Is it OK to start seedlings in the window under natural sunlight as opposed to shop lights? Like this for example:
Tiny Farm Forum » Seed starting and transplanting
Starting seeds in natural light instead of lights
(6 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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I STARTED PLANTS FROM SEEDS WITH NATURAL LIGHTING FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS WITH GREAT RESULTS.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've never tried this, although there shouldn't be a problem considering the sun is the most natural light you could find. We've always started under flourescents just for convenience. I'd watch out for: heat buildup (the sun is hot), length of daylight (do you move them to the other side of the house in the afternoon?), and plant leaning (even under flourescents the baby plants still grow towards the tube!).
Posted 1 year ago # -
Sunlight in front of a window is great. Fluorescents are only a poor, weak substitute for the sun. I use them because I don't have enough sunny window. Like, literally: in the seedling room, there's maybe 3' of south-facing window, and on my four plant racks, I have the equivalent of 50', just with not as good light! If the greenhouse was heated at night, I'd do my seed starting out there right now. So it's a space thing for me.
Bob's advice sounds good, especially about heat buildup. You're using a clear greenhouse-type cover, in sunlight, it can get pretty hot under there, 90-100F or more as the sun gets higher, so I'd definitely check that, probably take it off during the day on sunny days. Seed germination goes down around 85-90F and some things like lettuce seed will go dormant in high temperature.
You could also try rotating the trays, especially as the seedlings come up, so they get more evenly lit. Daily, or every couple of days...I'm not sure how much it matters or what the optimum time is for each crop, but it probably can't hurt. You can take your cue from watching the seedlings! I'd turn the trays around every couple of days.
Posted 1 year ago # -
In my experience, natural lightning is not sufficient to start seedling. I tried it the first year, and my seedling have etiolated and elongated to the point lots of them would not be suitable transplants. Maybe if you have a clear window that is due south, and you start your seedling only a month before transplanting, it would work. I am surprised it reportedly works for others; I guess the best is to do your own experiment.
Posted 1 year ago # -
We've been doing it just like that for a couple months with great results. I rotate the plants every couple of days so they don't lean, but other than that we're getting strong healthy plants that are doing well when transplanted.
Posted 1 year ago #
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