Indoor Garden 2018-2019 Revisited

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Indoor Garden 2018-2019 Revisited



Testing phase

I decide to give indoor gardening another shot this winter, it's a bit late in the year but this will be a trial run for next year, if it is a success I will expand on it next winter 2019-2020.


I will be using my existing grow area to start the seeds and grow some herbs and leafy greens.


I planted some Black seeded Simpson and Parris Island Romaine for my wife, I felt bad for her, she loves romaine but has gotten sick from it twice so she won't ever buy it again, last time she got sick we ended up in the emergency room. I also tossed in some Beets to hopefully get a beet harvest so I can make some pickled red beets, but I'm not holding my breath.




November 24th, 2018

• Beets - Detroit Dark Red (59 days), Romaine - Parris Island (70 days) and Lettuce - Black Seeded Simpson (45 days).

November 27th, 2018

December 13th, 2018












December 16th 2018

• Moved lettuces to individual pots.
  

• Beets seem to be doing well

December 17th, 2018

New grow area setup and trials

I was able to squeeze a bit more out of my Grow Area and will attempt at growing tomatoes and peppers along with my greens, the grow table will be for the herbs and greens and the new grow area will be for fruiting plants... this should be fun.



The hard part was finding a table for the new grow area, I didn't want to make another table, I just dont have the room, so I looked around the work shop and think I have a solution, but first let me get some more seeds started.

• Planted some Baby Bok Choy - Suzhou Baby Bok Choy (30 days), Gardeners Delight Cherry Tomato (65 days) and an Abe Lincoln Tomato (87 days). I also ordered some Totem FI seeds (75 days)
  

December 18th, 2018



I ordered some "BR" bulbs, a UFO Full spectrum Grow light and a few Clamp Light fixtures for this project.

• Feit 3000k 30 watt (250W Equivalent) 2500L (250W Equivalent)
• Kobi 5000k 52 watt (205W Equivalent) 5300L
• Growstar 300W UFO Led Grow Light, Full Spectrum UV & IR Plant Light with High Par Value Cree COB Grow Light
• 1/8" Adjustable Grow Light Rope Hanger
  
• 150-Watt Incandescent Clamp Light

Today I planted cilantro (30 days) and Genovese Basil (66 days) and mixed up some fertilizer this is for my herbs and greens.


Nute Mix per 5 gallons for greens (20-18-38)

• 10 grams Calcium Nitrate Fertilizer 15.5-0-0
• 10 grams Hydroponic Tomato Fertilizer 4-18-38
• 5 grams epsom salts Magnesium Sulphate

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December 19th, 2018


I got caught up in all the hype after doing a bit of research and reading reviews and ordered another Led Grow light and some Panda Film.

• Roleadro LED Grow Light, Galaxyhydro Series 1000W Indoor Plant Grow Lights Full Spectrum with UV&IR for Veg and Flower-1000w
• Panda Film

• After work today, I cleared a spot for the new table.

• I will be using this table top I made that covers the Table Saw when not in use.

• Hung a few lamp holders but I'm not sure if I'm even going to use them.

• Some tables I had in the downstairs bathroom

• Table added and clamped to the garage door with C-clamps. The idea is, if the plants (hopefully) get tall to the point I can't raise the lights anymore, I will drop the table down onto some crates.

• OK, this isn't pretty but it is functional, I wanted a strong support for the lights and the floor rafters didn't really line up to where I wanted them to to screw in eyebolts. The solution was simpler than I originally figured. I used 3" deck screws and a few washers screwed into the floor joists then wrapped a coat hanger around them. I will have to hit it with some white spray paint.

• After the table was situated, I planted some Garlic Chives (90 days), Jimmy Nardello Pepper (90 days), Bush Snap Beans (48 days) and a few more Black Seeded Simpson (45 days).

• So far so good, it's not real pretty but should work

• Beets @ 25 days

[GrowingCoastal]

Looks beautiful to me!

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December 20th, 2018


After a bit more reading (slow day at work) I decided to cancel the UFO grow light and for $30.00 more ordered another, Roleadro Galaxyhydro Series 1000W LED Grow Light.
I really need to stay off of the computer!





When I got home I mixed some potting mix for the indoor veggies.

• 1 bucket (2 gallons) peat moss
• 1 bucket (2 gallons) Perlite
• 1/2 bucket (1 gallons) Black Kow composted cow manure
• 1 cup pelleted time-release fertilizer (osmocote)
  
• 1/4 cup of Blood Meal
  
• ½ cup lime (to counter the acid of peat and keep the pH level near neutral)

• I had two pepper plants that I pulled at the end of the season from the Aquaponics and raised bed. I had the plants by a window in the basement bathroom, I wanted to see if I could overwinter them. I decided to re-pot them and move them to the grow room. I know one is a Tabasco, but not sure what the other is. I took them out of their terracotta pots and tried to clean off most of the Aphid skeletons lol.

• Re-potted the pepper plants using the new mix and watered real well. The one root-ball looked pretty dry, so I'm not sure if it will make it, anyhow, I put the neglected pepper plants under a few Led lights for the time being and setup the fan.

• The Baby Bok Choy is up (3 days) without the use of heat mats

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Ordered some more seeds from Bakers Creek for the indoor (salad) garden

• Red Welsh Bunching Onion
• Arugula
• Rocky Top Lettuce Mix Salad Blend
• Green Wave Mustard

December 21st - 23rd, 2018

• Transplanted some Chives and Parsley from the garden.

• For my tomato plants I wanted at least two gallon containers, I didn't want any hard type planters so opted for grow bags for easier storage.

[Nan_PA_6b]

How exciting!

Wow, all looks fantastic, especially your beets.

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Originally Posted by PlainJane

Wow, all looks fantastic, especially your beets.

Thank you.
We will know if the beets were worth it in a few weeks, I'm pretty anxious to get them harvested to free up some room on the table.

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Originally Posted by Nan_PA_6b

How exciting!

And nerve wracking. lol
Just like anything I do, I always research too much and get myself all uptight. I got a lot of $$ invested in this so far.

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December 27th, 2018


Today after work I tried getting the humidity up in the room a bit by adding a pan of water on top of the heater.
I reset the Hygrometer and Thermometer the next morning to see if the pan of water I added makes a difference in the humidity in the room. By the end of this week I'll know if I need to make more adjustments to the heat and humidity.

Parsley is doing real well and the chives have greened up a bit. Planted some Arugula, Bunching Onions, Lettuce mix and mustard greens.

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December 28th - 30th, 2018

I played around in the garden a little this weekend, transplanted some Bok Choy, mixed some potting soil, setup my grow bags, cut some drip trays from 5 gallon buckets, filled my two gallon and three gallon grow bags and battled some aphids. My new Viparspectra 700 is due to come in Wednesday so I can get that hung and move the beets to the lower table to make room for my greens on the upper table.



I also got a bit carried away again this weekend, I saw a used Viparspectra 700 on e-Bay and decided to bid on it. There were a decent amount of bidders and watchers so I placed a high bid at 3 seconds and won the bid at $180.00, a bit more than I had hoped for but it's better than paying $300.00.

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January 1st-2nd, 2019

Two new toys came in today, a Viparspectra 700 and a 6 liter ultrasonic humidifier. I setup the humidifier on the lowest setting to turn on with the lights and fan. Hopefully I can keep at least a 40% relative humidity in the grow area while the lights are running. The water pan on the heater has helped a good bit keeping the humidity up slightly in the garage but hopefully the Ultrasonic Humidifier will help even more.

I unboxed the Viparspectra and this thing is a tank, all metal and about 14 pounds. I was a bit nervous hanging this from my makeshift ceiling cable. After the Viparspectra was installed I unplugged the two BR Led bulbs.

• The grow room is coming along nicely.

[greenthumbomaha]

Your results are amazing. I am using T5's for my small indoor greens project (I've got arugula and black seeded simpson) combined with a sunny (old style) window, and they are far behind yours in growth. That is money well spent on your lights, and since you have an area separate from your living quarters, the black cow must be giving them a boost too. Those beet greens are amazing; if you get beets that's icing on the cake.



I splurged on amazon on three of the following fixtures back in Nov 2015, but they sit unused. They sit unused because of the high price of protective eyeglasses at that time. They were only 300 watts and I paid $125 each. Quite a price difference from the current model 600 watts for $75.







Roleadro L

ED Grow Light, Reflector-Series 600W Red Bule Full Spectrum Grow Lamp with Dual-Chip for Hydroponic Indoor Plants Vegetative and Flower



I will start another thread to inquire about safety glasses for this type of light, if you are interested in following it. I have not looked into that aspect recently. It may be your next investment since this is going so well.


Looking forward to seeing your continued progress. You are a very active person, even in winter!


- Lisa

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Thankyou very much Lisa, I appreciate the kind words.


My potting mix has worked out pretty good so far, I believe anyhow.


The beets I dont expect much, They were planted before I planned on doing this grow room thingy.



Believe it or not, the Beets, Romaine and BSS were all planted in old potting mix from my aquaponics pepper plants and leaves.

• Leaves

• some 10-10-10

• Old Potting Mix

Be carefull with manufacturers specs on wattage, my Roleadro LED Grow Light, Galaxyhydro Series 1000W lights, IIRC it's actually 132 actual watts.

My Viparspectras are 700 watt leds but actual watts is 325 watts, more than 2x the output of my Roleadro led's, but rated 300 watts less.


I'm not going to get into, Watts, Lumens, PAR and how the manufactures rate their led's because there are too may variable and I don't want the L.e.d. police beating me over the head with their Led Billy Club!


Whats nice about the led's is they dont have to be 2" from your plants and makes maintenance of the plants so much more pleasurable.
I would get them dam lights out of mothballs, rig up a safe curtain or something and fire 'em up.
Oh and take pics, plenty of pics.

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January 3rd, 2019

The garage was like a sauna when I walked in this evening, so it's obvious the humidifier is working out nicely on the lowest setting. I just hope I can get at least 3-4 days out of a fill.

• The Black Seeded Simpson has another 5 days and the Romaine has 30 more days to maturity

• The beets have another 19 days, I really dont think I'm going to get beets but I can at least harvest the Beet Greens.