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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.