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Indoor light setup idea

I bought some 48" twin tube light setup and a timer which currently my VFTs are under on the floor.  I was wanting to put them by a window so they get sunlight and artificial light, and away from my heating ducts which are on the edges of about 50% of my apartment.

The problem is I need something to hold the plants and light fixture.  I was thinking about building a frame out of PVC tubing and put a board at the appropriate height and then put it by the window sill, and have the lights hang from PVC tubing.

This would give me the freedom to easily move the setup, wouldn't take up much space, wouldn't cast much of a shadow and best of all would be inexpensive.

Anybody attempt something like this before?  Would it be sturdy enough?
 
I have not built structure like you described, but it sounds like a good idea to me. Since you are not using glass (a terrarium structure) its no problem putting them in direct sunlight.

Just make sure you use wide diameter PVC piping so it will be strong enough.

Best of luck, and let us all know how it goes for you
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-Homer
 
Ok, I bought all the tubing and connectors and I've started construction. I made some shoddy measurements so I'm going to be perfecting it tomorrow. Its about half way constructed. It is a lot of work with just a hand saw, but doable.

I definately think it will be strong enough, right now I'm lacking something to put over the tubing for the pots to sit on. I may just go buy a board for it, or put them on the window sill temporarily. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of tools, so I have to work with what i have.

Best part of this is it will only cost $40 total including the hand saw, and it will be built custom to fitting my window (hopefully). Which is a lot of money for some plastic, but still cheaper than some of the racks I've seen.

Great, now I've spent more on the light setup than the plants are worth. I hope to get some seeds soon so it all pays off.
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The little $ you spend on making/developing structures to house your plants is well worth it. Its all apart of the hobby.

-Homer
 
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It really isn't bending as much as it looks like in the picture, but I still think I'll try to strengthen the structure with some dowels or metal rods vertically. I haven't found/built a board to lay across the top. so I can have the plants directly under the lights.

Oh well, at least I got that out of the way.
 
Well, I got to see if it was working this morning and guess what? It fell apart...just kidding.
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It looks to be working pretty well, except I had to rearrange the plants based off of their light requirements because of the angle of the sun, parts of the window sill get a few more minutes of light.

Hopefully this will help redden up the plants. Now they will get sun light from sunrise to about noon, and artificial light for about 16 hours a day. I was wondering if I should just have the artificial light turn on only when the sunlight isn't available? When the sunlight is on, it doesn't seem too bright, and if their is a cloudy day, the flourescent lights will help. I can't wait.
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Once I get some more plants, I'm going to saw up a thin board and put them underneath the lights.
 
Looks nice. Always good to see folks willing to put a few $ into their growing setup to give the plants a better environment. So many people ignore this and end up spending more $ in the long run replacing plants that slowly fade away from poor health.

If your trying to follow natural light cycles just run them from sun up to sun down. If not then run them for about 14hrs a day starting in the morning when the sun comes up.

Tony
 
Thanks. I'm just trying to give my plants the best chance with my limited resources.

I have created a schedule based off of NC's sunrise and sunset, to change the light setup's duration to vary naturally from about 10 hours of light in the winter to 16 hours of light in the summer, so hopefully this will help mimic the dormancy period.

Currently that light setup cost me $90 and the plants and materials cost me $75. So obviously I need more plants to balance this equation out. I think some will be coming soon!
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Man that sure seems like a lot for 10 plants...thats $16.50 a plant! I sure hope they don't die to spite me.
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Yes you need to balance that out LOL.

On a serious note. If the plants receive any other light from the room or through the window during the 'night time', it will disrupt the annual light cycle. I think you would have better results just running a 14hr light schedule year round and put the plants to rest in a fridge when they need it.

Perhaps some of the other folks that grow primarily indoors under lights can help more in this area.

Tony
 
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