Indoor Garden 2018-2019 Revisited

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January 4th -6th, 2019

There are going to be quite a few changes to the grow room by the end of this week but first let me recap this weekend. I made some observations and changes to the grow room. The garage was near 50% humidity during the day and I got a little shy of three days with one fill of the humidifier, I have the humidifier on a the same timer as the lights 16 hours a day, I may put the humidifier on a separate timer and run 10 hours a day instead of the 16. The plants are now drinking a lot of water and need to be checked every day, mainly the lettuces. I removed the filing cabinet and placed it in the outside playhouse, then removed the existing table and placed a new table that is 12" longer. This gives me a bit of room to get around the table and more grow room for the plants.
I also noticed something pretty interesting in the Grow Lights, more on that later.

Time to revamp the existing area

but first a beer.

The pots are for extra plants that have germinated.

Moving that filing cabinet was a chore, another beer is in order

all the plants are on the table, yep you guessed it...

I'm also working on different lighting for my greens/seedling table, more on that later.

Lets have a look at some growth.

I felt bad for these guys, somehow they ended up under a Parris Island Romaine and got a tad leggy.

Now here is where it gets a bit interesting.

All 4 plants were potted and watered exactly the same but two were moved off of the greens table and onto the lower table with the Viparspectra lights barely 5 days ago, coincidence??

I dont think so.

Anyhow, I decide that I was going to jump in this hard and hopefully reduce the chance of failure. My thought is, if I do this half @ssed in the beginning and fail, I may not want to try this again, so I made the $$ decision to add another Viparspectra 700 to the greens table and lower and butt up the two Galaxy Hydro led's.



Oh, almost forgot, I also got a cool pair of grow room shades, lol. I keep these hanging by the entry door.

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Another one of the Viparspectra 700's came in, this was a used item from eBay, one fan of the three doesn't work and it runs slightly hotter than the New Viparspectra, I need to replace the fan. I hooked the humidifier up to a separate timer and it will cycle about 8 hours a day.

I started transplanting the tomatoes, I had to move the Beets out of the way to make room, the beets won't get as much light here but I really needed to start making room on the Greens table and wanted to get the tomatoes under the Viparspectra lights.

Morning check before the lights come on.

January 8th, 2019

Not much going on in the grow room, just a bit of tweaking. I sacrificed some plants to make room for the grow bags. I usualy check the grow room 5:45 am in the morning under normal lights. Then when I get home from work 4pm or so, I'll water and tweak some stuff.

I need to thin out the greens table a bit more.

I promised my wife a "Grilled Chicken Caesar salad" for Fridays dinner, I just hope the romaine is ready by then.

I can't believe the growth on this Jetstar after 24 hours

January 11th, 2019

Dinner

Black Seeded Simpson, Romaine Caesar Salad.

I decide to drop the table a bit lower to allow more growing space.

I have a feeling this table is going to get a bit tight when the plants start maturing a bit.

I can't wait to be done with these beets.

I dont think I'm going to get any actual beets.

January 12th, 2019

My new potting mix hasn't killed anything yet.

January 13th, 2019

The Romaine and Black Seeded Simpson that was harvested for the Caesar salad Friday had some of that feared milky white substance on the heavier parts of the plant like the stalks and was a bit bitter, I was a bit miffed by this. I'm guessing that 75°F - 80°F may be a bit too much for growing the lettuce, the only other variables would be duration of light or nutrients. Watering could not be an issue as the soil was always moist.


Sunday I pulled a romaine that still had another week to go and there was still the milky substance but barely noticeable, a quick rinse after slicing and it was perfectly fine.


So from what I could find out, it is called Lactucarium. I have had this problem before when growing outside. Researching this I found it to be a form of "Natural" Latex and my daughter is allergic to "synthetic" latex, she didn't seem to be bothered by it.



I'm going to try and grow the lettuce on the concrete floor, here it will be a bit cooler and receive less light. I also ordered a few more lettuces to try that are supposedly more heat tolerant.



Since the arugula and mustard greens are in the Brassica family this may not be a problem.




I was going to regrow the heads but I have so much Romaine that I decided to toss the cut heads that showed lactucarium and only regrow ones that weren't as milky.

I was happier with the immature head of Romaine. The white specs on the lettuce is water droplets and a crappy camera pic, not Lactucarium.

Moved some of the older Romaine to the cooler floor, not sure if its too late for these guys are not.

My new potting mix hasn't killed anything yet.

[GrowingCoastal]

It all looks marvelous! What temperature are these plants growing in? I think there may still be beets. They can do well in containers. Nice for greens anyway.

Dinner looks delicious!

"I have a feeling this table is going to get a bit tight when the plants start maturing a bit."

It will be a while yet before I get that feeling.

[bower]

The growth difference between the two lights was impressive! I can't stand the pink either way, don't see that happening for me. Would need a separate grow room that I can close the door on.


About the lettuce bitterness, just wondering why you have temperature at 75-80 F? My winter temperature (ambient) is around 65 F but I keep the greens in a room downstairs with no radiator, and in the window gets closer to 60 F sometimes less. This temperature is fine for my tomato starts and allows my lettuce and greens to stay moist and tender not bolting. They come on pretty fast too with ordinary daylight fluorescents (and a wee bit of real daylight ). Upstairs where the temp is 65 F ish, plants dry out much faster, and that is a big quality/bolting issue for greens.
For pepper seedlings I usually put them upstairs under a light and right next to a radiator so they are mostly closer to 68 or 70 F, although they have done okay there is a notable stress response to the lower temperature.

I could see your higher temp setting for fruit ripening but that is still a few months away for you. Or perhaps the plan is to produce winter tomatoes as fast as you possibly can?

[Koala Doug]

I love your 'Mad Scientist' lab!

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It's basically a balancing act, I need to balance heat and lighting between greens, peppers, tomatoes and eggplant along with some herbs and bok choy. I did start out with the temps a bit higher than I should have, I had the temp spike in there a few times, but hopefully have that under control now.



I have been dropping the temp in the grow room a few degrees every few days, trying to get it at around 66 low 76 high, I am trying to reduce the swing in temp a bit also. I'll continue to start greens on the table but will move them to the floor where it is cooler once they are a few weeks old. I have to laugh that I am looking for Micro-climates in my garage in a 5sq' area



What I found odd was the Romaine and BSS didn't show signs of bolting they looked beautiful.

In the garden I have seen BSS bolt where as it starts growing tall and gets a stem.


I took the 4 heads last Friday upstairs, harvested three and had one BSS leftover, that sat on the counter, I wasn't gonna eat it, and just left it there, two days later it was growing tall, a sure sign of bolting.


The romaine I had Saturday had a little bit of the bitter milk but was perfectly fine after a rinse. The only difference was this head was a week younger.


I have a bunch of romaine on the grow table and I moved some to the floor, not sure if it's too late for them but they look fantastic, better than anything I grew outside!


I'll keep messing with the Romaine and BSS. I also have some Rocky Top Lettuce, Mustard Greens, and Arugula growing and just ordered some lettuce better suited for heat, Butterhead Adriana and Jericho Romaine,



And a few others I will be trying Coastline and Boston type Nancy.


I just need to keep tweaking and trying different things until I can come up with satisfactory results for what I want to grow indoors.

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January 15th, 2019

Not a whole lot going on in the grow room, just watering every day, tweaking the temperature and shuffling plants around. I'm trying to get the temps to stay between 66°F and 76°F. This is proving to be a bit difficult heating a garage with one of those oil type radiator heaters with a dial control.



It has been nice eating lettuce the last few days, the romaine seems to be fine uncovered in the fridge for about 4 days.



The new potting mix seems to be fine so far.

January 16th, 2019


I have been happy with the latest Romaine, I think it likes the floor a little better.

I have been trying to tweak the temps between 66°F and 76°F but I am having a hell of a time, seems when I lower the temperature setting on the heater, the swing in temp between high and low increases. It could be drafting issues as well.

I decided to change up a few things in the grow room, well actually, REDESIGN the entire thing. First off, I'm going to run the grow lights at night and have them off during the day.


They will run 6:00pm - 10:00am. They're currently running 6:00am - 10:00pm. Hopefully this will reduce the temp swing a bit as the day times are usually warmer.



Secondly I also ordered a grow tent and of course had to get an exhaust fan, I'm just hoping that hooking up the exhaust fan to one port will be enough to have a negative pressure in the tent. I am not too worried about intake and exhaust because I mainly wanted to get a tent for the reflective material, my original plan was to hang Panda Film but figured that the cost of the Panda film would be near as much as a grow tent and be a hassle trying to figure out how to hang it, heck, who am I kidding, cost never entered my mind.

So if ventilation and/or humidity become a problem and the exhaust fan doesn't work adequately, I'll leave the front of the tent completely open. The tent will at the least reduce drafting and increase the led lights effectiveness.


Third, since I ordered the tent I also ordered a mini Oil Heater for the tent, I'm hoping by using the oil heater, I can place a pan of water on top of the heater and ditch the humidifier, that is of course if I seal the tent entirely.


So my project this weekend is to clear some room for the tent and it is going to be freak'n tight!!.

January 17th, 2019


Parsley filled out a bit

Potting mix seems OK, hasn't killed anything yet

The lights seem adequate for now, I have them 24" above the canopy.

Romaine from yesterday, very pleased.

I was pretty psyched after work today, I made a quick Roast Beef wrap and headed down to the grow room. I cleaned up a bit and starting throwing out stuff to make room for the tent. I'm going to have to make a few sacrifices and modifications to get this to work and it will be real tight, especially accessing the greens table and when I start my seedlings in February, however, I am optimistic. I have a couple ideas on how to access and setup the greens/seedling table with the tent in front of it.


I watered the plants and set the light timers and fan to run at night, I also tweaked the humidifier for 6 hours when the lights are on.

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Originally Posted by GrowingCoastal

It all looks marvelous! What temperature are these plants growing in? I think there may still be beets. They can do well in containers. Nice for greens anyway.

Dinner looks delicious!

"I have a feeling this table is going to get a bit tight when the plants start maturing a bit."

It will be a while yet before I get that feeling.

Yeah, I'm going to have to make some sacrifices when they matureBut I knew that going into it.

[bower]

Ahh... I totally get the temperature dilemma where eggplant is involved!
Eggplant.... the thing even adventurous farmers and gardeners here don't bother with. Yes they've tried, and it even hates the conditions in our greenhouses, which get too cold at night, even in the average summer.



Tomatoes and peppers are surprisingly tough! Compared to eggplant. Might as well try to grow bananas.

SQWIBB, what is the grow tent? An indoor greenhouse?

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Originally Posted by PlainJane

SQWIBB, what is the grow tent? An indoor greenhouse?

Yes, I am getting ready to post that info now, Tomatoville was down so I couldn't update.

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Originally Posted by bower

Ahh... I totally get the temperature dilemma where eggplant is involved!
Eggplant.... the thing even adventurous farmers and gardeners here don't bother with. Yes they've tried, and it even hates the conditions in our greenhouses, which get too cold at night, even in the average summer.



Tomatoes and peppers are surprisingly tough! Compared to eggplant. Might as well try to grow bananas.

Yeah I'm not expecting much from the eggplants but I am trialing a few eggplants along with different varieties of tomatoes.


The only pepper that I am trying inside this year are Jimmy Nardellos.


Next year I'll have a better grasp on what I can grow indoors.

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January 18th -21st, 2019


I made some modifications when I got home after work today to accommodate the grow tent that is arriving this week.

I had to find another spot for the seedling fan. Once the grow tent is in place, it will completely block off this table.

My new toy came in

Here is some romaine that I am regrowing from harvested heads. When you're not watching it like you would your first child ready to take their first step, then the stuff seems to grow pretty quick!

The new potting mix seems to be working out OK. My goal for the potting mix is not to have better growth up front but to be able to sustain the plant for as long as possible with minimal input as the plant starts to grow/fruit... that is if I ever make it that far.

Everything seems to be growing fairly well under the lights, nothing seems leggy or is getting bleached.

January 21st, 2019



Woohooo! UPS was here.

Crazy eyed Psycho!



Time to clean up the grow area, first thing up, get rid of the beets.

I consider this a fail!! Good riddance!!

Cleaned out the area for the third time!

Packaged very nicely

OK, I'm going to try and be organized about this, so first I numbered all of the poles.

Then labeled their position

This is going to be tight

Put in the tub floor and hooked up the lighting.

The tent went up fairly easy and I don't foresee this being a problem setting up or breaking down in the future.

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Hooked up the Cloudline vent fan and controller. This thing is actually pretty cool.

Moved the plants into their new home... again!

Added the humidifier.

Played with the cloudline vent fan settings. With all 3 lights on and the vent fan set to 78°F, the heat in the tent hovers around 80°F - 82°F. I will need to play around a bit with the garage temperature and how to draw the air in for cooling. I closed off the top vents and opened the bottom vents to pull in some of the cooler air that is drafting from the garage door. I'll need about a week to find the sweet spot.

I have to access the seedling/greens table with the side door. I just need to make sure I leave a clearing in the tent to access the table.

The extension cord was getting a bit too hot for my comfort, so I turned the lamps down to 50% until I can get a heavy duty appliance extension cord installed.

January 22nd, 2019


I switched out the extension cord for a heavy duty appliance extension cord and installed one of the fans, the fan runs the entire time the lights are on.

Added the mini oil heater to the tent. I am tweaking the heat in the garage and in the tent so it will take time to dial it in properly, I may get a digital thermostat for the heater in the tent but hopefully I can tweak it without more electronics. The tent stays at 79°-80° degrees with all three grow lights on and the cloudline set to 78°F. Pulling air in from the bottom back of the tent has helped keep the tent a few degrees cooler.

My goal is to have the garage between 65°F - 70°F and the tent between 72°F - 80°F.


Organized my herbs on a tray in 1 gallon pots, Parsley, Chives, Cilantro and Basil.






I planted some more lettuce varieties.

There is definitely a learning curve to the AC Infinity duct fan, when I got home the temp in the tent was 59°F, ooops! I started playing with the settings and realized that I had the fan set to go on when the temp dropped to a lower temperature, anyhow, I scrolled to the low humidity and set that to "off" then I scrolled to the low temperature and set that to "off".

A quick note about the AC Infinity Cloudline T4 Duct fan, well actually a quick note about the company. I ordered this through Amazon at $119.00, yeah I know, its a bit pricey, anyhow I saw it on Amazon the next day for $99.00...really.

I immediately wrote to the seller AC Infinity asking for a refund of the difference, but not expecting a refund, I got an e-mail approving the refund for the difference...including tax!

Wow, I’m completely humbled now looking at my one 48” fixture standing on a Home Depot folding table with just a heat mat underneath out in our garage. Obviously I need more equipment hehe.