How much light do I need in a plant nursery?

[TheITGuy]

Hi Guys,

I'm designing a little nursery box where I want to start my seeds and grow young plants for about 3 weeks.

The box will be made in white styrofoam and will be 50x50x50cm in dimensions.

I'm thinking about using white cob led stripes attached to the roof of the box. The question is how much light do I need to grow from seeds or to root clones and grow for few weeks?
Led stripes producer show me the actual power of the stripes in Lumens or watt (both consumption and light output).

Can you tell me how many lumens (or watts) do I need in a 50x50cm area?

 

[Mayne]

QB120 or Photon phantom wavy sunboard would work great for ya,

for that area, because the headroom is short, you would be good with 50-80 watts, generally, with high headroom, 35-50 watts is good persqft. Lumens mean really nothing plant growth wise. You want for seedlings, around 200ppfd but that is the average of the 50x50cm area

2 QB120, ( kits $200 everything included )
2 Wavy board would be $100+driver

Both setups would rock your area

 

[Scientific]

Lumens mean really nothing plant growth wise. You want for seedlings, around 200ppfd but that is the average of the 50x50cm area

I get what you're saying, Mayne, but that strikes me as an overly purist attitude when discussing white(ish) light. Lumens/lux are a good basic indicator of the brightness of light and a useful measure. They have worked well for me and many others for determining how much light you have and how much is needed. To say they mean "nothing" is to overstate the argument and as such misses the mark, in my opinion. (Maybe I'll feel differently after I swap my $20 lux meter for a $200+ next-gen meter.)

 

[Mayne]

lol, man, you know we had this conversation before. Any time i mentioned Lux, i got flamed for it, so, I say they mean nothing now, just so the all professional grow light specialist dont throw shit at me.

 

[Scientific]

lol, man, you know we had this conversation before.

So now I'm repeating myself? My conversion into doddering grandfather is nearing completion.

 

[TheITGuy]

Thank you Maine!

I know that Lumen is not a great measure when we talk about plants, but unfortunately is what I read on the stripe's box.
Anyway the wattage indication you gave me is pretty much what I was looking for so I can go ahead in my project.
I'll write a complete project description in the DIY section as soon as it's complete.

Bye for now
Love you