2'x6' Grow Closet With 8 Tube 432 Watt Fluorescent Light - An Ongoing Log

[ASFx2600]

There we go, all caught up now as of yesterday Next update should be tomorrow. I'll remember to keep this log updated too.

[Dewayne mater]

Wow that is an impressive effort. I have always thought that tomatoes needed sunlight and heat to produce fruit that tasted good and was not mealy textured. I hope you'll prove that wrong. Your method seems likely to eliminate some standard issues such as bug infestations and probably leaf disease as caused by exposure to pathogens.

I'm also going to be curious what you do when those plants get really large as in outgrow your closet space? Good luck. I look forward to future updates.

[ASFx2600]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

I'm also going to be curious what you do when those plants get really large as in outgrow your closet space? Good luck. I look forward to future updates.

I won't let anything get much taller than 3ft or so. After that, you really start to get diminishing returns with artificial lighting. I'll just start topping the plants and forcing them to focus energy on the fruit

[bullish]

Looking great! Thanks for the updates! I cant believe how fast that tomato plant grew!

[ASFx2600]

Week 8 Update:

Im getting quite a few tomatoes setting now. All the peppers are still falling behind somewhat. The first bell pepper flower finally set in the last couple days, and it looks like a purple one. I still feel like some plants got stunted because of the earlier problems, but I think things are recovering, especially now that I have RO water. I've been able to do a higher PPM nutrient mix, and i've been making sure to add no less than 5ml cal/mag per gallon. Oh and that mutant bell pepper plant is doing better and growing a bit more vertical now, and it has tons of flowers on it I can't wait to see how many pods I get off of it.



New Big Dwarf Tomato:


Window Box Roma Tomato:


Red Robin Tomato: (wow there's at least 20 tomatoes on this plant already)


Carnival Bell Peppers:


First Bell Pepper showing:

[ASFx2600]

Week 10 (almost)

More tomatoes and peppers are setting and growing larger. Not without continuous environmental challenges though. It's been getting much warmer lately, and i'm no longer able to blow cool air in through the window. I didn't realize just how much heat this T5 unit would build up with that window show as it gets closer to summer. Once i shut the window, it didn't take long at all for the temperature in the room to hit nearly 100 degrees. Keep in mind i've been running the light cycle at night too, with the lights off during the day. I've turned on my central AC in the last couple days which helps. While the rest of my house stays at 74F, this closet is still creeping up into the high 80s. OH and remember that humidifier I bought? well it's now having trouble keeping the humidity at 23-25%. A lot of times it still goes as low as 20%

I think the most important thing to learn from this is that you should not believe people who say T5s don't create heat. How much it will really effect you depends on where you live. The heat they make is dispersed over a wider area than an HID bulb so there's no hot spots like you sometimes get with an HID, but if you have an HID bulb that's inside an air cooled reflector, it's MUCH easier to keep cool because you can easily direct the heat out of the room via a fan and a duct. With this T5 fixture, all the heat basically just radiates everywhere and i can't do much about it. I do have several oscillating fans, but that's about it. Soon I plan on having a 24k BTU split AC unit installed in this room since the central air in my house has always favored the downstairs area anyway. It should help increase the efficiency of my air conditioning during the summer.

Even with all of the above challenges though, i'm getting some results. Here are some pics:

I raised the light for a better view. I've organized all the plants from tallest to shortest so i could angle the light for best exposure. You can also see i had to trim that jalapeno pepper plant in the front/middle because its lower branches and leaves were suffering from the issues I discussed. it's doing a bit better now


New Big Dwarf Tomatoes


Gardener's Delight Cherry Tomatoes


Window Box Roma - This plant has suffered the most, with lots of crispy leaves. I've been cleaning up the dead leaves as they come. It's interesting that even though all its leaves are falling off, it's setting a good amount of romas, so I guess i'll keep letting it go and see what happens. The weird thing is that I have two more seedlings of this variety sitting in another part of my house where it's much cooler with better humidity, and even those little seedlings are already starting to develop crispy leaves. Maybe this variety just doesnt like the overall environment in my area?


Cayenne Peppers. You can see the plastic loops i've been using on this plant to try and spread out the top a bit. It grew tall and skinny so I wanted to give it a better canopy that was more spread out.


Green Bell peppers growing on the mutant pepper plant. It's already set a couple peppers and it looks like it has a nice group of other flowers that will soon set (hopefully)


This is my nicer looking purple bell pepper plant. That purple bell pepper you see is the "first bell pepper" that you saw in my previous update. You can't really see in this pic, but there are two more peppers which have already set that are closer to the top as well.


Red Robin Tomatoes - Lots of little cherry tomatoes on this one. Some of them are starting to turn red already too.

[bullish]

Looking good! I am growing purple peppers also. I got them from Victory seeds along with my dwarf tomatoes.

[ASFx2600]

Week 11.5

I'm seeing lots of tomatoes ripening up this week. I've already plucked a few of them to give them a taste, and theyre really sweet and juicy. I still haven't had the additional AC installed because i'm waiting on approval from my HOA.

All Plants:


Habaneros: - No peppers set on this plant yet.


Thai Peppers: Look closely, a bunch of flowers are starting to set and peppers are emerging.


New Big Dwarf Tomatoes:


Green Bell Peppers:


Purple Bell Peppers:


Gardener's Delight Tomatoes:


Cayenne Peppers:


Window Box Romas: - The leaves and branches on this one are still looking pretty sad, but it still produced a nice bunch of little romas (and still setting even more) so i'm letting them ripen up. This tomato plant just really doesn't seem to like this environment. I have smaller seedlings in plastic cups that are already starting to show the same signs of weirdness.


Red Robin Tomatoes:

[z_willus_d]

ASFX2600-

I've really enjoyed and benefited from reading through your posts on this thread. I've just purchased a very expensive LED light and was trying develop a plan of action on how I might do something very similar to what you've done, albeit perhaps in a grow tent or out in my garage (no spare closets currently). I'm still trying to decide whether I should consider hydroponics or just stick with something like what you've done with the buckets. BTW, do you drain the bottom bucket or just let it set and slowly wick up? How are you determining your water schedule? What kind of holes/patter did you drill in the upper 5-gal bucket?

Please do continue to post your results on this experiment. I'd like to know how things finished up for you. Do the plants just slowly die or can you regenerate another cycle of blooms/fruit. I really like how you've chronicled so many of the details around humidity, temperature, solution density, RO water (was that really important?), etc. You must be an engineer (or should have been). In any case, looking forward to hearing more.

Thanks,
Naysen

[lakelady]

Oh I'm fascinated too by your posts and photos. I'm going to experiment with indoor tomatoes this year since I have a short season and didn't have the harvest I was hoping for this year. I don't have a spare closet, but I do have a very long living room that has a corner I have been stumped with what to do for years. I've decided to make it my tomato garden for winter and see how it goes.

Thanks for the tutorial !

[Elizabeth]

When I was in my local hydroponics store picking up a new T5 light a few weeks ago I saw that they had stand alone "rooms" with reflective sides for growing indoors in a couple of sizes. If you have a hydroponics store near you you might want to see what they have available.

I love my new T5 light, it is way better than my old Goliath, but the sucker does put out a lot of heat. I have a little desk fan that is on the same timer as the light that seems to do the trick. I'm not growing full size plants, just starters.