Indoor Winter Tomato Project

[lakelady]

I'm planning to have a fun little project this winter growing tomatoes indoors, as I know some others are also doing. If anyone else wants to contribute to this thread, we can keep it all in one place as a point of reference and follow each other's progress, so feel free to post away...

This year I've started buying lots of different seeds for varieties I'd like to try, so the thought occurred to me that I should try to grow some tomatoes indoors this winter in containers. As it is just an experiment, and I don't expect a bountiful harvest (well, I wish I would get one!), I'm not going to expect too much, but wanted to have some fun, at minimal cost.

So, while the weather is not too cold yet, I wanted to start seedlings now while they can still benefit from some real sunshine. Currently, they are about 2 weeks old on my screened porch in front of a window, and on nicer days I bring them outside for some fresh air. I didn't choose all small, or specificially for container plants, I just bought a few dwarfs, and then seeded a few others I already had. My kitchen has a 3 glass door slider, southern exposure and vaulted ceilings. My living room has a bump out bay window also with southern exposure. Once the leaves fall from the trees, I'll get a lot of direct sun in those two locations. Additionally, the house is kept at 68 degrees on the thermostat, but my kitchen gets to about 75 degrees when the sun is out because it has a vaulted ceiling and skylights as well. Nice and sunny and warm. So I think I will be okay with temps. It is a matter to me now of growing medium, water, nutrients and some supplemental lighting. I'm not making a grow closet or anything like that, but I'll figure it out as I go along if that needs to be done.

I spend so much time agonizing over things I do sometimes, like my gardens, and then people like my mom just stick some seeds in dirt, and viola, they get flowers or vegetables with no effort. So this time I'm going to do what I think needs to be done, and try not to get all OCD over it, lol...

So, that being said, I'm going into this without high expections, but hoping to have a nice surprise in getting some tomatoes, and also being able to try a few varieties i've really wanted to taste too. Besides, I have tomato plants I have literally tried to kill that just keep growing with no care at all on my deck but I can't bring myself to dump them....so they can be pretty sturdy fellows after all sometimes.

I'll post pics tonight, but I've got a few dwarfs for the bay window, Dwarf Stone, Big Dwarf, and Silvery Fir Tree. The others for the kitchen are just regular plants....two I'm going to try in hanging baskets, which are Sweet Pea, and Spoon. On the floor I will have Black from Tula, Thessaloniki and Marina B, and Ildi. Just seeds i had on hand, so we'll see what happens.

Any and all suggestions as I go along are always welcome!

[Jeannine Anne]

I usually grow tinies indoor through the winter, I have nit decided which ones yet though.

XX Jeannine

[Sun City Linda]

First time for me this Winter. I have Husky Cherry already sprouted and will seed Red Robin several different times. LInda

[z_willus_d]

Me too. It all started about a month ago when I decided to try Criag's dense seeding method to sprout up some broccoli and cauliflower plants for a late-fall/winter/spring season run. I borrowed one of the million spare T12 desk Fluorescent fixtures from work after the seeds germinated. It didn't take long to realize how useless that was going to be. (Actually, I'm still dealing with it; long, stretchy Brassica!). Well, I obsessed a while about what grow light to buy, and ended up going way overkill on this Penetrator 168X light (http://www.hydrogrowled.com/%2FPenet...Light-P94.aspx). It's supposed to cover a 2x5 area, which seemed sufficient for my side-of-kitchen needs. Since that overindulgence, I've purchased a sturdy 2x4x7-foot metal-wire rack (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MS6QNO), 2mm mylar reflective sheet (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VFW3QS), caster wheels (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001MS6QQG), and a lot more. I plan to try my hand at growing the New Dwarf project plants from 2011 -- Mr. Snow, Rosella Purple, Summertime Green/Yellow, Beryl... Trading for all those wasn't easy.

I still need to work out my grow media/container solution, but I'm thinking of trying Raybo's setup, as he's described here (thoughts):
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=16454

I'll probably start by first transplanting to these (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0017YB6TW) 6" pots before moving over to the final Tainers.


BTW, other threads I found helpful for informing on this venture are:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=16695
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=16274
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=5188
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=13240

I hope folks contribute to this particular thread. I'm sure there are a lot of us trying something like this through the cold months to keep our idle hands occupied.

--naysen

[lakelady]

Naysen, do you think you really need a reflective material for the lights? I'm just wondering if they will do okay without it. I see those grow tents all over the internet and I always thought they were just for hiding illegal plants

[Tania]

standard fluorescent light fixtures work very well for my indoor tomato plants. There is no need to buy expensive things to get your tomato plants going, especially if you can supplement with natural light during the day.

Tania

[z_willus_d]

Well, I really don't have much for indoor light. The only usable south facing window has been usurped by my 3mo. old. No growing aloud in that room. So, I just have an east facing window in the kitchen that's mostly blocked by the adjacent west-facing wall of my neighbors house. So, I definitely am going to need more than the puny single bulb low-output fluorescent that I'm using now. I could have grabbed one of those 6 or 8 bulb T5 fixtures, and I think that would have worked fairly well, although it does produce some heat -- probably a good thing for winter in the kitchen.

LL, you joke, but from what I could tell just about everyone using those tents was doing so for the big M. Not only that, but it seems those guys are on the cutting edge of lighting technology and all kinds of indoor growing. I cringe to think if my work ever scans some of the sites I've visited in my research for lighting using the company laptop.

In any case, I think I've gone overboard with the LED light I purchased -- could have got a fluorescent setup of near comparable output for around a quarter the cost. I'm hoping this light will be worth it in the long run with energy savings, and heck, it's just cool.

From everything I've read (and common sense), it really helps to have the reflective mylar (or like material). I think it can increase the total light directed at the plant by something like 40% in an ideally enclosed area. Of course, you'll give something up if you have nice natural light coming through -- don't want to block it off. I'm thinking of running the reflective material on all sides except that which faces my single window. That will give me an access point as well as the benefit of at least some natural sunlight in the mornings.

[Elizabeth]

I got a T5 recently, and used it for starting Fall tomatoes. When I started the seeds I had an old plant light but when I potted up from the flats there wasn't enough room under the light I had to fit them all properly, plus I could see they were getting a bit leggy so I decided to upgrade. When I plugged in that T5 I couldn't believe the difference - it made those baby tomatoes very happy to have all that light. These were in the garage, and there are no windows to speak of in there, so all these little guys had was the light I gave them.

If you want to grow inside, you might want to check to see if you have a local hydroponics shop, and go see what options they have. I don't know about other locales, but mine has a tons of stuff for growing in soil as well as hydroponically. Mine local shop has grow tents set up with quite healthy peppers and tomatoes. One of the grow tents they had was only about 4' high so could be used as a tabletop grow space for smaller things. They had several brands of the T5 lights so I could check them out in person.

For my seedlings all I had was the light, no sides, but I could see that if you were growing full sized plants reflective light would be a good idea.

I have a 48" 8 tube model, and I made sure I could shut off half the lights before I purchased it. There are a couple of switches - one operates the 4 center lights, the other the 4 outer lights so you can run just the center ones if you have a smaller batch of plants.

The T5 puts out a fair amount of heat, so you don't want to let the leaves get too close, and you don't want to put it anywhere where very young children can easily reach the bulbs.

Using a house window to grow would not be possible - I have a curious cat....

You don't want to discount the methods that the "big M" growers use - after all they are growing pretty darn good sized plants indoors - as big, if not bigger than any full sized tomato plant.

[akgardengirl]

What brand did you purchase? I like the idea of being able to turn off 1/2 the lights when not needed. I am thinking about T5's this year. I noticed a huge difference in going from the T12's to the T8's!
Sue

[lakelady]

LOL .... I work from home, but on a network and I was wondering what would happen if they found out some of the websites I've been on too! Hey, you know, those guys are really into indoor growing, so I figured I could probably learn something too from them ha! I just can't spend what they do on setup since there is no profit in my little tomato plants .

I got these : http://shop.sunshine-systems.com/pro...c?productId=10 because they were lower cost and had some good reviews. We will see how the tomatoes do. I also have a datura I'd like to grow as a houseplant, so it will be under these lights as well. I'm thinking of making a stand for the lights out of PVC perhaps. Not so pretty but it will be functional because I'm not sure how I'll hang these in the kitchen with the vaulted ceiling above.

[z_willus_d]

LL-

Those are an awful lot cheaper (not meant in the derogatory sense, rather literal) than the light I purchased, which I 'm still waiting to arrive on US soil from China BTW. It's interesting that they claim their 28W unit will cover a 5sqft area, while the 168W unit I purchased (note that's 6 X's more Watts) is only supposed to cover 10sqft (2'x5'). I wonder what wattage LED they've chosen to use in it. I've read that you really need to get the 1W or greater output LEDs in order to put out enough intensity of light to penetrate a bit through the leaf canopy.

Those reservations aside, I can't deny the fact that I could have purchased nine of your 28W grow panels with the buy 2 get 1 free deal used three times over for the price of just one of my lights. That would be 28W x 9 units = 252W; a 50% increase in total Watts. But then I'd have to fiddle with nine grow panels, which could have been tricky.

Anyway, I'll be very interested to hear how the lights work for you, especially as the plats grow up taller and start to bloom. I might want to pick up 1 or 2 (3) of those panels for side lighting.

[Elizabeth]

AKGG, I got the Global Greenhouse Lighting brand.

[Jeannine Anne]

This is what I use, but can only grow small plants unless I remove one light fittingXX Jeannine

[lakelady]

Jeannine, I have always wanted one of those little carts, I'm so jealous! I may still get one next Spring for seedlings, unless these lights I bought bomb out on the tomato front

ZWD, hmmm... it never occurred to me to get anything for side lighting. That's a thought I might have to entertain. Maybe not so much on dwarfts, but the taller ones I guess it's a possibility. For all I know, these lights might not work out at all for growing tomatoes indoors in which case they will be very expensive seedling starter lighting ! I will not give up however, so if this doesn't work out this year, I'll think about your type of lighting or hydro growing for next year. But, the whole point of this little experiment was to see if 1)I could grow tomatoes indoors in NJ during winter and 2) I could do it at minimal expense (including electric bill increases). So it will be fun to try at least.

I've got a few types of pots, and I bought an earthtainer too, so I'm going to have fun experimenting with these deciding which type goes where. I would have used buckets, etc., but since these will be out in the open, I kind of wanted them to look decent especially if I get no tomatoes, they better be fine looking houseplants!

My 12 year old son hates tomatoes (breaks my heart!) and today my 18 year old came home and asked me if I had a nice ripe tomato and some salt. He knows I'm still waiting for the eating tomatoes to turn red ... it made me want to start this project even more!

So I've got my soil mix ready, my teeny tiny seedlings waiting to grow a little more before potting up, and lights ordered. I used Fox Farm soil mix with some manure mixed in, perlite, some bone meal and perlite all in a big tub for the first round (can you tell I'm excited? My seedlings don't even have 2 sets of true leaves yet!).

[lakelady]

I just looked at your links, wow impressive setup! I also had not seen Raybo's setup so that is really cool too! I never thought of aluminum foil, great idea! I may need those mylar sheets too, who knows if the light isn't strong enough. I'm hoping once the leaves fall and I get that really strong sun in the kitchen window (it gets downright hot in winter there), it will supplement the lighting too. I feel more confident knowing other people have done this because my friends and neighbors think I'm that "crazy lady" down the road hehe.... Then again, a few of my friends have the philosophy they stick seeds in some dirt, if they grow, they grow. I get obsessive ....

I'll have to give more thought as time passes to what I'm doing with setup. That's the only thing I feel unsure about, but then, I keep saying it should be fun, and the whole point was to try and grow them in an easy way, as low fuss as possible.