T-8 fluorescents to grow Tomato babies?

[amideutch]

Question for Ami, sorry to boomerang the thread here. I went back and re-read your 2010 invaluable instructions for cold treatment, and the gotcha errors that DarJones contributed to the thread. Have you since observed any tomato varieties that respond negatively to their chilly environment?

GTO, I have not seen any adverse effects on any of the tomato varieties I have used the "Cold Treatment" on. Some varieties respond more to the cold treatment than others.

What I have found is I do get earlier flower clusters with more flowers as advertised and normally more fruit set from them. As the plant matures and more flower clusters appear later in the season this sometimes coincides with weather conditions that are not conducive to fruit set and blossom drop occurs caused by higher temperatures,humidity or both. After the weather settles flowering and fruit set resume. So the earlier fruit set from the cold treatment is a plus for earlier fruit maturity and production.

My setup in the basement allows me to control temperatures as my radiators are manually controlled. With no heat, temps range around 53.0 57.0 deg F. I put my growing bench up against the wall with the radiator underneath. Plant my seeds in my jump-start peat pellets and put the lid on the mini green house and turn on the radiator. After germination I turn off the heater, remove the lid and turn on the grow lights. From that time the only heat to the plants comes from the CFL's and FL-tubes. Then I transplant to 4" CowPots and set them out to a mini green house till I'm ready to plant out as seen from the link from my previous post.

Ami

[madddawg]

I have a question about cold treatment. I have my plants in my garage/ man cave. I have a wood burning stove in there and most of the time its in the mid 70s. I have them under fluorescent lights, practically touching the cover of the light. but seems like every year, past 5, the come up leggy. Is it to warm for them at this early stage?

[Greatgardens]

It all depends... Generally, I think you are a bit premature with mid-April. But if you are planting in containers and you can move them inside in the event of an unexpected cold snap, go for it! In the long-run, you can only cheat mother nature by a bit unless you have a greenhouse of large cold frame. And that's especially true if you are planting in-ground.

-GG

[amideutch]

I have a question about cold treatment. I have my plants in my garage/ man cave. I have a wood burning stove in there and most of the time its in the mid 70s. I have them under fluorescent lights, practically touching the cover of the light. but seems like every year, past 5, the come up leggy. Is it to warm for them at this early stage?

Yes it is to warm. I don't know what kind of light setup you have but after the seedlings get their first true leaves you want the ambient temperature to be between 50-60 deg F for around 2 weeks. If your garage can maintain that with the heater tuned off then your good to go. The grow lights should help keep the desired temps around the seedlings for the cold treatment.

Ami

[kevinrs]

Endless winter...here in California it's the opposite, we've already had temperatures in the 80's, and barely any measurable rain for the past year. My frost free date is supposed to be April 15, but the trees around are already blooming, at this rate, a normal, not even very late frost will destroy fruit harvests, if it even lets the trees survive.

Kind of hard for me to do a cold treatment for my plants with this kind of weather. I'm not even scheduled to start tomatoes until next week.

[amideutch]

kevinrs, know your weather well as I grew up in Whittier, grandparents lived in Lancaster and was stationed at Victorville. Love the high desert.

Ami

[smithmal]

I grow with T8 bulbs ever year and never have any issue. I built a grow shelf which has three 8' x 2' shelves and use 6 T8 ballasts per self (three per 4' ballasts lined up x 2. I use 6500K T8 bulbs (called "Daylight" bulbs) as they are supposed to provide a full light spectrum needed for healthy plant growth. You may be able to find 6500K bulbs in big box stores, but I get them at my local Graingers (see link here: http://www.grainger.com/product/GE-L...ent-Lamp-3JJ79).

Instead of using expensive grow mats, I use a twin sized electric blanket with plastic bags over it. I then put my seedling tray on top of it and then turn on my grow lights as soon as the seedlings emerge. As others have noted, I keep my bulbs 2"- 4" from the top of the seedling at all time. I'm able to adjust them easily b/c I attached light-weight chains to them. The chains hold the ballasts at the correct height using screw hooks which I screw into the bottom of the shelf above the plants.

The only other thing I use to reduce the mess (especially during watering) is I keep my trays of plants on top of pet cage trays. You can find inexpensive trays here (link: http://www.ablackhorse.com/store/pc/...=dog+crate+pan).

In terms of the shelf construction, I found a design called the "ladder shelf" which allows me to build shelves very inexpensively at what ever size and height I would like. If you're interested in the design PM and I'll give you some info.

In terms of soil, I use Promix-BX as it's sterile, soiless and has anti-fungal components included.

smithmal

[kevinrs]

Originally Posted by amideutch

kevinrs, know your weather well as I grew up in Whittier, grandparents lived in Lancaster and was stationed at Victorville. Love the high desert.

Ami

This year though, the weather has been exceptional. I tried growing garlic starting last spring from topsets, they have grown the most over the winter, and never have dried up and died back. Artichokes put on lots of growth over what was supposed to be winter, and have small heads already. Tomatoes, didn't produce much last year, but if I'd protected them for a couple of weeks back in november they probably would still be alive.
The calculated early start inside date for tomatoes would have me starting them Feb 25th, normally I'd like to wait later than that, because they end up growing too large before I'm ready to plant out, but, based on the current trend, I may be planting out earlier than scheduled.

I do think I need to get a fan to add to my seedling setup, I can't do much to keep the temperature down, it's in an unheated garage, but sun on the roof, then the garage door in the afternoon keeps it warm there. I use cheap big box store florescent fixtures with daylight lamps, 4 lamps per shelf, hung very close to the plants, the 1020 trays the long way on the shelves, and a mylar space blanket hanging in front of it, to keep more light on the seedlings.