Indoor Growers Thread

Poink88 said:
In my garage, I have 7 x 4 foot x 2 bulb (56 total bulbs) 6500K T8 purchased in Walmart and seems sufficient to help 30 of my tropical plants survive winter (about 4 months). I run it for about 16 hours a day.
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Wait a minute. 7 four foot fixtures with 2 bulbs each isn't 56 bulbs. Or am I just really bad at math?

jkd2572 said:
You have very nice and understanding parents. They are probably like "well at least he's not on drugs" ;) if I proposed doing this to my wife she would just look at me and shake her head.
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LOL well they're away in San Diego celebrating their 30th anniversary, so they haven't quite arrived home to see this ;)
 
AlBooBoo said:
How about humidifiers ? do you use them ? seen some that looks helpy and good on kaizenbonsai..
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I don't use them, as my setups maintain enough humidity with all the trees freshly watered, the water evaporates and humidifies the setup.

jkd2572 said:
Has anyone tried one of these? Says at 60 inches it can cover 12 square feet. Cool led.
http://growace.com/grow-light/led-g...-spectrum-quad-band-led-grow-light-panel.html
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Ever since reading Jerrys article about LED vs. Fluorescent here, I'm still sticking with my HO T5s.
 
I think his experiment was flawed as the plants under the fluorescents were kept warmer. I have to play the in and out of the garage game in the spring with a few of my early budders. I'm going to get the led light for this spring so I don't have to move in and out so much. We will see what happens.
 
This is only my second year to bring tropicals in for the winter. Last year I had this way overpriced t5 "grow light" from amazon with a few plants under it. I had several single bulbs on these cheap shop clamp fixtures to supplement it:

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Of course before long I got tired of the wires and mess strewn about and bought a four foot long dual t5 fluorescent shop light with two 6500k daylight bulbs. I think my bougainvillea did better with a warmer color temperature light on it as opposed to those daylights. This winter I am going to get a four bulb t5 setup, but use two warmer bulbs along with two of the daylight bulbs that I used last year and see if the plants grow better.


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I got some bonsai soil from a local nursery (not a bonsai specific place). It had a lot of pine bark fines in it, close to half the mix at least. Even mixing it with additional aggregates I think my plants stayed a little too wet at times. I had to deal with fungus gnats and some buildup on the inside of the pots due to the lack of air flow. Now that I have mixed my own soil I think it will be easier to keep them happy, especially inside where they'll need less water retention. I'm using a mixture of grit, diatomaceous earth, and calcined clay. There is a little leftover pine bark that I have been using as well, but at most it makes up less than 25% of the mix, usually 10% (I'm estimating since I just eyeballed the mix that's actually still using bark).

I also ran a small humidifier near my plant rack last year. I don't think that it helped much, but I will probably do it again.
 
The frame for my small crate is complete. It's not level, I cracked just about every piece I drilled in to, but hey, it's just a frame (and I'm not a woodworker). Next I'll add some drop cloth and surround it....
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Added a spot for a door:
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And wrapped the outside in a layer of plastic:
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I always promote low tech growing and it works. :rolleyes:

Eric

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Redwood Ryan said:
I'd do that, but I don't have access to nice large windows like that, and I've got far more trees than a window could handle :p
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Hi Ryan,

You said your parents are on vacation......Well... I think its time to take over the dining room! LOL :);)

Eric
 
ericN said:
Hi Ryan,

You said your parents are on vacation......Well... I think its time to take over the dining room! LOL :);)

Eric
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LOL they got home yesterday, unfortunately ;)

And we're getting hardwood in the dining room now, so something tells me it'd be best to keep my dirt OUT of there :p
 
Just about done with the plastic, now I need to think what I'm going to do about a door and a roof (I feel this plastic would block too much light).
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Why not just throw your lights in there? I know you're worried about the humidity but I don't know that I'd worry about it.
 
tmmason10 said:
Why not just throw your lights in there? I know you're worried about the humidity but I don't know that I'd worry about it.
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It'd be much easier to just set them on top. I expect the humidity and heat to be pretty high in this setup, so I definitely don't want to mix electronics and moisture.
 
I fear this may not be big enough to fit all my tropicals, so I'm probably going to tear it down and make it a bit longer. With wood added, I have less than 5 feet from side to side. I'd like to have at least 6 feet of grow room. So I'll tear it down and rebuild starting tomorrow.
 
Or maybe I can just add on to it....yes that sounds better.
 
at my last place I used to use shop lights with standard light bulb socket and just put cfls in there. I had to get the kind with high enough lumin and the right spectrum for plants. I put them on a timer to turn on 6 hours a night by a south facing patio door.

Last winter after moving to my new house with larger south facing windows, I did not use any lights and my ficuses and other tropicals didn't show any sign of fatigue but last winter was rather warm of us.

I think I can get away with not using lights b/c I keep them oudoors for 5 to 6 months out of a year so they gain strength from being outside not to beat a dead horse.
 
linlaoboo said:
why not use clear plastic under where you will mount the light so light won't get blocked.
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That's what I'm thinking, if I can find some. I don't want to use saran wrap as the bulbs can get pretty warm, so I'm thinking something else.


I also tore down this setup and rebuilt it to make it longer. Split more wood (pretty badly this time), but hey, it's got more room now.
 
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