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Boutique Tomatoes · April 23, 2012

I'm thinking it's starting with the warm temps and less than full sunlight that makes them get leggy, but other than putting them in a reflective box lined with shop lights and a HPS light above them I can't think of how to get them more light while keeping them warm.

They're with my chinense peppers under shop lights and are already looking spindly where the peppers are fine, so I'm potting up half of them into something deeper tonight and putting them in the garage with the tomatoes under shop lights there.

I wish I dared put them out on the driveway, but between appearance obsessed neighbors and kids playing basketball in the driveway I'd probably lose them one way or another.

We have a berm in the back that has been infested with some kind of horrid weed that spreads from roots. We've fought a losing battle with it for two years now, so my wife suggested I RoundUp the whole thing and lay down heavy landscape fabric and put some of my peppers and eggplant on that to hold it in place and bake the soil a bit to see if we can kill whatever it is this year. Hopefully a southwest slope, covered in black fabric with black grow bags on it will provide enough heat to finally get some eggplants for the grill!

April 23, 2012	#10
Boutique Tomatoes Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Northeast Wisconsin, Zone 5a Posts: 1,109	I'm thinking it's starting with the warm temps and less than full sunlight that makes them get leggy, but other than putting them in a reflective box lined with shop lights and a HPS light above them I can't think of how to get them more light while keeping them warm. They're with my chinense peppers under shop lights and are already looking spindly where the peppers are fine, so I'm potting up half of them into something deeper tonight and putting them in the garage with the tomatoes under shop lights there. I wish I dared put them out on the driveway, but between appearance obsessed neighbors and kids playing basketball in the driveway I'd probably lose them one way or another. We have a berm in the back that has been infested with some kind of horrid weed that spreads from roots. We've fought a losing battle with it for two years now, so my wife suggested I RoundUp the whole thing and lay down heavy landscape fabric and put some of my peppers and eggplant on that to hold it in place and bake the soil a bit to see if we can kill whatever it is this year. Hopefully a southwest slope, covered in black fabric with black grow bags on it will provide enough heat to finally get some eggplants for the grill!