Who has grown a tomato plant indoors during the winter?

[cleo88]

Les,
I'm going to try a similar thing. I might try one plant with the grow lights I have (forgot what kind they are) and I might ask for this for Christmas to try another:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A3VZKFNMHAPZBO

I'm going to try to surround them both with shiny stuff to reflect the light back into the plant.

I confess I don't understand a lot of the terminology in this thread - hey, I just got a handle on N-P-K!

[wordwiz]

cleo,

Check htgsupply.com before you buy. I've found they usually have better prices and, at least IME, are great to work with. I've bought 3 600-watt MH systems plus 400-watt HPS/MH one.

No, I do not own any stock in the company!

Mike

[MJACTIVIST]

Just looked at-
http://htgsupply.com/
And the prices aren’t that great. If I was you I would find out if there’s and Ag supply stores or hydroponic stores in your area. If you don’t have any in your area I would then check out an online store then.
Here’s a couple with better prices-
http://www.greners.com/
http://www.igrowhydro.com/ - They will match any price you find.
L8
MJ

[dice]

Boston area Craigslist:
http://worcester.craigslist.org/for/2050739616.html
Bulbs:
http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CEoQ8wIwAg#

More:
http://worcester.craigslist.org/grd/2019249820.html
http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/bfs/2047821861.html
http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bfs/2042411043.html
(No voltage numbers on this one, could be 250W, maybe
240v power supply.)
http://providence.craigslist.org/bfs/2030062316.html

Higher wattage is better. You can hang a 1000W on the ceiling
of a normal room and grow tomato plants from the floor
up. 400W, you probably want them about 3' from the
plants (remembering dcarch's picture of his seed-starting
setup with a 400W and mylar surround).

[johnbro2]

I'm growing a Red Robin in my AeroGarden. So far so good.

[cleo88]

The plan as of now is:

Grow one New Big Dwarf (3 foot) and one German Lineage (2 foot tall, paste tomatoes) in a grow closet that my husband is constructing. Use my four existing grow light tubes, line the closet with mylar emergency blankets.

Though I'm sure I would get better results with specialty bulbs, I am going to try to work with what I have first and see how it goes. You can always spend money, hard to unspend it though!


Once the closet is built, I will start a thread in the "Undercover Gardening" section.

[MJACTIVIST]

Here’s a few pics of the first tomatoes on my Brads Black Heart.
Just took this pics this morning. About 15-20 tiny tomatoes!LOL
L8
MJ

[OneoftheEarls]

George...I get the plastic housing but JUST how do you explain the GIRL

[OmahaJB]

This will be my first winter not growing indoors, after having done so I believe every year since 2004 or 2005. Originally was using only my two 4-ft shoplights, but it was clear it wasn't enough light for the plants. So I found three brooder lamps at Home Depot and purchased 42-watt CFL's to use in them. That helped more than I expected at the time, but I knew it still wasn't enough light. Probably about a year later I came across 300-watt PS-type bulbs that ended up working well in my brooder lamps. It helped vegetative growth, and I got some production but nothing close to what a high intensity lighting system could do.

Was it worth it to me? I'd answer yes, simply because I enjoyed starting the seeds, growing the plants the best I could on a limited budget and getting some production. I treated the few tomatoes and peppers I did get like a delicacy.

The brooders were used by propping them up to point at the sides of the plants as the shoplights were obviously hanging above the plants. To prop the brooders up, I set a 12" pot on a box, placed an S-hook on the top edge of the pot, then hooked the brooder's handle to the other end of the S-hook. I made sure to set something inside the pot to weigh it down to prevent it from tipping over, and I placed a couple empty plastic cassette cases underneath the bottom edge of the brooder so it wouldn't be laying on the box. The 300-watt bulbs got pretty hot, and I didn't want to take any chance of the box catching fire. Doubted it would happen, but the lights were on while I was at work so were unattended.

The lighting I used was far from ideal, but like I said I enjoyed it, and treated it all as an experiment. I wasn't interested in spending alot of money for a lighting system. The brooder lamps I bought were around $12 at the time or maybe a little lower. Had to make sure the brooders could safely handle 300-watt bulbs. Two of the brooders I purchased happened to be rated up to 600-watts but warned not to use over 300-watt bulbs to be extra safe. I found the bulbs later (at Menards for $2.99 each) so it was just coincidence my brooders were good enough for them.

A couple things I noticed is variety choice is very important, and the DTM for my tomatoes and peppers was longer than it would have been with natural sunlight or even an HID system (which would have been more money than I was willing to spend).

Some of the smaller container varieties that some have mentioned I'd think would work very well. The best for me was Czech's Bush in terms of production and even that only produced about a dozen tomatoes. Many varieties only produced about 4 or so. One reason I enjoyed the dwarf project was because if I only got a couple of tomatoes at least I knew they were 'important' tomatoes. I'm sure some of the varieties like Red Robin would produce very well in decent indoor conditions.

Hopefully you'll have enough time to get tomatoes from your plants before you need your lights for seedlings next March. With my set-up I know I wouldn't have been able to. Just took too long for the whole growing process to play out in my conditions with the varieties I was growing.

And be careful if you grow a paste variety which I think you mentioned possibly growing. It's hard to keep container tomato plants evenly watered (and not end up with BER), but I've had an especially tough time with paste tomatoes in that regard.

I'm actually looking forward to not growing indoors this year. Just not enough production and wont have to worry about tending to the plants each day. Plus, I'm very impatient waiting to transplant then later to get ripe fruit. Maybe next year after taking a break this time around.

Jeff

[cleo88]

Jeff,
Thanks for the detailed input. Good point about needing the lights for starting seedlings in March. This whole experiment is bound to be more of a learning process than something that is successful the first time around. But I hope to learn as much as I can on someone elses dime!


Either I will improve on this after years of expermentation or I will give up and learn to be patient until July. The former sounds more likely than the latter, especially if every I get better and better at growing summer tomatoes - it will make the lack of winter tomatoes even more unbearable!

[OmahaJB]

Have fun with it! I'm still learning and even my outdoor gardens have been less than stellar. Indoors variety selection is one of the key ingredients to successful growing. Hope you decide to post updates from time to time to let us know how your indoor garden progresses.

Good luck,
Jeff

[Pouletic]

When i was about 10 or 12 and "didn't know any better", i grew some (Tom Thumb?) tomatoes in the furnace room under a bank of 4 F40T12s (standard 4 foot, 40 Watt, 1.5" fluorescents). They didn't do great but did produce some (not very tasty) tomatoes. I don't know how much better that variety gets because i've not grown it since.

In hindsight, the lack of any motion besides my shaking of the vines during flowering to induce pollination (something i must have read somewhere) probably contributed to the lankiness of the plants. The oppressive heat in the unventilated room didn't help, either, and i would recommend against using an internal, small room for this reason. Nothing promotes disease like hot, humid, stagnant air. If i were to do it again (and i am) i would employ a fan and make use of sunlight as much as possible. In this case the breeze will come from the humidifier ("cool mist", not "warm mist" which doesn't have a fan) i have that sits underneath the wire shelf at the South window where the plants will be. This shelf has been the site of successful growth and flowering of tropical plants for a few years.

Regarding Lighting

Don't underestimate the value of using natural lighting if you have it! Even in the winter, an unobstructed, South-facing window will get you a lot of "free" light. I will supplement with artificial lighting to extend the day. There's absolutely no need for expensive custom grow-lights for this purpose. You can pick up a few 2xF32T8 shop-lights (2 lamp fixtures using the new standard 1", 4' tubes) for less than $20 each at home depot et al. These fixtures will be more efficient (produce more light with less electricity and heat) than the older F40 shoplights, but the difference isn't huge, so don't throw out old fixtures if you have them already. However, fluorescent tubes fade in productivity with use, especially the F40 tubes (again, those are 1.5", 4' in contrast to the newer 1", 4' tubes), so if you don't know when the bulbs were last replaced, it may be time to do so. Please dispose of used tubes through the community recycling facility, as they have very toxic mercury in them.

Cleo, i have extra new F32T8 bulbs i salvaged if you have business that brings you to Boston and decide to go with that option.

Another inexpensive option if you have just a single plant or no room to fit a 4' fixture is the 65W compact fluorescent outdoor floodlight. (Example: http://lightsofamerica.com/en/Products/9266.aspx) This model was available at HD when i bought it, and cost less than $40 with the bulb included. I don't know if HD still stocks them. The threaded head on the flood fixture can be screwed into a standard size of PVC fittings and thus a frame for it can be constructed very easily. I have a frame that will hold the light about 2' up at the side to illuminate the back of the plant in the window, and will also suspend a shoplight fixture over the top of the shelf. I expect that the 65W side lighting and 64 (2x32W) top lighting will suffice for two small tomato plants with the natural lighting from the window, and the total cost is less than $70 for the setup.

Both of these are very efficient sources of light that will minimize the heat and electricity usage. The linear fluorescents (shoplight type) are more efficient than the twisted-up compact type, but obviously more diffuse and bulky.

[alamo5000]

Originally Posted by cleo88

Hi there,
I'm going through withdrawal - I ate my last garden-grown tomato last week and already I'm climbing the walls!


In my desparation, I am contemplating growing a New Big Dwarf and possibly another even shorter variety in my basement. Hey, those grow lights aren't doing anything until March, right?

Is there anything I should know about this endeavor? Will it work? What advice would you give?

I grew a full size intederminite cherry tomato plant once during the winter in an apartment. And on top of that I was (at the time) living in a snow infested town up in the rocky mountains.

I did it with a 5 gallon bucket. My apartment at the time had a large (and I mean BIG) south facing window. The window was like 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall.

I didn't have to add light or any supplemental heat although in the end I only got one tomato off of the thing.

It was hillarious. People would walk around all bundled up during Christmas time and next thing you know, I would get a tap on the glass and a big thumbs up. It became kind of a neighborhood attraction.

[hill60]

This is some of the results of my winter growing tomatoes and vegies under fluorescent lights. It has been a fun and I've learned lot as I've gone along.

The plants growing a flowering also kept the winter from feeling like it would never end.

[b54red]

I kept about a dozen tomatoes on my plastic wrapped porch this winter and have made a few tomatoes. Stupice was by far the most productive. Jetsetter did okay. Surprisingly Wes and Kosovo were the next most productive but they only produced a couple each so far. The rest of the plants have either made only one fruit or none. Spider mites have been a big problem for me this year and aphids seem to go crazy on bell peppers during the winters indoors. Despite the low production it has been great to have the occasional tomato for salads and a few big enough for slicing.