer no data on PAR or PPFD.

As with option #5 above, the seller in China doesn't speak English or Japanese well enough to provide more details, so it's hard to tell if these are quality grow lights, but I'd guess they're not. At US$315 per unit these seem like a big gamble.

Here are my questions:

A. Would any of the above lighting options work in some configuration to grow healthy plants from seed to seedling stage in my 25cm by 120cm indoor space, and if so, which ones? Or are they all too weak to bother trying?

B. If it could work out, how many bulbs would I need for my 25 x 120cm growing area?

C. How far should lights like this be from seedlings?

D. If I go with the T8-form bulbs, is it better to get the 5000K or 6000K, or does it not matter much?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

el forestero said:

I live in a remote area of Japan. My wish is to grow plants from seed to seedling stage indoors under LED lights and then plant the seedlings outdoors. The indoor growing area will be 25cm by 120cm.

There's a limited range of LED lighting I can order by mail. Japan doesn't have much of an industry of LED lighting engineered to grow plants because the weed market here is small and indoor agriculture hasn't caught on. Importing lighting from the West doesn't seem very practical because Japan uses a different household electrical current from the rest of the world, and international shipping fees are high.

These are the six kinds of lighting options available domestically that seem like they might work out:

1. T8-form (4-foot-long) LED bulbs of 4200 to 5000 lumens, 140 to 160 lumens/watt, 30 to 36 watts, 5000K or 6000K for US$31 each. These are being sold as home or shop lighting, not for growing plants, so their PAR and PPFD aren't documented.

2. T8-form LED bulbs of 1100 lumens, 10 watts, 6000K for US$11 each. Not marketed as plant grow lights, so no data on PAR or PPFD.

3. 50W spotlights of 56 PAR, not marketed as plant grow lights, for US$63 each.

4. 15W spotlights, 38 PAR, marketed as plant grow lights, for US$28 each. These are rated at 68 PPFD. They have a blue to red LED ratio of 1:4 which doesn't strike me as particularly suitable for seedlings.

5. 25W spotlights, marketed as plant grow lights, for US$28 each. These are being marketed as if the seller and their target audience don't know much about grow lights. No details on PAR or PPFD. They contain 78 red and 24 blue LEDs and claim 4000 lumens.

6. Large banks of red and blue LED lights marketed as plant grow lights. These are also being marketed as if the seller and their target audience don't know much about grow lights. They claim to be using up to 240 LED chips of 10W each to give 420 total watts and 14,000 lumens, but offer no data on PAR or PPFD.

As with option #5 above, the seller in China doesn't speak English or Japanese well enough to provide more details, so it's hard to tell if these are quality grow lights, but I'd guess they're not. At US$315 per unit these seem like a big gamble.

Here are my questions:

A. Would any of the above lighting options work in some configuration to grow healthy plants from seed to seedling stage in my 25cm by 120cm indoor space, and if so, which ones? Or are they all too weak to bother trying?

B. If it could work out, how many bulbs would I need for my 25 x 120cm growing area?

C. How far should lights like this be from seedlings?

D. If I go with the T8-form bulbs, is it better to get the 5000K or 6000K, or does it not matter much?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

el forestero said:

I live in a remote area of Japan. My wish is to grow plants from seed to seedling stage indoors under LED lights and then plant the seedlings outdoors. The indoor growing area will be 25cm by 120cm.

There's a limited range of LED lighting I can order by mail. Japan doesn't have much of an industry of LED lighting engineered to grow plants because the weed market here is small and indoor agriculture hasn't caught on. Importing lighting from the West doesn't seem very practical because Japan uses a different household electrical current from the rest of the world, and international shipping fees are high.

These are the six kinds of lighting options available domestically that seem like they might work out:

1. T8-form (4-foot-long) LED bulbs of 4200 to 5000 lumens, 140 to 160 lumens/watt, 30 to 36 watts, 5000K or 6000K for US$31 each. These are being sold as home or shop lighting, not for growing plants, so their PAR and PPFD aren't documented.

2. T8-form LED bulbs of 1100 lumens, 10 watts, 6000K for US$11 each. Not marketed as plant grow lights, so no data on PAR or PPFD.

3. 50W spotlights of 56 PAR, not marketed as plant grow lights, for US$63 each.

4. 15W spotlights, 38 PAR, marketed as plant grow lights, for US$28 each. These are rated at 68 PPFD. They have a blue to red LED ratio of 1:4 which doesn't strike me as particularly suitable for seedlings.

5. 25W spotlights, marketed as plant grow lights, for US$28 each. These are being marketed as if the seller and their target audience don't know much about grow lights. No details on PAR or PPFD. They contain 78 red and 24 blue LEDs and claim 4000 lumens.

6. Large banks of red and blue LED lights marketed as plant grow lights. These are also being marketed as if the seller and their target audience don't know much about grow lights. They claim to be using up to 240 LED chips of 10W each to give 420 total watts and 14,000 lumens, but offer no data on PAR or PPFD.

As with option #5 above, the seller in China doesn't speak English or Japanese well enough to provide more details, so it's hard to tell if these are quality grow lights, but I'd guess they're not. At US$315 per unit these seem like a big gamble.

Here are my questions:

A. Would any of the above lighting options work in some configuration to grow healthy plants from seed to seedling stage in my 25cm by 120cm indoor space, and if so, which ones? Or are they all too weak to bother trying?

B. If it could work out, how many bulbs would I need for my 25 x 120cm growing area?

C. How far should lights like this be from seedlings?

D. If I go with the T8-form bulbs, is it better to get the 5000K or 6000K, or does it not matter much?

Thanks!

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el forestero said:

Thanks for the advice, folks! Still shopping around and watching a lot of DIY LED videos, and starting to get my head wrapped around this pretty well. Will let you know what I end up doing.

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madininagyal said:

http://ledgardener.com/diy-guides/

You will know everythings you need to know

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el forestero said:

nice plants! now I'm really convinced about 3500°k.

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DWCgrow2017 said:

Really ? thank you ,i want to know more about something about plant

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