- And so it will grow! - the summer residents are confident, starting the sowing season. But illumination of tomato seedlings seriously affects the formation of clusters, the number of ovaries, the timing of harvesting, and productivity. And this is not to mention the health of the plants themselves.
Everything about illumination (additional illumination) of seedlings: why it is needed, about the amount of light and illumination time relative to the age of the seedlings, about the spectrum, color temperature.
About the choice of lamps + efficiency table of various types, about distance: everything you need to know about lighting tomato seedlings.
Lighting for seedlings
The most important thing that tomato seedlings on our windowsills lack is light. They usually have an excess of water and heat, as well as nutrients. But the light is a problem, especially for the February rosettes. To at least slightly compensate the tomatoes for the lack of light, you should use a simple design - a fluorescent lamp with a reflector. Those who have a lot of money for lamps and electricity can also illuminate with metal halide lamps. But we will not consider this option here, because it is rather an exception. Although the lighting itself is very, very good.
So, fluorescent lamps. Those rare gardeners who provide illumination for tomato seedlings usually use the first lamp that comes to hand in the lamp, often these are lamps of the 830-840 spectrum. They are the cheapest (of those that can be considered as lamps for illumination. There are also 700x lamps, and even in some places they say they also sell lamps of 600x spectra, there is generally a problem with the spectrum and light output) and they provide some illumination to the plants, but there is and more suitable lamps. Many advanced plant growers are familiar with the Fluora lamp from Osram, which shines with a rather unpleasant pink-violet light. However, the plants do not agree with me, and in principle they like this lamp, but it has another drawback - low luminous efficiency (luminous flux). Those. given its high price and low light output, it’s also not the best solution
