Indoor New grow first attempt

[DutchOverflow]

This is my first indoor tomato grow thought I would post a few pics while I get my newly arrived seeds sprouted. Right now I have the following sprouting out, pineapple, brandywine, Manitoba, Cherokee purple, pink bumblebee, and opalka. I also will be germing the following once the above get going and the week removed, northern lights, moravisky, yellow pear, bear claw, Wapsipinicon peach, and sweet aperitif. I am going to be growing most in a Hydro soil called Big City which is coco coir with crushed clay balls and a bit of perlite mixed in. I may do a few deep water culture buckets as they grow fast as shown in the picture the only plant I have growing now is a super 100 with no pruning haha. Any ways my goal is to grow two of each kind and clone them as needed to have a steady supply of infant plants all the time while still having fruiting plants. I have a sun room attached to the room shown in the photo which I am going to experiment with during the winter to see if they will grow in there with no added heat or light as I have a 600watt light in the main room for growing already. Ultimately I want a room full of foot tall plants ready for spring so I can fill up my back yard and perhaps sell clones and a few fruit at a farmers market near here but we shall see.

[DutchOverflow]

The big leaved plant shown sprouting is a borage plant and I have two or three lemon mint plants in there as well.

[DutchOverflow]

Here's a few updated photos, along with my smaller just starting out plants I have also started from seed some moravsky, bear claw, Wapsipinicon peach, northern lights, yellow pear, and sweet aperitif. but you cant see those well in the pic as they are under the T5's on the right hand side and barely an inch tall.

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[DutchOverflow]

Here is another photo as well as a shot of some sweet corn sprouts I germinated and sprouted in the closet last week.


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[Cole_Robbie]

Cool pics. Thanks for posting them.

Hopefully your sun room will help harden the seedlings off to UV light. That's the biggest challenge for me in raising plants under artificial light. If I put them straight out into the sun, all of the new growth will burn off from sunburn.

[DutchOverflow]

oh really? well that was my plan for the spring time so ya hopefully I can use that back room. I put a few of my first sprouted seedlings out there with the first round that I planted and they are only a few inchs tall the night time temp in that room is just not high enough I am thinking. Maybe come spring time I can put all my plants out there when temps get higher not sure will just have to try and see. Thanks for pointing that out though seeing as this is my first go around I am sure I will hit a lot of obstacles, for right now its getting the nutrients and indoor part down. Just curious what kind of lights do you use? I figure with the 600w Metal Halide light and a 250 watt HPS both on those plants that they would get enough spectrum etc to not be stunted by being transferred outdoors.

[Cole_Robbie]

I have a small room with a 1000 watt metal halide, with the old style magnetic ballast. It's perfect for me, because it heats the room and provides heat for seed-starting at the same time. It's cold outside when I start seeds, so I need the heat. The light wattage is overkill, but I would be spending electricity on heat anyway, so it makes sense for me.

Having two lights, MH & HPS, is a good idea in general, especially for fruiting plants. However, artificial light does not contain the UV spectrum. The exceptions are tanning lamps and some small lights meant for reptiles and rabbits, which need UV light for optimum health. But grow lights do not emit UV. You can have all you want, and the sun will still fry the plant.

If I had $500 to blow, I would buy a big tanning lamp, screw it to the ceiling of my room, and run it at night when I wasn't around (bc UV causes cancer) to see if I could grow hardened plants without sunlight. But I haven't tried it yet.

[Salsacharley]

Your plants look pretty nice. I'm curious how you are going to grow sweet corn indoors. It looks like you have quite a crop of corn sprouts, and they will get big very soon. Pollinating them will also be an issue in a few weeks. I think you will need way more lights for all that you have growing as they all get bigger.

[DutchOverflow]

@ Cole Robbie: yea the heat from my lamp keeps the room warm around 70's although towards 4 or 5 pm it gets up to 80-81 still so I am hoping as our temps drop alittle lower that wont happen. I know they make bulbs with small amounts of spectrums even T5's now but I looked into it and the bulb is as much as I paid for my whole ballast and reflector haha so that's a no go.
@ Salsa Charley: haha sorry the sweet corn sprouts are for eating as micro greens I cut them down right after I took that photo. Man they are sweet they taste just like corn too. The downside is I couldn't find anyone online that sold a package for less than $3.50 and I only got like 25 seeds so that I will not be growing again.

[imp]

Originally Posted by DutchOverflow

@ Cole Robbie: yea the heat from my lamp keeps the room warm around 70's although towards 4 or 5 pm it gets up to 80-81 still so I am hoping as our temps drop alittle lower that wont happen. I know they make bulbs with small amounts of spectrums even T5's now but I looked into it and the bulb is as much as I paid for my whole ballast and reflector haha so that's a no go.
@ Salsa Charley: haha sorry the sweet corn sprouts are for eating as micro greens I cut them down right after I took that photo. Man they are sweet they taste just like corn too. The downside is I couldn't find anyone online that sold a package for less than $3.50 and I only got like 25 seeds so that I will not be growing again.

Corn for icrogreens can be any non treated corn seed. If you are not eating the seed, I am not sure even treated would be off the table.

But, you can use deer corn- right now it is cheap at Wal-Marts for one.

A few links as well:

https://sproutpeople.org/seeds/microgreens/

http://sprouting.com/product/552/Popcorn.html

https://www.growingmicrogreens.com/m...een-seeds?pi=2


Hope that helps you.