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The temperature is starting to drop into the 50s at night and my horse is putting on his winter fur coat so it is time to start moving the more tender plants inside. The top rack is for propagation and seed pots on a 16 hour photocycle. The middle rack will be on the same photo cycle and will be for plants that I am skipping dormancy with. The bottom rack will be for plants that I am giving a warm dormancy with the photocycle set to an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset. I'm hoping the additional couple of hours will compensate for it being artificial light instead of sunlight. Each rack has 2 40w equivalent full spectrum led tubes and 2 40w flourescent grow lights. The brand of LED that I am using allows it to be used in the same fixture as the flourescent on a magnetic ballast. This setup worked pretty well last year with the exception that I moved my plants outdoors too early and they fell dormant, some only waking up recently. I believe that was due to the drastic change in photoperiod and unusually cool temperatures. In hoping some planning will yield a better result next spring.

You're a lot nicer than me. I'll bring my Neps in for the night if it drops below 50, then keep them in once it stays below 60. My tropicals I'll bring in when the temps hit the high 30's. But all the rest of the temperates stay out until the first frost, then I banish them to the unlit, unheated garage to wile away in slumber until Spring.

I did the unheated, unlit shed last winter but I think it got too warm in the shed with not enough light. This year I am thinking that I am going to try covering the chicken coop it either a tarp or plastic when it gets the coldest.

That's a pretty awesome setup there man. I need to buckle down and set up some Mylar on my stuff. Do you get a large increase in temps with it?

I'm not expecting a huge increase in heat as I am not planning on covering the front. The mylar will hopefully reflect more of the light onto the plants. I also spray painted the inside with reflective silver paint.

I added an overhead bar and lights for my nepenthes. I put my live moss on the top shelf below them, thinking they will like the lower light.

Apollyon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:41 pm That's a pretty awesome setup there man. I need to buckle down and set up some Mylar on my stuff. Do you get a large increase in temps with it?

So, I had to take the mylar off of the sides because of heat. With the mylar in place, the soil temperature in the pot was 92 degrees. Definitely too hot. With the sides removed, it is a comfortable 83. When winter hits, I expect the basement to drop in temperature so they may go back in place. We will see.

Panman wrote:

Apollyon wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 11:41 pm That's a pretty awesome setup there man. I need to buckle down and set up some Mylar on my stuff. Do you get a large increase in temps with it?

So, I had to take the mylar off of the sides because of heat. With the mylar in place, the soil temperature in the pot was 92 degrees. Definitely too hot. With the sides removed, it is a comfortable 83. When winter hits, I expect the basement to drop in temperature so they may go back in place. We will see.

Thanks for the heads up! Looks like I'm scrapping that idea. It's too hot here as it is.

I do like having the mylar on the side against the wall. It keeps the wall cooler and does reflect a bunch of the light back into where it is needed. I could have used it last year when I had a much cooler basement.