How to Start a Garden in Michigan

Since we are talking about how to start a garden in Michigan, I talked to a plant lighting expert about how to get enough light for our plants.

If you like gardening, you want to start the party. It’s a great idea to start seeds now and in the past few weeks. It is almost impossible to grow sturdy, dark green, healthy seedlings in our gardens because of the constant clouds of Michigan.

We can add artificial light to our setting, but how do we know if we are giving the right light to the small seedlings?

A professor at Michigan State University says he has had that question many times in the past few weeks. Runkle has been teaching about supplemental lighting for 25 years.

Runkle takes a very scientific discussion and turns it into actions for home gardeners.

There are lights over a flat of plants. MLive.com is owned by Mark Torregrossa.

He says the plants want a certain amount of light for a long time. Runkle advises plants to use blue, green, and red light. Humans can see green light, but they can’t see blue and red sunlight. Runkle tells us that the white light we see from a florescent light has all three light colors.

Runkle gives us a starting point for setting up plant lighting for gardening in Michigan. Runkle says that the lights that are made to replace florescent tube lights are the lights to use for plant lighting. florescent lights use a lot of electricity and use a lot of light.

The four light tubes jammed together would emit enough light to help the plants thrive. The lighting fixture is usually 4 feet long. The set-up allowed us to light two of the plastic flats. Each flat can hold up to 72 plants.

There are lights over a flat of plants. MLive.com is owned by Mark Torregrossa.

You can go as high as 18 inches above the plants if the lights are at least 12 inches above the tops of the seedlings.

Runkle says that if the lights are placed too close to the plants, they won’t give them a full spectrum of light.

Runkle suggests placing a reflective material on three sides of our lit area because the light that shines out to the side of our plants is wasted. He says we can use white styrofoam or even cardboard. The light will reflect back onto the plants.

The lighting should be on for 16 to 18 hours a day.

I asked if it was better to rush our trays of seedlings out into the sun on the rare sunny days. The real sun is the best. Runkle warned about that idea. The straight sun rays could be ten times stronger than our artificial light. He wants us to gradually introduce the larger plants to direct sunlight for a week or two before we plant them in the garden.

Without enough light, the plants will be very heavy, weak and not healthy.

Runkle warns that raising healthy vegetable and flower transplants requires more than just adequate lighting. The temperature in your growing area should be in the high 60s to low 70s, meaning a warmer part of your home when figuring out how to grow a garden in Michigan.

For healthy transplants, lighting is only one condition. Correct water with plants not drying out and not being flooded is a good goal. Once the seedlings are up and growing, you want to fertilize them. I use a general 20-20-20 liquidfertilizer at half-rate. Most planting soils are light and airy, so they don’t hold a lot of nutrition. One of the weekly waterings should be replaced with liquidfertilizer.

What about the grow lights? Runkle doesn’t think grow lights will put out better light for the plants. The quality of light and amount of money may be the same. Many grow light companies eliminate the green light because it is too bright for us humans. Plants need green light, according to 25 years of research by Runkle. He will probably have less money in your lighting set-up by putting four bright lights above the plants.