Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Alright, late post but trying this again

So last semesters adventures were conducted at school and in the spare room at my apartment.  This term those conditions juat don't work. So I have sold the box light and the LED setup after having conducted my little experiment. So now I'm going to try to do this in the storage room off my apartments balcony. It's semi-outdoors, as in the room has no heat but seems to be inuslated, since the temp doesn't seem to fluxuate as quick as the outdoors does.

So I built a table to hold the plants,




Table is a fairly simple design, I had some MDF in the closet I needed to use anyway so this made sense.  Table is assembled with no glue or fastners for those of us that are nerds like that.

Approx size is 42" x 24" x 30"

Monday, April 20, 2009


Quick update: I think the fluorescent tube setup has won. I've had to raise it 3 times.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Just another post for comparison

no measurements or anything but for visual comparison compared to yesterday's post

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Not looking good for the high tech


Sherwood Forest it musht be!

(the spelling was intentional) So we are over a month into this little project and although the plants at school are 22 days behind the planting of the first setup, the long tube florescents are winning by a long shot. The LED setup is working, but certainly not a super grower.


Wednesday, February 25, 2009

8" tomatoes? no way....

So here we are several weeks I believe into this indoor growing session and it's time for an update. I am now operating, if you want to stretch to call it that, 3 different setups. The setup here is at home, using 2 standard CFL's like you get at any hardware store, except the package claims 6500Kelvin; well into the range of sunlight. At the University I have an LED setup over a small container with tomatoes and cucumber, then above the shelf that's under I have a shelf built with a window box containing a variety of seeds lit by a standard 2x T12 shop lamp using daylight bulbs.

After transplanting part of the crop into a larger window box I found the plants I moved to be doing well. I was surprised to find the roots of the tomatoes and the peppers to have taken over most of the pots they were in. The tomatoes as you can see have flourished and grown considerably since they started as seeds one at almost 8" and the rest between 6-7".


The cilantro on the other hand I have not transplanted but I did thin it out some to give the rest more room to grow. Although I fear the cilantro may not be doing so well. One plant has given up completely and many of the others have yellowed quite a bit. From what I read online it could several things. Not enough light, soil too cold for nutrient pickup, soil lacking enough nitrogen, or santa clause isn't someing to town. I don't think that lack of moisture is an issue, I water the plants nearly daily and the cilantro about every other or every couple days, as per previous information of the plant not liking the water a little here and a little there. Guess time will tell, I would assume since I used potting soil that tends to be high in nitrogen maybe it has to do with temperature. (apt stays around 68-70)The Basil is having somewhat of the same issue. The plants are strong and sturdy, smell good and have sprouted their second leaves but I notice a strong yellowing tenge in these as well.

At least the peppers seem to be doing ok. I have thinned most the plantings to encourage growth and prevent over crowding. The peppers may be a little close but I'm hoping this will encourage root growth toward the front and back of the box.

I'm thinking it is about time to start some kind of matrix to track productivity, and hopefully next week I can get the light meter to measure these lights.

Update on growth at the school

My plants at school are taking off like wildfire. I'm starting to think the fluorescent fixture here putting out a greater quantity of light is making a difference. At first appearance the LED plants are lagging some behind the others above, this may prove the LED's to be ineffective, but...time will tell






Wednesday, February 18, 2009

We have sprouts!



So as expected these buggers are growing. Setup here at school has cucumbers and lettuce gettin after it already. It's been 3 days since I planted these and the cucumbers are broad leafed and a little over an inch tall. Although the cucumbers under the LED's have sprouted they are slower than the fluorescent setup. I think I may have planted it a day later but even then it's a little behind.



No pictures yet but the tomatoes at home are about 6" tall and thriving. Basil is starting it's second set of leaves. Cilantro looks sickly, but from what I read that seems common. I'll get them transplanted this week.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Pictures of the school setup


Ok, so these posts I made together but in the ability to keep my data straight on here I made 2 posts. So I would know when I planted seeds and progress. So last night I noticed the first few sprouts starting to come through. This plant stuff has really almost brought out a parental overseeing out of me for some reason, but I kind of enjoy it. Anxious to enjoy the harvest in the coming months. Sorry for the picture quality, I didn't have my camera and had to borrow one I am not familiar with.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Finally got this stuff done and together

I finally got my stuff at school setup and working. One LED setup using red and blue lights. Red is supposed to promote growth and the blue is supposed to promote flowering. That is setup under a shelf so it blocks the light above, to try and keep it as accurate as possible. The other light is a typical twin bulb t-12 daylight bulb setup. Still haven't measured the spectrum on any of these but soon as I do I'll get a matrix setup to show some data. These I also have setup on a timer to make it easier to regulate the light. With my random hours it makes it easier to control.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

My oh My...

Well these buggers are growing fast. I've had to pick some out to thin the bunch of basil, and the tomatoes are shooting for the sky, and the peppers, well lets just say I'm shocked at the success. It appears a few of the green bell peppers from the grocery store are sprouting and I've more than doubled the number of sweet peppers I had before. It's time to start replanting some of these things in larger containers, looks like there might be a bountiful harvest in a month or two.













I finally finished the light fixture as well. I bought the ceramic light fixtures like you would use in a basement or closet for $1.50 at the thrift store. The reflector, wood, screws and brad nails were all scraps I acquired at no charge. I had to buy an extention cord to have a plug and wire. I've found it much cheaper to go buy one of these for $2.50 and cut the end off then buy wire and a plug. Then to hang it up, ceiling hooks, chain and 4 39 cent eyebolts.




I still need to work on something prettier to cover the shelf, the cardboard works for now, is cheap and effective, but...it's lacking in the aesthetic department. But at least the light is up. It currently only has 3 bulbs in it (Compact Fluorescent) I'm hoping I can get by with that, if not the box is made to hold one more for a total of 4. So...I guess we'll see.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Not much new

It's plants, they grow.....

only new development is a couple more of the peppers are sprouting, tomatoes getting bigger and the cilantro is kinda lanky.. here's pictures for viewing pleasure. Most of the seeds were a lot more successful than I had imagined, except the green pepper which was a gamble anyway, so I'm fearing that I may have to do some replanting in the near future. For now I"ve been using 1 specialized CFL, to light these, but I'm almost done with the reflector box that will hold 4 CFL's for these plants, and working on the setup at the school, more on those to come.



Monday, February 2, 2009

Finally!!!!


FINALLY!!!!!

I was worried about these little guys but they came through, the first sprout of the peppers! I don't think the green bell seeds I planted out of the supermarket pepper are going to sprout but this is good news.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Well the little buggers are growing like crazy. The only one that isn't cooperating is the peppers. I've done some reading online through other blogs and forums and it sounds like peppers are tricky. They have to be the darker colored ones to germinate, green peppers are picked early, so the seeds from my green pepper may not grow. Also they seem to take a lot longer to germinate than the other seeds. So I guess I won't give up on them yet. I did put a few more of the seeds into a paper towel that was damp to try and persuade them to start. Hopefully between these techniques something will give way. I've also been putting the pot on a heating pad in the evening when I'm around the house, trying to get some more warmth into the pot. I keep the apartment at 68 so hopefully that isn't too cool for the plants.

Since these have sprouted up I noticed the tomatoes stretching for light, which I guess isn't good, so I've been placing them in the window sill until I can get lights set up for them. I did buy a couple cfl's (compact flourescent) the other night at Lowes, one is labeled a grow light and the others are just in the standard section but are listed as daylight and claim 6500 Kelvin which is pretty good for color temperature. In my discussion with my lighting professor from last semester he said anything above 5000 Kelvin should work for plants and the high CRI rating (Color Rating Index) will just make them look more green and pretty. Not that I doubt him but we'll experiment here and see. I've also got an LED setup and typical plant & aquarium bulbs at the school for a second setup there.

Once everything is setup we'll measure the different bulbs and post some results.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Here they come


Ok so I'm a bit late on this post, but somehow I didn't get in the way of the natural work of seed germination. We gots us some Basil & Tomato sproutin on up out of them pots. I need to get on the ball about lights.

I don't think I mentioned the white bases in the last post. The store didn't have the colored water trays for under the pots so I picked these up from them as the normal clay pot base (the orange colored ones) just roughed them up with some medium grit sandpaper and shot some primer on them evenly. Then came back with a white spray laquer I had left over from a few semesters ago. Once again, useful and cheap.

My watering can, which I have neglected to show so far, is just an old water bottle I saved and punched a bunch of holes in the lid with an ice pick, so far it seems to work great. I've been amazed at how quickly the soil dries up, I have been having to water these daily.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Getting Started

So this whole thing started with me moving from Texas to Michigan for grad school. If you didn't know it snows here and there isn't nearly as much sunshine. With my liking of the outdoors, cooking, and just being friendly of the plants I decided it was time to green up the apartment. In doing so I thought why not knock out two birds with one stone. I'd grow some vegetable plants. The second provoker of this experiment was a lighting project I conducted my first semester here.

So to start this endeavor I bought some seeds (cilantro, sweet basil, and cherry tomatoes), soil, and pots. Start with the basics then we can get into the crazy stuff a little later (hydroponics, and LED's)
Here is the getup, some pretty pots (have to keep the apartment looking friendly) , seeds and trays for the water that drains through. We just can't have a mess, I track enough snow into the entry as it is. Not pictured are the seeds for the peppers. I kept some seeds from a heirloom pepper from the fall's farmers market. Along with some seeds from a green pepper I used for dinner tonight.

This is me trying to be clever. I didn't see the need for the potting soil to be all the way down into the bottom of the pot. Just one more reason for it to fall out the drain hole. Rocks I found were two things. Scarce since the ground is covered in a foot of snow, and second if you buy them, expensive. So with the reuse of a couple yogurt cups I cut some drainage slots and flipped them upside down to fill some space in the pot. So far so good. (I did make it about half this size for the tomato pot, thinking the roots are going to need more space and nutrients.)

The rest is pretty self expanitory. Insert cup, add soil, plant seeds, and let grow.








I did try for some clever points here. The seeds for the cherry tomatoes I figure are going to need some type of support once they get going. In preparing for this I used an old wire hanger and cardboard tube to make a vertical tie back to support the vine once it starts producing fruit.

And the conclusion, you just can't grow a garden and not know what is where. In a budget attempt at something cleverly descent looking I made some labels on the computer. Printed them out and affixed them to colored toothpicks with scotch tape. Hopefully this will last, it's cheap and not limited to text.I don't know why it keeps rotating this image. It's the right direction on my computer.

Here you can see the finished labels.















For now the beginnings are on the ledge next to the stairs.


So....time to shop for lights. Until next time..........